Rythym Action Core Idea

Core idea

Think Megaman meets DDR.

A hybrid of rhythm and action games. It gives a cue when you should attack, but it allows enough flexibility to avoid completely degenerating into a pure rhythm game. The music would be dynamic, allowing you to make up your own music.

The story would be a tongue-in-cheek parody of action games. Cerb, a devil-may-care swordsman, is cursed. And everything seems to be after him: The Empire, Forces of Nature, and even his family.

Player Behavior

Attack with proper timing to a beat (usually a song of some sort)

It is extremely important that the player doesn't just mash buttons. The attacks must be done with a certain tempo. The attacks should generate the background music of some sort.

Dash around freely between targets

The user should be able to move, a lot. And it shouldn't be constrained by many factors. Maybe a timer/distance meter would suffice. And don't worry about gravity.

Only use the mouse to control your character and his actions.

Simpler controls are better. Also, the imprecision of mice lends itself to more fluid movement, which is perfect for a loud game like this.

A power boost that costs some resource, but boosts your damage output for a while

To help the action game portion, the player has a stat boost of some kind. It should also change the music, or give a much better margin for error. Finally, it should cost a resource of some sort. Maybe limited uses, or it costs life.

I wonder if the added control complexity is worth it. I'll need another button. And maybe another UI element.

Game Encouragements

This is what goes on behind the scenes to help the player understand and adapt to the gameplay.

Dynamic music generation

The player should make the song for the game. The game shouldn't just playback a song and expect the user to fill in the blanks. The player's direct actions should create music. Attacks, dodges, and taunts could be used to make music.

Scaling difficulty

It is important to keep the player interested, and not to overwhelm them with an impossible difficulty. It is also important not to bore them with a trivial difficulty. Vary the difficulty during gameplay, at least until the first time they get through it. Resident Evil 4 had a good idea: to (66% chance) decrease the difficulty if the player died.

Reward streaks.

The player should play music continuously, to help into the groove. The game should reward continuous streaks. A damage bonus, score bonus, or extra enemy stun are good examples.

Background that reacts with the player

It is important that the scene reacts in tune with the player. Backgrounds can light up with well-timed attacks, or particles can move with the player. Or the scene can erupt with life when attacks are properly timed. Basically, add more shineys when the player is doing well.

Cut out the backtracking; skip straight to the action

Nothing's worse than downtime in an action game. Keep the interludes inbetween fights small. This also allows the song to maintain itself without entering an absurdly long interlude.

Music and its effects

The music should change and affect enemy activity.

Movin' to the beat

The song's tempo sets the general pacing.

Moving

Enemies and projectiles should move to the beat. So for fast songs, enemies/projectiles travel faster.

Dancin

Background elements should move more once the music has picked up.

Difficulty

As the music picks up, the game gets harder.