So I came up with the above draft main sprite. I think it looks really nice - simple and minimalistic and no need for animation. One of the big problems with the mechanical arm is how to do a rotating animation for turning left and right - the above sprite removes this need.
Project has now got an official name - Pod. This meant, being anal me, creating a new VS project, copy-pasting all the files in and QuickReplacing all instances of the old name with Pod. Didn't take too long, but I sometimes wish there was an easier way of renaming a project.
Something that I'm playing around in my mind with at the moment is the idea that the Pod is a vehicle and that you actually play a much smaller entity that can get in and out of it.
I'm quite interested in the idea that you play a very weak and vulnerable entity of some kind but that the gameplay forces you to get out of the Pod at regular intervals to solve puzzles.
I like the idea that the Pod could provide a great deal of protection from the environment, and obviously allow you to access places by swinging on the arm that the entity can't reach otherwise, but the entity has abilities that the Pod does not that could lead to some interesting puzzle-solving ideas.
Kind of like the classic Head Over Heels - anyone too young to remember that game has no idea what they missed [smile].
I sort of see the top part of the Pod opening up and the entity jumping out.
Pod is a good name - I'm capitalising it automatically in the ramblings above.
Props to Drew in Weekend Tales for pointing out Aether as a game using a similar mechanic to mine. There's also a deeply cool shareware title called Wiki and the Lost Fable of Souls (or something) that uses a similar mechanic, although they both involve tongues (eew, gross) rather than a mechanical arm.
I know HopeDagger was encouraging me to look into flexible rope physics for this project last year when I wrote the early prototype to test my theory about implementing the swinging, but I think the rigid arm is a bit original and different and opens up some interesting possibilities. Plus it is a lot simpler than trying to implement a flexible rope. Aether does the flexible tongue thing superbly.
Someone else on GameDev (my apologies, forgot your nick) is also doing a pretty cool Egyptian themed game a bit like this but with a flexible rope. Again, that seems to be more a puzzle-type game whereas Pod is going to be more along the lines of a traditional platformer.
Must ponder the idea of an entity driving the Pod in more detail as the more I think about it, the more it seems to be the gimmick that could set Pod apart from all the other swing-em-ups about at the moment.
Am I first to coin the term "swing-em-up"?
Can't beat a bit of swinging. Now I'm off to look for my car keys.
Lookin' good :)