In the event that someone cares, I'll outline my plan. For each of the 7 stages, I'll first do a quick and dirty (aka beta) run to get familiar with the level. After that, I'll do a polished run with either frame-advance or 3-6% speed.
Edit: The final version of the first stage is
done. I would appreciate comments on what I've got so far.
Some important notes on the game include:
* I can't dash at any given frame. I sometimes have to wait 2-4 frames, so it will look imprecise. It's not.
* Falling from a running jump preserves momentum, whereas falling from a dash or a volteccer (bouncy ball) doesn't.
* Running is slower than dashing, but only by about 18%. Running and jumping off a ledge is faster than dashing off, if the fall is long enough.
Edit2: I'm calling this the beta run now. I'm seeing several places that could possibly be optimized, and I can't conclusively tell myself that the optimizations wouldn't work. I'm also learning that frame-advance, while an excellent tool, is neither necessary nor sufficient for making a solid movie.