As a broke-ass indie hobbyist, I can't afford much more than "free" for costs.  I don't kid myself by even hinting at a "rev-share" deal, either.  Maybe if one of my projects goes viral like Flappy Bird, I'd then be in a position to pay for a professional composer.  Until then, let me answer your last question.

I go to find composers in the Indie Dev forums like this site.  I am also active in the www.gamedev.net forums.  They have an actual Classifieds section where Indies of assorted talents can go to find work or advertise themselves.  That's where I pulled together a small team for Super Gunball. (Shameless plug.)  Likewise, I hit up some sub-Reddits like r/gamemaker, r/gamedevclassifieds, and r/IndieGaming/ (and others) to find like minded people with which I could work.  In the end, I got lucky and wound up with a composer/artist about to start college looking to get his name in the credits for anything.  If nothing else, he does have a freely accessible "demo" of the game with his name in the credits now as the music/soundFX guy he can show as an example of his work.

My advice is to cast a wide net and get involved in as many communities as you have time to cultivate.  You can't rely on people coming to you even after you get noticed and have some experience.  I mean really... off the top of your head, who knows the name of the guy that wrote the Mario theme? (OK. You composers might have already known, but I had to look it up!)  If the name came up in casual conversation, I'd bet 90% of the Indie Devs out there wouldn't recognize it right away.  That's not to say that game composers can't get famous, they just aren't usually the face person of the development group.

tl;dr: Look for work where devs hang out.  You have to go to them.  Those places (AFAIK) are this site, Reddit, Gamedev.net, GameMaker forums, RPG Maker forums, Unity forums, TWINE forums, any other game engine forums...

Good list.  I'm just commenting here as a bookmark in case more good advice follows.

Very good discussion.  I like the thoughts being expressed here.  I have nothing of value to add with this post except to make it easier for me to check if there are any more replies.  Carry on!

I've mulled about this concept for a while in a game setting as well.  All my thoughts have flaws to them, but the "next-of-kin" concept always sounded best for me.  Perhaps having a family mausoleum which securely holds the remains and possessions of the fallen heroes would be a believable game mechanic.  The new hero can go to the graveyard and gear up with whatever was on the fallen heroes (plural) of his (her) family that adventured before them.  With a gear-based progression model, this would allow for most of the player's progress on the previous character to not be in vain.

But I also enjoy a good "fake challenge" story spectacle like Mass Effect or Half Life 2 from time to time, where my brain can go on autopilot.

I'm like that too, where you just get to play a part in an interactive movie.  It has its place, even if it's not very challenging overall.

Like right now, I'm re-playing DungeonKeeper since I got it on sale at GOG last week.  Not always challenging, but time consuming.  Except one level where I got my a$$ handed to me several times in a row before I developed a winning strategy.  Soooooo satisfying to eventually beat that level and move on...

Some games like Golden Axe or Double Dragon, they don't have jumping...

Yes they do.  It's required to progress through the levels in places.  And attacking while jumping is also present.

In that case, are there any beat-em-ups without jumping?

It took me a while, but the only one I can think of is Urban Champion for the NES.  It sucked.

Some games like Golden Axe or Double Dragon, they don't have jumping...

Yes they do.  It's required to progress through the levels in places.  And attacking while jumping is also present.  To get back to the main point, I think a fighting game without jumping would be very difficult to design.  One question alone makes the point: How would one be able to attack high while not being always susceptible to a sweep attack?  Without jumping, I'd say most of the fights would wind up "turtling" in a crouched position.  Jump, Stand, Crouch is the paper-scissors-rock of fighting games. (OK. Not always, but you can see the point, right?)  You can't play without the paper.

(I come from a time tutorials didn't exist, and of course nobody would read the manuals, assuming one even got those ).

I'm old-school like that too!  But I always read the manuals and still do.  Usually in the car on the way home from the store.   I'd like to know how the game is played BEFORE picking up the controller.  manuals packaged with the game are fair-use knowledge and often gave backstory to the game, helping with the immersiveness.  Conversely, I consider step-by-step strategy guides as cheating unless you've beaten the game without them at least once.  Then they serve to fill in the missing content.

(snip)
Just a bit of history inserted into the thread.

Thanks.  That explains a lot.  I'm not a history buff at all.  I kinda hated my history classes growing up.  I just don't have a head for past events that I wasn't there for.

I was always a fan of laserdisc games. 
Some used 3D polygons like

.

I also liked the 3D play of

.

I have held a long-standing theory of "that idea's time has come".  This means that if you don't move on making whatever great idea you just had a reality, someone else will without you.  This is not idea stealing, but more like tapping into the "collective creative consciousness".  Lord knows how many times I've seen something and said, "I thought of that!" But I did not have the time/money/skills/motivation to make it happen.  I know it's meta thinking, but I seriously believe that if you don't take the risk and trust some people to help you out sooner rather than later, the idea will make itself known to another that might just have what it takes to bring it to reality.

The bottom line is that you are going to have to trust somebody sometime.  Take the (near nil) risk of your idea being "stolen".  I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

No, I'm not a smoker of anything...  just weird, I guess.

[Octo]

And shouldn't October be the 8th month?  Swap with August already!  Nobody will notice...

Seriously though...  I like the right pic better, but perhaps a Cthulhu-like head on a stick would be more clear.

Thanks for the tip!  It looks like common sense once it's spelled out, but I bet I'd have made the same mistake in about a month.  I need to get it all planned out.

That photo was taken back before the world was in color.  Everything was in black/white/grayscale. 
(I wish I made that up.  Here's the inspiration for the post.)

On page 447 of The Obligatory Introduce Yourself Thread, Chrome threw up a warning page about some embedded malware on that page.  Page 446 works just fine without any warnings.  I don't know where else to post this, so I'm posting it here to get noticed since that other thread is stickied at the top of this category.  I just thought everyone should know.

There is, but it's a pain in the butt.  I'm assuming here, but I'd wager that you have all the default UDK mesh packs loaded into the install.  If you made backups of the mesh packs so you don't lose them, you can then go through the packs that are included in the install and cull the meshes that aren't being actively used in the game.  Same goes for all the other assets like unused skins and sounds being included with the download.  Like I said, though... it's a pain in the butt.  Very tedious.

It's a start.  Metroidvania style games are a favorite of mine.  I'll be back from time to time to see how things are going.

Flashy.  It certainly has a lot of eye-candy.  I like the idea of customization, too.  Does it come in multiplayer?  I prefer to play games like this in co-op mode.

Sweet homage!  I'm a TRON fan/developer too.  (Google: Tron User Error)  I'll be sire to tell the fellas at www.LDSO.net about this gem.  You might even want to post about it on www.tron-sector.com.  You'll definitely get a lot of fan plays from that crowd.  It's a good community.

EDIT:  Link was broken.  Now it works.

I played it, but it's not much of a game as it is interactive art.  I am a naturally optimistic person and got to day 10 before I realized that the game only progress through negativity.  In fact, There is a point early on that will not even ACCEPT positive answers if you are someone who can naturally cope with loss.  So, lacking the ability to control the "player" aside from watching the decent into oblivion and reading the scenes as they triggered, I realized this "game" for what it is: expressive art.  Sorry about your loss.

Now for what you asked: palette, music, ending, text, etc...   Your art stands on its own just fine for what it is.  Those that will get it will get it. Those that won't won't.  Or to borrow the theme from the game itself: it doesn't really matter, does it?

Good luck with your future efforts.