Well I played around with the new GM 7 with project C.O.W., and although I know the beta has some kinks to it, it seemed like a good transition to make when it comes out. So I'm putting the project on the backburner until its release and plan to rebuild it from the ground up for its beta phase.

Until then I have begun a new project. Its your basic side-scroller ship shoot-em-up game with some(I think) nice graphics. It'll have your basic enviroments, space, inside battleships, on planet surfaces and in cities/complexes. You'll gain cash for your kills and the ability to purchase upgrades. Also enemy ships and units will occasionaly drop crates containing either money or weaponry enhancements. So its nothing really new but it looks to be a fun project and hopefully will take little time and coding to fully complete.

Right now I'm working out my tilemaps as I've already made the player's ship. Using photoshop I created a template system which will involve just the use of simple outlines and solid colors with layer modifactions at high resolutions and then shrink them down and sharpen them up.

Heres a screenshot.