I think the new palette is working a lot better than the old. In the old I didn't like that blue in the tiles that seemed to burn out of the grey too much (I dunno if what I said made sense), now it seems more natural and somehow more atmospheric.
And as for the six small test shots of the dude's readibility I think either of the middle two work best. At his size he does need to pop out more like he's doing there.
And thanks about C.P.C.
I am still working on it in little bits (busy with a paid freelance project at moment) and trying to do a whole new tileset and also trying to update the engine from Game Maker 8.1 to Game Maker: Studio which is NOT easy (they've changed or removed various things I used in the game code) as GM:S is the one they update now and has the multi-platform support if you buy the modules and such.
I'm looking forward to giving this game a go when it's a playable thing. I likes retro stuff with small, well defined sprites & tiles and tons of style which this has.