@Ymedron, Seiseki:
Right, lowercase letters with different height are usually more easy to recognize. The font I did there with the funny "t" is based on the gaelic-celtic typeface, that's why the unusual letters.

@Seiseki:
I actually taught typography, but that seem like a hundred years ago. "The lower cap letters should follow the same line" seems a sensible guideline, but some letters (d, p, b...) do seem a bit inflated when I strictly follow this rule (in pixel-height not percieved height).

@Mathias:
Well, both palette and perspective communicate the player that he/she has to put effort into the game. But to be honest it was just me being lazy: I don't have to struggle to manage an own palette, and don't have to draw that much directions for the actors.

@Helm:
I already spotted you on that blog in the comments some time ago.
I dropped shadows in my initial game design because it emphasizes the small cheats I've done with inconsistent lightsource shading. Beside that day-night cycle is also intended, and  a static shadow could be awkward,I thought. Nevertheless I did gave it a go now. I'll be studying those screenshots, though I'm trying to avoid that much noise, as I'll display a lot more interactive objects, and they'd go lost in that much noise.

@BladeJunker:
Yeah, I'm still not quite sure why a large number of games do use white as skin color.
Slanting is now scratched, but I'm putting text AA on ice for a while until I find a way to pull it out nicely with these colours.
I wouldn't really like to use lo-caps text. I always read, that non-capital lowercase letter are much legible. I might do some experimenting there though.

So I haven't progressed that much this time. There's a new sceenshot:


With (my) programming limitations in sight I decided to use 50% black dither for shadows. It's probably not the finest, but it does work, and I try to avoid larger pure black clusters, for they will be used for non-visible areas.
Changed the wattle and daub tile colour to white, inspired by those "Knights of Legend" screenshots.
And a bit more text test. I chose to carry on with the last font: it still has some fancyness and maintains a clear and recognizable typeset.

Also tried a different style on trees:

It looks quite good in 1X in my opinion, but somehow falls apart if magnified.

Thanks!

Yeah, EGA skin is almost everytime that awkward.

Hmm. The game is intended to be 320x200, so at least 3x. I think the yellow hair isn't  that disturbing against the skin with that big clusters.

I really like what you did there with the inventory slots! I tried to recreate it, but couldn't achieve the same effect somehow.

Then I solved my problem with a GUI redesign: the text window was too small for longer text messages, so by moving the inventory beside the paperdoll I won some lines and lost the big empty area to fill. Two birds with one stone.

I also like what you did with the paper texture, though I think it may probably make the text a bit harder to read.

Looked interesting, so I gave it a try too. That low contrast palette is really hard to work with.


Helm: I like the way you sculpted the legs. Great volumes. I think I will study it a bit longer.

Lovely great sprites. Not much crit about the sprites themselves. Just a small one on the stance: I was at an archery training some weeks ago, and my trainer repeatedly warned me not to lean backward as your first guy does. Rather forward. I know it enhances the pulling animation, it looks probably better your way, just pointing out.