A Jamaican highschool student! Wow
I'm glad to hear you'll be joining us here, as most of us are programmers C/C++ is incredibly useful these days, but learning to code simple things in BASIC and AXE on your TI-84 (if you decide to) is a tremendous help for gearing your brain towards logic and all that fun math you'll have to do in getting your programs to work.
Best of luck, and welcome to the community!

3. I Wanna Be the Guy.

I agree that the scrolling maps will become unmanageable if you keep them 2x2 blocks. Why not make them larger, say 4x4 or 8x8, add a bit of detail, and give the environment a more comfortable look?
Also, if the entire tilemap is loaded into L3, why does the map need to be loaded again to check bullet collisions? If you're using pixel-based checks, you can easily change that to pointer-based detection to avoid the screen problems (there are plenty of tutorials on this lying around).
Good luck!

Well, considering that dead space runs on an actual 3d engine, I don't think it's a very feasible option for the calculator. The basis of the game might still hold valid, however, and it's definetely something I'd think would be cool.

This looks amazing! Maybe you could make the squashers "tremble" a little before falling, also via Super Mario?

I think this game is fine as is. if you want eyes, make another game

What I do is really think through the project first. Is this something you'll have the time to finish to completion? Is it something that's creative and fun? These are often things people forget before the come out with a half-assed project, and I certainly made this mistake many times in my calc programming career.

Then, try programming out a simple engine. What does your game really revolve around? Is it possible given the limited capabilities of the system you're running it on? Do you have the expertise or access to help that can bring that engine to completion? Sadly, I've had quite a few projects that I just didn't know how to program.

Once you've got that down, the hardest part is imminent. Designing your game. Levels, storyline, etc. What I've done in the past is take a laboratory notebook with graphed paper and fill page after page with tilemaps. It's often much easier to plan out on paper, but you can program a level editor if you don't feel like doing that manually.

And then the easy part - optimizing and packing! Do some fine-tuning; make that creation really shine. Lots of games fail because they just don't have that spark. I try to put something interesting in my projects, whether it's the graphics or just some special particle effects. Share it with your friends, so they can tell you what sucks and what's good. Once you know people are definitely going to like your project, post your creation on the interwebs, and hopefully something will come of it!

If you really need the extra space, there are ways to create two-page apps. I know this has been done before, but the process is exceedingly tricky and complicated.