So today (after a few days off which I ensure you were not mispent) I made a few more modifications. Now the character is fully constrained in that he can't look up or down or backwards. This isn't really ideal for the final product, but it's what I was going for in this iteration, so I'm happy. He's also constrained in that his Y-axis is set to be a constant 0. This way he's "2-D" in that he can't just decide to start moving along a 3rd axis.

I also made a little test level which was basically a long ridge of terrain along the X-axis for the lil' guy to run on top of. It turned out pretty well, but I never did go back in and fix my sky box after I moved it. C'est la vie.

Next step I believe will be to change the controls to be a little more appropriate and maybe tweak the camera a bit to be more immersive.