more great comments :D it looks like the assignment is going to be handed out tomorrow, so I don't have a lot of time to add/tweak things
I love the larger 'adventurer' character and if I have some time ill try and add something like him. As for adding in more black, I totally agree but I wanted to leave open the option for using the tiles with a background that was something other than black. it might turn out to be kind of a mash, but we will see
I did add an option to use more desaturated versions of the tiles in, depending on the preference of the teacher/students, and I LOVED your column, but wasn't able to do it justice in 'one block' format. it occurs to me now that I could split it between tiles lengthwise :x
also, I added a frame of animation to the walk cycle for the correct hand movement. I had originally intended to make it so that frame could be doubled for both paths of the leg, but with the movement of the hand that actually didn't work as well :x
again, thanks for the great comments guys/girls here's the link to what will probably be the final version of this:
http://imgur.com/a/oi00F#dnBS2I also added in some fairly uninspired mock-up images