For me it would be to set reasonable expectations, break it down in mechanics and find ways to make these mechanics work.

That's what I'm doing now, and despite relying heavily on people and forums to find how to do stuff, it kinda works ^^

I just tried again, and I like it, though I still things it takes too long to get back to the action once you know the interesting stuff happens down there.

I only got bad potions in chests, I may be unlucky, but after that just i just avoided them altogether.

I would think it doesn't need to have a specific button to press to open a chest though, if you made the effort to land on something, you certainly want to interact with it, maybe after a one second wait or something like that.

Aaand I would prefer to play with the arrows rather than WASD, because one of my computers got a AZERTY keyboard.

I like the dynamic of the game, all this bounciness and the explosions... not sold on the character design though.

I guess there will be some pokemonesque evolving involved?

I'm not a big fan of the shoot'em'up parts (partly due to my lack of skills in playing them), but these platforming sections are gorgeous!

Ethan I actually do have some parallax on the latest backgrounds, but I could cut some back trees and give them some as well. I'm trying to fake a touch zoom-in/zoom out with mouse to test all these!

Wrangler Thanks! I wouldn't hope to see the finished product anytime soon, but I hope to have a demo within these few months ^^

— Thanks!I really like what you have going on Trambo, and great poster/box art!

No much progress these days as I just moved house, but I'll work on making all these fancy touch controls work soon:

ap/click on environment: walk to area/ pick up character or object

Tap/click on character/object: pick up character or object

Tap/click on player: drop pick ups

Double tap/click: skip to area/pick up character or object

Pinch in/out: zoom or dezoom the view (20 to 100%)

Hold tap/click: pan

Hold tap/click on player: slowly bring in menu (like S&S sworcery power) with the following:

-     Save

-     Load

-     Hints

-     Collectibles

-     Options

-     Quit

Players tap the extremity of a scene to proceed to the next one.

Players can take two items at a time in hands and will combine them automatically, but are limited to the area they found it in. They drop all objects and character they picked before leaving an area.

Items are too heavy to be brought along by the character and will be let on the ground before leaving the area.

Players can take the hand of a character to bring them somewhere and have them interact with the environment or other characters. Some characters may refuse to be taken or can disturb puzzles.

So far I quite like it, but I was surprised by the height limit and didn't know I could die of height.

I wish I could see when I jump too high, like screen flash, pain sound, change of fall animation or something to tell me 'this one was near death, careful' so I can get an idea of the safe height.

It's fun, but it takes way too long to get to the first spikes and enemies, I don't feel like restarting because I have to cross the empty section again ... I got more fun trying to dodge platforms in free fall to my death than going slowly and carefully, maybe a power up could allow that? Or another game mode?

When I see the mushrooms I kind of expected I would have to climb back up later.

Other colours than purple would be nice after a while.

goyo666 Thanks! I checked your game and quite like it, i'll write some feedback later on!

<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61894646/soothtest3.gif" border="0" />

Now with light effects, slight blur and PARTICLES!

It moves! It moooooves!

<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61894646/soothtest2.gif" border="0" />

And that's all for now, back to paid work.

<img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61894646/soothtest2.gif" border="0" />

Pathfinding + layer change test

spongehammer, ethan: Thanks a lot! I'm putting a devlog here because after my first few tries I think I will need A LOT of help in making things work.

Ashley: Understand, slicing makes no difference and I'm glad it doesn't, i'll go for big images!

Aphrodite: I don't really get it, you mean it won't work when exported? I'm trying to estimate the final resolution of characters on screen to be able to know what sizes my limbs should be in .png for Spriter... (and I hope I make sense ^^)