So I’ve made about 20 different games in the past year which all use simple pixel art. It’s time to move on. My next project is a type of top down shooter where the player will have a full 360 range of motion (not appropriate to use pixel art for this one). I’m not sure how to start… I have heard of vector art, but I’m not sure how easy that is with Java (I am not interested in learning how to use a graphics library like LWJGL, but I would be willing to learn if that is the only option that makes sense). I would appreciate it if someone could point me in the next direction, or to a tutorial on more advanced graphics with Java.
First of all, how does changing your artstyle affect which library you use?!
Uhm, if you want better graphics you’ll pretty much need to use a library like LWJGL. Also, vector art is art made up of geometric shapes that can be rescaled to any resolution without blurring, but that doesn’t make them better than pixel art automatically. It’s just geometric rescalable shapes. It’s up to you to do something good with them.
Maybe you should show us some examples of your old work, and some examples of what you want to do?
False, you don’t need a library to get better art, but it sure helps and cuts down on time! That being said LWJGL and LibGDX? are good places to start I think.
Also, vector art is probably not what you are looking for as the art in most cases is more “primitive” as it is difficult to make it more detailed. What are you looking to do? I know it’s top down so I assume that you mean 2D, but could be 3D. Without more info it’s hard to give anymore advise.
Not true. Take a look at this, it’s exactly what the OP is looking for, it looks cool and it’s so easy to make. Vector art is no voodoo and as someone who has a bit of experience in all 3 styles (pixel art, hand drawn, vector art) I think it’s about as easy to make as pixel art, where hand drawn is the hardest to get appealing results with and a consistent art style. The learning curve is not steeper, it’s just different. And on the positive side you don’t have to do all the magic by hand that you used to, like anti-aliasing, dithering, scaling, redrawing limbs to get them into different positions, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, both vector and pixel art can result in beautiful games in the end, it’s just that vector art generally feels more modern thus it can appeal to more people.
Just because you change your art you don’t have to change your libraries. Vector art is just pixels after exporting too. There a few libraries that can render SVG’s directly keeping the advantages like scaling without losing quality but it isn’t worth it because of the performance overhead.
https://m1.behance.net/rendition/modules/49380557/disp/c6ddfc1152508abe99dd1f5dea3b7bb9.png
Making that with vector art? Naw. I’m not arguing that one is better than the other, he could definitely want vector art, but what I said holds.
Polygons are the new pixels. You read it here first.
Cas 
How about isometric pixel art?
Something like in Mega Man Battle Network.