Today I actually started animating the skeleton. Among other things, I got a pretty good running animation out of him:
Looks sweet in-game. And if you're going to tell me he runs like a retard ... I know. That was intentional.
I'm going to work on more animations tomorrow, If I can finish the skidding, jumping, and falling, I'll be able to run through most levels without seeing my programmer's art sprites at all! Yay!
This will also mean that by finishing all the sprites, I'll also finish implementing the new combat system. Then I can make enemies with a little more confidence. I think this will be a major milestone, one that really opens the way to getting more of the other parts of the game finished. Hopefully I'll have all the player sprites finished well before end of holidays.
EDIT: More fun: