WIP (Work In Progress): [WIP] 2D RPG, trying to determine style

[WIP] 2D RPG, trying to determine style

Printed From: Pixel Joint
Category: Pixel Art
Forum Name: WIP (Work In Progress)
Forum Discription: Get crits and comments on your pixel WIPs and other art too!
URL: https://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=26330
Printed Date: 11 September 2025 at 2:18am

Topic: [WIP] 2D RPG, trying to determine style

Posted By: Pinny
Subject: [WIP] 2D RPG, trying to determine style
Date Posted: 19 July 2018 at 9:35am

Hello,

Below you'll find a general introduction, but I'll ask some more specific questions underneath that, so feel free to skip the bit in the quote.

Originally posted by General Introduction

We've started a new hobby project at the office. It's a 2D pixel RPG, from a top-down perspective, similar to Secret of Mana (for SNES). There will be monsters to kill with a bunch of weapons and magic, quests to complete and gear to collect.

As for the requirements we've set:
- Tiles will probably be 16x16,
- We're looking to use a well-defined color palette
- (Main) character is probably ~32px tall
- A lot of detail in assets, without becoming noisy as a whole
- And of course, that it's pixel art.

I'm currently testing & combining elements & styles from a couple of artists on this forum, as well as looking at work from @fervir, @slynyrd and whatever googles results give me.

The color palette I'm currently using is made by Kaiseto, pulled from this thread: http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10695 - http://pixeljoint.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10695
The goal is to eventually reduce the palette down to 64 colors, but I reckon I'm gonna need more greens and fewer reds, so changes will be made.

So to decide on a look I've started building an environment (not tile based yet). I've pulled inspiration and styles from a bunch of different places. I like each asset on its own, but I don't think the tree and bridge match the look of the rest of the assets. I barely use any outlines, except on those two things.

I personally prefer the no-outline look, but having a dark outline ensures that the asset is reusable. My question to you is: How can I get rid of the outline without losing re-usability, or how do I get the grass, paths or banks to match with the outline-y look that the other assets have?

Also, I imagine I'm going to run into a lot of trouble getting my grass to tile well, with the way I'm doing it now. So I'm definitely taking suggestions.

Any critique, tips, links to guides or example work will be appreciated.
If you'd like to do 'paint'-overs to show me something, that's fine too!