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[HöllenKobold]

Panache
pa⋅nache
  /pəˈnæʃ, -ˈnɑʃ/
–noun
1.    a grand or flamboyant manner; verve; style; flair.

A remake of my old game from 2007, Inferno of Anger. You can find it on my blog or something since I'm too lazy to link to it. Anyway, this will be a drastic remake. Perhaps, it can even be considered not a remake because of how different it is. The story is radically rewritten and the game won't even share levels. Anyway, let's start with the revolutionary gameplay features:

Gameplay

Curb-Stomping Emphasis Combat
The game may rely heavily on stylish combos involving all sorts of punches and kicks but when it comes down to it, Pan's boot slamming against the skull of his foe is the epitome of the system. Basically, take God Hand's stomping and make it important to gameplay and scoring which leads into the next gameplay feature...

Flex-Reward System
Many times in the game, there will be people chilling in the background. Pan is beating a tremendous variety of foes: biker gangs who are more mystic than they seem, security robots with ornate Buddha heads, cultists wearing boxes on their head, and etc. This is a spectacle to them. Let them enjoy it. Hit up high combos and follow with a flex and you'll impress your audience. If they are pleased enough, they'll toss out rewards.
However, if this spectator in the background is a hooker, Pan can grab her and toss her at enemies like he would to a trashcan or bat or other misc. items that people throw in beat-em-ups. The reasoning being that Pan does not consider hookers to be human, as they are now sex objects.

Grab System
You can grab objects in the environment. I realized how much funner games are with these systems.

Manliness System
Pan has no need for weapons. He beats the shit out of everything with his fists like a real man. Well, yeah, he tosses trashcans and crowbars but that's because it's cool and visceral.

Story
 The story isn't as half-assed here. Unlike Inferno of Anger, it actually has a story. Well, Inferno of Anger had a story but the conversations meandered from it, talking about princesses who'd find Pan hot and how Xiaoai wanted Google and China to mege into a super-country or something.. Here the conversations will actually connect to the story. It's still a pretty generic story.
A famine hits China, everything goes to hell. Primitiveness in humanity begins to rise. Coincidentally, unbelievable murders and disasters start to spread throughout China.
 Inanimate things are given life as monsters. Golems and shit, even zombies. Basically, even a dead person can turn up to be part of these unnatural monstrosities. With an exponential death toll, humanity continues in its decline both in populations and psychologically. Hey, the world's ending. Everyone's going crazy. Xie Xiaoai, a detective investigating a murder linked to a fresh gang who recently appeared in Hong Kong, finds herself caught in one of these incidents. Thankfully, she is saved by Pan Fernandez-Schrodinger. There's an air of familiarity between the two. Just who is he and what is his purpose here?
 By the way, it's the future so they have mechs, named Caryatids as they are the foundations of any decent military now. Uh, yeah, that's not good. Mechs are going around crushing everything now, including the deadly prototype Buddha Caryatid.

[Havok]

Awesome.

[supershigi]

Sounds like fun... it reminds me of old arcade games that we'd play until our hands hurt

[Fauxfox]

sounds great and the screen does  look impressive.

[alspal]

This seems like it's going to be awesome, I'm looking forward to it!

[Inanimate]

My kind of game. 

[Shawny]

Definitely something I'll be looking out for every step of the way.

[HöllenKobold]

Thanks for all the comments.

Help. I just realized there's a major design flaw in the gameplay. See how curb stomping enemies is a pivotal part of the game. Well, stomping isn't enjoyable unless it's button smashing. Who'd want to hold down a button to continuously pound an enemy's face into the ground? Not me. But when it becomes the focus of the gameplay, it becomes a repetitive issue, much more than anything in Dynasty Warriors. I've been thinking of ways to make stomping more interesting, but I'd like to hear your suggestions on the matter.
Besides stomping, the combat is divided between two buttons. One's the regular attack string, and the other is a weaker attack string but it puts your enemy into a combo status that lets you rake up more hits for each individual hit. Pretty simple there.
Though, maybe I don't need to expand on stomping, if the current system is already deep enough.

Now to discuss the differences between the two button types depending on directional presses:

Regular
None
Average dial-a-combo.
Hold
Pan will be able to charge to do a single stronger punch. It also puts enemies in a stunned state.
Up
Up+Regular would be a spinning hook kick. While Pan is more limited in the air combat-wise, a simple uppercut will launch the enemy, pushing the attack button again will lift Pan as well, so it can be used as an evasive maneuver when dodging ground fire.
Down
Finishing move. When your power meter has one level full from flexing, you can do a finishing move. Hopefully, there'll be more than one. Probably not really a finishing move but more of a unique attack skill like a Hadouken or something.

Combo
None
A quick infinite combo. It has incredibly low priority. I haven't actually started the animations for this, but it'll probably be a few quick jabs then a sweep, and repeat. Hitting an enemy puts them in a bit of a stunned state, that lets Pan's regular attacks inflict more combo hits. So one regular punch would be counted as two. It also weakens enemy defense.
Up
Up+Combo will be a grapple. Grappling works in that it tosses down your enemy but first you have to do a little button prompt, a mini-QTE or whatever. This also acts as the pickup/throw button. If the enemy is already stunned, then there won't be a prompt.
Down
Not certain about this one. Might be parry, as a counter to the looseness of stomping. Maybe instead of a separate button, this can be flexing. Down without any buttons will probably be block anyway, so I should just make parry pressing down at the right time.

So yeah, cluttered buttons.

Dashing
Another feature will be dashing. After dashing for about a second or something, pressing any attack button will make Pan unleash a flying sidekick, that blasts away enemies and in effect tosses them on the ground, making them vulnerable to your stomps. Holding down will make Pan do a tackle. It takes down a single enemy, but you go into stomping right after. Of course, you need the space to do either. I also want to make it so that if you hit a wall, Pan gets hurt. I believe that'd be hilarious.

Contact Impact
When two attacks collide, they'll clash with this ring or something. Both attacks will be stopped, unless Pan is doing a Combo attack in which he'll be beaten. I mainly want something like this so that combat has more of a heavy feel. I feel that my other games' combat felt loose and without impact.

So where does stomping fit in? It's a reward in a way as it lets players rake up really high combos. Getting enemies on the floor would either require beating them down enough when they're stunned, hitting them with a flying sidekick, or grappling them. Though finishing moves/skills would probably be another way.

Flexing
How to finish a combo. You do a nifty pose and your power meter goes up.

Yeah, ok. I think it's deep enough that I don't need to make stomping all so deep.

Here's an old engine test from late 2008 demonstrating the Flex system when it was originally conceived as Pan's system to gain woman companions. Now, Pan can just use it to please a crowd and get power-ups.
http://www.box.net/shared/ud1d4hlt91
A: Jump
A in air: Flying kick
S: Attack
Up+S: Uppercut
You can also hang off ledges and jump off walls but that's hardly of use in a battle against swarms of undead and flying lanterns of horrible evil, really horrible evil.
D: Shotgun (Does not add to combo)
Q: Flex

[Jolli]

i thought game was called pancake

[HöllenKobold]

Pancake is a more common word compared to panache. I forgive you.

[Inanimate]

I got an idea for how to make stomping not simple button mashing! Rapidly tap to quickly STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP STOMP the bad guy, HOLD to grind into his face, which extends stun time but doesn't add hits very quickly, and tap to just lift your leg and CRUSH his face the kind of intermediate between the two. That way, you can strategically choose moves to further your combos, the way YOU want to further them. Maybe Stomp + Down could be some kind of Super Stomp, which raises your Flex Meter a bunch.

[morpheus]

I'm definitely gonna play this when it's done, your graphics look awesome and you seem to be working on it every day (at least that's what you seem like on MSN).

Rock on mate!