Obligatory RPG Mockup :: Pixel Art Detail

Wow. I wish I could do that... someday, maybe. XD

Well, I noticed that the trees don't have shadows (the wood, not the leaves), it's kinda strange. Also, you could make a better tile transition between the grass and the sides of that tiny brown tile (i don't know the name of that in english... o_o').

Congratulations! \o

i like this style, good job !!!

I love the pastel colors. The whole styling kind of reminds me of Yoshi's Island. It'd be a bit nicer if there was another type of big tree so it doesn't repeat so much, though.

looks like out of gba or sega genesis, i love it.

The clothesline should hang down at least a touch, for extra realism.

I like your mockup, but i think that the rocks are too "noisy".
I really like the grass tile, and the color choice!

Okay, my crits haven't been said before. 

I'd also like to mention that the water, staying the same depth and clarity where it meets the jutting-out land as it is elsewhere, just doesn't work well.  It's not a "spot the tile" problem, but a "doesn't seem real" kind of problem.  That said, you mentioned that diagonal grass-water tiles would be coming, so I'm sure the problem would have been fixed anyway.

The whole "priority" issue makes sense, too.  I suppose you could say that this makes for a better piece of pixel art than a level for a game.  Though... I dunno.  I would probably enjoy playing a game with these tiles in it.

Too bad the game's being set aside for a while.

I love the colors, the trees, the grass, dirt and water, and all the little objects (except the bush).

I definitely love this mock-up!

====HUGE CRIT ALERT====
Sorry if things here have already been said before... I kind of got on a roll....
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The first negative thing I noticed was the dark patch of earth in the middle-left.  It's the perfectly straight seams on either end of it.  After noting that and spending many minutes further admiring the picture, I noticed that the house's roof looks terrible.

The roof's coloring doesn't match the high-contrast, with dark-outlines, scheme of the house itself.  There's one area on our right where the roof tiles don't line up correctly.  And, while I can't be too confident in saying this, the tiles look better suited for ground than for a roof.  They just don't feel like shingles to me.

All that, however isn't quite the main problem - the roof just feels flat!  It really doesn't feel like it fits on the house!  Maybe it's because the house is flat.  Maybe because the house is a box-shape.  Maybe it's because the roof is made up of perfectly straight lines.  Maybe it's related to the way it connects to the front of the house.  Maybe it's because it's fairly rare (to my knowledge) for houses with tiled roofs to have flat sections on top.  I just can't put my finger on any one thing.

The more I look at the house, the more I hate it.  Love the pie, the door, the sign, and the chimney on it, though.

Haha, in the time I spent staring at this trying to figure out why I dislike the house, I've found some instances where I can "spot the grid".  The cliffs look great, and the 1 and 4 pixel speckle effect (as Scruffs has called it) works well for the most part, in my opinion.  I like it just fine in the trees.  However, their part of the problem in this case.  If you look at the absolute top left and see the cliff there, that line that starts the whole image is the one in question.

The problems are with some symmetry, some unbroken vertical lines, and a vertical area that's mostly "deep" as indicated by the dark colors.  I made an image to point out exactly why and where.  White for the main problem, blue for another area of tile, and red for a third area.
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/9886/clifftilecrit01dv7.png

And while I was looking at that, I happened to notice this.  I couldn't un-see it, and now I see it everywhere, so now I gotta pass it on to you :P
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2311/clifftilecrit02yi4.png

Oh, last thing, I don't like the shadow under the bush.  If the bottom is shadow, it needs to be rounded at the bottom and underneath the upper parts.  If the bush is like a hedge and straight up, then it needs to not be shaded at the bottom and be light instead.

As I said; I love this mockup!  I wouldn't want to have spent this much time looking at it if it wasn't great.

the only thing id like to say is i don't understand the 1 and 4 pixel speckle effect you have in the trees and cliffs.  It doesn't work imo.  Good job man, i admire your ability to self critique.

Well, you fix it! i think now looks much better :D
Nice work again

heh, you gleaned so much more from my 'critique' than I could have hoped for :D

should have mentioned the first time too that I actually love this piece.  I'm quick to make comments and sometimes forget to say what i appreciate >.<

I like the style of the grass, and cliffs, but then again the  trees blend in too much with the grass, either make grass darker, or trees. Anyways it has a clean look to it, small tweaks could make this look a lot better. I probably couldn't do any better but I like to critique things.

The washing line seems to end in midair when I look at it.

Very promising, but also very unfinished.

Remove 'sprinkles' from the cliffs and treetops. Change cliff palette a bit from yellow to brown, or just darken a lot. Add shadows under the trees wells etc, and some shape shading to the treetops. The hole of the chimney on the slanted roof makes no sense, it has to be slanted too.
Excuse me if I am repeating things, but I can't be really bothered to read ALL the comments. :P

Just make the cliffs darker and the greenery more lush, put more shadows in and it's perfect.

You make an extraordinarily valid point.

With you saying that- I see about a million different things can be changed/fixed.

I noticed that the haystack was one the better aspects of the piece and I didn't really think about why. Upon you saying what you said, I can now see that the reason it stands out as being good is because the texturing is far more simplistc than other aspects of the scene.

There're a ton of other things that suffer or benefit from the same reasonings and it is slightly disappointing, however, I feel that that tidbit of insight is precisely what I need to take my work to the next level.

Whether or not we have the funds or time to address those issues in this project, I'm not really sure but, I most definitely will take that bit of advice to heart.

Other things I've noticed from that simple statement:

• The cliffs are too vibrant- given their role and abundance in the picture
• The trees do not stand out as they should even though they're quite exuberant
• The transition from light grass to dark grass is too harsh
• The grass is excessively detailed (to the point of distraction)
• The water with it's subtle contrast within the texture of itself and its stark contrast with the rest of the tiles works well (same reasonings why the haystack works)

I suppose that's the majority the issues I see. I'm usually able to see objectively in my work but something about this kept me from thinking that way. That's enough rambling though. :p

priority alert! or more like, there's no priority!  that's the only thing that keeps this from being a masterpiece.  try separating out more defined macro-forms, better choices about detailing, etc.  texture is only appreciated when it is complemented by smooth, business by calm, brightness by shade, etc.

Is it a really nice work! i love it!!
But i think you can fix something... It's about the "rocks wall" in the top, the floor on top of the rocks, it looks so strange, i think if you do the lawn like the tiles in downstairs about the water, it's gonna look much better (in my opinion
)
Anyway, you do great work

It reminds me of Harvest Moon

The cliffs are a tiny bit hard to read, but sexy otherwise.

Yeah it's the cliff tops and the water that are most incomplete. The water lacks any diagonal or edge pieces (ie; it's just designed to be a rectangle atm) and the cliff tops need to have grass on them instead of the black line it has now.

The trees do blend in a bit much and hopefully one day I can address that. Unfortunately I've been moved to a different project currently and any work on this one will have to wait until we've got a handle on the other one.

Great colors.

The trees are a bit rough really, make them more distinct. You've got some colors, why not detail some more of the planks on the house?

Where the rock meets water's edge, it's too straight. On the very right. It should be more bumpy.

Good job overall.

That looks pretty nice. But the pipe coming out of the house seems to have odd lighting when compared to the rest of the house. (Nevermind Cure already explained it, I read his post after typing mine.)

But this looks awesome.

I think the trees' foliage could do to stand apart from the grass a little more.  Something about the sudden end of the cliff's edge irks me, perhaps the lack of shadow underneath?  The edge that borders the river is fine though.  Mayhaps this is the incompleteness that you speak of?  Finally, the chimney looks a little out of place, so detailed and purdy, compared to the simplicity of the house.  All in all though, of course, this is great work, it's always great to see new stuff from you.

Wwwwow! Really nice, I like the faded colors. My only suggestion is that maybe you should make the clothes a bit less flat.

Edit: Hmm, I just realized that the point where the ledge turns from going down to going right seems cut off, as if you put a water tile there instead of a "land" tile.

Wow, this is just pure love.  Fav?