Lookin' good, there.
The blocks don't quite seem to be 3d themselves, but the crumbling edges define the shape they make up as a whole as 3d, so that works out just as well.
Those edges are great, by the way. You seem to have a real penchant for making tiles irregular enough so that they don't necessarily need variety tiles to mask the grid. That ladder especially. It's so wonderfully asymmetrical, I seriously had no idea it was one tile until I deconstructed it to start editing.

I didn't do much to it, just cut down some of the shadows a bit, applied some nonintrusive AA here and there, and AA'd the bent rung to smooth it out a little.
I also removed the 1-pixel dithershading on some of the rungs, because pixels in groups of less than two end up making shading look sort of noisy at this resolution.

On an unrelated note, I did up a run cycle to sort of demonstrate what I meant about side-facing animations. I don't know if it looks childish enough for the character, but I gave it my best shot. (It's on a black bacground because I had to use some AA for more subtle motions and it doesn't show up well against Pixelation's grungy green background.)


Also comes in grizzled war veteran variety (to see the legs and torso more easily)


Looking back, I didn't add enough bounce, the arms pretty much suck, and the whole thing is pretty stiff looking (and that's without mentioning that I mirrored the animation).
But, it gets across the general idea, I hope. The only reason that I think side-runs are favorable to 3/4-runs is because in platformers, 3/4th runs always make it look like the character is running diagonally instead of side to side, and it always seemed to me like they might run right off the side of the narrow platforms that all side-scrollers are made of. Just my two cents.

Edits 'n stuff aside, I'm curious about the role of the main character, the kid in the yellow raincoat. Who is he, and what does he represent?
Is he a god-like figure taken physical form, a la Ameratsu from Okami? An avatar of some sorts? Is the sun he's representing even spiritual at all, or is it just a ball of flaming gas?
Does he derive his power from the sun, if he has any? Is he bringing light to the world, like a manifestation of daybreak? If so, why? Does it happen every day, or is it something more heroic, like a sacred duty to bring light to the world after it has been swallowed by darkness? Does the moon make an appearance? What is the significance of the raincoat? Is he chasing away a rainy day?

I'm sorry for bombarding you with all these questions, and I don't expect you to answer all of them, probably in order to preserve the mystery for the actual game. Just a bit of closure, about why he is the sun, and why his raincoat is yellow.

Your recent backgrounds have been gorgeous, but like others have said they're a bit too saturated (and the most recent one is a little bright on my monitor). Tone it down just a smidge to help differentiate it from the foreground. In that vein, try to keep foreground and background colors separate, so as to avoid color confusion.

On the subject of the tiles, while the "degraded" texture has improved greatly, the tiles themselves still seem quite flat to me. Try to add some depth to them. It doesn't have to be much, but try to make them seem more substantial.
The only problem your ladder has with readability is closeness in the light brown to the reddish pink in the tiles.
As for irregularity on the grass, it's a great idea, just keep it withing a few pixels from the ground so you can cheat and just make the character walk flat behind it.
On the tree, why does it seem to be entirely backlit? Is the lighting coming from that planet in the background? Otherwise, it has fine shape and composure, very organic looking.

The running animation looks a bit like skipping/bounce-walking to me. Maybe tone down the bounce a bit, and give the overall movement a bit more fluidity. It looks a bit stiff in the body as it is.
(!Personal Opinion Inbound!)
I've always found side-facing movement animations to convey the motion better than their 3/4 counterparts. Just a thought.
(!Exit Personal Opinion!)

Another thing I'm noticing is that you're making the backgrounds increasingly more complex and detailed, which kind of clashes with the charming few-color-to-a-sprite tone that you had going in the beginning. This also makes the character sprite look somewhat out of place. I suggest you decide now what graphical path you want to take with this game.

On the one hand, you have the simple, low color option that you started out with. This style is easy to create for and work with, and can be quite elegant and atmospheric if done properly. This is the easiest to animate with, because everything is going to be mostly one or two colors, and you don't have to worry about detail as much. This style is considered niche by most, but well-recieved within the independent gaming and pixelart community. (Just be prepared for people to tell you it looks like Cave Story, even if it doesn't)

On the other hand, you have higher detail with more colors and rendering per sprite. This style is slightly more time consuming to work with and create for, but the payoff of a shiny, polished-looking game is nice. It is slower and more difficult to animate with this style, as you have to first block out what you're trying to do, get the core animation done, then sweep over all the frames and add detail and revision. This style is more mainstream, and will probably be well-recieved by the majority, but completing a game in this style takes more time and effort.

In your situation, I would reccomend the former. You seem to be making this game for your own sake, and for practice. The graphics of a game are where many game designers will get hung up and quit in development, and in your particular example it doesn't seem necessary to try and make the next Braid. Save it for when you're more confident in your abilities.


I look forward to seeing this project's continued progress.

(Edit): Sorry for this huge wall of text, I didn't realize it was this big until I posted it.

Chis, that's fantastic, a million times better than your initial sprite!
I love the new, more realistic proportions, and you really nailed the oversized, cumbersome look of a raincoat. The hood is great, just a touch oversized and it's even got that sort of triangular peak like it's supposed to. The only thing I'm curious about is the lighter green pixel to the right of his eye.

As for the second design, it looks like a good literal representation of the sun, but it gives off more of a femenine vibe to me. The shoulders are also a bit low in comparison to the head, perhaps bring the head and cloudscarf down some?

The new tiles are much improved, giving off a much more believable look. It's got a nice stringy feeling to it, too, but you might want to give it a bit greener hue, so people don't mistake it for sand flowing through cracks in the rock. Also, if it's going to be organically messy and disorganized, I think you ought to keep the idea of secondary tiles to go on top of them like you did with the original grass, as it looks a bit flat on top as it is.

Keep up the good work!