As the death of our previous forum killed the last progress report, here it is again:
Work is continuing on the newer Krysis-style of backgrounds and characters. There are a number of characters (which can be seen here) that are considered ready enough to start the animation process.
Could anybody tell me which of the characters is Phil Nihilist? I was thinking about refining the original version but if he's already done, there's obviously no point in doing so.
Another thing that struck my mind recently is whether the new Ron graphics should be made for 320x200/240 or 640x400/480. (On some hardware(?)) Windows (Vista(?)) doesn't support 320xN anymore (although Linux still does), and with AGS 3.1 the option to double the intended resolution is gone. But yet all available ressources - including the new character sprites you posted - have been made for a resolution of 320x200/240.
I don't think that is a good idea since it encourages newbies (like myself) to use everything "as is" and then create a game that has major compatibility issues.
A simple solution could be to just resize everything by a factor of 2. This would keep ye olde dos charme and assure compatibility for the next few years (hopefully). I bet this has already been discussed at length, but since the old forum's dead I decided to mention it.