I updated the Etherpad a bit towards the boy/girl scenario and moved all the links to games in a reference section.

Some 2D design of retro remade games !
Perhaps it could give some ideas on the graphic 2D style ?

Some other :
Breed

muramasa

Another way to create 2D animated characters :
OMG Pirates technic details


Another mix : 2D View and Top view of a remade arcade game :
Just watch the user rating to see that lot of people like the
well done remake games !
Blaster Master remake

Blaster Master for Nintendo was probably one of my all time favorites. I recently downloaded that version for the Wii and played a few levels. I didn't realize Sunsoft remade the game for WiiWare. Looks like fun.

hi team!

i inserted some menu descriptions into pad. I thought it was missing in proyect document. I tried putting all needed screens but maybe something is missing or unnecessary. I don't finish it at all.

Salud!

txesmi, that's pretty precise... I really look forward to making that menu

I'd like to propose a "version" of the gamedesign idea, that we can mabye vote on. I'll try to incorporate and summarize the discussions that were done in the recent days while at the same time keeping it close to Superku's original Idea, since that was the one people voted for. The main difference to Superku's version will be that the player does not play the divinity, instead he plays a sister and her brother who are trying to get out of a dream world which the divinity brought the brother to.

World/Levels:
Quote from Superku's game design doc: "Untitled Project is a sidescrolling Windows-PC jump'n'run that focuses on puzzles and especially on exploration."
Because of the "puzzle" element, I would not go for an open world, but suggest that the normal levels are "linear" levels. This would mean that the player can choose whether to use the upper or lower set of platforms within a level to complete it, but the goal is simply to get from the very left of the level to the very right of the level, to find a piece of the mystic amulet there and then get moved to the next level. In a later segment of the game, the levels could need to be played backwards, while trying to escape from the dream-world. The levels would be changed then, with a different mood and with more rocks/enemies in them. This is something we can decide on later though.
To fit the brother/sister theme, the world would be a dream-like world, with abstract plants and creatures, but in a nice, maybe even beautiful style, not in a horror or nightmare-ish way.

Characters: The player controls only the sister at first and, once she's found her little brother, the player can switch between the two at will (using keys 1 and 2 by default).
I wouldn't go for too many abilities, instead I'd only give one ability to each character and upgrade that further while moving through the game. It'll be simpler to code and focus more on the puzzle side of the game and less on a roleplaying-style-game.
Sister: (first character, in search for her younger brother):

• 1) Gravitiy switching: Up/Down. This is done using the double-jump-method: you jump once, then while in the air your movement slows down a little, giving the player time to choose a direction (W and S keys by default). This direction will be the direction you will now fall to, because you've switched gravity.
• 2) Gravity switching: Right/Left. See 1), except that the gravity can now also be changed to pull left/right (A and D keys by default).
• 3) Gravity switching: With Movable Objects: Same as 1) and 2), except that when using this ability (TFGH keys), movable objects (boxes, crates, stones, enemies and the brother character) will fall into the given direction as well.

Brother: (second character, playable after you've found him)

• 1) Time Period switching A: switching between two time periods, but only in special areas (close to shrines?)
• 2) Time Period switching B: siwtching between two time periods, anywhere

Depending on the puzzles in the game, we can decide that the brother mustn't leave the "eyesight" of the sister, meaning that while playing one character you can only move him/her so far away that the camera, which follows the active character, is still seeing the other character.

Gameplay:
Goal of the first part of the game would be to find the little brother, goal of the second part to find and destroy the divinity (we need a cool name for him :P) and goal of the third part of the game would be to leave the dream-world (and return to the sibling's bedchamber?).

Game Style: The game's a 2d Sidescroller, of course, but George has mentioned using 3d functions (c_trace/c_move), so I suggest that the game itself will be created in a 3d world with an isometric view, with sprites both infront of and behind the 3d world, that will form the background (trees, clouds) and foreground (grass, plants), while the 3d world will be the one that the user can interact with (characters, enemies, platforms/doors/boxes/crates/stones/spikes... whatever we need). This will allow the programmers to progress fast without needing any special 2d-work, they can use simple 3dgs-predefined functions and make testing-levels quickly. If we do it right, it could also result in a very unique style.

Are there any oppinions on this? Sorry for the long post ....

Maybe we can have two rather short story modes at the beginning of the game.
You can select whether to play girl or boy at the beginning and depending on your choice you'll see that part of the game.
Once you have played both stories (girl on the way to rescue, boy on the way to escape... and at the end they meet and now have to get rid of that dark divinity or so), you'll be able to play the main storyline, where the siblings have to cooperate (in their own stories you only have one character).

This basically is the "start with one, finish with two" idea, just separated into story. So the player gets the feeling to have unlocked sth.

This would allow to introduce both main concepts (time warp for the girl, gravity change for the boy - or vice versa) separately.
Also for the girl we could use some "warm" setting, while the boy is placed in some darker, creepy world, since he's escaping.
After having introduced both concepts, there's the possibility to mix up all the styles. Maybe like this: nice friendly past, dark, sad and scary future.

One important question to the concept as it is done so far: For which age will the game be designed??

I think it's important to answer this question before we can decide about the story and the style in detail. Because an older audience needs a, well let's say more "advanced" story than it would be for a younger age, where gameplay would be most important aspect and story line less important.

Example: When I think about the brother/sister with special abilities plot as we have it so far, I ask myself: Why do brother/sister have special abilities, why are they divided, why are they in a dreamworld and so on. If our gamne will be for children, we won't have to deal with those questions that much. A child propably won't ask for the reasons and the story could focus on the action. But if not, our story should clear up aspects like these.

I like Firo's idea with playing the two different stories at the very beginning.

I think that the game should target an audience of 7+. This means that we have to write a story, but I think that it won't be very hard to do it.

Okay,
I think we're all ok with brother/sister team ages 7+ and up?
Because then we should close that part and concentrate on gravity switching next.
In the Etherpad there's still a lot of options and ideas concerning this. We should narrow this down.

From what I've understood the artist team is going to concentrate on the visuals in parallel, so we should use this to get a solid base.

What do you think, George?

Sorry if I was taking your role now, but I thought we should get away from new and new proposals now and decide what to take in and leave out.
Hope that's ok...

I am against apologising for acting and just act ^^. If someone disagrees you'll hear soon enough, but I doubt it; otherwise that person would have stepped up earlier to take over the management (like firo is doing now). I say: thumbs up for the decisions made so far!!