Need advice/pointers on 16x16 character desgin - Mannon the Man/Cannon

[Savick]

Just kind of unsure of where to go from here. I like him how he is right now, but I'm certain I could make some improvements before making jumping and walking animations for him.
The concept is that he's a fusion of a circus strongman and a circus cannon.
Is this too small to critique?(What a silly question!) I have plans for a top down or platform shooter with him in it, but that's later. 

Thanks

[Corinthian Baby]

What type of style are you aiming for? A realistic/gorey one, or maybe something lighthearted and cartoony? If it's the latter, you could put a little face on him, like big white eyes with black pupils, maybe even a smile of some kind. If it's more mysterious/realistic, than you're pretty much in the right direction. It would be easier to critique in situation, with bg tiles and whatnot, but you have no outlines, just solid colors. Which is fine, but always keep in mind that you want your character to always be able to be seen on the game screen. With a little tweaking of the arms/legs, you could add more depth, but having it top lit, shading darker at the bottoms, with highlights toward the top. The brightness is relative to tiles, so I can't comment on that right now.

What will gameplay be like, a run and gun platformer, just shooting from your head instead of a gun? Or a kind of top down rpg? Like I said, context would help us/me determine what is good/needs to be improved.

[Savick]

About style: Lighthearted and cartoony, but not overly childish. Not on the side of Kirby cute, but still wacky fun characters and level design. I tried another, larger, sprite to see what he would look like with eyes and I have to say I like it better.

I?ll go ahead and share some ideas I have for the gameplay/genre and such. First of all, I want Mannon to shoot various kinds of projectiles, not just plain cannonballs. So far I think my ideas are best portrayed through a top down RPG.
 
On the topic of enemies
The player needs enemies in order to be challenged, kill them to get loot, progress, etc. I think the enemies should be shot out of Mannon?s cannon head. There would of course be some mysterious curse or plot device as to why this happens. Example ?  Mannon is walking along through the level and he gets to an invisible trigger area that makes him fire enemies. Three little goons boom out of his face and the game enters a Battle Mode. The player would then fire different types of cannonball ammo at the enemies until the enemy?s HP or the player?s HP reaches zero. There would be a battle menu like in FF games, but kind of different. I think this could work, but I need opinions on it.

[ABC]

I think your concept would work great with power-ups, if it's a platformer especialy. Just some ideas: Flamethrower, bomblauncher, some kind of grapple ? la Zelda, different kinds of bullets, etc.

As for the pixels, I think your small sprite is all ready cartoony enough because he's so small compared to a real life man.

[Savick]

Spent some time making an RPG looking mock up. (With the battle menu stolen from an obvious source!)

[pistachio]

Have to say I liked the older sprite better, not because of its size but because his limbs didn't seem so "stuck together", as well as lack of an outline and its simplicity, showing you knew not to go overboard with details on something that size. The addition of eyes and the now squarer head actually makes it less obvious that his head's a cannon, if you ask me. Aside from that, the perspective is way off for an RPG mockup. I'd much prefer him in a sidescroller.

Also the enemies don't really make sense, perhaps you could do something clever with a play on circuses, like clowns or wild zoo animals?

[Savick]

Have to say I liked the older sprite better, not because of its size but because his limbs didn't seem so "stuck together", as well as lack of an outline and its simplicity, showing you knew not to go overboard with details on something that size. The addition of eyes and the now squarer head actually makes it less obvious that his head's a cannon, if you ask me. Aside from that, the perspective is way off for an RPG mockup. I'd much prefer him in a sidescroller.

Also the enemies don't really make sense, perhaps you could do something clever with a play on circuses, like clowns or wild zoo animals?

I can agree with the smaller sprite being better looking. The enemies were just stupid blobs as placeholders so :p
I'll probably go in the direction you described about the enemies. However, I can't figure out how I'm going to have the main character shoot out enemies from his cannon and not disrupt gameplay. With a top down RPG I was going to have invisible trigger points the player walked on to, but in a platformer the action doesn't really stop for that sort of thing. That's where I am right now.

[Savick]

As for what needs to happen with the enemies firing from his cannon head, I think I'll make special platforms for the player to stand on so they can shoot out random/different enemies to fight with cannon ammo. And if that doesn't work I guess I'll just stick in enemies like normal, although I don't want to go with that. I'm thinking of having Mannon star in a platforming game called Circus of Clouds. It would be about his adventures in a retro-future floating islands of metal type world with circus themes.

[Savick]

Basic mock-up idea with improvised side characters and plot idea.