I'm looking forward to playing this.
But, there are some minor flaws.
Enemies barely pop.
Especially in 6th picture, since background palettes use green and gray, not unlike the sprite palette.
Also, I've seen a video of gameplay on youtube before, and it seems to lack variation.
Most of the rooms of that stage look pretty much the same, only differentiated by room layout.
Hopefully you understand what I mean, as I can't explain it any better.
Now about Optomon, I'm not sure if Pyronaut is still on hold, he mentioned that he and Mr. Tee will work on few smaller scale projects and then continue to work on it.
I don't think that he has actually said anything about what those projects were or are they finished. (Though I'm assuming he was referring to Rogue dawn.)
He does appear in Romhacking forums, albeit rarely(think something like post per month).
Though, if you really want to know what he's currently doing I guess you're better of asking him,(I don't like contacting people out of nowhere, but as far as I know he does reply to most of the people... eventually) or Googie(I heard the 2 are friends for quite some time).