I'm sad I haven't updated more. I got busy and also lost some motivation. I think I'm back on track though! Gosh, looking back on my last update I realize I've made a lot more progress than I realized.
Ladybug got a sprite upgrade, complete with shading and animation! Bush got a downgrade. I needed the bushes to extend in any direction and I couldn't make it work with the pretty sprite I made. I ended up with a functional but unshaded bush sprite. So sad. Hopefully I can restore bush to its former glory... soon. I also made a really ugly background that (god willing) will be replaced by the next update.
I set up some tutorial levels and even made some text boxes to explain the controls. They size themselves! I'm very proud. Also, if you finish a level you now actually go to the next level.
Pictured below: Sad bush.
Final problem for this update: I own the version of gamemaker that will only export to mac, and apparently you can only distribute mac applications if you pay Apple $100, which I'm not doing this week. I basically can't publish my game, oops! Alaris is going to try to help me out with a windows export. What an angel.
Goals now are: design some interesting levels and make a stick sprite.