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[Pixelulsar]

While looking through the forums I noticed that some of you guys are really great art critics.
Here are some screen-shots from a new project, and please tell me what you think and how I can improve it.

First is just a hilly grassland.

Next one has water too.

How about the caves?

[ink.inc]

that shade of green is painful to the eyes; try something more muted

the white character is a bit difficult to read from the light blue background

[Thardus]

Get some variety in your brightness/saturation. This art style can work just fine but right now the colors are eye-searing.

[Pixelulsar]

that shade of green is painful to the eyes; try something more muted

the white character is a bit difficult to read from the light blue background

This muted enough or should I do more?
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[ink.inc]

noooope

darker, and maybe desaturate

EDIT: there's a thread by JWK5 about color pallets; go find that, and stea- I MEAN LEARN - everything from it

[Pixelulsar]

noooope

darker, and maybe desaturate

EDIT: there's a thread by JWK5 about color pallets; go find that, and stea- I MEAN LEARN - everything from it

Even darker now, but do you think it is enough?  Also made the texture more noticeable, does that look nice or should I change it back? I also darkened the sky to give more contrast with the player.

What do you think about the cave?

[NostalgicAlgorithms]

I like the cave. I think your game could would benefit from dynamic lighting but only around the main character.

[Pixelulsar]

I like the cave. I think your game could would benefit from dynamic lighting but only around the main character.

Good idea, I might try that, but I'm always scared of dynamic lighting because I might butcher it and make it so you can't see anything, and there is nothing worse than playing blind.

[Miko Galvez]

Is this really pixel art? Because I think there are too many shades for the colors. I don't want to zoom in any further just to confirm this it should be visible from the very beginning.

[Elk]

Is this really pixel art? Because I think there are too many shades for the colors. I don't want to zoom in any further just to confirm this it should be visible from the very beginning.

I really feel you!

The approach of creating pixelesque textures in a different way than the original shows that he is clearly not aware of what he is doing!

Overall, in that current state, to give it a more pixel-like feel, you'd be better off with using plain colors and not gratients that are barely visible to the eye, because the current shades give it a feel of an artifactized screenshot of a game! For really really basic tileable rock repitatives I suggest look at early Gameboy games or GBC! As for the character, use plain white, to make it more visible and seperate it from background and evironment, as it is without a doubt the main focus of the entire game (if it's meant to be one)

As for the cave, the overwhelming gradients don't really work in favor of ambience! Aswell as the brutally different geometrical contraticting shapes (good contrast, but used wrong!)

-For a beginner it is not that bad and could technically work out, but from a visionally point of view, it could need some more things to go together bound by certain rules to make it not as messy-

tl;dr:

Don't make yourself life harder than it is, if you want to place nuances/accents, do it differently but not with such misused gradients!

[NostalgicAlgorithms]

I somewhat disagree. The game looks like something that could have appeared on the Commodore64. The art does need work but it does have a style too it.

[Graham-]

I really love the contrast between the above-ground and below-ground shots. The brightness of the above-ground really sets a tension that the underground, which is beautiful by-the-way, resolves. But the underground is better, and here's why.

1. Way more shade variety. I don't feel compelled to live inside a specific brightness range.
2. Way more shape variety. The rocks in the background are awesome.
3. Way more texture variety. The above-ground stuff all looks like a mini-block texture slightly twisted around. It's like 3 5-year-old triplets, with similar bright personalities, got up one day and wore different monochromatic outfits, and picked a single new word each to use at the end of a sentence. In a group of children they still stand out like a neon sign. Living in a world comprised just of them is assaulting.
4. All objects in the above-ground are given the same visual importance. I'm no more drawn to the main character than any other piece. He looks really smooth underground though. I can taste him.

[kamac]

What would you say about that twist?

[Pixelulsar]

Looks nice, I like it.

[Angrymatter]

Weird. I can certainly see it in the last picture. Are you applying some kind of over rendering thing on the entire image? It looks kinda pixely and kinda fabricky. Interesting method. The cave in particular looks verry interesting because of this.