Hello!
I am implementing a currency system in my game and I have hit a wall concerning the graphics for it. I don't want it to be just a "number" - I want the money to be an actual item [coins preferably] but I have no idea on how could they look. I would like the sprite to change from 1 coin, to 5 coins, then 10 coins preferably [depending on how many are there in a stack - if you have one coin, it displays a single coin sprite. If you have over 5 of them, it displays a small stack of coins. When you have 10 or more, it displays even bigger stack] - I tried to make simple small coins, but they just looked like yellow cookies. I tried making a "bag" containing coins [that would be the best idea], but I failed badly. Right now I tried dumping the idea of having several, and instead to have one big coin displaying regardless of how many are there in the stack but it still looks like a cookie.
Can anyone give me some directions on how to make it looks like an actual coin and not a sunflower pancake?

Here's the current look of it:


Compared to other objects:


The "cookie" look and irregular borders is one problem, another one is the size - right now it's big as a bucket, and when I make it smaller it gets really ugly and unreadable..

Hmm.. Any advice on how to do that? Making the upper part borders brighter instead of darker maybe?

How about this?

@Akira:
I will definitely try that - for one thing, I am aware that the outlines make things stick out and catch the players attention - and with the big tile view range that's not always a good thing [large amounts of 'sticking out' purely decorational plants like flowers can distract the player easily and make it hard to see whats going on on the fields] - I just hope stuff won't blend in too much and become a blurryness fest, but it's worth a try; and hey, Free pixels are always welcome! Thanks for the idea!

First try [I think I made it blend in too much X_x]

Note: The cow head thingy isn't mine, just a placeholder :p

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I'm happy I found out about this forum - the game looks changed drastically, and to the better [which in turn motivates me even more to work hard code-wise also!], thanks to your advices guys!

Hmmm, for resizing the character it would be kind of hard to do as I coded the whole engine having 32x32 in mind everywere [layers, collision detection etc], also as much as I love old NES style games, I think 16x16 holds just too little space for detailing, unless you own some pretty powerful skill with suggesting details that are not there [that I do not yet ]

About the blueish-shadows and yellowish-lights I have read about those in a couple of tuts about pixelling, but they seemed to create a bit too strong contrast everywhere - I will give it a try tho, how is that? [Changed it in the weeds, turnip and flower leaves - also new road and soil]:


Also I'm a bit afraid of using too dark blues, as the day/night system gradually adds lots of blue for the night time [that means things that are already dark blue will turn black]

I actually like your old one more, tbh. I've never liked when games showed the inside of buildings, and I like the textured look your old one had (and your new one has, to some extent). How did you get that cool textured look on the roof and stuff? Is it pure pixel art, or did you use auto-aliasing tools like Photoshop? It looks neat. Reminds me of Four Swords Adventures for the Gamecube.

I kinda want to implement roofs in the future, like when you go close to them [doors/windows] they disappear and show the interior
The roof was made of millions of small beams, and then shaded using the brighten/darken tool - I use GIMP

@Pix3M:
I will try to redraw the grass again, with less noise and if it looks better then the other sprites - I do admit I use noise a lot, to try and make things look more ... random

About the resolution, do you mean something like this? [A game I was making with a randomly generated island thing, 64x64 sprites]


@Ymedron:
Yes, I think I will do just that, and draw some bigger sized characters - I am still trying out different styles