OK, so I’m probably biting off more than I can chew here, but I think as long as I can manage coming up with the right sprites/characters/whatever for it, then this could work.
For the setting, I’m using a fantasy setting I’ve been working on for a while. I won’t go into the background of too much of it (99% of it is unrelated to this) but the relevant bit is that to the east is a monotheistic nation that seems to have avoided most of the problems that plague the rest of the continent. The reason for that is that they (unknowingly) worship an egregore that absorbs their souls when they die, so it’s only getting more powerful over time. For obvious reasons, no one from outside is keen to join up, while they definitely feel like they’re ‘chosen’. This leads to a lot of wars along the mountains that separate them from the rest of the continent.
And hey! Mountains are gonna be a great terrain to use, here!
So your character will be either a summoned spirit or a mage on some kind of flying mount, haven’t decided yet, fighting through astral or ethereal attackers along their border. Here’s what I HAVE decided:
Player - moving horizontally and vertically - depth motion is accomplished on a rail, a predetermined track.
- Thing to maybe try? See if we can create alternative courses - if you head towards a particular side of the screen at a certain point.
- Thing to maybe try? Boosts, if possible, allowing a tiny bit of forward motion, to accelerate the track, maybe to get past an obstacle or enemy.
Display a score.
- Thing to maybe try? See if we can get the score value of destroyed enemies to appear during or after they’re eliminated if it doesn’t clutter the screen too much.
Shooting, obviously.
- Thing to maybe try? Power-ups or weapon toggles.
- Thing to maybe try? Linear weapon power-ups, or branching weapon power-ups. Like you can just get +1, +1, +1, etc, turning your weapon into more and more badass versions of the base weapon, or combine the ideas, give a weapon toggle, and then the +1 you get applies to that particular weapon when toggled to it, but you can still switch to others. If you’re really good you could power up a few weapons. If so, weapon types could be: Single shot, rapid-fire, shotgun blast, missiles.
Proceed as far as possible through levels, start from the beginning on death. Beginning of level, game, etc. not sure.
- Thing to maybe try? Checkpoints and extra lives.
Player experience: Chaos with a side of badassery, the more skilled they get, the more power-ups they get, the more they’re going to be able to control the experience.
Core Mechanic: Shooting, and some dodging. For the most part, actual threats should be relatively infrequent. If a player dies I want it to be from lack of skill, not just too chaotic to see.
Game Loop: Shoot, dodge, collect power-ups, shoot a lot more. Get those points, and maybe (if I make an end) make it to the end, otherwise, restart on death or completion of what I end up with.