[Challenge?] Twisty Little Passages

This looks really good. I love how you've combined those tilesets. It's coolio.

This looks really good. I love how you've combined those tilesets. It's coolio.

I suppose that's what I was trying to say.

Holy~!
This is epic win in so many different ways!

Would it bother you if I asked you to be a level designer for my games in future? :3

Once again, a general thanks to everybody for the comments!

I've been a little gummed up on one section of the level (so... many... shifts...), but I wanted to send out a few more screen shots for anybody who was interested.

But first:

@Dragon MC: If you like the level enough that you want me to design something for you some time, just say the word -- countless side projects FTW!

@shawnachu: I might wind up using a couple of custom tilesets before I'm through. I don't like the look of the gray claws in the lava area from the first batch of screenshots, so I might use something custom there, and in some spots I'm finding I want bits and pieces from more than 2 tilesets, so I may make a couple of custom mash-ups.

Also, I figure it's good to share design ideas and motivations, so I wrote up an article about the reasons why I built the first few screens the way I did. It's a long article and I wouldn't fault anyone for not reading it, but if anybody is up for it and finds it useful or interesting (or useless and boring, for that matter), I'd be glad for any comments about it. The article is at my blog (linked in my sig).

Ok, on to the screens:
#1 - A straightforward but spikey jumping challenge
#2 - The east side of the summit of the mountain; this is above the entrance to ruins from the last batch of screens
#3 - The volcanic craig that explains why the ice in the previous shot is melting
#4 - Part of the broken ruins that runs through the volcanic caves

Cool, cool, cool!

Keep it up.

EDIT: I'm reading your blog post now. I'm at screen 5.
If you want to provide continuity on a smaller scale, keep the backdrops consistent in the transition between screens. That is, if you have a certain background on the left side of one screen, it "feels" better if you have the same type of background on the right side of the next screen, with some form of transition if you want to change backdrops.
What I mean: Between screens 4 and 5, the background immediately shifts from a very dark background to a very light one, which is a little disconcerting. Instead, you could have the same dark backdrop from screen 4 on one column of background tiles in screen 5, and then some sort of shift. (Here is where diagonal tiles come in really useful: to make a good transition.)