Well, I've been at work on a rather "kinetic" sidescroller, as Ravuya put it. My baby, currently dubbed PyBall, is, you guessed it, written in Python, utilizing Pygame (which's just awesome) for its graphical drawings and such. I'm hoping to actually complete this project, as I think it could turn out to be really fun. Roughly one to two years ago, I thought up the idea for PyBall, hoping for nothing more than a Mario clone... with a ball. Soon after I began development on PyBall (after most of the physics were written), I realised that I'd like to create something more than Just Another Mario Clone&tm, because, frankly, I can so do better than that. This, my fellow Gamedevians, is where you come in. I am looking for gameplay elements - just throw whatever you think up at me. I'm still going with the Mario-esque idea, but I think PyBall could use just a bit more depth. There isn't really a story yet; the present idea goes as follows: The cruel magicmen have stolen all of the precious candies, so you, the ball, must defeat the magicmen and take back the candies. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, it's only the greatest story evar! Anyhoo, mehopes that you respond with helpings of brainjuices. Many caeks to those who post here. Many whippings to those who do not. And finally, a screenshot (ign0r teh gr4fix kthx): [Edited by - Toxic Hippo on May 22, 2005 11:26:41 PM]

Random ideas:

• The ball needs a hamster in it. If you hit the ground too hard, the hamster explodes.
• The ball can teleport, switching places with a brain to pwn whoever owns the brain.
• There can be a spike powerup for extra damage.
• The ball can shrink and roll under the feet of enemies to take them down.

I'm convinced you'll come up with an original idea. Is it vector based game? Is there a demo?

Have cannon that the ball can roll into and shoot out of.

The ball should be able to turn into different materials, like rubber, cement, flames, foam, etc. For example, you'd want to turn it into a beachball material to float across some water, but switch to cement to crush enemies. You could intermix these material oriented elements to create challenging puzzles (i.e. enemies IN THE WATER! you must kill them, but as cement, you'll sink! what will you do!?).

The ball should be in love with a peppermint candy (the round kind). In one of the levels (one of the last?), the cruel Magicmen should push the peppermint candy down some kind of horrible ramp with something like a spikes at the end. As the ball, you must gather speed by avoid obstacles on the ramp to catch up with and save your peppermint love (tying this in with the above concept, you should get ahead of her, then turn foam to cushion her fall).

Or something, you get the idea.

When you press button A, the ball could form a floating sphere where it was and then it will be attached by a string. You could use the direction keys to swing it around, and hit A again to form a new sphere (connected to the old one).

That way, you could trap monsters in sphere-string walls, create ramps, etc. Might be a nice idea.

(It looks like the picture you try was made this way, by the way.)

~Dakar.

I think your game's beautiful, Hippo.

I agree, though, we need a playable demo. After sampling the gameplay we can better indicate how it should be improved.