Super Metroid has all the standard action-platformer elements of jumping and attacking enemies, but what really set the game apart were the RPG elements, weapons and boss fights. As you make your way through the maze-world, you unlock upgrades to health and weapons. There are also tools you acquire that allow you to traverse the world more easily, including the the grapple beam and the space jump. The boss fights were also extremely polished, with animations to match, finding that great balance between challenge and cakewalk.
I'd like Platform Hack to borrow a lot of those elements, including the "movement" upgrades like the double jump and the grapple hook. Because the world in Platform Hack will be procedurally generated, there's the possibility of having super high vertical walls and cliffs, which could potentially post a problem for the standard jump. Of course, I'll have to tweak those maze-generation algorithms to limit the cliffs on the easier levels. But one of the goals of the game will be to acquire these "movement tools" in addition to more powerful weapons.
As far as development, I see the project in three stages:
1. Core Engine Development. This includes algorithms for collision detection, physics, player control, HUD, enemy movement and attacks, and boss scripting.
2. Game World Development. This is the world generation using procedural maze algorithms, different "features" like elevators, springs, doors, traps, as well as the more specific enemy and boss instances.
3. Asset Creation. This is where the game finally gets it's look - includes drawing and importing all the player, enemy and boss sprites, particle effects, tile and background images, HUD font and icons, sounds and music. Hopefully I have some help on board for this stage. But it's still a ways off.
Right now I'm still deep in stage 1, trying to work out the tweaks in collision detection for various movement tools, including the Grapple Hook and Jump Jets. But that's for another post -
