Hullo! I've been working on this for ages but I've only really knuckled down and made lotsa' progress comparatively recently. The latest thing I did on it is get the moving platforms working (believe me, I was dreading this task) and so I'm hoping it'll be full steam ahead from now onwards (until I get to the enemy AI, at which point it'll be "ICEBERG! DEAD AHEAD!").
Ptoing is on graphical duties (although the tiles in these images are WIP, he's still figuring out what kinda' colour depth he wants to go with) along with mucking in on the design. The engine's being coded from the ground up with a few bits brought over from my previous one (Retrengine, which I used to remake Exolon (
http://retrospec.sgn.net/screenshots.php?link=exolon) and Wizball (
http://retrospec.sgn.net/screenshots.php?link=wizball)). This one uses SDL, though, as it just seems nicer and less "DO THINGS THIS WAY, DAMMIT!" than Allegro was.
World collision supports the usual things (slopes, jump-through platforms, etc). The moving platform collision, as it stands, is really very lovely and will allow for all kinds of fun crushing, maiming and ferrying. Although as it stands it doesn't allow for jump-through moving platforms, although I'm gonna' see about adding that as it'd be nice and it's pretty simple with how my collision code works (my tiles are basically four-sided heightmaps).
It'll be a Metroidvania game - because they're my favourite - and it's set on the eponymous Phantom Island, which is a Bermuda Triangle like location in the sense that people generally end up on it by accident.
Design wise it's a mish-mash of elements from dozens of my favourite games, I'm borrowing bits and bobs from Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night (PSX), Switchblade (Spectrum), Spelunky (PC), Solomon's Key (Arcade), Snow Bros (Arcade), Fire 'n' Ice (Atari ST), Emerald Miner (PC), Diggers (Amiga), Feud (Spectrum), La Mulana (PC), Waterworks (SAM Coupé!), Alien 3 (Megadrive), Rakugaki Showtime (PSX), Miner Disturbance (iPhone), Spooked (Spectrum) and many, many more.
Although I'm using the Metroidvania model of unlocking rooms within an area, I want to make it so you use the abilities extensively once you're in them, rather than them being used just to get you over the threshold and then never again. However the actual temples in which the game (which are kinda' the "worlds" of it) unlock via a Mario 64-esque mechanism of collecting enough orbs as I think this will lend itself to far less linear gameplay within each temple.
I plan on updating this thread weekly with developments although this first week will be minimal as I'm redecorating and then going to Edinburgh.
And now, some tedious screenshots! (linked, because they're frame-busting)
http://www.drderekdoctors.com/phantomisland/map_editor.gifThis is the macro level map editor. It allows you to move rooms around and link 'em an' stuff. Better that than a honkingly huge tilemap.
http://www.drderekdoctors.com/phantomisland/tileset_editor.gifThis is the tileset editor. See the glorious amount of tileshapes and boolean properties I have! Mwu-ha-ha-ha!
http://www.drderekdoctors.com/phantomisland/tilemap_editor.gifThis is the tilemap editor. See the... Um...
Tiles.
http://www.drderekdoctors.com/phantomisland/entity_editor.gifEntities! Get your entities! Only a couple have been made so far, as you can see. They're all defined by descriptor text files.
http://www.drderekdoctors.com/phantomisland/path_editor.gifAnd this is the path editor. Rather than Bezier or Catmull Rom splines I've rolled my own by having separate movement curves on each axis (using sine waves). This gives you really nice consistent speed along the path without a lot of the bunching around nodes you can get with some spline types (i.e. it saves me a normalisation pass).
I'm thinking a late 2012 release, realistically, because it's gonna' be a big game in terms of content. Lotsa' plot in there, but told in as non-intrusive a manner as possible. Also hopefully lotsa' humour.