These are all great images! I like them a lot. So it looks like we've got 2 potential ideas for the player:
a) A robot that can use battery-powered magnets to attach itself to metallic objects (be them floors, ceilings, rotating objects, etc). The robot can use boxes, conveyor belts, etc and parts of its own body to solve the puzzles.
b) A brother / sister team that gets separated and tries to reunite by solving the puzzles. The big sister and her younger brother will have different abilities; there will be levels where you only play using the sister player and levels where you will only play using the brother. The last few levels (or only the last level) will allow you to play with the reunited brothers, in order to defeat the big, bad, boss monster(s).

I know that the robot idea is mine, but I feel that the sister/brother team idea is more emotional / appealing. What do You think?

The brother sister idea allows for tricky things like having a split level where brother/sister have to ccoperate in order to get further in the game.
Also it allows to fool the player. Add some areas to the level which look liek a secret place. The player tries to find a way to get there with the girl, but at the end it's just a part of a level the boy has to finish later in the game. A level containing two levels so to say.

Another game to take a look at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinworld

This game features only one character, but it is possible to switch between two worlds with doors and the like.
This can easily be transferred to a two character system where it is possible to switch between the characters.
The game also carries a fantasy theme which might be intersting as well depending on how the story setting of the superku project further deleops.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/racketboy/sets/72157602048384967/show/

If we do go for the robot idea, some scenery like this would rock.

How about putting the brother & sister together in the same story with divinity? The story could go like this...

Standard version:

Dark divinity wants to break/go back into the world of the living. He finds this child that was borne with the abilities that he has to have in order to succeed in his attempts. So one night when boy was playing with his sister divinity pulls him into his domain. Sister is in shock and also no one believes in her story so she decides to get him back herself.
Brother manages to create mind connection with her and instructs her to go to the old ruins close to the edge of the town. There she enters through the ancient well that is portal to the lands of the pagan god.
They both has to conquer the divinity and escape back to the real world.

A bit extreme version:

Dark divinity wants to break/go back into the world of the living. He finds this child that was borne with the soul that he can overtake through some ancient ritual. So one night when boy was playing with his sister divinity pulls boy's soul out of his body living him to be an empty flesh-shell. Sister is in shock and also no one believes in her story so she decides to get him back herself.
Brothers soul manages to create mind connection with her and instructs her to go to the old ruins close to the edge of the town. There she needs to kill herself in order to follow her brother, so she drinks the vial of poison near the ancient well that is portal to the lands of the pagan god.
They both has to conquer the divinity in order to regain their souls and resurface back to the real world.

As Firoball suggested it is a nice way to implement the gravity change as a double jump.

There is one big decision that we have to make (as soon as possible):

1) The game focuses on puzzle oriented gameplay.
2) The game is primary a jump'n'run (maybe with adventure elements) with puzzles.

If we went for 1), in my opinion we should follow the concept of brother-sister and their special and different (!) abilities.
"There she needs to kill herself in order to follow her brother" haha that is a bit extreme? That is somehow too sad I think, not a bad idea though.
I think that the robot is not the best choice for the main character, I fear then it would be hard to create an (emotional) connection to the real player. Limiting the gravity ability to special spots (metal/ magnetic/ ...) may reduce the possibilites and the fun in using this feature.
We could implement nice puzzles and riddles with two characters, but it could be that this concept turns out to be kind of slow.

2) If we chose the second variation the game could become fast and thrilling with the alternative period of time where the player gets haunted (have a look at my 3rd last post including this one). The calm age could be filled with puzzles and the like. There should be some friendly NPCs or imagine the player could control several instances of himself for a short time to solve riddles!
I took the time and created a new prototype of 2), watch it here:

New Video

The gravity change ability is limited to standing on the ground and the time travel part is realized by portals.

Furthermore we could take into consideration to invent (!) new creatures that don't look like human beings/ animals - without question the drawings above are nice!
For example the well known chinese dragon as a source of inspiration:



What do you guys think, 1) or 2) ?
I would prefer 2) (not just because it was my idea but I would prefer that type of gameplay, especially when you consider long-term fun and motivation).

I think that a jump'n'run will limit our target audience; I like the way Superku has played the level in his video, but I'm sure I'd need quite a bit of time in order to do the same thing. Some people will get discouraged because they'll keep dyeing over and over. On top of that, games like Super Mario Forever (PC) are free and will probably do a better job than our game.

Maybe a good thing would be to test both ideas and see which one works better. I still think that a Mario-like game where the player beats the enemies by solving puzzles is fresh and might take us somewhere, but I won't try to impose it if the majority of the team thinks differently.

Vote for Puzzle. I don't mind if there's sections where the player needs to run (who suggested the level-collapsing-behind-the-player idea?) but I would like it if there's parts also where the player needs to think, not only act quickly...

There should be puzzle elements, but no focus on puzzles alone.
So the player should be able to move around freely like in a jump'n run - but give him to think a bit here and then.

I have setup an Etherpad which allows as to edit things simultaneously.
It is supposed to be some sort of brainstorming list.
I have copied a lot from this thread here and the next step is to throw out all we don't need. The other parts we should work out finer.

Everyone can edit it. By clicking on the disk button a snapshot will be created. So if someone after you edits this list, it is not lost.

http://etherpad.com/rXhFZCN70j (requires cookies!)

If you don't want to use it, that's okay too. It's just a try because it's not easy to sort out all the things written in this thread.