This last section at the bottom is cruel. Got to the final room once but haven't managed it again since.

Excellent, cruelness there is certainly the intention .  I have managed to make it all the way too the bottom and then back out again (the return will incidently be mandatory), but only the once.  If anyone does manage to dedicate it I want them to have earnt it.

Really glad you've been enjoying it guys.  I'd been worried (as usual) that I was making the sort of game that'd only appeal to myself.  So thanks!

I finally finished the level design (exercise and tiredness got in the way last night).  The build is updated.

This build also has what will become practice mode enabled, meaning when you die you only get bumped back to the last heart.  I figured not every one would be interested in commiting to trying for a true one life completion.  So the practice mode should fill that void a bit.

It should now be possible to get a pretty good feel for what the final game will be like.

Still quite a bit to do: sound, music, polish, front-end, dedication.. but I'm pretty happy with how it's progressed so far.

You should have let us know it's wsad to move, took me ages to realise (but maybe that's just because I've only just woken up).

It both looks and feels pretty good, but I felt a bit desperate for at least a little bit of air control.

Particle whale is intriguing.

[yet fair]

I wonder what the chance is of someone dedicating this to an obscene word : P

Fairly high I'm sure.  I think I'm okay with that though.

It will be brutal, yet fair.  The first person to actually beat it will dedicate the game for eternity to whomever they like.

This is brilliant. BUT: considering the second highlighted point, I think you should remove the first point, so that it takes effort to beat it that one first time. Otherwise, pretty much the first person to play it will get to dedicate it.

When I say fair I simply mean that I won't be playing masocore tricks on players.  To dedicate the game a player will have to complete the entire thing without dying once.  This *should* be very hard, but we'll see.

Sounds great.  Can't promise I'll turn up yet, but I'll plan to

Yeah didn't run into any control issues (I had some issues with the jump like increpare but it is working fine now!)

Really glad I found it then!

I like the jump power up (and what I assume will be puzzle solving aspect on later levels)

Yep, that's definitely something I've been working in, I'm trying not to go overboard on the puzzles though, the intention is it'll be mostly about consistent precise platforming.

I've done about 2/3rds of the level design now, and I've been working out some of the odd glitches and performance worries I was having.  Feels a lot more solid to me now.

I've updated the build again, there's a lot more to explore in this version, but a lot more loose ends too.  Now to start tying them off..

Haha, the new creature type is ace.

One of the more interesting things I've been noticing playing this game is that I've been subconciously assigning a sex to the creatures, and using that to try and help scan faster.

I'm hoping to organise a game jam or something here soonish, but even Bristol is quite far north-east from you IIRC.

Oh, that would be neat, Oxford->Bristol is fairly painless

I usually visit the South-West a couple of times a year, but I'm typically armed with rock shoes not laptops.

I'm not really clear where you're going with this post, it's a bit of ramble.

Yes, good level design is hard.
Yes, level design is important.
Yes, some people seem to stumble when they reach the point where they just need to churn out the content.

Me? I love it.  Level design feels like the closest activity to pure game design as you can whilst still being productive.  The best advice I can give is:

When writing the games make the physical act of making levels as simple as possible, ideally you shouldn't even have to leave the engine. Games like Cube, Alex 4 and the trackmania titles are great examples of this.  Failing to do this makes the whole experience tedious, and your best ideas are often forgotten by the time you get round to them.

Keep level design in mind whilst developing your core mechanics.  The situations you describe "even harder to come up with cool levels that use those mechanics" or "I believe most puzzle mechanics have a 'finite' number of variations and after that, you cannot create any more unique puzzles" sound to me like symptoms of core mechanics that aren't doing their job.

If a cool idea doesn't create obvious exciting level design opportunities, maybe it's not that great after all.  If you keep on having to add mechanics to keep things interesting the mechanics that you do have probably aren't meshing very well together.  It's worth noting that whilst Braid (which is a great example of level design) expands itself using sub-mechanics there are still very few mechanics in total in the game.

Practice lots and lots.  Level design is hard, but it's like coding, or art, you get better, but you need to be prepared to sink hours and hours in to get good.

Writing this I'm left wondering if there would be use in some sort of forum-based Level Design Workshop of some kind for people who struggle with this side of game development.  I might be up for leading/organising something like that.  Let me know

I also had a lot of fun with the drunken mechanics of this, really looking forward to seeing this realised with less placeholder graphics and more descriptive wine tasting.

As a rock climber I've often contemplated the idea of making a game out of climbing, but my conclusion has always been "it miiiiight be possible, but I can't see how to make it not suck".  Your stuff is looking great though, I'm gearing up to be proved completely wrong 

It isn't really the time nor place here at the moment (nearly the middle of a hot summer day), but I really like what you've done nonetheless.

I like the gritty high contrast pixels, they look like they come from a different age.

It's hard to give much feedback/advice without seeing a bit more of it, do you have a work in progress build you could share?

I like the idea of 'upgrades' being named individuals, it sounds like there will be combat in the game, it might be neat if they also act as your 'lives.

Just realised I haven't left a note on this despite following it eagerly.

This is cute quick and compelling, perfect flash game fodder really.  The new creature types are good (I was worried having more might dilute the experience, but thankfully not), as are the slicker graphics.

I'm sure you know this already but it could really do with a decent sountrack.  Also, sound wise I noticed occasional bleeps, that I *think* had something to do with my elapsed time, but I've no idea what.  Mostly they just distracted me.

Making pretty good progress I think.  My (rather simple) core mechanics are now in (though perhaps shy a little tweaking), and I've made a start on the proper level design.

I've updated the build.  If you hit a "NO" screen it just means I've not developed that bit yet, there's only 6 or so of the 34 planned screens.  Oh, and try pressing 'm', it's kinda cool.

Increpare: I think I found the reason that you were falling off platforms too easily:

There was a bit of a bug in my platforming logic that meant that it could be up to 3 (randomly) logic frames after pressing jump before the jump begins.  Which meant you could travel nearly half a square before the jump kicks in, not great!

I've fixed it now.  Thanks again for mentioning it, I'd have been unlikely to look otherwise.

It's worth noting that whilst nicely configurable keys are ideal:

• Choosing good default settings is still very important.
• It is possible to bind arrow keys + wsad + z/x/c + ctrl/alt/delete without overlapping.  If you're making something small that you want people to be able to just pick up and play it's a good option.

I find myself falling off platforms a lot when I mean to jump.  Maybe that's just me.

Hmm, that's a little concerning.  Presumably you mean that it feels like you pressed jump before reaching the edge, but fell instead?  I can think of one or two things that might be able to tweak to improve the feel here, but it may not help.  Will have a look anyway, thanks for the pointer.

Oh, please don't "fix" the flailing! I assumed it was intentional. It's very charming.

Hah, okay, it stays (unless I come up with something better later).

I don't understand what Nugsy means by filling the screen with blocks, can you create blocks?

My original build had my development tilemap prodding 'tool' in.  I like to make levels in-engine wherever possible, because of the instant feedback.  It's disabled now.

I only managed to explore for a few screens before having to stop because I couldn't jump high enough.

Fun to explore the larger space as well.

Yep, there's only a handful of screens in this build, and they're just placeholder tests.  There'll be a *lot* more before I'm done (I really enjoy level design).

Thanks for all the feedback all!

Hah, yes. The flailing was something I'd meant to fix at some point, but it's been growing on me

Glad you like the jump feel, I'm a lot happier with this revised version, but it's so hard to judge these things without feedback.

HybridMind: Thanks for the point about sluggishness, you were definitely right.