This is a terrific project, and I'm impressed with the progress, and the level of charm in the elements and details. It is actually pretty exciting to see people take the superlative mockups that appear here and at PJ and turn them into games (more fun for me in some ways than the 'real' game industry!).
Helm mentioned the portrait of the main character (nice names, by the way, of the game characters). My only complaint would be that it isn't a classically 'attractive' face, being rather long and plain, but the cartoonish style is unique and lovable and fitting to the spirit the game is displaying, so I think a realistic face would be out of place, even if 'prettier'. Plus it gives the game an immediately recognisable stlye. I would like to see a test version of it with a wider face (e.g. eyes further apart) if you didn't mind, which may be the thing that is actually bothering people who don't think it's quite right yet.
You have a 'guy' in your first screenshot, which was obscured and I didn't notice him, but your animation frames actually make a lot of sense, and it's a great character. I immediately thought of a shadow dude, or even more fitting, an oil slick creature. Helm's reflective outline made this image even stronger, and so I would love to see it like this - please keep the black silhouette look if possible. As for having red in them, since they are moving, there may be enough red in their tridents.
I like the video, which really sold the concept for me. What are you programming the game in?
TIG forums is a great place for getting questions answered about independent game development, and I'll bet they can help you with your parallax background question (I can hardly wait to see those light shafts shifting independently).
I don't know how WIP your text box and font are, but they look a bit stark to me. The box is very large, and the letters are very thin. I also feel the score numerals are too small - a fuller, more cartoonish style might be more fitting.
I also noticed that the jump is quite staccato, going up and coming down in a quick burst - is this because of Cam Studio's frame rate setting? A slower descent might help suggest that she is underwater, as well as helping with landing accuracy (provided the left/right drift of the jump isn't too high).
I like the coins, and it looks fun to collect great piles of them, but they look spherical, like pearls (because of being underwater, I just assumed they were a marine object
), so I was surprised when you called them coins (nicely pixelled and shiny, though!). I didn't quite like that 'plus 1' came out of collecting them, though. Maybe this is because most other games I'm familiar with don't do this? (Sonic, Yoshi, Klonoa GBA, etc.) If all of them give the same amount, a counter isn't necessary, and if some give a higher amount, they could probably be made to look different.
I agree that the spikes are a little swift in their movement. I would suggest an accelerating drop and sudden stop at the bottom of their fall (like the drop of a heavy mace) and then, after a pause, they lift themselves back up (similar to the thwomps in Mario).
Hey, sorry for so much text, but I really like where this is going, and I hope I was helpful in some way - thanks for reading!
