> Don't you fear that your game will be just one of a bazillion similar looking games in a highly competitive market?
Not really, actually I'd be very happy if it is as good looking because graphics is my main weakness. I'm confident I can do better programming than most flash games out there and ok uninspired music/sfx. What I fear most is being too ambitious and putting more work than necessary to bring it to market, ending up abandoning the project because it takes too long to finish.
Since they are not directly copied from original copyrighted material and do not feature licensed characters, the sprites are at least legitimate for use in a game. I don't want to be OT though so I'll wait until I have the skill to create 100% original design to submit if necessary (this will take time).
So far I've focused on applying correct techniques : work only pixel by pixel, smooth animation, outlines, shading, proper palette, contrast, anti-aliasing, try to avoid excessive pillow shading and banding. I'd be thankful if someone can point errors regarding these points. Maybe I'm overlooking glaring stuff that needs improvement : anatomy is wrong, vehicule is too boxy, tracks doesn't look right...
It's a bit too much to recreate all from scratch and have it look even remotely as good at the moment but I don't mind recreating a specific part of the sprite like the roof, the trunk, the face, the feet...