Much better. I'm not a fan of either of the wall colors, but in general the new version is way cooler.

Awesome thanks! Ya, currently only the green is in the game, but will probably replace that color as well soon. Also they will have a little more shape and detail. The idea is that you will have a clean and a decayed version of each theme so you can choose what type of experience to create.  

Here is the new teleport pad art. Hope you like:

OK. New update. For now we are going with fitting the walls in two 32x32 pieces (top and bottom) with no overlap. Here is a shot with a second player sprite and some decayed versions of the sci-fi theme map tiles so you can make a ruined area. Let us know what you think!




Also a new player sprite (in addition to Modok, we will have lots of player sprites to choose from)

It seems you need more contrast between the font and the background from middle upwards. Easy way is outline it in a dark colour picked from the image so it pops or darken the orange a lot more. More than 1 px, I used 3.

Cool background by Alicecomma

...one big question: Would having a well-done mockup by an actual artist actually help me with the art for the game?

What do you think, can a non-artist like me effectively use a professionally done mockup to elevate the art in the game?

My suggestion is for you to just make the game fully with your own art. Look at other examples to learn from. Learn how to make repeating elements for tiling. Look at the way others do trees. Choose colours from other games pallettes. Learn about visual hierarchy using saturation colour and value with regards to players vs background elements to make players pop. This will help you learn. Then, if your game prototype is fun and people enjoy playing, you can think about getting a mockup made based on your art and go from there. AT the end of the day, its about making a fun game, not the art so you need to get to that point first.

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Another attempt, this time the green set on the top right side of the map. We've done away with any overlap of the tops of wall tiles and made all wall pieces fit into 32x32 (bottom top and middle).

Dark purple set on the top left and bottom right are the older walls with overlap. Those were 32x48. Its definitely easier to fit everything into 32x32 and also more intuitive for placing.

The orange set on the bottom left are ancient and will be removed.

My brain is fried.

LARGE

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Is that MODOK?

Haha, it was inspired by MODOK for sure, although I changed it a bit ;p Glad you recognized it!  Beer! For some player character avatars I like to borrow from popular culture or reference some of the cooler stuff a lot of us like.

The animated guy looked pretty good although I thought the animation looked more like the guy was skiing, snowshoe-ing or speed skating.
As for the initial look.
I'd suggest paying an artist to do a simple mockup based on your designs. There are tons of fantastic artists on deviant art or other pixel art sites where you could post on the job thread to get quotes. Having someone design a simple mockup like you did will help you a lot since you can then cut up those elements and reuse them fully for your prototype. (I am taking 50-100 bucks here nothing that would break the bank).
If this is simply not an option then I suggest studying all the threads where they talk about game art esp stuff regarding colour wheel.
The beauty of programmer art is that people don't expect it to be great, but if you try to make something look "OK" it can really turn people off.

This is in-game but its essentially mock-up art. Looking for any feedback at all. Its a sci-fi themed "room."

Promising game, was fun and required some thought. As others have said this is a puzzle game not a platformer. I would not call it a side-scroller either really. Its a puzzle game where you need to get from point A to B. Great mechanics.

Difficulty of initial levels are perfect for learning how to play. Retention will depend on the challenge and strategy for later levels. 

The downward movement speed for the movement column at the end of level 3 was very slow and annoying in that I had to switch/click about 10 times to get down to the end point by small increments.

The "collectibles" are distracting in their current implementation and imo not needed. I would suggest removing them unless you manage to add a more engaging challenge to get them that does not consist of just more back and forth clicking.

You might want to consider taps/clicks as a resource at some point or counting them as a means for scoring a level i.e. star rating system for each stage.

Lastly I suggest paying an artist to do some lvl mockups for you that you can cut up and implement. The game is fun and good art will  help get people to try it. Nice work 

I'm making a simple runner game where the key is that a character will jump when you press on the screen, but when you let go of the screen, another character jumps. I'm thinking of giving it a 'programme' look. You know, 0's and 1's. That stuff.

How does 'On_Release()' work as a name? I thought that having slightly weird characters in the title would make it easier to find. Am I wrong?

Having those characters in your game will not conform to most naming rules for any website or store. Never have those in your name. What about "I jump, They jump" as an example. Simple and straightforward and tells the player what they will be doing.

Our game will be an evil mansion management game...

Whats wrong with "Evil Mansion"? or "Hotel Hell" etc names that evoke the core of the game.

reminds me of ventrillo guild rooms playing wow back in the day. Was cool to log in and just hang out and chat while doing stuff. Having screen share is even cooler with peeps working on stuff.

...passion to play game is different with passion to make game...

This is very important. Making a game is very different. Try keeping the passion going after being in 3 years of development hell. That will separate those with passion for game making from the posers. I work on games for my day job and then at night I continue working on my own stuff. I have to tear myself away in order to have a life and I seldom have time for playing games anymore (I try to play at least a little when possible). So yes, I think you can passionately dev games even if you aren't playing a ton of other people's games.

For my personal projects I met my coder/partner at a skills-swap (was for procedural generation in Unity) held at George Brown college here in Toronto (in other words go where other game devs hang out - IGDA, schools with game design programs etc). For my day job a friend from way back was doing service work for broadcasters, we ran into each others and I interned for his company while in school.
Best way is to get involved in the community in your city (if you are lucky enough to have one). Good luck!

Here is a zoom of Mowdok;p