[GAME][IDEA/IN DEVELOPMENT] Rep Bros!

[TomGuycott]

REP BROS
The Tale of Reputable Brothers

Concept: Scrolling Shooter where player controls two characters whose X coordinates almost always match, but their Y coordinate is determined by their difference in Reputation. The type of weapon powerup a character is using combined with other specific events causes Reputation collectables, both positive and negative, to pop up, and collecting them either sends the player up (Positive Rep) or down (Negative Rep) in relation to the other controlled player.

The Goal: The player starts at a given Rep Level at the start of each stage, with a slight difference in Rep between the Bros. Most stages require you to simply fly to the end and defeat a boss, but the boss can be different based on the current Rep Level of the bros. If you are between 80 to 100 rep, for example, you might fight a boss different from the boss you fight at 20 to 50 rep. Other stages will set a specific bar of Rep that you have to fall within in order to progress, or it might set two or more that send you to different stages afterward, giving the game a path system of sorts.

Rep Strategy: Having the two active characters split apart from each other gives the player a wider range of attack against oncoming enemies. However, it also tightens the play field. If the players are too far apart, dodging certain obstacles will become difficult or impossible, and if the two players get a reputation that's too far apart from each other, the game is lost, because the distance apart prevents them from being Rep Bros. If the player has the correct difference in Rep for a given situation, the situation becomes passable, while the wrong difference in rep could make it difficult or impossible.

Weapons: The standard weapon each player starts with produces no noticable difference in the creation of Rep Powerups. Weapon powerups vary (standard, spread, homing, etc), and have either a Positive or Negative polarity. Positive attacks generate more Positive Rep, and Negative attacks generate more Negative Rep. However, there are some instances where the presence of Positive or Negative Rep cannot be changed by the attack used.

Rep Bros Combine!: When both Bros have the SAME reputation, they combine into one powered up form. Their attacks become stronger, but their attacks generate fewer Rep related powerups, preventing stage progression if you aren't careful. However, the Rep Powerups collected will propel the combined player upward or downward several points without seperating the two. Only an attack from an enemy will split the bros, and will do so by at least 4-6 points. Another disadvantage is that the combination form is a bigger target, and that if the environment becomes tight and a Rep powerup or a bullet collides with the player, they might be knocked into a fatal wall collision.

Boss Fights: Bosses will sometimes have gimmicks or weaknesses based on your current Rep Level difference between Bros. For example, imaging a boss with an impenetrable shield with two nodes rotating around him. In order to destroy the shield, the bros have to hit both nodes at once. In order to do so, they must be a certain difference in Rep Level. Once they destroy the shield, the CENTER of the boss becomes weak, so being closer to one another becomes more advantageous.

Characters: The starting set of two characters I'm going to have is going to be TomGuycott and Lexou because of the fact that we recently became Rep Bros, and it made me want to make a game about the silly, but fun concept of Rep Bros on the forums. If I DO make other characters, I'll have to decide whether to have them as premade sets, or whether there will be a free mode at least where two sets of characters could play together, whether or not they're really associated as actual Rep Bros. The problem is the Combination forms and whether to make a unique combo for every character pair, or whether there would be some sort of common base for them with a pasted on feature to represent the players combining.

Development: So far I've spent about 5 minutes in Multimedia Fusion seeing whether the concept is even feasible (it is, but I knew it would be from the start too). So far though this is the only visual available:



More to come very soon, but I found out that tomorrow I wouldn't have time to post much more about it, so I got impatient and posted tonight with very little to show so far except the concept.