[WIP] Werther Wellington (CC Requested)

[PunkRockGrrl]

Hi, my brother and I are starting a new game project, and we're doing pixel work. This is the main character, he's a sort of burnout gentleman with an opium problem. The cane isn't for walking, so much as he's just sort of rich and has it.

Anyhow, here's what we've got so far.

(Background provided due to forum style. Not sure if it really helps though, as it washes the character out a bit.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Game is a 2d platformer. Really simple game, not much to really say about it mechanics wise.

EDIT: Here it is on red. Works a tad bit better I think.

[Friend]

ya... grey doesn't pop o a brown bg

[Facet]

First, thanks for the bit of character profile , sounds like an interesting proposition.

Don't blame the brown!, contrast is the issue here I think. Working so desaturated isn't usual for sprites & stuff that require high visibility but is absolutely doable and could look nice with some care taken over your values (some GB games would make for good reference) the high-sat red looks sort of OK at first but would likely become very hard to look at after a while in a game situation; any saturated colour is going to be more eye-catching than a grey in the absence of a decent value hierarchy. Probably you knew that really but it never hurts to quantify these things . My recommendation would be to reign in your bg values to a smaller mid-range and possibly dial up the contrast on the sprites a bit if necessary. I actually think some sepia browns might work very well as regards to the theme here.

Little edit below just bringing the centre point of the body round to meet that of the head, giving his hand more a jaunty place on the hip/in his pocket, adding little areas of shadow to define forms and generally trying to group individual pixels more so as to de-emphasise them and look pretty.