[WIP]platformer game thing

[Ürch]

Hi everyone, this is my first post here. I've just working on a little platformer thing in Game Maker that at the moment doesn't really have a name. I made a mockup image of a small section of one stage/level/area/whatever.




^same picture, with the tiles seperated by blue lines^
I would like some criticism from people who know what they're doing so that i can improve on these sprites if necessary. The character isn't really animated, and i don't intend to ever do so.

[Manupix]

Nice patterns, but there are strong readability issues.

Mirroring tiles destroys any hint at a light source you ever had, if any, so the patterns appear flat.
The only place with a little depth from light is the 2 rightmost dark tiles.
You will have to shade your tiles independently: choose a light source, decide whether the patterns stick out or recess, and stick to it.

I'd have some tiles with less detail too, and arrange them more randomly.

Having the same patterns on fore- and background is a good idea, but doesn't help readability, too. I'd reduce bg contrast.

Same thing with the sprite: he's got similar colors and values as the bg, so he blends into it. He's also 'pillowshaded', which makes him blend even more.
Again, think of a light source, and keep him contrasted, lots.

In this low-saturation setting, the green gun looks a bit weird.

[Ürch]

Agh, I wasn't even paying attention to the light source on the tiles, thank-you for pointing that out. I'm probably going to redo the tiles completely and make them more seperated, and I might change the gun to be a grey-ish colour.

However, I don't understand how to fix the pillowshading on the character's face, because i made sure that the light was closer to the right than the left. should i just use less colours?

[Manupix]

I'm inexperienced at spriting, but I'd suggest to remove the outline first. At this small size, you need every pixel and color for shading and volume.

i made sure that the light was closer to the right than the left.

Far from enough! Just by 1px in fact, it's almost un-noticeable.
Also, the hat (mostly) and glasses (maybe) should cast a shadow.

[Ürch]

i fixed the character sprites (did not add shadow to glasses), but i'm still working on the tiles.

(pink is the transparency color, of course.)

the medium sized ones are the in-game size of the sprite.

[Manupix]

Still starving for contrast.

The hats shadow is almost invisible, why not use the darkest brown there?
And you need one more highlight color on the face: nose, glasses.

[CrazyMLC]

Why have a blob when you can have... A FACE!

You don't always need a gradient for colors, dark shades can be next to bright shades. (See: nose.)

[Ürch]

Why have a blob when you can have... A FACE!

You don't always need a gradient for colors, dark shades can be next to bright shades. (See: nose.)

well, i will try to use what you did with the face, but i don't care for any of the other changes.