I meant both movement speed in game and cycle.  Thanks and will pay attention to the gliding, but can you really get a 2-frame walk animation that has no gliding?  And is it left-right that you see the gliding or up-down too?

First of all, I definitely like this guy. When I first saw him I didn't like it—but then I thought "why don't I llike it?" and realized it was because it creeped me out a little. So would definitely use him in some fashion.

I see your struggle—trying to fit art into the defined gameplay, maybe trying to force it a bit. Maybe this isn't the character for this boss fight but can be used elsewhere? I don't have much experience but feel like building the gameplay around the characteristics of the art can work as well, seems like could flow easily and accentuate the characteristics.

But if you are going to use this enemy for this boss fight I think that second one (one in OP) can work pretty well. If it were me I would make him super fast. His slender build gives me that impression. The crouching posture almost gives off a ready to pounce vibe (maybe looks relaxed here but the squatting still gives that off—I usually don't squat when relaxing). If doing that I don't think adding more details helps the piece—I think minimal details would work well with quick animations. Would focus more on animating in a way to show the character—which would be super quick, creepy, and animal-like instinct of just wanting to tear you apart and eat you. Make the player feel like if he finds you then you are done for immediately.

Those are my thoughts on how I would handle it, but of course I'm not familiar with the rest of your game. The only thing I don't get is how would you do stealth if he can't see? This guy looks like he would operate on smell but don't know how you stealth your scent. Could operate on sound and hear you when you move—could have different surfaces or broken glass spattered about so could hear you only at certain spots. If wanted to do stealth by sight I would think something like a robot with a laser would fit better—shoots you on sight.

If it were me I would keep editing and working on what you have until completely happy with it.  Adding more buildings and making it larger causes it to take longer when making edits and changes.  I would spend the time on perfecting first before growing.

I added a bit more features, and tried to shadow in a bit more. It doesn't look horrible, but it doesn't really look good either IMHO. What do you think?

I don't think it is looking bad—it usually doesn't start looking good until you get the shading looking right.  I would say the colors could use more contrast though.  It looks like you are already using 4 or 5 grays but the change isn't that notable.

If you are a beginner then I recommend starting with smaller size (like 32x32) and limit yourself to 3 shades for each color.  At least that is what seemed to help me.

I admit, this doesn't look good, but I drew a cat quickly using only 7 colors and its under 20x20 sized.  (probably could have gotten rid of one of the grays, too).  Smaller sized canvas will take much less time but you will still see improvement.


(I think it looks more like a dog  said it doesn't look good—I need to practice drawing animals!)

I agree in that, as the eyes and antlers distract me from how creepy he looks.  As in they don't seem to fit as well and they attract the eyes.

The first one is a bit difficult to make out at the smallest size, especially the chin over the chest.