NPC Graphic Sets - critic please

Hello,
I am looking for impressions on these NPC Graphics I drew.

I'm thinking about making an NPC Set Package and release it under cc license. But before doing so I'd like to hear some opinions, so I can improve the package and and fix mistakes.
The "rules" I set up for making NPCs, is that color pallets shall be changeable without making the NPC look odd. For example, I always use the same slot in the color palett for the three hair colors.

What do you think of these guys here?

I like em' they're pretty cute and despite the minimal color use, the style seems somewhat distinct. My main gripe would be current the palettes, I'd rather see a bit more color to make each sprite more discinct.

It's honestly pretty hard to see them at their regular resolution size. What I do when I'm displaying OHRRPGCE graphics is I open the export .BMP in Irfanview (or whatever image editor you prefer) and resize without any smoothing/interpolation filters to 300% or 400%, then save as .PNG

It makes a big difference when you're showing your work, OHRRPGCE's resolution is absolutely tiny compared to modern monitor native resolutions.

I agree that the colors should be brighter. I've recently discovered how difficult color choice can be, especially in the world of pixel art, but the fact is, every pixel counts. If the sprite doesn't stand out to you, doesn't pop off the screen and catch your eye, then the player isn't going to be interested in it. If you're trying to make characters that do blend in and don't stand out for artistic reasons, that's your deal; I would go about it another way, but that's beside the point.

It looks like you're trying to be realistic with colors (ie. browns and dark colors) to simulate what things actually look like in real life, but the truth is, sometimes crazy colors will actually work just fine and your audience won't even notice how strange it is. For the main character in a game I've been working on with my team, I was trying to make him look like the main character of the game, like he is important. I struggled with it until I realized the biggest issue was his brown hair. It looked too boring, but hair is brown, so how do you just change that?? Well, I was playing around and made is hair bright blue, and I realized it actually looked good, and didn't distract from the art style of the game.

But essentially, if you're going to use colors to distinguish characters that otherwise look identical, make it worth while. Use colors that in reality seem strange because in a game, it will often give it life. Play around with it and see if you find anything cool, because your artwork is great. I don't see anything you could do to improve it, so I would recommend working on color choice instead.


EDIT: Also, it looks like a fantasy setting you've got going on, so realism shouldn't be too high on your list of priorities.

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My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife

I liked your style, it's kawaii

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"I can't buy food with glory"

Hello!
Thanks for al the feedback and nice comments.

I'm very happy the look „kawaii“, because that's what I intended them to look like.
But, they are really small, so this time I added a larger sized one as well.

These chars are "just" going to be average NPCs, so I wasn't to worried about making them look distinct or interesting. I tried realistic colors, thoug.
Of couse I'll have to focus on color use more, if I start to make or re-make the hero's sprites. ( And I'll very likely use your advice @kylecrack. )
I plan to make the tilemap rather bright, so the walkabouts should would need dark colors to stand out.

For the fox persons I tried to work less with realistic colors and use more contras, so they got a green robe to match the orange fur.

FoxPersons:

A larger picture
Two more, small sized pictures:




DeerPersons (lager pictures):


I'm not sure about their color palette thoug.

I dunno about them needing to be more colorful. I rather like the subdue palette. Then again, I tend to prefer less saturated colors with stuff, so that might just be me.

As for the sprites themselves, they're pretty good. There are, however, a few problems I see with banding, but other than that, fairly spiffy I would say.

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Being from the third world, I reserve the right to speak in the third person.

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