I finally figured out what went wrong. Evidently, any class which extends FlxState MUST override the create() function, or weird things happen. I have no idea why this would lead to the default camera not being instantiated, but that is what was happening. In any case, the problem is solved.

Unfortunately, losing 25% of one’s time to a single project is pretty devastating, particularly when 30% of it is already lost to sleeping. I’m still not very optimistic about finishing in time, but I am feeling better about the experience in general. I’ll keep working toward getting a playable game together before time runs out, but I’m going to focus a bit more on creating an extendable library that I might be able to use next time. Finish or no, I’ve still gained a lot in a short amount of time.