I (one of the frogatto guys) was really happy when Hapiel messaged me that these folks were starting this back up; this could really be a gold-mine for the indie game scene.  There are a scant few sets of really great "free-license" art out there (Dan Cook "danc" deserves a nod) but most of these are abandoned assets from dead project.

I'm sorry, I really have to call BS on onek's suggestion:  " but i also think that the composition is a bit problematic... as delicious said, the eye is heavily drawn towards the background... " 

That is the point.  

I'm saying this not from a "white-knighting" standpoint, not from a defense of "authorial intent", either, but because I really hate these sorts of rules people treat like law.  As far as I can tell, the meat of this rule states that the composition on a picture should always draw the eye towards the main character in the picture - that is, that emotionally speaking, the main character in the picture should always be "center stage", with the limelight on them.  I think that's fine for many pictures, but I think it's dangerous and wrong to say it must be that way for all pictures.  It enforces an emotional tone to a picture that - although it works fine for many characters, works poorly for many other characters.

It makes the character feel like the center of attention - that's totally appropriate for type-A, "look at me" triumphal types.  It's terrible for more passive, elusive, or shadowy type-B figures who actively don't want to be the center of attention.  It just gives off the wrong 'feeling' to the character.

In this piece, the eye is deliberately drawn away from the main character to give off a feeling that he is insignificant in the larger world around him.  Which totally makes sense, because that's central to the game this comes from - being a scrappy, puny human taking on giants.

 Some shading oddness on the trees, but the heart of this is all in the right place.  I know you'll keep working and with the obvious work ethic you've got going, you'll get real good.  Faved.

*  (the highlight on the tree trunks needs to be closer to the center, rather than touching the edge; it'd only touch the edge if the light was coming fully from behind it, and this is a yellow light rather than blue so it must be from in front)

 One of the best things in this piece is the treatment of "trees receding into black fill area" - it's a fairly obvious and attractive solution, but why haven't I seen anything use it before?

That firefly animation is wicked, btw.

@DawnBringer: To maintain his center of balance.  You have to throw your center-of-balance forward (i.e. "put your body into it") to give the punch serious power.  The danger is if you don't also slide your foot, you're borderline falling-forward.  Much of Judo et al is built around exploiting this - when someone is that far off balance, it takes very little effort to pull them off their feet.

@Faceless:  Stepping forward with either leg is equally valid, according to various martial arts.  They fight over it, but all participants in the discussion are obviously effective, and are venerable martial arts dating back to "Ye Olden Tymes", so I figure whichever ones vouch for it can't be completely incompetent.

 Jesus you've been eatin' your wheaties, man.  This is a bit intimidating...  :|  Particularly nice elements:

- the general idea/design behind the mostly faded-to-black background;  I've found in my own experience that designing a good layout for a BG that can tile vertically, but doesn't have an obvious "base level" to it is rather tough; it's not the drawing part, but the actual design - coming up with something you can depict which doesn't mandate an obvious connection to a ground plane, or whatnot.

- probably the best bit in this piece is the tiled texture being used for the in-fill on the rocks, there.  Good set of variants, nice rock rendering, doesn't feel repetitive.

- despite some complaints about the flames, I actually think they're brilliant from a stylization point of view.  Their distinctive look might deviate from the typical "physically correct" shape for the average flame, but they're still trivially recognizable as flames and look unique.

- great work also on the rope bridge's planks.

 Wonderful texture on the hair, there.

 Some brilliant use of lighting in a piece that looks restricted to something reasonably practical to use in the average platformer.

 GOOOO!  GET TO DA CHOPPAAA!!

This is really, really nice.  The general composition is good, the AA and dithering rock, and the colors are warm and pretty tastefully chosen.

If you're open to ideas for future pieces, here's a C&C thing you might look at in the future.  On the trees in this piece, all of the leaves are mostly parallel to the camera. One of the biggest things that improved my attempts at doing pixel-art leaves was drawing a substantial number of them facing at other angles - it's really hard to do leaves side-on in pixelart, but I think it helps a lot because in real life, leaves have a high variation in facing.  Hopefully that advice is helpful - it took me a long time to figure out.

scare

crow

 Jinn's colors are pretty nice.

Also: http://imgur.com/VMIV2

Unsolicited edit that changes almost nothing but maybe fixes all the complaints?  http://imgur.com/duIS2  Sincere apologies if this sort of thing isn't welcome, I just want other artists to always have the freedom to clearly convey their intent, and technical quibbles do a nasty job of getting in the way of that.

Edit:  added a gif for easy diffing: http://www.pasteall.org/pic/32626

 Not even sure if that's meant to be a WIP;  it seems like a work of art unto itself.

Brilliant work on those trees.

 I really think this style of pixel-art is hurt bad by the complete lack of anti-aliasing.  Too much, of course, would backfire, but a touch of really light, nuanced AA would make those 33/66° angles soooo much cleaner.

Study some of iLKke or ptoing's work.  They have a fair amount of work using big, flat-colored shapes, but their mastery of AA really puts them in the master league.

 Brilliant, especially the work on the cobblestones.

 I would actually contradict that - I find the foreground/background separation fairly fine, and the focus fine.

I find the overall scene too geometrically simplified.  It appears to be just a rectangular pool, with no scenery around it.  No interesting rocks, no... anything.  Just a single ledge + tree hanging there over the water.  The idea of the subject matter is great, but the complexity of it as-executed just doesn't seem developed enough.  A thought-experiment to "prove" this is the problem is to imagine this in any number of other styles.  It's just so brutally simple, that it's not very interesting no matter who could try drawing it.  Not the content, but the arrangement of it.

 I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE.

 Some je ne sais quoi doesn't quite feel like fool's work, in this, but I almost sorta prefer the difference.  Lots of genuinely innovative solutions to stuff, here.  (Plus, I won't lie, I'm gay for some good foliage any day of the week. :P )

Fav!

 @ Peelz:  it's a tactical strategy game.   It's also free without any strings attached (I should know; I spearheaded making it).  You can download it at www.wesnoth.org

 jeebus.  Some brilliant palette-work, there.

Yep, I thought it was yours - it was.  Keep 'em coming.

@Doppleganger:  I'm actually studying that explosion of Jad's (and this one, and several other really 'tight, clean' explosions) before my next round of attempts at making explosions;  honestly this explosion of 1UPs has pretty much nothing in common, except the unorthodox idea of using purple.  It truly doesn't look cribbed at all, and here's jad's for comparison:  http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/jadmadeyes/Splosion.gif

I do think it's probably "inspired" by that clever idea of using purple instead of brown in the color ramp, but that kind of cross-pollination is a very good thing.  Hopefully this comment isn't seen as confrontational, since I admire you and your work;  I just think it's important for people to feel comfortable borrowing the most general ideas, since it moves the field forward.

 I've been trying to expand my comfort zone, because so much of my older stuff (not on PJ) tended to be really dark and murky in color choices.