[WIP] Game Art

[BatElite]

I played around a bit with the colours.
I think you should use more contrast. Also, the trees and blue bird look mostly flat.

[melbow]

Oh wow, I love the colors on the wood! I don't feel the same crazy attraction to the rest, but this has opened my eyes. I see potential for more contrast, especially the bird(s).
Also I see you fixed the light source on my mushrooms.  thanks

[melbow]

Massive revisions... I liked my old wood texture, but I wanted to keep my old trees' style, so I redid the fence (and the trees to try to add top-down lighting).
The new blue bird was too distracting, so I removed it for now.
I tried adding more contrast elsewhere, especially on the owl, to make the foreground stand out.

I'm a little nervous that the owl still doesn't stand out enough from the background...

[Fizzick]

 

[melbow]

Well that definitely makes the foreground stand out more, but I was trying to avoid desaturating the background so much because it makes me think the house is far away and desaturated due to fog, which it is not supposed to be. I do believe in this current drawing there is not a better way of making the background not intrude so much though.

I think I'm going to take a break from this specific piece and come at my game concept with a fresh start. This drawing, although 1000x better thanks to everyone who has commented, isn't quite what I had planned.

I have learned a whole crap ton doing these revisions and will definitely be applying this knowledge to the next version. #1 goal: contrast!

[Facet]

I've exhausted my talents, as I am a programmer and only rarely have dabbled in pixel art, so any comments or criticisms would be of great use.

You seem to have a good eye for it anyway!

I've missed the boat again, but I already made some notes so I’ll post ‘em, may be relevant to the new plan:

Really liked the dark clock & beams, I know they could be a little strong for the background but finding a way to make them work could be worth it; just more highly coloured characters might do it, but the idea of a toy-like feel brought to mind a sorta diorama effect that I think some 2D Kirby game did before, (can’t remember off-hand, more recently in Little Big Planet anyway).

Just casting close shadows of the foreground stuff (on multiply bending or similar) could push them off the background and emphasise that miniature feel, the strings and stuff are pretty cute too.



I think I might have seen some toy trees made on a lathe like a stack of cones, the current does bring to mind a slightly mechanical drill or bottle-brush feel.

I made this diagram for various side-scroller contrast strategies and stuff a little while back:

[r1k]

As facets diagram mentions, you can also make the foreground pop by making it brighter.  Might have overdone it here, changes the feel of the peice a little

[melbow]

I love those shadows Facet. It does the job of outlining without outlining. I worry though that as the scene gets more complex, and the background gains elements and depth (read: multi-layer background) then background elements would need to cast shadows like that too to be consistent and the whole thing falls apart.

And thank you for your compliment. I think I'm alright at determining what is "good" because I've been around art/artists a lot, but making something good is a whole different story. It's all trial and error right now -- meaning it takes me forever.

I'll be sure to post what I come up with next on this forum, because you guys are awesome and incredibly helpful.