Space Circus: Idea Exploration pt. 1

Starting to kick around a new concept. These are my choppy brainstorm notes & some drawings and video from tonight. Issam is starting on a prototype. I think this is one of those ideas where you really need to start playing it to see what direction to head. I have some basic concepts I'm interested in - but I don't know if they'll be fun until I can play them. Then the rest of the game can be structured around that. :)

Brainstorm Notes:

Key Concepts: Physicality, joy of movement
Want player to feel exhilaration from success

Traversal
- think 'skateboard' - you swipe along the bottom of the screen to build forward momentum
- the character will continue forward, then lose momentum when you stop swiping
- (probably need to be able to stop suddenly - maybe you swipe backwards)
- you can go forward and backwards? (probably important for platforming, if you overshoot)

- swipe upwards to jump (keeps forward momentum)
- maybe you can hold to crouch for jumping - the longer you hold, the higher you can jump (seems like it might make it hard to be precise, since it would also retain forward momentum. could be really confusing, or break up action too much?)

- swinging on bars (think uneven bars in gymnastics) you swing around them with the momentum you had from running forward, but you can also swipe in a circular motion around your character to control their speed
- letting go: hold to freeze (visual filter effect on screen to show you are 'frozen'), draw a straight line outwards from your character, let go - you will have aimed the jump
- could also simply let go (more like classic game where you swing on stuff)
- could also not freeze, but let the path your finger takes aim your jump off of the bar

- tightrope section using the accelerometer? different game view (top down). might be too much of a break from the game, would need to see it.

Player Motivation?
- do we make the game competitive, show player trails/ghosts to compete with for timing?
- do we score the player based on how unbroken their traversal is, or is the speed at which you're moving its own reward? (I am going for the latter! I would like to avoid scoring at all costs!)

Quick video for Issam to explain a basic idea of what I'm thinking:

Draw over: