Congrats on getting featured on this weeks Sawbuck Games roundup over at the AV club!
http://www.avclub.com/articles/july-19-2010,43033/

I think it looks quite entertaining.
I agree that you should release at least a demo for the compo even if it is only one level.   You can do it!

I look forward to playing this.  The art is pretty amazing and the evolution mechanic sounds cool.
  So how does the evolution work exactly?  Do you continue to grow and have new abilities stack on top of one another or are they like different weapon power ups? For example, if I collect the pieces of one that shoot bullets in all directions and then the pieces of one with homing bullets would I have homing bullets that shoot in all directions or just homing bullets? 

This is my favorite case.  I think it has the potential for a very interesting art style.  Look forward to seeing more.

So I have the first street sign in a playable state and the art is starting to come together.  The AI for the sign at the moment is the equivalent of the ball in pong but I am working diligently to make it a devilish opponent in the near future.  All the basic mechanics of the game are working now and described in the How to Play section.  I have not implemented game states yet so when you die you just have to exit and restart.  So I hope you enjoy messing around with it.  Try obeying the sign and disobeying the sign and if you could break the game in any way that would be helpful to know about as well. I would love any feedback on the art or gameplay you have to give.  You praise and/or constructive criticism will be the fuel that keeps me going.

http://www.yoyogames.com/games/135794-signal

So this evening I got started on making the game.  I am going to try and go with an NES-esque (NEeSque)art style sticking with a limited color pallet and 3 color sprites.  However I am doubling the screen width to create a sort of CinemaScope effect and to make the character seem smaller and more isolated.  All graphics are place holder now and the game will most definitely not be taking place in a black void but I haven't started work on my title set just yet.
 
  The first thing I implemented was the "weapon."  This consists of the ability to shoot any letter of the alphabet in 5 different direction.  Currently pressing any letter on the keyboard will make your character shoot out that letter.  All letters are equally powerful, that is to say equally weak, so you will need to spew a ton of them to take down any enemy you should disturb.  The hope is that it will make the player frantically type with the left hand while the right controls the character using the arrow keys.  In addition I will be putting surfaces in the game that letter "echo" off of in the empty city where the game takes place. The player can choose to type messages and watch them echo and fade away.

I have the first road sign programed so that it can detect if you follow it's directions but I have yet to implement what will happen if you don't.  So that's one day of progress.

Are the signs personified, or anthropomorphized? Or are they just signs?

I will be going with a more abstract way of representing them.  They will all start off normal size and sitting still.  They only come to life if the player disobeys their orders.  Once they are "alive" they will grow and possibly change in shape but it won't be anything humanoid.  For example I think the stoplight might grow long spidery legs and hunt you down. 

If anyone knows of any confusing road signs they could definitely help me in my brainstorming.

             

 

Typing Backwards reminds me of spelling words with a calculator.

   

The description you gave made me think of a slower exploration-based affair, but your ideas are interesting too.

I can see what you mean and maybe calling it a "run n' gun" is misleading.  You will have a gun of sorts but you won't be doing too much running.  I want each of the road signs to be a formidable and potentially deadly encounter that you will avoid if at all possible.  I want the player to feel like walking on egg shells as the approach one and try to figure out what to do.  The gun is sort of a last line of defense.  It will be more about exploration and atmosphere than shooting.  So it's a side scrolling 2D game with a gun.  The emphasis is not on platforming or shooting lots of stuff.  I'll make a revision to the original post to reflect this.

I'll be starting on it after work today and I'll post some of my work in progress.

Looks compelling so far.  I like the idea of a genetic code for each flower.  I'm a sucker for procedurally generated content.    

I went to a lecture by Ken Perlin from NYU about procedural animation this past semester.  He had some pretty cool insights about how important "noise" is to making procedural animation.  One example he gave was this http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/experiments/facedemo/.  It's amazing how it goes from lifelike to lifeless when you turn off the noise button in the upper left corner. It looks like you have good "noise" visually with the variety of colors, sizes and shapes.  I can just imagine how cool these would look with a sort of animated swaying in the breeze.  A random tangent but those screen shots made me think of it.

Look forward to seeing more.

[Signal!]

Signal!

Description Everyone is gone now.  They have been gone for a long time.  The only things they left for you, the only things that still make any sense, are the street signs.  Their simple rules give order to you life but even that fragile routine seems to be slipping away... But today while you were scanning you radio you picked up a Signal!  Now you must trace it to the source. So the game will be a 2D run n' gun side scrolling game where survival is uncertain and your enemies are based on different street signs.  You can avoid fights with them by simply obeying what they tell you to do.  This starts out simple (stop at stop signs, only cross under street lights when they are green, ext.)but as you progress the signs instructions get more convoluted and their meanings more cryptic.  As you fight with signs and take damage from them your sanity begins to slip having impact on the levels and ultimately determine how the game ends.  Will you be able to find the source of the signal before you slip into madness?		Inspired by

Download
http://www.yoyogames.com/games/135794-signal version 0.1

How to play
move with the arrow keys. pressing any letter key shoots that letter as a projectile. 5 direction of shooting correspond to the arrow keys you are pressing.  To shoot diagonal while standing still hold the down arrow and the direction you would like to shoot.