Which technique suits this guy best? (Res/Colour depth)

[Scavenger]

So, I'm now comfortable with how I draw, and I draw cartoons.  I decided over the summer, I'm going to try and make a short game based on saturday morning cartoon shows. Because they're awesome (and cut corners in terms of animation). But, if I'm going to do this, I need to decide how. I really don't mind which depth I use (so long as it's not 32bit, as I hate alpha channels with a passion. Hate, HATE. Also, I don't like depths above 640x480 for some reason. Maybe it's the comforting blocky pixels, but I don't think this project would work at anything higher.)

Here are some mockups I made of what I think the sprites would look like, using the protagonist as the example.

CHARACTER

In terms of being simple, the lo-res, 8bit one is probably easiest to produce, but lacks that certain something that makes SatAM appealing. The top one might be too blurry, the middle might be too blocky, I don't know.

As for the background (which I think would be really important in deciding what colour depth and resolution to use), I also made a mockup picture of the style I would use.

CONCEPT ART (it was quickly made just to be an example, so don't critique it. There are SO many things wrong with it, I know. The real backgrounds would probably be done on watercolour paper.)

So my question to all of you out there, which one of the three would be best suited to a SatAM style adventure game?

[Darth Mandarb]

I like the 8-bit version of the 640x480 version!  It's got a good amount of detail without looking too hi-res-y.

Good to see you posting again

[Matti]

The top one isn't too blurry.

So my vote is 640x480 16-bit.   8)

[GarageGothic]

I agree with Darth, the 8-bit hi-res version is crisp and nice. Reminds me of the characters in Torin's Passage or Toonstruck.

I think this style of character will look absolutely wonderful on a painted background. I would up the saturation and contrast on the backgrounds after scanning though, since the concept artwork looks a bit washed out.

Edit: Badly photoshopped, but you get the point. I think a saturated background with a hint of outline (not pure black like on the characters) would fit well. To make the background less dominating you can experiment with color coding areas so that every primary color doesn't appear in the same scene, but for instance red and yellow dominate one while another is set in blue and greenish tones (Torin's Passage is a good example of this approach, Toonstruck an eye-hurting example of the opposite - even if it does work for them).

[Dualnames]

The last sprite, the 8-bit whatevery is very beautiful, i say go with that if you indeed feel like it.

[Cyrus]

Like both the first and the second one. The third is also nice, but I think AGS already has plenty lo-res games. By the way, what's the cartoon's title?

[loominous]

It's nice indeed to see someone going for a more traditional cartoon look, in this lo-res land of ours.

Think the best thing would be to simply do mockups of the different character resolutions/depths, with a proper background. Making judgments about elements separated from their context is usually a bad idea.

(I like the overall look of the current mockup, and would recommend just going with that (32bit), though it would require getting along with my good friend, the alpha. Think you'll find him a nice guy once you get to know him better, and an irreplaceable companion when you venture outside of pixelville)