So on and off I've juggled ideas around for games. This more recent idea, although still a victim of my usual over ambition I've goes for a more simple 2d tile-based graphics approach.
One element I wanted to try was a way to design ships by giving the player a sort of tile editor. Adding different tiles together to form the ship, being built around some central parts like engines, shields, reactors, etc. The idea is you can design the external and internal of the ship. I have to approaches in mind of how I might do this.
Blocks on blocks: The ship is made up in a way very much like Space Engineers/Minecraft from a 2d prospective. Creating from 1x1 shaped tiles that fit together. Some kind of vertical switch allows you to place tiles as the 'roof' of the ship.
Premade Parts: The other idea came from seeing graphical parts like http://opengameart.org/content/space-ship-mech-construction-kit-2 The parts are still modular, but as I imagine it you would fit them together to make the externals of your ship ... and each piece would have a predefined eternal area you could than edit. This is less freedom, but perhaps more aesthetic looking ships? It does make it a bit simpler in my mind. So once you've fitted all your pieces together you can switch to internal view and get something like a Stardrive view of available space inside.
I suppose its trying to get a somewhat vertical element to a 2d birds eye view. I feel this came off as more of a ramble, but if anyone can translate and give ideas please do :)
