I'm trying to do something new in pixel art. I feel like isometric pixel art is too restrictive and difficult sometimes - especially with animations - but it recently occurred to me that not using strong outlines is possibly a good way of keeping the isometric perspective, but making it less work and possibly more photorealistic at the same time.

I don't know if you agree with that.

But anyway, some feedback on these pixel vikings would be welcome.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I'd prefer feedback that deals with what I have now, rather than what you want to see. Maybe someone wants to see a viking ship, or mounted vikings, or vikings in the crusades, or berserker vikings or Úlfhéðnar covered in wolf skins... eventually, I may do all these things. Or not. But I'm hoping to get some feedback on what I have right now. I have no shortage of ideas, it's not like I never even realised vikings had swords


Thanks. Any place in particular that needs more shadow? I already added some to the rim, but I stopped adding shadow because I didn't want the rim to look too thick or the shield to look curved, when it's supposed to be flat.


Again, I may do a background eventually or I may not. I'm just trying to improve on the design of these isometric viking sprites first

Well, that depends on what you mean by early stage. I'm not going to add any more detail to this, I want to keep it very "clean", with large, flat clusters, kind of like the original Prince of Persia games. This will make it easier to animate.

I'm also hoping to create an interesting mix between Prince of Persia-style graphics and this style (http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/84376.htm), whatever you would call it. Carnivac called it an 'abstract style', but I'm not sure that's a good description.

It's an early stage in the sense that it can probably be improved a lot, without adding more detail.

Edited by CELS - 04 March 2014 at 8:33am

This looks really neat! My only crit right now is that the right leg looks off, kind of like a chicken drumstick. It just looks like its on an awkward angle due to the shape.
Excited to see where this goes!

Thanks for your feedback, guys.

I think this is one of those times where I realize my goal was too ambitious compared to my current skill level. I need to go back and learn more about anatomy and just learning how to draw people before getting back to this project. When you're trying to pixel something you wouldn't be able to draw or paint, then it usually doesn't turn out very well, in my experience.

So I guess I'll come back to this when I'm better at drawing people in different poses, etc.

That being said, I did try to incorporate some of your advice.

@Zeratanus: Thanks, I made the leg longer.
@Vrine: Thanks, I tried to adjust the shape of the leg.
@SuperTurnip: Thanks, I tried to make a new, more simplistic shield. For the archer, I wanted to draw an idle pose, not really drawing the bow. Though perhaps it's still awkward.
In regards to be background, I think Runnko was talking about isometric squares, not about colours. But this will ultimately be a problem for this kind of sprite, which has no outline. It's the reason why so many sprites have outlines. If the background is more yellow, then it clashes with the beard. More blue, it clashes with the tunic. More brown, it clashes with the spear and pants. Brighter, it messes with the highlights. Darker, it messes with the dark shadows. And even if I found a background colour that worked well, I still want to put this sprite over a variety of different backgrounds. Green fields of grass, rocky hills and stone buildings, blue rivers or sandy beaches. Will they always have good readability against those backgrounds, even without any kind of outline? Probably not. I can't actually think of any isometric games with this style of graphics, and perhaps for good reason. But I am going for realism. And in real life, people in green clothes don't really have good readability when they're standing in a green landscape. Of course, game designers need to find a balance where players aren't squinting at the screen all the time, trying to find their units. But still.

Edited by CELS - 05 March 2014 at 9:19am