This is a fairly basic platformer. Since I plan to do this almost entirely on my own (will likely seek out help for sound-related things) I'm keeping things simple.
In this game you play as RMS-001, a cybernetic weapon created by the military. Your goal? Break things.
The only controls in the game are really movement (left, right, down, and jump) and attack.
There will be two powerups present in the game which change your attack. Normally you have a simple smack, generating forces upwards of 500 Newtons in a single hit, which has a bit of range and near-instant startup. The first upgrade, the Murder Sticks, provide a more powerful version of the basic attack, packing 1500 Newtons with each bludgeon, and creating cavitation bubbles (tiny vacuums within the water which quickly collapse upon themselves) to provide a secondary attack with slightly more range. It also allows you to quickly retreat if your attack connects. The second upgrade, the Stabby-Stabby, gives you an entirely new attack, a sort of grapple and pummel. Boasting a bit more range than the Murder Sticks, the Stabby-Stabby attack snatches any enemy within its range (yes, it can take out multiple enemies at once if they're close enough!) and allows RMS-001 to continually pummel it until its health falls to 0, or release it with a small push if you need to retreat. Larger enemies will have a chance to break out of the grapple on each pummel, however, and bosses will have a chance to break out upon the initial grapple as well. If an enemy escapes, RMS-001 will be invincible for a short time so you don't randomly die if you're grappling enemies while at low health. I haven't decided yet if you'll be able to switch between the upgrades while in a level or if you'll have to choose one when starting a level, but you won't lose the upgrades once you acquire them.
The game will be level-based, and after the tutorial, each level will feature some sort of boss. Throughout each level there will be various enemies which will generally be based on sea creatures, ranging from clams and snails to fish and crustaceans. Each enemy will be found as both the actual creature and a mechanized version of it which will attack differently and sometimes be harder to break.

Some screenshots and a video:

(The video has basically all the content from the screenshots, but the screenshots obviously have better quality)





Various notes:
-Inspired by a friend of mine after he showed me The Oatmeal's comic about Mantis Shrimp.
-The playable character is based on a Mantis Shrimp. If you'd like to see a really in-depth and awesome Ted-Talk about Mantis Shrimps, this has pretty much all the cool information. If you just want to see what one looks like in action, this is a good example of what it does.
-Obviously, nothing shown is final, especially as far as visuals are concerned. At the very least the levels will look much nicer than what's shown when they're finished, I just needed something so I could get started on the gameplay.
-No playable demo for a while. I might release something that people can mess around with when I finish the menu system and the first level, but not any time soon since this is sort of a background project for me.

idk about the character sprite, I personally would like to see a character designed from a mantis shrimp, than a mantis shrimp, if you know what i mean

the game is really simple atm so ill wait until it's a tad more developed to give more input.

I can't thank hard enough. Needs to be more games with stomatopods. Really. They're amazing animals with so much potential.

(09-29-2013, 12:37 PM)Gors Wrote: idk about the character sprite, I personally would like to see a character designed from a mantis shrimp, than a mantis shrimp, if you know what i mean

I'd like to see this as well, but having attempted characters designed from them twice before, I understand how difficult it can be to keep them from becoming a lobster. (or just REALLY busy on the head detail).

Would still be neat to see done.

Anyways: It would be nice if you added some objects in the background to show the scale... since due to just how much force real mantis shrimp can generate, how big the character really is has an influence on how forceful each impact needs to look.

*gasp* dettadeus, you have an account here?
well actually, you're a spriter, so that makes sense.

I'm not stalking you or anything lol, but i'm still following this little project of yours. can't wait to see more updates.

(09-29-2013, 12:37 PM)Gors Wrote: idk about the character sprite, I personally would like to see a character designed from a mantis shrimp, than a mantis shrimp, if you know what i mean

the game is really simple atm so ill wait until it's a tad more developed to give more input.

Do you mean like an anthropomorphic mantis shrimp (or partially, etc), a person with mantis shrimp-like attachments or costume, so on and so forth? Part of the point of the game is that you're playing as a robot based on a mantis shrimp, and your goal is basically to break things. I personally feel like deviating the player character further from a mantis shrimp detracts from this, but to each his own.

(10-01-2013, 12:12 PM)Terminal Devastation Wrote: I can't thank hard enough. Needs to be more games with stomatopods. Really. They're amazing animals with so much potential.

(09-29-2013, 12:37 PM)Gors Wrote: idk about the character sprite, I personally would like to see a character designed from a mantis shrimp, than a mantis shrimp, if you know what i mean

I'd like to see this as well, but having attempted characters designed from them twice before, I understand how difficult it can be to keep them from becoming a lobster. (or just REALLY busy on the head detail).

Would still be neat to see done.

Anyways: It would be nice if you added some objects in the background to show the scale... since due to just how much force real mantis shrimp can generate, how big the character really is has an influence on how forceful each impact needs to look.

You can generally assume that RMS-001 is about the same size as a normal mantis shrimp (something like a foot in length IIRC?).
As development progresses I'll throw in more things that will better define the scale (for example, I'm planning to have an aquarium level which could feature you crawling past humans to get to different tanks), but obviously it's a bit early to implement a lot of stuff like that.
Also the numbers I took are measured values from various mantis shrimp documentaries (1500 newtons, etc), I'm pretty sure the TED talk had some more specifics.

(10-01-2013, 11:52 PM)Psycho Wrote: *gasp* dettadeus, you have an account here?
well actually, you're a spriter, so that makes sense.

I'm not stalking you or anything lol, but i'm still following this little project of yours. can't wait to see more updates.

ssh people aren't supposed to know i'm detta

also expect another update sometime this week since i'm not actually getting my wisdom teeth out yet

Stabby-stabby sounds like my kind of weapon. Is dangerous!