Mock-up/Sprites for TB RPG

[Opacus]

Here is a mock-up of a game I'm going to make. Instead of "over dithering" as I usually do,
I didn't dithered at all, and went for a smooth look. I hope you like this style:         

                                                             Nearing completion...

Here are the sprites and tile set seperatly:

Latest:


The tile:
Latest:

C&c, help me out a bit ,
SW

[snake]

The trees stick out a little compared to the rest of the background. One of them should probably be adjusted. I just have to ask though. Is this the perspective you want the characters to have? Not something more aligned with the top-down perspective?

[Opacus]

The trees stick out a little compared to the rest of the background. One of them should probably be adjusted. I just have to ask though. Is this the perspective you want the characters to have? Not something more aligned with the top-down perspective?

Thanks for the good comment there.
I wanted a bit of a weird touch, and make the characters stand out alot, so that's why I picked the odd perspective I think.
As for the trees, I agree with you on that, and I made a little edit, hope this makes the trees stand out less:

[im9today]

I don't think the rockish monster on the far right is the same quality as the rest. Trees could use a redo too. I like the tiny swordsman and the style in general though.

[ndchristie]

i thin, in general, the whole thing is difficult to see.  I think if you added either value shifts or hue shifts the whole thing would look much much nicer.

Still, is a very nice piece.  GUI ?

[Opacus]

Thanks for teh great comment guys, keep it coming!
I tried to give the monster and the dude a black outline (Except the rocky, I will redo him tomorrow) to make
them stand out more:

  or  ?

Adarias: I'm working on one, it's almost finished.

[AdamAtomic]

Something more like this would work better I think:



All I did was a levels adjustment on the sprites - the higher contrast and saturation helps them stand out from the bg now.

[Feron]

i dont like how the 'cliffs' are green - gets too blended with teh grass.

[Opacus]

i dont like how the 'cliffs' are green - gets too blended with teh grass.

Hmmm, I kinda like how they blend actually...

Adam: Thanks for the good edit, here's my update:
(Look Adarias, GUI!)
Here's what I changed:
-Gave the character/monsters a higher saturation.
-Changed the line around the water.
-Made the saturation of the water higher, to make it more 'blueish'.
-Added GUI.

Keep them comment comin!

[Akzidenz]

The type is super murky.

Type is generally something you don't want to stylize too highly (unless it's a title). Just pick a nice typeface, turn AA off, set it nice and clean. Remember, the only reason it's there is for the display of information, so the more difficult it is to read the less effective it is.

For small pixel-based type, there are a bunch of pixel fonts (Silkscreen is a basic example, you can find a ton just by doing google searches). But there are also faces that were specially designed at the start of the internet era to work beautifully at a variety of small sizes without the use of AA. Verdana, Georgia, and Tahoma are all worth looking into, and your computer should have them installed already.

Also, from an interface standpoint - it's odd that you have the hero/enemy HP displays on the opposite sides of the screen from the hero/enemy sprites.

So, yeah. Sorry for not being able to critique the sprites more, but the other people here will do a better job of that anyways.