2D Shooter Tutorial for CAS 117

I had a few issues with the tutorial, the main one being that my pause screen comes up immediately when a level starts and I am unsure if the player is taking damage. I am hoping to have these issues fixed by my final! Let me know if you can help (I included an extra screenshot). 

Here are my proposed final project modifications:

Since I am an artist, I will be focusing mostly on artistic changes. The game I am going for is a vampire hunter protagonist with vampire enemies and stake projectiles. The vampires will run at the player character within a certain proximity. 

• I intend to replace all sprites, backgrounds, and menus with on theme pixel art and animations. Notably, stakes as projectiles, enemy death animations, and a full castle background. 
• I will do level design and plan on the final game having four different levels with storytelling to go with them. These will include a maze level in the castle's courtyard, voice lines at the beginning of levels, and a final boss fight with enemy voice lines and an animated cutscene. 
• I will be replacing all sound effects in game to be more on theme. 
• If I have time, I plan on creating custom music with three versions: menu music, in-game music, and boss battle music.