Not sure if this is the right place, but would anyone mind putting a critical eye to some concept 2D art for my game? I'm not here for flattery. Let me know if you spot anything out of place. I'm trying to work out any kinks before I lock in a particular style for the rest of the game.

This is a fun style. :) The only things I would suggest tweaking would be some of the colors are a bit flat (mainly the ones with no gradients), and some of the facial expressions are too subtle to be seen when the characters aren't zoomed-in on.

When you say tweaking, do you mean more saturation?

Overall, looks pretty good.

The one thing I would work on is that you're kind of abusing gradients for lighting/shading. You should try using more hard shadows, and staying more consistent with your lighting direction (some of your gradients and shadows don't make sense, like the body of the cart being lighter on the bottom).

I'll try to include some examples later (I'm at work right now) to show you what I mean.

Also, I can't quite tell what's supposed to be interactive- maybe use slightly thicker lines around interactive objects?

These are all set pieces, so no interactivity unless you count talking with the patrons. Good point on the gradients. Hard shadows take longer, but... they look a lot better I guess.

You lack a forge (firepit + bellows) for your smithy. The oven IMO wouldn't cut it.

Consider increasing the size of the building signpost icon (the Inn, for example) and exclude the text. It's hard to read, and the overall style calls for more symbolism in that regard.

The cat statue is called "maneki neko", if you want to read up on it.

I really like the style. Looking forward to playing the related game!

When you say tweaking, do you mean more saturation?

Um, no? The word tweak means any small change, and flatness of colors generally refers to highlights and shadows, not saturation. The saturations look fine to me... I guess the white-painted wood could stand to be a bit less grey/beige, but generally I like the color palette.

Got it. Thanks sunandshadow.

Your art is really cool looking, like it

If you want to improve it further try to play around with the shape of the buildings. Think about putting a heavy weight ontop of the buildings, how would the building expand/bend ? Most likely the walls would bend outward and the roof inward.

Then try to mirror the shape in all aspects of building. A good example is the female merchant. The round curves of the character are mirrored in the curves of the wagon. Try to improve it, e.g. making the smoke pipe round (the pipe end is currently a triangle).

Try to keep up consistency. E.g. the blacksmith building combines angular and curved shapes. The house is angular, whereas the ofen, wood logs, axe handle are round or curved.

These are all set pieces, so no interactivity unless you count talking with the patrons. Good point on the gradients. Hard shadows take longer, but... they look a lot better I guess.

I think if you started being more careful with lighting and shading you'll find the end product way more engrossing. I took the liberty of shading your Lady-and-cart, well, the way I would do it. Basically, light from the top right and everything shaded more or less accordingly. I think I also messed with the saturation slightly because the shading took some color out. Took about an hour and a quarter with Photoshop. And you can probably tell I'm way better with objects than with characters... Anyway, here's my thinking:

[attachment=13337:Lady and Cart.png]

Original:

[attachment=13335:vendorl.png]

Edit: Swapped versions