Soooo this one's gonna be a long one, first of all I'm going to respond to Ninja Crows text block

Here's a system that may be helpful: if you have a nice long "to do list", mark each entry as either red, yellow or green. [...]

Good idea, did it in a similar way now:

CURRENT:
- canons that shoot you around

IMPORTANT(!!!):
- maps
- enemies:
- crabs
- octopus
- starfish
- savepoints
- pause-menu showing items

LATER(!):
- ducking animation
- some explosion and dust animations to round things up
-when touching ground after jumping
-when unsolid blocks reappear
-when shooting shootable blocks or some enemies
- add at least two background layers showing stuff
- switches
- tiles that only appear/disappear once a variable is set
- game variables for events
- show numbers when collecting enemy money, accumulate numbers always
- damage on enemies shown in numbers
- half/quarter hearts
- opening screen / menu

FUTURE:
- lorry drive

BUGS:
- selection choices may get too big for the screen (problem)
- looking up / down doesn't work when screen is actually lower / higher than allowed

------------------------------------------------------------

DONE:
- done up to 26.05.2010:
- editor with basic functionality
- basic playability
- collision detection
- jumping, shooting, climbing
- two enemies
- sounds
- animations
- menues, dialogues, events
- music (27.05.2010)
- map properties (27.05.2010)
- dark maps (27.05.2010)
- some new event commands (27.05.2010)
- BUG: song playback bugs (28.05.2010)
- BUG: reset map properties when starting a new map in the editor (28.05.2010)
- BUG: camera scrolling errors (28.05.2010)
- integrate events into the editor (28.05.2010)
- treasure chests and three items(30.05.2010)
- money (30.05.2010)
- prison cell (30.05.2010)
- started with map outskirts (30.05.2010)
- spikes (02.06.2010)
- guards (02.06.2010)
- coins (02.06.2010)
- started with platforms (02.06.2010)
- BUG: overObject recognition works bad (07.06.2010)
- BUG: platform collision detection works bad
- BUG: moving platforms don't move the player with them
- ducking and looking up (08.06.2010)
- camera moves in direction the player looks
- tweaked the guard animation
- added screenshaking (specifically for the spikeball) (09.06.2010)
- changed the spikeballs movement
- BUG: looking up while walking looks strange (10.06.2010)
- blocks that disappear when you stand on them
- shootable blocks (11.06.2010)
- sound when shooting blocks


I should be willing to do the work of an edit to show what I meant - if that's okay with you and setz.

Of course, Setz and EvilEye just posted some edits I quite like, but why not give it a shot too!

I like your new trident guy. Might I suggest "Ink Guard" as a possible name?

Nice one, taken! Also gives me an idea for the first boss, 

How about a left field suggestion from the world of ROM hacking? [...]

Ugh that sounds complicated... isn't there a simple tool for this kind of stuff?

It might also be useful to keep in mind that most games of, say, the NES or SNES era used a different palette for each world or level, so it may not be necessary to create a giant meta-palette, but rather a collection of smaller palettes that are complimentary to themselves.

I found some pallettes I will add to mine, but I will start using them very slightly and maybe use a completely different one for the overworld (yes, I planned an overworld  )

[...]
So I heartily encourage you to try out all your ideas with different colours for different layers, and play with the player's expectations of mass (e.g. if the level seems to have a distant horizon, a sudden, nearby, hulking shipwreck can create a surprising dissonance that most people interpret as a pleasant thrill).

Started on a two color background, will post results as soon as it doesn't suck anymore. Good idea with the shipwreck!

I don't know the pixel dimensions of your font, but is it possible to bulk up the lines a bit, perhaps with a text effect like a drop shadow or coloured border?

The game can be run in 320x240 * n where n = 1,2,3,... as long as your desktop resolution is capable of it. I might add a slight shadow below the text as an option but I don't know if this will make it more readable. I think the stark black-white contrast and the outlines of the fonts make it pretty readable in 1x already.

[...] Playing games like this helped to convince me that menus (which text boxes are a subset of, I'd argue) should always float like a popup, so that the illusion is maintained that the player still knows what is "under" them (they become less "intrusive" that way).

I might reduce the width of the box and move it up a little, but I will keep the three lines for now. A pop-up effect might be nice too.

Quote

But that's one of the things I want to test on a map that is fun to play for me and some testers...

Great idea! I volunteer, selfishly, to be one of those testers!

Great, I hope you can expect something soon. If you're interested you could also participate in designing some areas, the editor is documented and pretty usable (aside from defining properties of objects, which I did in a generalized way of passing 3 float parameters and 2 string parameters where you have to read in a text file what effects what for which object, but that might change as soon as I've finished the full range of objects.

That sounds like an excellent idea, and watching the numbers build up in chains sounds like great fun. Please make the lag time before the chain is broken be somewhat forgiving so that this enjoyment can be experienced to the full, since it sounds like it could be a major source of fun in your game design!

That's about what I had in mind. Building up a chain won't affect the amount of pearls you get though ... or? maybe it does... don't know

Quote

I'm going to do this, plus I wanted to add a little screen shaking when they stomp near you.

Cool, though I would think to use shaking sparingly, as the type of thing saved for boss battles, etc.

Well it's not much for the spikeball but it adds to their feel of heaviness. Super Mario World did this too for the stomping things I think. Bosses will make the screen shake so much your monitor will break!

Might I also suggest a subtype of your spike ball that is on a chain, such as this one in Sonic & Knuckles?

This was my initial plan for those (setz's screenshot suggested that too). I had some problems implementing it in the editor so that you can really see where it will go and it required a lot of trial and error, but I will change that so I can add some nice chain-balls!

Thanks for the suggestions and keep them coming! As you can see on the Todo-list there's a lot happening right now, but university exams as well as some seminars start soon so expect a slowdown in development 

I agree with helm on the face, it's pretty 1 dimensional.
Here's my edit:

Awesome... it always baffles me how much you guys can get out of so few space and colors!

By the way, nice work on the dithering ( setz and you I guess ). It's not often that I see a good blend of colors via dithering

Credit goes to Setz only for this

So much fun I decided to chime in on the portrait edits, That was the last thing done and I suppose it shows.

An edit of my own

I like the first and second in the first row the most. She's not exactly beautiful but still cute and fits what I understand "kawaii" means somehow perfectly I think I'm going to use these portraits in the game if that's okay. And the top rightmost one of course after you defeat the final boss.

Since I have not much pixelation wise to post at least I wanted to show the new shootable and unstable blocks (the latter ones disappear while you stand on them). The other things are cannon-like things that shoot you around after you jump inside. The last one is a first version of the aforementioned starfish:

Wow, thanks for the answer and the long list of suggestions / constructive criticism! Well...

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.

I'm going to work on the portraits after I got some more basic things done. I've started quite a few games (even lenthier projects) and never got finished because I took too much care of details before I started adding actual content (in this case I wanted to do some playable and enjoyable maps ASAP). Also, like I mentioned before, the portrait, too, was done by Setzer and I'm just getting used to pixeling, so a portrait might be some work for me. But I know how important such things are, so I'll get into it.

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.

This is the new version, Helm used some shadings of the violet, I restricted mine to the pallette. I'm still thinking about adding colors to the pallette, namely some greens and some shades of the red and violet. What would be useful would be a tool in which I can modify the pallette of a picture easily and compare the same picture with different pallettes, recommendations anyone? (I guess this is a pretty standard thing to do, but I couldn't figure out how to do it with GraphicsGale which is what I use for now)

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).

The implementation of the scrolling backgrounds isn't really my problem rather than what to put there. I'm thinking about some tiny and big (shadows of) fishes, coral rifs or sunken ships, maybe all just in one dark color that gets faded against the background, but I don't really know where to start...

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.

Hmm to be honest I specifically designed the font for this game to give it a retro-ish look and I like it so far (a few letters and numbers aside). I'm thinking about changing the size of the text-box to contain only two lines but maybe that's not enough for the text to be fluently readable...

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).

It's part the video and part a problem of how the jump and gravity is implemented but that's easily changable. I want the game to be fast, but I've noticed that in tight spots, the jump indeed is too fast. But that's one of the things I want to test on a map that is fun to play for me and some testers, not on the demonstration maps I've done for now.

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.

Argh, that's a tough one. The pearls (I'm now gonna call them like that  ) are a motivational thing. Picking them up should be fun, thus accompanied by a noise that is nice to hear and some eye candy. As you don't like the font I can see how you don't like the +1 (which will be changed to +X when you collect more pearls in a row btw.) but I like both to be honest. I'll wait for some more reactions, but in general I like numbers on screen  

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).

I'm going to do this, plus I wanted to add a little screen shaking when they stomp near you. I will need something else that moves like those though since the pause between going up and down is not enough difficulty for every situation. I'm thinking about a rotating star fish.

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!

Absolutely no reason to excuse, I got a LOT of motivation out of this post. Thanks!

First of all, hi everybody. I've been lurking here for a long time to get insparation and I love the stuff I find here!

I've been working on a game that uses pixel art for a few months now. First of all I want to state that this game is based on a mockup by Setzer (http://www.pixeljoint.com/p/4064.htm) from Pixeljoint.  The screenshot can be found here: http://www.pixeljoint.com/pixelart/51884.htm. I've asked him for permission to use it as a base for my game and I'm now trying to add some things in the same style since the stuff I can take from this mockup isn't enough to provide for a full game.

Here are three ingame screenshots:







The things I added are the coins, spikes, the corals, which you can climb later on and the dude right from the mermaid on the first screenshot.

Here's his walking animation in which I would be most interested to get some tips on:



Anyway I would like some critique on this stuff and maybe some tips on what I can add to the game. I'm thinking about adding some more colors to the pallette but given how carefully chosen the colors in this wonderful pallette are its too much for me to handle . Well at least every try in adding some colours failed miserably   .

I also want to add another layer in the background moving at a different pace but I'm not sure about the "how" there either...

If someone's interested I'm going to create a video for people to see how things look like in motion.

Updates:
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o1U--rCYAE