So I was thinking today about creating a new game. This game would use my own art style and hopefully be rendered with vectors and not just pixel-based sprites. Here's what I have to bring to the plate. The entire idea for the game stemmed from this one drawing I did in college many years ago.
DJ GRAFFITI BLADEGAME SYNOPSIS: The game takes place in a massive city known as Melodiopolis, a metropolis diverse in musical style, fashion, art, and spectacular city life both day and night. It’s a prosperous place that exists in harmony that knows not of war and destruction. However, an evil organization known as the Devil Arms Manufacturing Network (D.A.M.N.) sees that the city is being complacent and not marching forward to a new future. To that end, they proceed to create various musical bands that people will flock to. Secretly, D.A.M.N. inserted a devious sound wave into all the bands’ musical equipment and released CDs; this sound wave generates a hypnotic trance to the listener, which makes he/she aberrant and causes havoc and loses all control of self. The aim of D.A.M.N. is to take control of the people’s aberrant behavior from the secret sound wave and keep them under their wing saying they’re the wave of the future for Melodiopolis. After they take control of the city, their next aim is the planet; to this end, they’ve secretly been creating weapons for their takeover. The leader of D.A.M.N. is Dario Arrividerci, a double agent that is both the leader of D.A.M.N. and the good guys, the Digital Stars. He’s doing this based on his own personal whim and is acting in third person to see how two sides duke it out (a bit twisted, but interesting for story development nonetheless).
Dario created the Digital Stars to see how they would prevail against such a thunderous and terrible scheme; he enlisted a group of special guys and girls with a sense of justice who’re all about keeping the peace of Melodiopolis intact and to bring back harmony to the city. Each hero is designed around a musical genre and each have certain attributes that make them suited to one part of combat and such (similar in vein to
Metal Slug and
Streets of Rage Remake v5; one is better with guns, one’s better with swords/slashing weapons, one’s better with grenades, one’s better with acrobatics/evasive maneuvers, etc.). Later the heroes realize that Dario was playing both sides for fools.
GAME GENRE: The game will be done in the style of a 2-D HD sidescrolling run ‘n gun/hack ‘n slash/beat ‘em up style fusion. Some stages will even have segments that are overhead shmup-style parts, similar in vein to
Shock Troopers 1 and 2. Elements of the gameplay will have vibes similar, but not limited, to:
Metal Slug, Gunstar Heroes/Super Heroes, Strider 2, Contra, etc. Gameplay should be addictive, easy to control/master, great powerup system, wide variety of weapons, possibly vehicles to commandeer, wide variety of enemies/bosses, thematically designed stages, catchy/addictive music for each stage, etc. The HUD should be placed at the top with the character’s face in a box, lifebar, ammunition count, selected weapons, score, lives, etc. The middle should have a timer counter and the right side is available for the second player.
GAME MUSIC: The soundtrack to the game is to be lively, bubbly, very 'tude-ish; for instance, the menus use a vibe similar to the Quarashi song "Stick 'Em Up". The stages are composed accordingly to what genre of music they represent; an electronica stage has a tune similar to a Daft Punk song, an oldies stage has a tune like that of either The Kinks or The Beach Boys, etc. The entire soundtrack should be catchy, easy to remember, and nothing that bores the player and/or makes it forgettable.
GAME CHARACTERS: The playable characters of the game are all based on different genres of music that will determine what attributes and characteristics they have; those characteristics will determine how they play in the game. After accomplishing certain tasks in the game or having enough money earned in the game’s currency system, there are unlockable characters that can be attained.
GAME ENEMIES: The enemies in the game range from all different types and varieties. For example, a stage with dance/electronica elements can have enemies from raves and neon-lit robots.
GAME BOSSES: The bosses in the game are the bands that were signed under D.A.M.N.’s “record label”. These bands take control of a mech, vehicle, robot, or something of the like that will attack you. Once the boss is beaten, the music the band plays ceases and stops the brain-control of them and the fans. Beating the boss also restores the part of the metropolis that was under the sound wave’s hypnotic trance. The further down the road you get in the game, the more that D.A.M.N. sees that their plan is starting to flop.
GAME WEAPONS: The weapons in the game range from many different types of guns, swords, small melee weapons, grenades/bombs, and other projectile-based weapons. Some weapons can be used to alter the state of enemies (a “grenade” you can throw that is food, the enemies eat it, and they become fat which makes them slower and almost incapable of attacking [a little nod to
Metal Slug there :3]). Some weapons can’t be accessed due to unlocking them in the game’s shop. Once unlocked, they can be used in-game. Combos can also be chained for higher scores, so you can multiple slash away enemies with swords/blades or with your ammunition based weapons.
GAME ITEMS: The items you retrieve in the game are varied from enemy to enemy or found in the stage. Items can range from weapons, health, extra lives, money, etc.
GAME OPTIONS: The options in the game can be accessed in the game’s main menu, which range from: difficulty, gameplay options (button mappings, etc.), music/sound effect options, amount of extra lives, continues, and many other things. Some options are greyed out because they need to be unlocked via an event or purchased via the game’s shop.
GAME SHOP: Upon earning money in the game, it keeps count of how much you’ve earned. These earnings can be used in the game’s shop where characters, character skins, new weapons, options, gameplay-related material, artwork, and anything in between can be purchased which adds more replay value to the game.
GAME PLATFORMS: The game is to see
PC/Mac OS X/OUYA and possibly
PS3/360/Wii U ports. The aim is to make this game an exclusive for the
OUYA since the console will be fresh off the market and will give people an incentive to buy the system to play it, should the requirements not be met for the PC/Mac
ports.
Now that I've got my idea down, I'll be more than happy to supply some drawings and doodles later to show more of what I intend to do with this game. I'd also be more than happy if anyone is interested in helping with programming/music/art/UI and such, I'd love to work with new people on this!