Still very WIP; might have to alter the palette as is its a little too colorful in certain parts to fit in with the rest of the graphics in the game this is going into. (Requiem - desaturated metroidvania type game).

But anyway; my plans are to have this seperated into several different parralax scrolling layers. So far I only have the front two (the main plane the character will walk on, which is everything up until the closest tree roots, and a small one behind that featuring more snow and thus far two trees). I've got that all set-up, but I am having some issues with the trees. The front one, I think, came out fine, but I'm having a lot of trouble trying to do the ones in the back - which I want to be taller and more looming then the one in the front - and I quite simply can't seem to properly define them. Notably the top of the middle tree.

Can anyone offer some crtique or help on that, or even just anything in this thus far?

C+C so far?

NEWEST VERSION:

This was basically a sprite that started out as one thing and then while creating it ended up becoming something completely different. This was originally intended to be pirate, however when I began to draw the blue shirt it sort of took a life of its own and instead of halting my creative flow I simply ran with it and have the final producted presented before you, some kind of... Pirate robot thing. It wasn't to be anything serious or necessary, so it was no big deal when it changed direction.

15 colors + transparency. C+C?

So. I'm working on a game (have been for quite some time now) which is primarily pixelled. It has a 256x192 screensize/resolution* (akin to the Metroidvania Castlevania titles) but what seperates this from most games I see, particularly games featuring sprites, is that it is essentially gray - "black and white" if you will. All of the shades are predominately gray; occasionally with a tint of red or maybe blue and green, but 'gray' is the dominant shade and feeling. Thus the aspect of saturation and hue are reduced dramatically, and most of the game will feature dark and dank castle hallways with a sort of (if all goes as planned) 'frightening/lonely/gloomy gothic aesthetic'; or grey, misty forests and dusty wastelands which will likely rely more on value and contrast then hue and saturation. Is this heavily-grayed out style applicable, or does it suffer too much from a lack any true distinction?

Screenshots from the game in question; Please do not critique the sprites themselves (unless it is related to the primary question at hand) but rather the screen as a whole in regards to this subject. It should also be noted the Healthbar is not omnipresent; it will only be visible during combat.




    *That is at the minimum windowsize. Its base pixel level. The game scales itself by default to match your resolution, generally resulting in slightly blurred graphics. This scaling can be altered from your resolution, to windowed 512x384 or 768x576 (with 256x192 also an option) to help accomodate for speed issues and general preferences.

Essentially; what are your views on this heavily desaturated visual style - Is it a smart move, is it applicable, does it even work? Furthermore, if it does have issues, either in its nature or in my representation of it, what do you think can be done to fix them?

Also my avatar.

Its technically done, though I'm still willing to edit and play around with it as to be honest it kind of bugs me because I know that things are wrong with it. I've been sorta on and off playing around with this for a few months now, so editing it even further really isn't out of the question. Thats where you guys come in. Do you see any problems with it? Anything that could use some tweaking? Opinions in general?

(should be) 15 colors + transparency.

C+C?

UPDATE: NEWEST VERSION