What level of detail to put into a low-spec character sprite?

[JustinGameDesign]

So here's a sprite I'm having some issues with:



The character is meant to have blue markings on his chest and torso (see example below), but do the lines really register in the player sprite? Should I just not render the blue markings on his body in the smaller player sprite? Or is there something I can do to make them pop? I'm not trying to adhere to the specific restriction of any given system. I'm just limiting colors and resolution generally.

[HarveyDentMustDie]

Biggest advice, remove the black outlines and you will have more room for details. If you want blue lines to pop, choose tone of blue color which have greater contrast with skin tone color. You should try this without the rifle, just body idle position.

Here is a quick edit without outlines.

[JustinGameDesign]

It's a good edit, but if I remove the lines from the player sprite, I'd have to go through and remove them from every other sprite in the entire game, so it's not an option in this case, sadly.

[astraldata]

In that case, I'd really suggest to at least remove some of the outlines on the inside of the sprite where the arm, gun, and chest meet (most importantly). It's a very important compromise if the blue lines are important to your character's faithfulness to the higher-res version. Additionally, the sprite would look cleaner and more appealing to boot.

[JustinGameDesign]

I'll see what I can do about minimizing black lines in the ;6interior of the sprite. I agree that they can detract from readability. What I may do for clarity is remove some of the dark, shadowed tones on the skin, since the aren't doing much and their absence would make other colors pop more.

[Cyangmou]

suggestion:

[boogieman]

suggestion:

I think that looks really good.  I am surprised that changing the outline color had that much effect.

[JustinGameDesign]

I'd done some versions of this sprite where I outlined the wings in blue, although it was a more saturated blue. How did you settle on the colors you used in these outlines? I may try something similar--I'd played around some with colored outlines generally, but making sure they don't blend into the background was a concern.

suggestion: