Maybe something more like this?



It's supposed to be floor, I think, or at least some kind of hovering platform.

I find it a bit hard to believe that head is dangling off of that small cord, but it's not like I have to believe it. 

Maybe it would look neat if the head was hanging on the tentacle or something. Could end up giving a really cryptic monstrous feeling to your piece. 

One of my all time favorite shmups is STEEL EMPIRE for the megadrive.
Not extraordinarily original, but does have an hit gauge for your ship and permanent levelling for the weapons

I was intrigued by this, so I went ahead and picked up a copy(port) for the GBA.
Like most game ports(and shmups on older systems) there was occasional slowdown, but it usually helped.

I really liked the hit gauges in this game. It was simple, you know when you'll be hit. And it's entirely possible to play without being hit. Although the rush scene at stage 2 almost forced you to be hit by the cave walls, it was entirely possible to get through with skill. And even though the game can be punishing, it was just as forgiving. Health packs were nicely laid out along the levels, and provided nicely in the tougher spots. Which I thought was a nice idea.
The leveling up was neat, but I found it hard to actually get past level 2. And there was no way to gain levels faster, it was just sort of how the game wanted you to.

That was indeed a fun game, and I enjoyed it's take on various shmup mechanics. I also thought it was cool how you could shoot both in front of you and behind you with the same firepower. I've seldom seen that in a shmup. The steampunk style was also nice, compared to the typical aliens/space/abstract styles.

Eh, figured I'd post it here.

 

I worship you. 

I recommend trying both suggestions by Eclipse. Just to see how they look.

Also Eclipse, I think it's just the tile. Looking at the player, the smaller left-column of pixels on the tile seems to match the pixel size of the player. I'm guessing the tile is just blocky.
It's possible that the sprites are being drawn at a different aspect ratio, and something could actually be wrong. But I don't think this is the case.

the money is still in high quality games and that's where we want to go.

I highly disrecommend making games if you plan on making them just for money. If you're not, more power to you. But it takes serious passion to make a brilliant and memorable game.

Just saying.

I outlined the rest of his face and got rid of that shine thing in his hair, I think he looks better. Thnx guize. *gets back to work*

Personally, I thought the shine gave him character.

Yeah I'm finding the red and black hard to tell apart in this, with the bright white outline and against the forum backdrop. If most of the screen was red/black I think it would fare better.

En contraire, I think(since it's for a game) the white outlines will help things be very easy to distinguish. If you want to take a look at the detail, you can go ahead and do so. In other words, I think the white outline(to an extent) actually helps the design.

Looking some more...

It looks like it is indeed his color choice. His colors remind me a lot of the 8-BIT NES colors, but with less saturation and a bit more value.
That alone with his line style, which looks to be generally "jagged yet smooth".

I can't recall many other artists' who use any kind of similar combination in their pieces.

What is it about your style that always jumps out at me as being so significan, Caliber9? ... I think it has something to do with the way you colour, though.

Maybe that he doesn't use highlights, just shadows?

[a]

I can't think of a name for it.

Its name is Hagar. He is married to Helga and has three kids called Igor, Olga and Hugo.

Well, I like it. And so maybe name them all "Brady's Swede Bunch". Sublime examples of the ways of professional naming.

Saw this over at Blender art, looks awesome.

It has that sexy PSX/Saturn/N64 feel 

I like pixel art! I think its low fidelity is part of its charm! The fact that it is totally accessible to anybody is also a good thing.

But the idea that pixel artists take greater care with the detailing of their work does not hold true for the work of any of the non-pixel artists that I know. That's all.

I consider myself a general artist, as I pursue arts of all(most/many) mediums.

Pixel art is one of them, and I share an equal passion for it that I do with other visual art. Although yet I do in fact find I put much more care into my pixel art than others. One reason maybe being that you can undo any mistake in pixel art, and perfection is possibility, and of no simple excuse not to pursue.

[EDIT]
Oops, I partly misread your post. But I'll leave my statement as-is nonetheless.

It's a little too big - to replicate that exactly, within 24 hours, you'd need to plot around three pixels per second. But do you reckon I couldn't find a painting, drawing, etching or sculpture more detailed than that?

Consider this: the finest pixel art in the world could be copied, with complete accuracy, by a novice on their very first day. Now compare that to a painting, or a marble statue. Or even a simple piece of calligraphy.

What??? 

You just disproved your own claim, and contradicted yourself.

It can still be a pain to install applications on Ubuntu if you don't know how. But due to how popular Ubuntu has became, several 'idiot friendly'(anyone can understand) tutorials have been popping up this past year or so.

Just be sure to ask yourself:
"Can I function as well without Windows as I could with it?"

Dual-boot isn't that horrible. Rebooting takes me about a minute or so from the time I click shutdown to the time Ubuntu is fully loaded up. But then again, this IS just me.
I recommend at least keeping Windows around, if you have a large enough HD this shouldn't be an issue.

Noting personally, I love Linux(Ubuntu, specifically). I'd use it full-time if I had the proper knowledge to interface with the command line and such. Currently I'm on dual-boot with it between Vista, and my 'work laptop' is a Mac with Snow Leopard.
The GUI flexibility(as stated) and security improvements compared to Windows is wonderful.

Hmm, good point. I didn't notice it, but something definitely was bugging me about the head, and I think you nailed it. I'm gonna rotate his head a bit like you say, I think that'll make it better.

Thanks

EDIT: Well, that fixed about half of the things that were wrong with it.

You should probably rotate the jacket more, to match his facing direction.

Yeah, I think just a low-pass filter should do it.

any links for how to do this in openAL?

I prefer to keep dependencies to a minimum

I don't think its possible in a cross platform way in OpenAL. OpenAL is a really shitty audio API...

What would you recommend instead of OpenAL? All I know of myself is FMOD, but that comes with a pretty nasty license if you want to make any profit from your product.

"Noooooooooooo!" - Iji

I find it a bit strange how his pelvis/torso has so much downward movement in the idle stance.

*thinks about it*
It almost reminds me of the FPS trend of teabagging someone via crouching. 

I have half an idea to use an engine for a game I'm making and retool it to be a sort of shmup. The game scrolls upward like any other shmup but you may freely fly around the screen asteroids-style. This means it is much harder to dodge things than in a traditional shmup, where your movements are immediate. However, it allows you to attack things from any angle. Wonder if it would end up being a good idea or a failed experiment.

There's only one way to find out. 

Weapon management in a style similar to Time Crisis might be interesting. You always have the default weapon, but some enemies drop more powerful or specialized ones, which you can use for a limited amount of shots. Of course, these weapons make it easier to get through the waves of enemies unharmed (just like any shmup upgrades), but it might be safer to keep them unused until a boss. That is, if you can survive that long without them.

Actually, making a comparison to Time Crisis got me thinking about something: what if enemies didn't just fly past you, but stayed until killed? This could happen in two ways: the scenery could stop scrolling when you reach a group, creating an odd, almost arena shmup (or a beat-em-shmup?). Or the scenery could keep scrolling, and if you don't defeat the enemies fast enough, more appear anyways. Skillful use of limited but more powerful weapons could become extremely important in a game like that.

Einhander for the PSX had a similar weapon management system. Might want to look into it.