Congrats man  I'II definitely buy that badboy once it surfaces on the appstore

I've finished two, one of which will be released in a couple of weeks time. Also I'm literally in the middle of working on a third, because I'm a fucking badass 

I don't really know where I fit in with freeware vs commercial. I've been "programming" for years in GameMaker using D&D, and I've made a few weekend projects, but now I'm working on my first full game that I'm planning to sell to pay for (at least part of) college costs. I kinda feel like I shouldn't be selling this game, since I'm no Notch, Jonathan Blow, or Phil Fish (lol). I'm not an amazing programmer, artist, or musician. I'm not even outta high school yet! Is this feeling normal(ish)?

that's kinda like saying 'i don't want to lift weights, i'm no arnold schwarzenegger'

there are about 10,000 commercial indie game developers; most of them are not as famous as the ones you named. you only hear about the millionaires and wild success stories, rather than the every day people doing it, so you shouldn't compare yourself to the few you have heard about

Plus on top of that most of these guys have at least a decade of experience. So don't be so hard on yourself

I quite like this game, the puzzles are fun and the pacing is pretty good as well. The only thing I would complain about is the switching of the controls when you flip the level, that is a tad confusing and annoying. Also when the player dies you have to reset the game manually

Well if that is your strategy of game then yeah I would say you need to explain it better and incentivize it more as most players will just run right up to the player and attack. I would say give the game a playtest and see how it goes, you'll be surprised in what you pick up in those.

Ok the control binding will help out the control issue. Just for  future reference though the standard for 2D platformers control schemes are the X/Z buttons along with the directional keys, which is because you don't have to account for the distance between the mouse from directions like a FPS, but you still want a decent distance between the action buttons and movement.

Yeah a knock back animation for the enemies would help a great deal in terms of reaction, but think about adding affects to the weapons themselves. A really good example of this is Megaman Zero and the Bleach fighting games.

If you look at the some of the stronger attacks from the Ichigo spritesheet you'll notice that it has a flowing affect behind it to give the attacks more weight.
http://spritedatabase.net/file/604

But all of that stuff is minor in comparison to the problem I pointed out before.
 

Finally your game lacks the nuance a good game of the genre needs, specifically the player and the enemy can just hit each other with no consequence  so it makes the action feel boring as hell.

So in your game when an enemy gets hit or the player gets hit neither of them are actually stop which makes the game devolve down to a rush in tactic for both the player and the enemy which in turn kills the tension.

First things first the art is pretty decent and the parralax scrolling is quite cool. It sets the tone of the game pretty well. 

But mother of god man why did you map the attack button to  enter and the e to enter levels  ? It makes no sense in context of control standards most games map actions to z and x and up to to enter places.

The second thing is that the attacks don't have enough feedback to the player it makes the entire thing feels flaccid and boring. You need to add more sounds, and character reactions to being hit.

Finally your game lacks the nuance a good game of the genre needs, specifically the player and the enemy can just hit each other with no consequence  so it makes the action feel boring as hell.

I would suggest going through some more action heavy games from the earlier periods like the original Castlevania on the NES or better yet Ninja Gaiden.

This looks really interesting, hope to play it sometime.

Thanks for this, I was wondering what was the best way to recruit people

So I've fixed the tunneling issue, just need to get the sound volumes done at some point and the game is pretty much finished off 

Still as compelling as the last time I played it, especially so when I can actually concentrate. Unfortunately I still suck though

I've decided to do the menu art myself, it's pretty decent considering my lack of art skills. I've also changed the font and done some minor tweaking to the camera.

Here are the results.

Glad to see you working on your own stuff again 

I've discovered a tunneling issue with my collision detection and in the process of fixing it. I also need to get the art redone for the main menu along with adjusting the main volume for F+- music and sounds effects.

it also seems like they flip flop every few years due to criticism or something

monaco wins

then minecraft and fez win (fez somewhat ironically since phish voted against smb winning cuz of an xbla deal but i digress)

now cart life wins

etc

all current information suggests that the judging process is not remotely objective. which fits if it's trying to be the indie oscars, i suppose.  

edit: i'm kinda starting to lean towards the position that it'll never be remotely objective, as there aren't really any awards shows which are. i don't know that it's worth arguing about anymore, since it's probably not possible to "fix." especially with how defensive everyone gets over it.

That was the point I was trying to drive at. They just really need to state exactly what the IGF is for, so everyone knows how to judge relatively and entrants know off the bat if it's worth them entering or not.

At the very least it will be consistent instead of this weird relative unknown / Indie superstar winning shit that's going on now