City Of Darkness WIPs

[HTD]

This is for a new game I am working on called "City of Darkness".
Not being fresh to spriting I have already ran through some troubles on how to get the right flow for animation.
Im sure there are plenty of other things you could all help me with so please no holding back with your comments.

The sprite style is similar to the early Metal Gear games on the MSX, I've tried to edit the soldier to look less like snake.
Still I worry that if this still isnt enough I might have to try a different style.






Please feel free to respond

HTD

Updates:



Updates:





Is this what you meant by spreading his stance Ryona:

[Ryona]

First I'd like to say that the sprites look good. You certainly have a good handle on spriting little guys.

That said, I can't really tell if the guy in the first one is ripping apart his head. I'd say make him pull the halves further apart.
Also, his ligs a fixed in a rather feminine way with the thighs together like that and his feet apart. I'd suggest to spread apart the thighs too.

Another thing I've noticed is that the forward leg of the naked dude looks kinda fat. Especially the calves.

Also, I think some of the lines for your sprites could be darker to stand out more. Like the lines of the military dude's uniform for example.

[HTD]

Really appreciate the advice.
I am revamping the face splitter and going to focus on the lines as you said for the marine.
I the naked zombie will get that touch up also.
This was an update I did before your reply. (See above).
Its a portrait of a Marine.

[Ryona]

The portrait could use depth. Looks too flat. Also the lines for the face are not bold enough. I'd say to use more tones in the portrait.

[HTD]

Hope my updates(above) have been better than the previous attempt.
Id definately appreciate an update on them.
Thanks

[Ryona]

Yeah, the edits looks much better.

Bring up the calf on the naked guy's left leg (our right) up a bit like you did with his right leg.

Make the lines of the face in the portrait a bit bolder still. And the portrait could use more depth, unless you're going for a 2D look, which is fine.

[Ben2theEdge]

I noticed that you've giving your characters an outline that's a slightly darker shade than the made color. At this scale, wasting an entire pixel's width on an outline is really shooting yourself in the foot. You'd be better off using shadows and highlights, not outlines, to define your forms on such a tiny sprite.

[HTD]

Thats something i will try, It will probably help me get my head around lighting more as well as teaching me to save those pixel for vital things.
I'll update after I have finished my newest piece.
By the way Im changing the topic title to City of Darkness WIP

[smiker]

these sprites are similar to metal gear ones from msx, you know? i'd say that shading fails, but they are cute anyways...


did you used these as a reference? keep up the good work.

[ilkke]

May I suggest some simple top-down shading?
Quickie:

Just put some highlights on the shoulders etc, and darken the legs a bit.
I see that you have some degree of shading, but your color buffers are too samey.