VinylFly, a splendid hello to you as well, and welcome!!! ;)
The way I quite go about achieving a proper, accurate, much more natural 2x1 pixel-art effect in my own sprites indeed there is by carefully making them in a direct series of 2x1 rectangle-based dots of precisely well-placed colors (I like to truly imagine an entire grid of “2x1”-styled pixels visually off the top of my head as I go, you know? ^^ ), just like the snap-together toy building blocks that you and I used to play with as rather young children from back in the day, so to speak. Not an easy task, mind, as I then check and check again *real* often in making sure there is absolutely ZERO pixel-loss and no incorrectly-placed pixels either at all in the entire translation from 2x1 to 1x1, and then back to 2x1 in terms of overall pixel-aspect ratios for sprites... all using a regular pixel-resize method (without even any slightest hint of blurring whatsoever).
Here is the method that I use for checking 2x1 pixels: 1) I set the Width (X) to 50% and the Height (Y) to 100% for a 1x1 pixel ratio:
...and then 2) set the Width (X) to 200% while leaving the Height (Y) at 100% to switch back to a 2x1 pixel ratio:
...all while making sure at the same time I set all the beginning horizontal (X) pixel coordinates for each sprite to just an even number (e.g. 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, or any multiple of 2!) to begin with in advance. So yes, overall, I do and customize my own sprites in a 2x1 pixel-ratio form manually and thoroughly in any screen resolution that I set it to.
Truly plain challenging stuff to get the hang of at first, but hey, if you get the sheer practice in often and constantly in nailing it all down pat without any unwanted pixel losses period in the checking and everything, you will soon be well-skilled brilliantly in the world of this 2x1 pixel-ratio style as another step taken forward for you into creating much better pixel-art!! As a result of it all, you will then have some of the best, more natural results... and you know what, that is how I truly do it, and I am so happy to be sharing all of that with you deeply from the heart as one of my main methods!!! (^-^)=b !!
A TRULY great follow-up question most indeed, VinylFly, and thank you so much for your wonderful time well-spent. We are learning some real awesome inspiration to warm us all up for this game jam of mine here that is set to start in less than 24 hours... I cannot wait!!! :D