okay.. I can see there's some grass and water and stuff. Not much to comment on really. I'm not used to seeing these and making judgements on em either

There isn't much detail. There some things you just need to fix.

1. Dirt doesn't just stop like that. It need to flow into the water.

2. The flowers are the, only, but of detail, and honestly, they don't look very good.

3. The rocks or clumps of dirt need more detail.

4. Also, the water barely looks like water, the main reason I know it's water is because it's blue.

Those are just some of the things you can fix.

Top down, is it? Don;t know how well that will work, I've never seen it done like that before.

As for your tiles, try add some motion (or hinting thereof) that makes it seem like water. try make the beach fade into the shallow, at least moreso than it does now. Rotate the tiles with only noise (such as your dirt) to break up the consistency.

All else I can say is check out this tutorial:

http://www.zoggles.co.uk/asp/tutorials.asp?tut=17&page=62 - http://www.zoggles.co.uk/asp/tutorials.asp?tut=17&page=6 2

Specifically, look at how he breaks down the grass. If it IS top down, it's a little harder to do what he shows, but if not, do it. It's a bit of work, but looks really nice.

(my attempt at the grass)

Also on that page, look at how the beach fades into the water, and the water pattern itself.

there, you got some C&C

It's not a matter of making them really detailed,  they just need to look good together. Here is a small mochup of a game I was working on.

Sometimes detail looks great, other times, simplicity is the way to go. He mainly just need to work on the tiles. If thats the style he wants, he just needs to improve on what he has.

Saboteur, those I used those tutorials awhile ago. They are amazing. The teach you so much about detail and style. I learned alot from those. (Note: Not eveident in these tyles,

No, I'd be willing to argue that detail is best, but only to the point where it does not distract from the gameplay of the game.

And there's no way in hell I expect anyone to ever come up with as good a tileset as in that tutorial.

And yeah, style owns.

Detail is a great thing, but for some games, detail sometimes wont be as great. That is a few, choice, games, but it's true none the less.

Hell, If memory serves me, the tiles in pokemon where not detailed at all, and look how huge that game is. Correct me if I'm wrong since I haven't played it in a while, but I'm pretty sure.

Anyways...ya...