WIP (Work In Progress): Looking for feedback for my pixel art game

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Looking for feedback for my pixel art game

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=26769
Printed Date: 11 September 2025 at 9:21am

Topic: Looking for feedback for my pixel art game

Posted By: chrilley
Subject: Looking for feedback for my pixel art game
Date Posted: 06 November 2019 at 4:40am

Hi!

I've been making my little action metroidvania for a few years now, yet I've barely gotten much feedback on the art. I'd love to hear what you think and any advice you have to offer a confused pixel art amateur!

1) A big one that has been nagging my mind is the main character. I like him, he's simple and sticks out in the world that he inhabits but it feels like something is missing from the design. An element that I should add without making the sprite feel cluttered or messy. However I cannot think of what or how to shove in there.

Apologies for somewhat awkward capture, it's directly from the game engine.

2) I've been re-working tilesets in my game and I am dying for some feedback! Below is a comparison shot of two rooms:
The left column is old art and right column is the revised version. The second row is another room with the same tileset but with a post-process tint effect.

3) This leads me to another issue I've never really bothered with before since all void was the same pitch black color. Below I have two different tilesets meeting up without any transition whatsoever. How would you connect them without it becoming too jarring? It's mainly the "void color" that eludes me. I don't want brown void for the forest but not pitch black for the house tileset either... What's the best approach here?

4) Or any kind of feedback in general really. Any good advice helps me grow.

Replies:

Posted By: Greycloak
Date Posted: 11 November 2019 at 10:22am

There's a lot here to take in, so I'm going to focus on the character for now.

What constitutes a good choice in character design is fairly subjective, so take all of this with a grain of salt and choose whatever resonates with you.

I would primarily add a little more detail to the cloak. This would include adding a (faint) highlight, and shading it similarly to the way you shaded the curtains in the house tileset.
I also feel like the cloak should drape over the shoulders in the idle animation (as if you look up images of cloaks, you'll see that's how they are normally worn).
Finally, I would polish the cloak animation a bit. Right now the cloak moves a little, but I would make the movement of the cloak more substantial so you can see the represented "cloth physics" at work. This would likely include adding additional frames to the end of each animation (you may want to look up "follow through" in animation principles) to show the cloak falling back to the ground after a sudden movement in the air. With all of those changes, I think the animations would be a little more weighty and satisfying.

Some smaller suggested changes might be to alter the palette a bit. Maybe change the tunic's color to a less saturated red, and change the color of the boots to something that doesn't clash with the red as much. A dark border between the tunic and the boots might also help define the character a bit more.

Posted By: chrilley
Date Posted: 11 November 2019 at 1:32pm

Yes you are right, sorry for bombarding you all with so many things at once, I probably scared everyone away. Any feedback is welcome really, I am not picky :)

Thank you for your suggestions! Here's my first pass on re-design based on them plus some brainstorming on my own:

- Adjusted cloak, over shoulder plus making it less rigid. Changing the overall silhouette in the process.
- Adjusted palette; Less saturation on red, different color on boots and also tinted cape a bit towards red.
- Added a bit of highlight/shading on cloak
- Emphasized separation of boots and tunic a bit more.
- Added details; belt cloak pattern, amulet.
- Attempted to improve the outline.

I like your suggestions on the cloak's movement as well. I will try it out once I get to the point where the re-design is done and I can start animating this new main character.

Posted By: Zubb
Date Posted: 16 November 2019 at 8:30pm

I think the 2nd one from the right looks the best. The white trim makes for a great accent and helps the character stand out. The red looks a lot cleaner now, too.

Posted By: IcePhysics
Date Posted: 19 November 2019 at 4:38pm

Do you think some dithering could help with the transition from the lighter shade of the void in the house to the one in the forest? Maybe at the start of the door frame it's mostly the lighter color and gradually has more of the black. Or just in the area where the door frame and snow is intersecting.

Posted By: chrilley
Date Posted: 19 November 2019 at 10:13pm

Thanks for dropping by, guys! :)

Originally posted by Zubb

I think the 2nd one from the right looks the best. The white trim makes for a great accent and helps the character stand out. The red looks a lot cleaner now, too.

I like that one too. The one all the way to the right feels a bit too much, while the others seem a bit too plain.

Originally posted by IcePhysics

Do you think some dithering could help with the transition from the lighter shade of the void in the house to the one in the forest? Maybe at the start of the door frame it's mostly the lighter color and gradually has more of the black. Or just in the area where the door frame and snow is intersecting.

A dithering pattern does make sense but I am just not sure from an "asset standpoint".

This would mean I'd have to make a small tileset solely to blend these two "voids". It's not very hard to do but for every tileset theme with transitions like this I would have to do this for every possible combination, which ends up wasting a lot of texture space. Even more so should the fade have to be wider than one tile width(32x32 pixels).

It feels like I am missing a simpler solution to this...

Posted By: plaza
Date Posted: 06 December 2019 at 6:30am

This is a beautiful game with more than amateur pixel art! I would blend the snow into the entrance/exit area a bit rather than have a hard stop.

Posted By: chrilley
Date Posted: 07 December 2019 at 7:07am

Thanks plaza - That's encouraging to hear! :)
There will be something between there for sure. Right now it is just two tilesets overlapping.

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