Hey man,

Really good job for your first day. Some nice pixeling going on.

However, I'd try to refrain from dithering on objects that don't need it. For example, the wooly hat should be fluffy and smooth, not rough, which dithering makes it look like.

Try to limit the amount of colours you use as well. You have quite a lot on the green turret, and they're not really needed.

Don't be afraid to look at how other people do things you're trying to do.

eg.




Good examples of animated fire:



I'll try to do some edits of your pixel art tomorrow. Hopefully that'll make it clearer what I mean!

Keep up the good work!

Much better!

The game is looking awesome. Keep up the good work.

I definitely agree with Eishiya's critique. I'd also potentially lower the contrast of the closest layer of trees, as they could be construed as barriers.

I did an edit using Eishiya's as a base (hope you don't mind). Made the first layer even less bright, and changed the colours of the rocks. Changed the colour of the trees in the background, as well as changed the position of the middle hill because it aligned too 'well' with the layer behind, and so looked weird to me.

Slowly making progress.

Thoughts on the grass?

Well, I'm no pixel art expert, but I'd have no issue playing a game with those sprites in it I think they're quite good~

One thing I'd recommend is maybe moving the left arm just a tiny bit ahead, maybe so you can see another column of pixels on the hand. Right now at native res it seems a tad small. Or maybe instead of making it bigger you can lighten it up a bit. I know it's a hand based on my knowledge of human anatomy, but it doesn't QUITE read as one to me, it's a bit too small and/or dark.

There's also a very slight bit of weirdness with the tunic near the right hand, it looks to me like there should maybe be a few transparent pixels in places where there are colored ones. Specifically right beneath the thumb and to the right of the fingers, notice at native res it looks like they have a lump on the outside of their leg.

All in all lovely work!

Thanks for the recommendations. I've tried to do what you said.  I think it looks much clearer!

left is old, right is new:

not sure if its just me but the face looks like it is occupying a little bit too much space of the head. While it is common to have unproportional big heads in pixel art, just having a big face looks a bit odd to me.

I'll have a play around with that Thanks for letting me know.

------

Update:

- amended characters a little and started to work on the cyclops



Update 2:

- more work on cyclops. Any thoughts would be helpful.