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[ArzNova]

I'm making a game and figuring out how to paint a tileset. (PyxelEdit is amazing for that.) I've created a good template to get all of my angles and connecting pieces, but there are still some someone sharp edges, and I don't want that. I've found that I can make smoother edges by having rough textures, but I can only really do this for terrain that the player doesn't step on (aka, ceilings and walls). Here's a screenshot:



See how the ceiling is smooth and organic, but the ground has sharp edges? My solution I'm going to try is to create props that flesh out the terrain - like patches of dirt, grass and stones - and place those in front of and behind the main terrain layer. These props will cover up the sharp edges of terrain and make it feel more natural.

But my question is, what solutions have you guys found to get around this problem? And what examples are out there of pixel art tilesets that are more organically shaped?

[Fifth]

If you can manage to code it, having more grades of slope can go a long way to smooth out hills and give straight-ish grounds some irregularity.  In addition to your 1-to-1 (one tile over per one tile up, or 45 degree) slope, a 1-to-2 and 1-to-4 slope could be good additions.  And you can even intermix the tiles from the 1-to-2 and 1-to-4 to get even more irregular stuff.

I don't have any good examples, so you'll have to settle for this:



And with tile type overlay: