I also tried getting into pixel art, thinking "there's a finite number of pixels - surely I can arrive at something visually appealing via trial and error". No

I also tried getting into pixel art, thinking "there's a finite number of pixels - surely I can arrive at something visually appealing via trial and error". Nope. Turns out it's a whole field of study and an artform in its own right. If you're making a top-down perspective game, I wholeheartedly recommend Liberated Pixel Cup assets, especially the character generator: https://liberatedpixelcup.github.io/Universal-LPC-Spritesheet-Character-Generator/#sex=male&body=Body_Color_light&head=Human_Male_light&expression=Neutral_light https://liberatedpixelcup.github.io/Universal-LPC-Spriteshee... There's a crazy number of configuration options and you can create all kinds of humanoid characters out of it.