UPDATE: September 21st, 2012
So, after much delay... seriously just a whole crapload of delay... I've finally managed to continue work on this project, and in that time I've decided on a few changes and goals, as well as a plethora of new features. I've also taken the liberty of revamping the main topic, so feel free to take a quick read once more. So without further building up hype, allow me to present...
-----Graveyard Tycoon-----
Story:
You play the role of a nameless grave digger who is in danger of getting laid off because people are living too damn long. On your last day of work as you are leaving a very large and ominous portal forms in the sky and countless red orbs flow out and disperse in all directions. When this event calms, after a short delay one heads right towards you and a voice sounds within your head. The voice informs you that it is a gate keeper from the netherworld and what spilled out from the portal were the wicked souls awaiting sentencing. In order to remain in this world, the souls will possess the humans of this world, or if that fails, any and all living creatures. With your assistance the gate keeper would like to team up and recapture every soul before his supervisor realizes what happens. Unfortunately once possessed, the original owners of the possessed body will be kicked out or in the worst case scenario devoured entirely and the only way to recapture this evil souls is to destroy the body. The gate keeper will collect the souls and you get to keep the bodies. With this alliance formed, this most unusual quest to save the world begins.
Gameplay
There will be two main mechanics that the player will focus on. The main part of the game will be a side-scrolling action game. There will be (planned) 8 main levels to start and each level will have 3 stages [Intro, Slightly more difficult, Boss]. There is no order in which levels to play, but there will be an obvious 'easy' route. You will be armed with a shovel and a shotgun which are possessed by the gate keeper you are assisting. The shovel will be used for melee combat, while the shotgun will be most efficient in ranged assaults. These two weapons can be upgraded to change their efficiencies. A brief description and example follows
- When upgrading your shotgun, you can change many different aspects such as range, power, and ammo.
- Let's say you want to turn your shotgun into more of a sniper rifle.
- You will have three slots that you can upgrade
- Barrel: You will want a longer one adding distance but reducing peripheral range. This means your bullets will travel father but not cover a greater surface making inefficient for crowd control
- Clip: You will want more powerful bullets, but the energy they use for special attacks will be greater and you will have fewer shots before having to reload
- Special: there will be many types of options here, such as elemental boosts quicker reload, etc.
- With this in mind and several different options to each slot, you can customize your weapon to play the part of crowd control, boss killer, or whatever suits your style.
In addition to being able to customize your weapons, you will be given the option to give yourself three combo moves, as well as a yet to be determined, possibly 2, supplementary abilities. You can change these freely outside of battle, but while in a stage you are stuck with whatever set-ups you choose. You are allowed 3 different set-ups. Think the Paradigm Shift of Final Fantasy XIII. You can create various different set-ups with these abilities to satisfy various purposes such as Crowd Control [Taking out several enemies with wide ranged attacks] Gladiator [Launching yourself forward with devastating attacks that will leave you vulnerable] or Sentinel [Self-preservation which offers safety but is time consuming]. These aren't the only options, but these will be pre-defined ones or recommended ones. Let's look at another example.
- With the 3 combo abilities, you will set-up your personal style using special moves you unlock.
- You can unlock these abilities by defeating bosses, uncovering secrets in the level, upgrading your Graveyard, or purchasing them.
- Let's look at your options for building the Gladiator set-up
- For the first option, you can pick the ability that will allow your to swing your Shovel upward while leaping giving you an aerial advantage over your opponent.
- From this point, your second attack will be to stab downward into your opponent getting face to face.
- Your final attack would be to pull out your shotgun for a devastating close-quarters shot.
- There will be multiple different skills you can pick that will greatly change how your combo plays out. By strategically thinking up various strategies, you can set 3 different assaults you can change on the no matter the situation while in the action portion of the game.
The supplementary abilities will grant you anything from elemental resistances to abilities like double jump. All of these abilities will allow you to build how your character will play, but the inability to use several them all at once forces the player to think and experiment.
The second portion of the game is where the "Tycoon" in the title comes in to play. The bodies you collect will act as both your experience and your income. When you bury bodies, you will level up your character with various different power-ups. By burying enough bodies you will gradually fill up your graveyard, and at each milestone you may unlock special abilities, additional health, or a small boost to your character. When you do this, you will also earn some money that you can use to spend on abilities and weapon upgrades.
You will also be able to purchase special equipment that will further give slight upgrades to your character. These changes will actually show up on your character as well.
(http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb431/mistercmills/Protagonist_zpsb7f673b6.png)
Goal
This game will be built with the intent of putting it on the Ouya. Preferably close to it's launch. Of course, I'll give my sweet little Charasians a little taste if they so choose.
As always, my metaphorical door is always open so if you have comments, questions, or suggestions, feel free to voice them.