Food Fighters

[Natis]

Hey everyone!
I am making a 2D fighting game that features items of food as the characters.
I have given them a medieval theme and they will be different "classes"(Knight, Jester, Bard, King, etc.)
Here are 4 of the characters I have created so far:

I don't claim to be a professional, just as someone looking for constructive criticism so I can improve these so that they can be as good as they can be before moving on with the game.

[Garamonde]

I like the idea you have going here lol. But I'm not sure about that dithering on burger knight (?)'s hat. It's jaggy near the middle.

[Ton]

All of your colors need to be brightened, I think. That's a rather bland tomato.

[Key]

you should start by fixing up the line art, the hot dog especially looks pretty sloppy

[Natis]

I like the idea you have going here lol. But I'm not sure about that dithering on burger knight (?)'s hat. It's jaggy near the middle.

I see what you are saying.

Is this any better? I tried the one of them without the dithering. What do you think? It suppose to be a metal helmet, so I was just trying to figure out the proper shading to get that across.

All of your colors need to be brightened, I think. That's a rather bland tomato.

Does that mean brighten the contrast? On the bright side, at least you could tell it was a Tomato, huh? And from someone of your renown, that's good! (Even though I've only posted 3 times, I used to post back on Pixeltendo, and lurked every now and then. >_<)
Anywho, I'm not an expert on colors, but I tried brightening the shade on the tomato.

you should start by fixing up the line art, the hot dog especially looks pretty sloppy

Yikes! That's not good!

Is this better? Or at least a step forward? That probably mean I need to work on his left arm after taking a second glance...

[Garamonde]

The shading on the third one definitely looks better. You want to avoid dithering for the most part especially for sprites like these since it's mostly only used to add texture and/or create mid-tones in sprites, and because the helmet's made of metal, it would be shiny, rather than textured. Try adding some shininess to it (I would suggest looking up references on how metal helmets are shaded to get an idea), because as it is now it kinda just looks like a big helmet-shaped cooking pan.

As for the tomato I believe Tonberry may have been referring to the saturation, since tomatoes tend to be bright and vivid in color.

For the hotdog I can't really pinpoint what's wrong so I'll leave it to someone with a more experienced eye.

[Marth]

I personally feel the designs need more cartoon like appearances. I mean look at that tomato, he's headed in the right direction, it's a stylistic choice I guess but I feel they could benefit from it.

Also much more vibrant colours!


EDIT:
Here this was literally less than 5 minutes so it's really sloppy. But I feel like this kinda illustrates my point, make them more lively. If you want when I wake up in a few hours I can elaborate more.

Spoiler

Was I the only one who came in here expecting this?

[Gors]

(me too, Marth. Me too)

In addition of better shading techniques Marth explained in his post, you need to be aware about the character sizes. It's difficult to use stubby-limbed characters due to lack of range in their attacks. Pay attention to their anatomy and work their movements accordingly.

Also you could research about the food's origin and its place of creation so you can get coherent design inspirations instead of randomly giving food knight attire.

[Ton]

If there's no Chinese take-out box wielding chopsticks, I consider this a missed opportunity.

[Keiang]

If there's no Chinese take-out box wielding chopsticks, I consider this a missed opportunity.

They should totally be chopstick nunchuks.

[SmithyGCN]

Here's an idea: give the tomato a really big hammer to make up for his stubby arms. Just a suggestion.

Also, I, too, vote for a chinese take-out character with chopsticks.

EDIT: Yeah, Marth and Gors, I was expecting Fighting Foodons too...

[Natis]

I personally feel the designs need more cartoon like appearances. I mean look at that tomato, he's headed in the right direction, it's a stylistic choice I guess but I feel they could benefit from it.

Also much more vibrant colours!


EDIT:
Here this was literally less than 5 minutes so it's really sloppy. But I feel like this kinda illustrates my point, make them more lively. If you want when I wake up in a few hours I can elaborate more.

Cartoony is definitely the style I wanted for the game. I imagined it to be colorful and vibrate. I had Adventure Time, or Kirby Superstar in mind! I like what you did to the Tomato, but his eyes do not much up with his design I created for him.

I tried combining mine and yours together, because I like the colors you used, and I give him the smaller eyes. Eyes like that could most definitely work on other character, but not this one.

If there's no Chinese take-out box wielding chopsticks, I consider this a missed opportunity.

Oddly enough, my girlfriend actually was demanding me to put a Chinese food-related character it the game. When are told her that other people were saying the same thing, she was thrilled. lol So now this must happen.

Here's an idea: give the tomato a really big hammer to make up for his stubby arms. Just a suggestion.

I thought that too. The tomato's "occupation", if you will, is a blacksmith. So I was trying to just give him blacksmith tools. I could make the hammer bigger, but not a ginormous over the top hammer. lol But hey, if the style is supposed to be cartoonish, since when have cartoons had to make sense? His little stubby arms could stretch around too, if need be.

[Marth]

You have some great ideas going here and that tomato is an improvement. But his pose still seems kinda stiff. Maybe try and liven him up more.

[Natis]

You have some great ideas going here and that tomato is an improvement. But his pose still seems kinda stiff. Maybe try and liven him up more.

Thanks! I'm actually looking in to the XBLA and if I can get the game looking fun and make gameplay fun I'm gonna shoot to get it on there.

Anywho, I haven't had much time with college and other activities being busy lately, but I did start on the next character.



He is an egg and he is a jester. Obviously, major wip... seeing how he only has one leg right now. I can't figure out the right position to put his other leg. This character is meant to be a more bizarre and bouncy character. My idea is that both of his feat should never be touching the ground at the same time. When it comes to attacking he uses juggling balls, rubber chicken, ect. Basicly "joke" items.

[Previous]

he looks more like a salt shaker than an egg. The sides shouldn't slump down like that. I think the broadest part should be just below his grin.