[FANGAME][IDEA] Just some ideas I had

[TomGuycott]

I don't have anything substantial for any of these ideas other than written text, because I've been very busy with work and school and the like, but I've had these ideas floating around in my head so long that I wanted to post them and see if I couldn't get some small feedback or discussion going about them.

Idea 1: "You've Created a Time Paradox!"

This is an idea I've been meandering with for quite some time, which actually made me start ripping sprites since I wanted certain sprites that were not yet ripped. Essentially, this is a game idea I have that has a very grand scale, with lots of (or TOO many) playable characters, tons of bosses, and a bunch of levels that don't have much rhyme or reason. Actually, there WOULD be an ongoing story, but because of the nature of the story progression and the concept of a time paradox, the order and true nature of such scenes would be questionable. The game is kind of a spriting faux pas, in the sense that there would be sprites of differing styles hanging out together in different levels and cutscenes, stuff as drastic as 8-bit Simon Belmont fighting off a 16 bit monster from a game series he wasn't even a part of, or a scene with the Megaman X city intro sequence with 8 bit Doomships attacking in the background.

Gameplay Style:
-The game is essentially a side-scrolling action RPG. There won't be any leveling up aspects as of yet, though, I was thinking the player's stats increased based on what collectables they find in game.

-The main character, for reasons I won't get into right now, can take the form of different characters. Before starting a stage, a character from your collection would be chosen, and you'd play as that character. I may implement stages or gameplay where more than one character can be chosen in either a tag-team or extra life kind of aspect, but I have to see if I can get that to work in the game engine (which is not yet built ).

-The control style would be something akin to Smash Brothers or Kirby in most respects, in the sense that the directions you press and the attack buttons you press can determine the moves that you use. As such, certain characters will have more moves than they could actually perform in the games of their origin. There will also be attacks that require ammo or magical energy, all of which would be detailed by a power bar next to one's life bar. I haven't decided whether it slowly regenerates, or whether only pickups regenerate it. There is also a bar for flight power, where applicable.

-The game map begins at a center point, and spreads out into a large number of paths, all of which have a "final boss" endpoint. Upon completion of all paths, the "endgame" phase is unlocked.

-The stage system involves following the game map, selecting a stage and engaging in the stage. In that sense, the gameplay is somewhat linear, but within stages, there can be secret paths, and finishing the stage through the ways the paths provide can unlock new, hidden stages. Also, some stages can only be selected when in possession of a certain character or item

-As far as character unlocking goes, there are some that are unlocked upon completion of a stage, others by getting hidden collectables, and others are bought at "shops" using points earned by beating enemies and stages.

-There would also be a rival system. At the beginning of the game, the computer asks you a bunch of questions, and one of the answers determines your rival boss character. This rival periodically appears as a boss, and thus the rival would be different for different players or playthroughs.

Examples: I know that by now you must be utterly confused. Here are some examples of events, stages and the like to possibly make it clearer, or more vague.

-X Intro Stage: Mentioned above, there would be a stage based on the intro stage of Megaman X. It would be a difficult rail stage where the player would be chased constantly by X, who uses his various abilities to try and utterly destroy you. However, later on in the stage, Omega from Megaman Zero 3 becomes the "chaser" as he begins destroying the city.

-The Veldt: The FFVI location where various monsters roam, now with monsters from all sorts of games. Throughout the level, Gau turns up as a boss, and if defeated every time before he can run away, you'll unlock him as playable at the end of the stage. There is also a hidden entrance to a much harder level, the Veldt Cave, where you can unlock a more powerful version of Gau.

-Fawfulized Skull Castle: An example of some simple edits being used in the game... essentially, Wily's Castle where all the enemies and Robot Masters have been "Fawfulized", given aspects like big swirly goggles and huge smiles.
(Edited (poorly) from Mageker's Fawful and Fawful Mole and Solink's Wily Wars Gutsman)
(More edit sketches of how I visualize this silly part. Fawful bits are still from Mageker rips, the Skull Castle and Wily Machine rips were from Sprites Inc. For that reason, I'm not sure if I should be posting them, even as silliness and for examples, but... I'll risk it, the edits look so stupid anyway)

-National Cape Day: A level centered around a festival dedicated to capes. One of the less action based levels where the player gets to talk to various characters. On the outskirts of the festival are the characters who are sore about not being allowed in without capes, and if you don't happen to have a cape, you can't get in. However, a character in disguise seems to take pity on you and offers to sell you some characters who happen to have capes... The reason why it's Dracula who is in disguise in particular is a gag for when you first meet him. He offers to sell you the stuff, and opens his cape like a shady salesman, but he opens the side that does the Black Hellfire (or whatever) and shoots you with that by accident before opening the other side, which has the goods.
(Edited from SmithyGCN's Dracula and Schmoo from SotN)

Another thing: all sprites I use will of course be credited on a rather massive credits page, but ultimately this is just a silly idea I'm doing as a hobby.

So that's idea 1. I'm still thinking about how to describe idea 2, which is a little cooler than this one, considering I'm sure something like this idea has been done 100 times before. xD