![hyper light drifter townspeople sprite sheet hyper light drifter townspeople sprite sheet](https://i.ibb.co/1TPsSLs/Capture.png)
If the legs get any wider, the harder it would get to animate the action. You mentioned the difter's legs being 1 pixel in width. I bet the drifter would look a bit weird if he didn't have the cloak on. Now they don't have to worry much about getting the body right and there's much less animating they need to do, because the arms are hidden even when the drifter's walking. The bigger the head, the less room you have for the body, so the pixel artist made a clever decision to hide the majority of the drifter's body with the cloak. Notice how the drifter's head isn't exactly small (It's quite big in fact if you take into account realistic human proportions). Hyper light drifter, being a action RPG where you can't sacrifice the body (because the body is what mainly sells the action), went for a hybrid of the two choices. Or, you could go for the what I call "stickmen" style, where the character has a real tiny head (the face usually consisting of only a few pixels, often void of facial features) and a relatively detailed body, which is a more realistic approach regarding proportions.
![hyper light drifter townspeople sprite sheet hyper light drifter townspeople sprite sheet](https://www.spriters-resource.com/resources/sheet_icons/128/131644.png)
You can go for the "superdefromed", also known as "chibi" I believe, where the character has a big, cartoony head, and an overly simplified body (The typical Japanese RPG syle you know). There are many stylistic ways you can go about proportion. Due to reasons mentioned above, lower resolution sprites often have proportions very much simplified. In the case of the drifter, I'd say it's the helmet, blue face and cape. This is exactly the reason why 8bit mario had a mustache and the protagonist of the early pokemon games had a hat on. On a sliding scale of realism/minimalism, the drifter is closer to the minimal extreme of the spectrum, being a character of 32x32, and it's crucial for characters this small to have a defining feature that more or less defines the character and makes up for the lack of details. This inevitably makes it challenging, perhaps near impossible with smaller resolutions, for details to be put in. This becomes increasingly apparent as the amount of pixels you can work with gets drastically reduced with each resolution drop. First of all, pixel art is all about making the best out of each and every pixel you have.I am by no means an expert on the topic, but will nevertheless, try to explain what I think. It's great to see someone appreciate the game's animation as much as I do! I too think that the animations, especially the attack animations, are spectacular considering the amount of pixels used. If you need a reference, just google "hyper light drifter sprites". I've just been head-scratching for a while on this, and was looking for more opinions. I believe this is because their base sprite is simple yet effective, so it's not very difficult to stretch it any which way. The attack animations are also fantastic, and work in any direction although the sprite is only set up to face four directions. is there some sort of trick of the trade I'm not noticing? My sprites look terrible and unrealistic when I attempt this. I feel like the cloak hides some detail, but once again, it still looks completely proportionate. The Drifter's lower legs are just one pixel wide, yet it still feels realistic and proportionate. However, I just can't seem to pin down exactly what makes the Drifter's animations work so well with such a minimalist approach. Something as essential as the keys to understanding the story shouldn’t be hidden behind so much busywork.I've just been thinking about this for a while, and I'm trying to make something myself of a similar style. At their worst, you’re required to throw yourself against each and every wall just to alleviate the anxiety you might miss a hidden opening, or path of proximity triggered, invisible platforms. At their best we’re given a clue, like a ledge that seemingly has no other purpose, and keen observation is rewarded. While this genre has a long and proud history of secrets hidden in this fashion, and I did enjoy them at first, the way these story fragments are frustratingly stashed in each of the world’s four regions became increasingly annoying. What few direct answers do exist are trapped inside monoliths hidden in secret coves and behind locked doors. Again, I can’t really be sure how it all fits together exactly, because though I have my theories, they’re just interpretations of a stylish, intriguing series of events and images that never fully makes good on its grand setting.
![hyper light drifter townspeople sprite sheet hyper light drifter townspeople sprite sheet](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/25/89/99/258999aa684e4656fd64fc9ea09346d9.jpg)
“I gathered bits and pieces of the story: an apocalypse, an illness, time travel, and a mysterious dog all play a part.