Platformer Sprites [WIP]

[Felix20]

This is my first post here.
I'm just learning how to do pixel art, I'm making graphics for a platformer game that I'm making
I'm basically just trying out different things to see what works good.
Some sprites I made:


A mockup of what a the game will look like:


The world is round, so the silhouettes in the background are actually part of the level, you just have to keep going to get to them.

[RedKnight91]

WOAH! There's really a lot to say here.

Let's start with the characters: you've got plenty of imaginations, and I love that octopus one, BUT:

1st character: this one is too simple, it's made of a square and a rectangle! That won't do it. How does he move?
2nd character: the best one, but it's not clear what those stripes on his head are
3rd character: original but kinda hard to understand: is that a fin on his head? Does he have a cape and a mask? He has no feet too, how does he move?
4rd character: to be the main character he needs more detail, people want to know how the main character looks like, and a silouette isn't good.

Concerning style:

- The characters look FLAT! The 3rd one is okay-ish, but the first two look like they're paper-thin, that's no good.
- You don't seems to have a clear lightsource, or if you have one you used it the wrong way, especially on the 3rd character.
- Maybe you don't want to use Anti-Aliasing too much (do you know what it is? here is a topic about it http://www.wayofthepixel.net/pixelation/index.php?topic=10051.0 ), but at least you should use good shapes. The head of the octopus should be rounded more, and for the head of the 3rd chara you could have used a circle, instead you used a weird circle-oval.. Don't even get me started on that block-sheep!

SO! Here's an edit I did for you to see how it should be done


you had good ideas, you just needed to think a bit more. That block-sheep is too dull to be a character, it looks like a rock! add some features (as I did)
The octopus is good, but you could add some variety to that straight silouette (as I did)
The third one is a mess, you should try to make his features recognizable (as I did, even if I still don't know what that thin-thing is)
The character.. well, I've added some details.

Hope my post has been useful enough!

EDIT: almost forgot, I've added shadow to make 'em look 3D-ish, that wouldn't be your case since you've a lateral point of view in your platformer.

EDIT2: by the way, if you're doing a platformer, you should use sprites seen from the side (like my avatar)

[Felix20]

Thanks a lot for the comments and the edit

At first I was going for a kinda flat cartoonish look but it didn't work out so well.
So I changed to a more realistic style and ditched the outline after seeing your edit.
Here's what I came up with:


The first one was loosely based of a sheep originally, The rectangleness doesn't really fit though so I changed it to look better.

The second was made of stone which was why it looked so flat, I turned it slightly and changed the feet and fixed the lighting, it looks much better now.

The third one was like of a mix between a knight and a potted plant (how do I come up with this stuff)
I changed the shape, shaded him and made a different plant for his head.

I haven't edited the fourth one yet, I'm not going to use the first version, it was literally made in like 10 seconds to show the scale of the platforms.


Also I should have mentioned that these characters are meant to be part of the scenery (except the fourth one) so they won't be moving much, the plant/knight probably won't move at all.

[RedKnight91]

Well, that's a big improvement, I like the 2nd one the most, as always, you should fix the sheep's head and add a little darker outlines to all of 'em, or you're going to have some trouble when there's some dark color in the background : )