First I would like to say that I am new to this site and thanks to anyone who gives me any suggestions.

I want this topic to be about what kind of style my backgrounds should be for my game. However, I mostly only have examples of the characters that I've made. So I am aware that this could easily get side tracked and be more about them, but I rather it not unless you have something to say that needs to be said about them. With that said, the style that I have chosen for the game includes high saturation with bold outlines to give the game a cartoon look that I have grown to love. The main reason why I am making this thread is because I do not feel confident with the backgrounds that I have made so far and designing characters are more or less my passion.

So here's the format I'm looking for...
I would like to use 3 layers of backgrounds.
layer 1 being the foreground
layer 2 behind layer 1 moving at a slower rate
layer 3 at the very back in a fixed position covering the entire screen which is 320x240
Also I really want to make a level editor so the background would preferably be in tile sets. I don't know much about that either so any recommendations on the best standard size would be much appreciated.

So far the only idea that do I have is perhaps having the foreground with the bold outlines like the characters and layers 2 and 3 without them. Layer two could perhaps follow the same idea as layer 1, but simplified and layer3 could be extra simple. The reason I say simple is because...
-I'm not that great at backgrounds and I almost rather they set the tone and atmosphere than anything else.
-The backgrounds shouldn't take away from the foreground since they are in the BACK.

Now that you have read that. Here is some pixel art of characters that I have made so you can get a general idea of the look I am going for so you can maybe then give me advice on where to take the backgrounds.

This is the main character. His name is Blazer and he's an alligator.

Different versions of Blazer using an item.

Other characters in the game. Some being good guys and others being bad.


Finally, and this is by no means what I want to use, but to give an idea of what places I want I have decided to show this. The areas shown are Mountain, Sea, Jungle, Swamp and Swamp City(Castle town), and inside of a Cave. I might make more places, but these are the ones I want to make for sure.


I also have a bunch of ideas drawn out in sketches so let me know if you would like to see those as well. Again, thanks for taking the time if you did read this and I'm hoping that we can come up with a solution to my dilemma.