Zaphos: I'm rather certain that I've failed to correctly explain my way of doing things, because we seem to be in agreement and yet we are arguing.

Let me try again: when I say a 2x2 group of pixels with the same properties, I mean they can have different colors but the share the same physical property. As long as one pixel is solid, the whole thing is solid. Almost like... an annotation?

High level art: Regardless of the method you use, you'll need some way to specify the physical properties of regions when drawing the map. No different here, and no impact on the artist.

Post-processing and RAM: I can't think of how to explain what I mean. Let me ask you this: why is it important to match the resolution of the physical properties to the screen resolution? If an area of map has 800x600 discrete physical areas per level, why add 4x more if the game has a display resolution of 1600x1200? Just have mini-tiles of 2x2 instead... no one will notice any difference, except that pathfinding becomes computationally feasible. It doesn't add that much more complexity to the program.

Of course, if you don't need pathfinding, it doesn't matter much either way. Age of Invasion didn't have any pathfinding, the creatures would just bump against obstacles like flies against a window.

True, it took me a lot of time to code something like that, and I didn't finish it yet.

That's a lot of work, motivation decreases when you see a lot of work to do.
Two coders seems to be a better idea IMHO.

Looks great! I think its a great idea. Simple rectangle or polygon collisions would be pretty simple. And scrolling memory bitmaps shouldn't be that hard as long as you have hardware acceleration. I don't think I would have enough time to help out but if you need some sound effects or mp3/ogg/wav music I might be able to help.

And as for the download size you could always offer the main binary and then each level as a separate download. You could also offer different qualities like one thats jpg compressed and one that is compressed in a nice .dat or png. That way everybody could play.

[edit]
As for tiles and such... Use both. Have areas that are tiles or simply use variable sized tiles.

hehe. Coders squared or square coders?

I like the episode idea.

As far as number of coders, I think once my final desision is made I will ask my primary pick if he would like to work with anyone else and go from there.

Bernardo - I saw some of your other posts and it looks like you have done things like this before with your adventure game. Thanks for your support

Bernardo, you are my final pick if you want to do it! Thank you all for participating. Bernardo, I still have some work to do on the first map. I should have it done this weekend along with some character animations. I will send you a Personal Message with my email address right after I am done posting this. I will leave it to your digression if you would like to add another coder to the group.

Sincerely,

Kinglith

Dustin,

I am flattered that you ask but Bernardo and I are going to be very busy working on Luna for quite some time. Thanks for considering me for the task however.

Again thank you all for partisipating. I will be sure to spread the word arround deviant art that this is a great place to meet coders. Take care you guys! cya

DD: Maybe he's gone to the world cup?

I'm surely looking forward to it.

I am flattered that you ask but Bernardo and I are going to be very busy working on Luna for quite some time. We are already making great progress >.<