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So far, the only problem I've noticed is the player character sliding across the ground after a jump attack - which is a fairly small issue. But...

There were already a lot of problems with some of my foundation, so I planned to recreate portions of it anyway. I started working on this as a fairly inexperienced developer, and much of that is evident in my early code. The Player's collision system is outright broken in every demo, so it might benefit from a clean slate without the rest of the game system's baggage cluttering things. The Classicvania collision system is very complicated because it uses various different collision points across different player states, and editing that has always been very messy.

Fortunately, I can always refer to the original code, so it's not all gone. This project was already more ambitious than something a first-time developer should've taken on, and with how few people actually care about the game, I don't think too much of value is being lost.

Thank you for the feedback. I recently updated GameMaker (v2022.5.0.8 to 2024.14.1.212), and that resulted in a few things breaking. So, IF I continue developing with the most recent update, I'll probably end up recreating the engine, so I wouldn't expect an update to the demo any time soon unless there's a major reason to.

• The Subweapon design approach takes more inspiration from Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, in which sub-weapons have different costs -- while also allowing the cheap cost of the knife to be a selling point. But finding the right balance for resource availability has been a consistent challenge - I am cautious about making them too plentiful, but I might also use them more conservatively than many other players do, making it much harder to balance.
• The Rope Section is only as challenging as it is because the reward for completion is a bonus upgrade. The caverns were originally intended to feature more ropes across the entire level, but they were cut, so the bonus area's concentrated challenge feels much more abrupt as a result. The real purpose of this challenge was to create novelty by dis-empowering the player and making the challenge about navigation rather than combat, as most of the game is otherwise a "hold right and press attack" experience. 
• The Demoness is consistent with CV1's Axe Armor (the blueprint; and their attacks were immediate). But I DO plan to improve this in the future, I was just trying to keep the scope simpler for now. But as a tip, you can dodge the high attack by crouching, making them easier to deal with. 
• The Cheap Shot room background was previously more detailed, but later intentionally simplified so that it was easier to see the enemy on the black background before it jumps. But it is an understandably unsatisfying obstacle I should reconsider in the future.
• The "Four Demoness" room spawns them infinitely to be evocative of the Death Hallway in CV1. It is meant to be hard, so there is a checkpoint before it. One of the problems I've dealt with is that Elayne is far more powerful & versatile than the classic CV Hero, so there's definitely a bit of power-creep with some of these encounter designs.
• I assume this problem with the Bone Pillar is occurring in a room near the end of the castle? Definitely an oversight, but I can see it. My apologies.
• The final Castle Level has many minor checkpoints, usually only a few rooms apart. Perhaps they were not being triggered for some reason. Unless you are referring to the major checkpoint locations you respawn at after losing ALL of your lives
• There wasn't a natural place to include the Motorcycle Skeletons in the current castle design, but I'm glad I managed to squeeze them in before the end.

Game development, like any art, is an iterative process. So more features can always be added in the future. But I can see how that might feel less natural for a board game, as they don't necessarily get "sequels."

I'm using GameMaker as the IDE, but I'm building the engine responsible for the gameplay. My engine does have a lot of little issues with it, so I should probably rebuild it from scratch for a potential sequel. So I might rush the project out of development hell so that I can move on to the next project that's built better from the ground up, so the next "demo" might just be the "final" product.

Elayne:

I'm squeezing out one extra colour than is typical, but I don't want to push it too far - as adherence to the NES visual style is important to me. Small details, like her bite marks, are impossible to represent on the sprite, however - they're too small in reality, but would appear almost as large as her eyes when drawn on the player sprite. These details can be better showcased via in-game illustrations, but I haven't been focusing on them since they're not related to gameplay. Any major changes in the sprite design will otherwise have to wait for a potential sequel - as was the norm for NES games. Even Mario's character changed drastically from SMB1 and SMB2.

As for her controls, she does have some differences - some of which you even pointed out. She moves faster than the classic vampire hunters, especially up stairs. She also carries 2 sub-weapons instead of 1, highlighting her greater versatility compared to the classic heroes. 

I have, however, considered adding other abilities in the future (all of which you mentioned): wall jumps, shorter sword attacks, and an extra "power" player state, etc. But none of these are absolutely essential, and will likely wait until a sequel to be implemented. Many of these would affect gameplay balance - like wall jumps, which can break the level design if it's not planned around. I'm also interested in adding a system like "rings" in Elden Ring or the "badges" in Mario Wonder, where you can equip different skills to modify the character a bit, while ensuring the player doesn't have access to too many at once. But again - potential sequel.

Stairs:

Elayne's speed is 1.2 when grounded, but 1 when on stairs - so she is technically moving slower. But unlike the classic games, her speed is much smoother when on the stairs, whereas the classic games would have the hero stop moving after every step - which is likely the biggest reason for why she doesn't feel so slowed. This is done for four primary reasons.

1. I think the smoother movement feels great. This is also something that the "Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon" games do.
2. It helps to better communicate the character's general speed and self-control despite the "stiffness" of a CV-like. She's faster than the heavy Classicvania heroes, coming a little closer to the more OP Metroidvania heroes (who move up stairs much faster too).  
3. It makes stairs feel a bit less scary to less-experienced players by giving them extra control (while still being forced to the other limitations of the stairs), and allows me to use stairs much more often in the level design without it slowing the game down too much.
4. The distance traveled on stairs is 1px per frame (both vertically & horizontally). I do not want to introduce sub-pixel movement while on stairs.

I may choose to allow an optional upgrade (in a potential sequel) that allows players to jump on/off stairs, but that is not essential. I don't like how this lets players skip interacting with stairs, but many players ARE fond of this ability. The biggest barrier to implementing this is: stairs aren't physical objects in the world, but a change in player state... So I'll have to do a bunch of math to determine when the player should be able to land on a staircase mid-jump (a lot of work).

Goals:

The current goal is simple: I'm just trying to make something that could have conceivably been made on the NES - a fairly standard platformer. This is my first game, so I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible and avoid scope creep. That means there won't be too many systems or narrative elements in this first game.

I may broaden the scope into a more open world environment in the future, though perhaps much closer to a Zelda 1-2. I do not plan to incorporate elements like unlocking new navigation abilities (like double jumps) or RPG systems that encourage/require grinding stats, as I prefer the moment-to-moment gameplay feel of the Classicvanias over the Igavania titles. Larger design scopes like that can wait until after I've developed a working engine, however - then I can iterate over time.

Response:

Thank you for your time, I appreciate receiving your thoughts and feedback. It was very important that I made a game that feels evocative of the original CV games, while still reducing some of the friction those games offered to less enthusiastic players. Elayne is little more resourceful and quicker than those classic heroes, and that extra empowerment should feel good to players while still preserving elements like the fixed jump arc and what not. I think the game's a little too boring right now though, so I definitely need a little bit more friction and reasons to encourage players to think and make mechanically interesting decisions. Currently, you can just walk right and whip for long stretches of time without much issue. 

Re: Positives

• Sub-Weapons: I was recently considering this sub-weapon drop feature, but worried it would make what is already an easy game even easier. With players having two slots, picking up the "wrong" sub-weapon is much less of an issue, and there's already not a lot of diverse sub-weapons to begin with. I'm still thinking about it, but I think it will largely depend on the game's overall balance and sub-weapon variety. 
• Falling off Stairs Immersion: Mostly a coincidence, haha. You just happened to fall into a teleport zone overlapping the stairs, so it won't always occur.
• Cross MP Gain: This is inspired by Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon's take on the weapon. I don't use it often, but it's a cool detail.
• Skeletons on Motorcycles: !!!

Re: Negatives

• Lack of Music: I have, unfortunately, not been able to dedicate enough time to learning music. It's difficult to accumulate those skills, many online resources aren't very ideal for learning, and it's difficult to find free music that fits the desired tone. Unfortunately, this is one of the biggest obstacles for me to overcome as a solo developer.
• Sub-Weapon Button: I had no plans to include this (Up + Attack) because I always found it to be an unwieldy limitation from the earlier games. I also suspect most prefer having a dedicated button. Perhaps there can one day be an optional toggle if I don't need the command for anything else, like whipping upwards.
• Invisible Floor: These pitfalls are actually communicated and reward observation, but I think I can still do a better job with them (hence why they are harmless in the demo). I feel they were one of the more cool elements of Simon's Quest, but that game never made them very interesting or fun.
• Waterfalls: There are actually two different routes in the level connected to the waterfalls, but this is largely just a gimmick to feature more diverse room designs and a way to experiment with a more open-ended level without going full-on Metroidvania. I wouldn't expect it to happen too frequently, but I am mindful of the potential problem in future level design. The basement route is pretty easy to breeze through though (it's also very pretty if you haven't seen it yet).

Re: Extra:

• Unlimited Lives: Whether I include something like this will likely depend on how difficult or engaging the overall experience is. Still, I'm going to save that for a time after the "engine" is finished, as that's definitely an easier decision to make once there's an actual game to consider.
• Non-linear: A more open world approach is being actively considered, but it will be further down the line. I'm sticking to the scope of a more linear game to keep the first project easier to work within. I don't know if I'd feature very many RPG mechanics though because that can lead to numbers and bloat and stuff.

I did initially plan to include one (that fourth screenshot), but I soon learned bosses are quite challenging to design since you can't just create behavior and drop them in a level - you actually have to create an entire puzzle and sequence of events around them within a specific space, so it was much harder to squeeze into the final month of development. 

Unfortunately, I don't think I can really afford to work on a game that isn't helping to pay my bills, so it actually might be a while before there is any meaningful update like a boss. Therefore, a boss might not be the next thing I focus on - as it might be more efficient to work on other features that are smaller in scope so that I can accomplish more within a specific period of time. I'll have to think about what's next on the agenda when time permits.

That's less likely. The protagonist, despite their rather revealing choice of apparel, does not have any active interest in sex. This is a generally consistent aspect across her various portrayals within my larger body of work. She is more likely to be the unwilling receiver of sexual activity (as is typically the case for game overs), or such scenes would instead focus on other characters in the setting (in which case, those other characters would more likely provide that specific fetish of becoming a futa and then engaging in sex with a guy).

The setting of Elayne Beaumont does feature sexual content in its general tone and lore, so it may one day include sex scenes. However, it is not a primary goal that I am focusing on right now, and if it does ever feature sex scenes, I don't know to what degree that will be -- it may not be at the same level you'd find in porn games, and thus may not be strictly treated as a goal or collectible as is often the case in those games. I'm still early in development, so I haven't properly decided on that aspect.

However, if sex scenes are eventually included - futa is very likely something I would feature.

The player's score is already being tracked internally with every kill and money bag acquired, so it is something I've planned. I'm not sure if it would be anything more than a method to simply gain more lives. But since the demo does not feature a lives system, I didn't feel a need to showcase the score for now. I have no plans to have an RPG level-up system along the lines of Simon's Quest or Adventure of Link - as EXP-based level means that balancing the game could be trickier and may encourage grinding (which I'm not a general fan of).

But I do plan to feature a wide variety of other kinds of features that are not currently expressed in the demo. My general inclination is towards features that can provide intrinsic value, like certain types of collectibles that expand the world or provide more diverse content and promote exploration -- but I don't want to get ahead of myself with how early in development I am. Just starting small for now.

The narrative approach is handled differently, but I did create another story in this setting a few months ago. Might be within your interests.

https://brellom.itch.io/beaumont-short-wet-woman

Ideally, yes. I would like it if there was more to read. I don't know exactly when that might be though.