Thanks for the feedback Udderdude and AmzBee. 

1. Those "zombies" in the first few levels are actually supposed to be human survivors. Haha. I had a feeling people would get that mixed up.  In my menu tutorial I tried to make that clear and I thought that these guys chasing the water would at least tell the player that they're humans.  Zombies show up later with different a much different agenda and are much faster.   

2. I'll definitely take a look at the sprite origin.  Thanks for the tip.

3. The most common feeback I've gotten from here and other places is that it's too hard.  I thought people might get bored if I put in too many easy levels at the start.  I think I get where everyone is coming from.  I'll look into easing the difficulty in early stages. 

Limbo

Right now it's Natural Selection 2 and Overlord.  Natural Selection will require more of my time before I know what the heck is going on in those matches. 

Any feedback is encouraged.  I'm here to learn.  If the problem is with the files, because you don't use Game Maker, or any other reason please let me know. 

This is not a commercial game and the graphics and sound are basic at best. So I decided to put most of my efforts into the game mechanics. 

I think I did some good things with this game, like a limited ammo system for challenge, and  strategic decision making where you won't win by just randomly shooting where ever you want to. 

I would like to hear your thoughts about it, both positives and negatives.   

Final Note: I received feeback from someone about why I added a 3 second pause when every level starts.  That was meant to be deliberate because I wanted the player to know where he was positioned before all the action started.

Update: I'll probably put the link to the game in the future when it's more polished.  Thanks to everyone for the feedback.


Overview
- Top Down Shooter
- Every bullet matters
- Mostly inspired by The Walking Dead (game and TV show), this is a game about what one guy is willing to do in order to survive. Water is in short supply and he's not the only one who is searching for it.  
- You have to figure out how to take out all the survivors before they reach the water supply.  

I was looking to create a more strategic top down shooter that didn't involve you just spraying bullets around the room.  I wanted to stay away from that and make the player get out of his comfort zone.

In this game I think I've achieved some of what I wanted to accomplish.  

I have learned alot about making games with this project. All the testing and editing involved was a grind.  But I had a blast.

All kinds of feedback will be appreciated.  Thanks.  

Here's the screenshot:

What types of simple games do you recommend newcomers should consider designing?  I feel like there must be some types of games that will help me learn alot more about game design than other ones. 

Many like to make platformers but I am not interested in that (unless you consider it a good learning project).  I was more keen on top down games that look like Hotline Miami and the original Legend of Zelda.  How about tower defense, puzzles, etc?

"Make whatever you want to make," will not help so if you can be more specific, thanks!

Sidenote:  If you can also share some advice on brainstorming for ideas, links to good articles about it, that would be great too.  Thanks.

So if I consider making 2D games, and probably publishing them to portals and mobile devices, what do you guys consider are the best tools to go for?

I've been checking out and using Action Script 3 and Game Maker.

And just what exactly is the programming tool or engine that most developers are using to make mobile games?  I was kinda confused hearing about how Flash is not focusing on mobile games, and then folks also saying that HTML 5 sucks on mobile.

I get that Flash is widespread and very popular so I didn't really have any doubts about Flash.  My only curiosity was wether HTML 5 was worth considering as far as game development goes.  I'll consider all the good advice here. Thanks.

But I guess if I was to just concentrate squarely on flash I wouldn't be losing anything by ignoring HTML 5.

I need some up-to-date advice concerning Game Maker and platforms (like Android and HTML 5).  I'm considering getting Game Maker HTML 5 ($99) over the Pro version ($40).  The bonus is that if you buy the HTML 5 version, you also get the upcoming Game Maker:Studio ($99) for free. I just have two questions:

1. I'm unfamiliar with HTML 5, so what are its strengths, as well as its advantages (if any) over Flash as far as game development goes?
2. Is HTML 5 relevant now and should it be a future investment?  I plan to publish my games, and am considering flash portals like Kongregate (which does support HTML 5).

Here is a short article about what I'm talking about:
http://gamemakerblog.com/2012/03/10/gamemaker-studio-pricing-revealed/#comments

Thanks for the help.

Puzzle Bots also by Erin Robinson/Dave Gilbert has some awesome voice acting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uy6xQWt3P4

Though it's not out yet, but this is a good chance to point it out to people!

Interested to see how this game plays.