Need Your Opinions and Critique. Thread

So, a friend and I (who has no game making or development in general experience) are making a small PC game, featuring a Spartacus-based character... Anyways, I made a simple single sprite for the protagonist character in MS Paint, and I simply want to know what you the community think. Keep in mind that the game is small, maybe an hours' gameplay, and is trying to be made for all ages and styles.
I made this half-based off Paper Mario graphics, partially what a friend of ours looks like (sort of a straight, long face) and based off my skill in the graphic style, which isn't much.

Tell me whatcha think. Thanks.

Edited by: Açaí

Its left food looks like it is turned inward, towards the viewer.

Other than that it looks like a solid character.

Pseudo_Dave wrote: Its left food looks like it is turned inward, towards the viewer.

Other than that it looks like a solid character.

Thanks!
How's this for the foot?

It's not a big picture, but in comparison to the last one.
Also, I might have the animated sprite up and a few others here soon.

Not digging it, looks a bit too generic, could have a bit more detail.

macacos2 wrote: Not digging it, looks a bit too generic, could have a bit more detail.

Hm... What do you mean by that?

You might not want to use the "Stroke" style, May I suggest using a darker and lighter colour instead of the thick black outline? mainly I say this because when zoomed out it doesn't look nice, the edges are rather crude.

example:
Gas13.ru

That site is invaluable for anyone looking to be a pixel artist.
I'd also recommend increasing the size of your sprites because then you'll be able to do more detail, you can always scale them down if necessary. Its more favorable to do this now days because we're using HD displays, so ideally you want to be doing larger sprites to cater for larger screens- and scale them down when operating on your usual screens.

I hope this helps you. Best of luck.

Mr_Cyberpunk wrote: You might not want to use the "Stroke" style, May I suggest using a darker and lighter colour instead of the thick black outline? mainly I say this because when zoomed out it doesn't look nice, the edges are rather crude.

example:
Gas13.ru

That site is invaluable for anyone looking to be a pixel artist.
I'd also recommend increasing the size of your sprites because then you'll be able to do more detail, you can always scale them down if necessary. Its more favorable to do this now days because we're using HD displays, so ideally you want to be doing larger sprites to cater for larger screens- and scale them down when operating on your usual screens.

I hope this helps you. Best of luck.

That definitely does help
I'll rework the sprite some and see what can be done. Thank you!

looks good

I find that there's a lot of empty space. There are areas where detail with gradient can be added. For instance, in the helmet perhaps more gradient that spreads outward, or back behind the character. I personally am also not a fan of block hands. I like the idea though.

It's alright, but I agree with Mr_Cyberpunk, because the thick black does look a little too harsh. Also, a little nagging of mine is that the right of the helmet looks a little strange, but maybe that's just me.

I really like it, it's a solid character, easy to recognize.