1D Fighter Characters

[RuthlessVoid]

Hi guys. I am currently working on a simple 1D fighting game where the character sprites are all blocks that are 16x16. I am actually mainly a programmer and so I'm new to pixel art, as well as art in general, and I'll need all the help I can get. I know that my biggest flaws are with colors and general design.

Version 1:


Version 2 (slight color edit):


Friend's Edit:


Concept doodles:


The first two sprites are the ones I would like the criticisms to be more directed toward. I've just started working on the third one, but any criticisms on it thus far is still welcome. Please let me know if there's any other information about it you would like to know, or if I've left out any helpful information about it. Thanks in advance!

[YellowLime]

Heh, the concept of abstract square player characters seems interesting to me As well as the current designs.

The difference between your sprites and your friend's edit depend on what you originally intended. The "red xbox" square looks better on his/her side, because the reds don't contrast as much as in yours. But if you want the red light to be brighter, you only need to have the darker red be closer to the bright one in brightness.

As for the first guy, depends on whether you want it flat or not. But your friend's version is a bit messy, I don't get the shape (s)he is trying to convey. I assume the upper half is tilted upwards (lighter) and the lower is tilted downwards (shadowed), so the weird light blue patterns are "painted over". But it's confusing.

(by the way, wouldn't it be a 2D game? The only thing you can do in 1D are lines...)

[kriss]

i like a lot fighting games: Normally the shape of the fighter decide how he (or she ^^) will fight.
With only blocks, you need to add informations like electric wave or a red eye for light beam.

It could be interessant to help you to have some informations of how thoses fighters will fight each others

[RuthlessVoid]

@YellowLime: Yeah, my friend did mention that his version of the first sprite was messy. I thought it looked really cool and made mine look too plain.

All of the sprites are 2D, but the fighting game will be 1D like how Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is in 3D, but it's a 2D fighting game.

I don't think my friend actually did edit the second character, so your eyes may be playing tricks on you with the edit of the first sprite.

Also, my friend wanted me to post the first version of the first sprite he made:

(Only the first sprite is his, the second sprite is my earlier version)

@kriss: Yeah, it will be difficult to be able to create the sprites so that they are easy to distinguish between one another, but still fit some sort of common theme and style. I definitely will want to look into using non-pixel particle-type effects with the sprites, which should be fairly easy to do because I'm using Unity. The fighters in my game "fight" on a linear stage that degrades over time and the objective is to push/shove the opponent off the edge. The twist is that when the opponent is pushing you, you can swap them, which makes you switch places with the opponent.

Really sorry about the delayed response. I wanted to make edits before I posted again, but I haven't been able to find the time so I just decided I'll at least respond to some questions about the game.