Not heard of Cave Story, searched, looks cool. However with modern pixel art games, I think 'Sword and Sworcery' is the best.

Cheers Wormers,

Jengu. - Interesting with shoppers how there's this tall maze like style or the older flatter city style. Both are great, not sure if they can be merged to create something. Seems to be choose one or the other. Using square-ish dimensions and then building on a slim tiered structure could work well.

Korydex - yeah I kind of agree, but old shopper format has been completed mapmaking. Might go for 6666 vibes.

Also thinking it needs a stricter colour scheme, but wanted that early original team17 cartoony style whilst keeping straight edges for layout.