Here 8+1 is a follow up on my crit. It's far from finished but I hope it hints on what I was talking about earlier.



I colored the guy so that it is easier to follow each limb. It's pretty jerky but I felt bad taking this long posting my edit.

I think this is going to be a great run but you probably need to create and extra frame between the 6 frames you've got now.
You would then have a character that runs 3 pixels per frame instead of 6 pixels per frame.

EDIT: Forget what I said about moving 3 pixels per frame. I wouldn't put extra frames between frame 3-4 and 8-9, the character needs to move 6 pixels/frame to look good just like you've got it now. I'd still insert 4 extra frames making a total of 10.

Also I would not animate a silhouette like that. Too much gets hidden. Don't over render it either, just make each limb individually recognizable and it becomes much easier to animate.

The dittering you've got going now (if it was done by hand) slows down the animation process. Use simple colors until you can go on to render the character.

Regardless of how many frames you've got in a realistic animation like the one you're creating the frame where he just touches ground and the frame when the foot is just about to leave ground is fairly important, I wouldn't leave them out.

Are you bound to using 6 frames? Otherwise I'll make an edit and show you what I mean. Heck I'll make an edit anyway. BRB...

From a game design point of view I'd would like the stories/steps to be higher. Right now she doesn't even fit under one the steps. If they won't block her movement I guess it's ok but I'd still like it to be 1/3 higher than it is now.

The gradient most go as you said.

Also I'd make the steps less blocky, and hm... perhaps grass on dirt has been done enough times now. Try something more inspired.

The panda does not need that much ditering, but neither does the fruits.

If this is a game where you play one screen at a time I'd try and make the design less blocky over all.

The HUD on the top of the screen could blend into the game area, perhaps you should make the black parts transparent.

Looking forward to see your next mockup.

A cliche would be to add the skull of a dead cow somewhere in the picture.
Otherwise add some cracks in the ground.

I still think that less is more, when it comes to looking barren at least, and you already got a lot going.
If you add something be sure to take something else away.

On a side note I think the HUD looks great. I wanna play this game even though it looks like some kind of farming game which I usually hate.
Say that it's a brewing or a distilling game and I absolutely wanna play this game.

how is gauntlet grandaddy to fps? and what is rps? roll playing strategy? rocket propellered stuff? gauntlet only has very few similarities to an FPS. You kill things in it, it's a game, you move a character, you interact with the world.
there were plenty of games before gauntlet which had those things.

I'm so sorry. I meant to write Real Time Strategy, but I can take that one back. I won't take back that it's the Grandaddy of FPSs though. I didn't say it was the original FPS, I didn't even say it was the mother of FPS. If you can't see the similarities and the distinct features of Gauntlet and lets say Castle Wolfenstein then I can't argue with you anymore. The first First Person Shooters were nothing but 2D maps turned into 3D. Remember that you couldn't even walk under things in the original Doom because the whole map is flat. The gameplay, shooting hordes of enemies, maze type levels, finding an exit is also straight out of Doom.

To stay on topic I made this color edit of your walk/run Zolthorg. It should help you see how the individual parts of the character are moving.