One From The Archives (Patreon)

I don't know if I ever shared these - years-old animation ideas for a Daisy platform game!  The idea never went any further than these scribbles, but lately I've had a rush of ideas...  starting with the health system.  

In the Mario games, you start with one hit point, but gain one or two more with power-ups.  Sonic has rings and shields.  Daisy - like Arthur in the Ghosts 'n' Goblins games - would have her clothes.  By default she may start with 3 hit points - one hit removes her work uniform, leaving her in a t-shirt and her underwear; the next hit destroys her sports bra, which may in turn limit how fast she can run or how high she can jump; the final hit would shred her remaining clothing, causing her to quickly cover up and dash off screen.  As the game progresses, her clothing could be upgraded - stronger buttons, stretchier fabric, a more durable sports bra, etc.

From there, things kind of snowballed.  Daisy would be out to rescue nearly all of my other characters, thanks to a misshap with one of the story devices I haven't introduced yet.  This gave me ideas for a few level themes, along with several boss fights.  Also unlockables - rescuing Rose or Monique could make them playable (Mini-Rose, anyway), while rescuing Violet might unlock abilities based on comic books!

...or course, I have no idea how to do any of this.  The animation would be one thing, but making a working game is a whole other beast.  I could start playing with Unity, but do I really want to dive into yet another technical thing?  A kit like the Corgi Engine could reduce a lot of the work, but not all of it.  And even then, there's more to making a game than character animation and an engine.

Then again, Unity is free for personal use, so perhaps I should give it a whirl...  some time AFTER my current technical projects are finished.