Well, it seems to be a fairly popular option that "the 2knet game" (Seriously, we need a working title) should be action-platformer-esque, but there are a few things we need to settle:

1. Who?
We need character ideas:
- Should there be customizable cyborg hero?
- Should there be multiple characters?
- Gender?
- Name?
- Weapons?
- Etc...

2. Where?
Thoughts on setting:
- Fantasy World
- Historical Place in Time
- Sci-Fi Space/Planet
- Futuristic Earth
- Post-Apocolyptic Zombie-Infested Ninja-Protected Wasteland

Ultimately, this topic is for discussing the "setting" of the game, which we will eventually sort out, and make as the first section of the design document.

Post your thoughts. :)

I had an idea for a community platformer a while back that would have never worked then but might work now.

The original story idea: A random dude is riding his motobyke along and comes upon the entrance to a cave (yeah I know), and naturally he goes inside. Inside is basically like any Metroid-ish caves and complexes except with weird non-sequitor themes like the Cake Palace and others. At the start some of the denizens of the caves steal the dudes motobyke and scatter the parts to the different area of the map. He has to collect and use these parts to get to new areas and find the motor after beating the final (???) boss, which has been turned into a magic flying engine. Then the dude has to fly up through the cave which is exploding around him while being attacked by dudes attacking you as a last resort. This part would play like a vertical shooter, only you're flying a magic motobyke. After reaching the surface the fight continues as the cave comes out of the ground and its actually a hidden castle!! After reaching the top, you fight the true (??? final boss), but then get captured and held by the ultimate true final boss.

Then another random dude riding his motobyke comes along this castle and the process is repeated, only with the various worlds having totally different level design (like inverted castle in sotn but not just upside down). At the end he beats the ultimate true final boss and rescues the first random dude, then they ride their flying motobykes off into the sunset. This way, we can recycle assets while making the game a decent length and allow more people to do level design.

As for the base of the gameplay, the motobyke parts, wasn't quite concrete in my mind when I thought this up.

some ideas:
Tire: allows you to jump higher
Second Tire: double jump
Handlebar: whack baddies
Seat: maybe a reflector shield or something???
Helmet/helmet pieces: increases hp???

all of this is incredibly derivative (but i swear i thought of the motobyke parts before knytt stories came out :(), but of course changes could be made if we decided to go off this.

Definately some good ideas there. But what if instead of a motobyke, the character himself/herself/itself was a robot. Upon getting captured for some reason, all its parts are taken. The tutorial can lead to the player getting back their legs, but arms, and all other sorts of gadgets (wheels, antennae, etc) could all be found as to upgrade the character.

On the second character, this could be a different style of robot, with different features allowing access to different parts without even redesigning the levels.

Hmm... Flying motobykes does sound like fun though.

I like the multiple character idea. What if you were two scientists investigating a planet or a spacecraft? When something goes wrong, they develop the ability to perform at superhuman levels. One of the scientists has super strength and can bust through walls and obstacles. The other scientist can perform acrobatic stunts and run fast. There could be two types of levels, an action level with two exits, catering to whichever person the player picked for that level, and cutscene or puzzle levels, where the player must use both characters to find the exit.

• Maybe a character could level up the more he is used, getting better abilities
• Bad guys could have health bars, and the strong character could easily defeat them, but the fast character could avoid them
• The story could start on a ship, and crashing on a planet could give them super powers. They want to find a way out.

What do you think?

I'm liking the cave idea. Perhaps a cave on another planet?

Cool thing about a cave, is it can get funkier the further you go down, all sort of ruins can be down there, or secret labs, or all sorts of shit.

Come on people, post some more ideas!

Trying to blend this idea with some stuff I came up with in my previous post:

What if the second guy had different techniques, and you had to go through the exact same levels, but in a different way? Like, maybe this guy jumps higher, so you can get secrets that the other hero couldn't get. And there's a secret exit where, if you find them all, you get a special route to the boss. Maybe you have to get through these secret exits to find this "True Boss", which would put a difficulty curve on the game, and make it a lot more fun for the player. It could add that Super Mario World style of different ways to get to the boss. You could either go directly through, or you could go through Star Road. And even by going directly through, you had a whole bunch of other levels that you really didn't need to complete, like Soda Lake and the Special Worlds.

That brings up a different question that may be too early to determine. Will we have a world map like Super Mario World, connect all the levels together like Metroid, or have "Level 1/Level 2/Level 3/etc." Like Contra, Mario Bros., and Sonic? SMW style can add more secrets, Metroid style gives the sense of adventure, and Contra style is a classic style of gameplay.

Metroid style would be ideal, but SMW style would be kind cool. Would also make for designing seperate levels alot easier...

Hmm. You raise an interesting point.

Personally, I think it'd be cool if it starred this guy:



With the same 3 tone look to the rest of the graphics.

3 tone graphics would be awesome, but, it wouldn't that make the game about 2knet?


Another idea I had, graphically, would be to make everything 2 colors (black base with 1 highlight, except for the backgrounds, which would be bright and vibrant. If done correctly, it could look pretty crazy.