Bitten by the sidescroller bug...

[Dusty]

For some reason the little appendage on the rollypolly really looks like a penis.
Creeping me out, dawg.

Really? First thing I thought of was a bee stinger, given the robot's similarities to a bee.

[Lizzrd]

He was talking about the lil' rollin' one.

[Howard Day]

It's supposed to look like a rattler tail - it's even striped to exemplify this.

[Konrad]

It's supposed to look like a rattler tail - it's even striped to exemplify this.

That was directly my thought, so I guess it's at least readable for me .

[Conzeit]

lil' bug is way way too little for any of the details to be readable, this guy should be only general shapes. You're  pushing the limits of 3d stuff posing as pixelart too far.

I get a general sense of lack of scale in all of the sprite art, as if you did every element in the same amount of zoom and then resized it to it's corresponding scale. There wasnt a need for alpha in the first explosions because for example fades out in particles that are around a pixel's size while fades out in big blotches of unconvicing bubbles, you should break these bubbles into smaller and smaller bubbles until they become around pixel size, that's what I do by hand when I pixel effects fading out.

I have to admit that if you MUST go with alpha explosions, this is a lot better because it actually gathers some depth from the alpha...I think if you're gonna do alpha fadeouts you should skip this brush aproach and render some semistransparent smoke swirls, make them gather  as if encircling a sphere, wrap and twist as they fade out...I think you've probably seen what I mean in anime sometime.

I dont really like the wasp's explosion either...I'm not particularly fond of this wind-waker-ish curly explosions that you have now, I think you're fusing the first stages of the explosion all into one and it kinda takes away from the whole thing

[skeme_IN5]

i absolutely love all this stuff you are working on! i vote for smoke #3 btw.

[Howard Day]

Konrad: Thanks. #3 seems to be the crowd favorite!
Conceit: Wow, lots of critique there! So, As it turns out, I am determined to go the alpha route. I see what you're saying about the size of the particles and I agree - I'd definitely be going that way if I hadn't decided to do alpha. As for the alpha swirls - an excellent idea, and one I shall have to explore. As for the bumblebot blast, yeah, the explosion itself needs some work, I agree. As for the curly explosions, I kinda have to disagree with you - I love 'em and think they make the effect.

Okay, so I've been kinda preoccupied recently, I did get some work done on the main character, with any luck I should have something to show for that this weekend. In the meantime I did a quick run on a Hud element - the health bar. The little box is where your current item goes. The starting dull green bars are how much health you can have, the bright green bars are how much health you have.

Also came up with a name for the project:

And a first walk test for the main character...

It's very, very rough, I know. Still gonna be doing some major tweaking.
Thoughts?

[sculptedpixel]

full of awesome as usual.  I'd love to see details on your workflow from max (ie, what anti-aliasing settings, bg color, alpha matte / processing if any, sprite-software steps, etc.,) to these apng's - extremely impressive.  I've been using 3dsmax since, well, since it was 3ds on dos and this stuff just slays me with awesomesauce.  HUZZAH.

On the gorilla:  Perhaps more movement in the hips & back - it looks too solid / inflexible. 

[Stratto]

Wow, I never expected the main character to be a mecha-Gorilla.
Would you mind explaining the title and the character?
So far, it's coming out excellent. Keep up the good work.

[Jad]

Main character irks me, design-wise. Not because I don't like my occasional mecha gorilla (I love the shit out of it) but because it looks so slow ): and the original video that you posted for inspiration was so full of speed and rooftop runnings I thought that'd be part of the inspiration for this project.

I really think you should add some agility to his general design. What comes to mind is an ape's focus on agile arms and how they serve as limbs made for movement as much as for environment interaction. An agile ape with much focus on arms. Well I dunno, that's just what my brain told me to tell you, if you don't feel my words, please do go ahead with your original vision and impress me, I'm sure you will <3