Theme
I was fairly confident before the competition that if anything were to be made, it would most likely be a 2D platformer, or puzzle-based somehow.
Upon seeing the theme Death is Useful, there were a few ways of thinking about it that immediately sprang to mind.

- The death of others is a positive thing for you. Maybe you drain their energy somehow, or gain abilities.
- The death of self is a positive thing -- somewhat based on Planescape: Torment's the Unnamed One, who can only solve some puzzles by dying (being effectively immortal can be a boon at times).
While those ideas sounded interesting, I didn't quite see to translate them into something sensible within the time frame.

After a while, another thought struck me -- most likely quite influenced by Discworld and how Death is portrayed there.

What if player controlled Death? Not while he's "on duty", but when he's on his time off, wanting to do something productive and useful?
For quite a while I've had an idea in the back of my head for a puzzle game which I think might be quite interesting, and which would fit with how Death can get to places no other mortal can.
There is also some potential for Death's usual accesories (notably, the scythe), if I can find the time to implement it.


Today
Besides thinking about some design bits, I also started on some initial work with the actual game itself.
Since I'm still coming to grips with how Unity3D works, I started with something small and isolated -- the splash screen.

It now fades it, displays with some highlight on team Mud Pit, and fades off, before entering the "game" proper.
I also toyed a bit with a camera for a side-scroller, and I'm thinking it might work quite well (but that might obviously change when I have something to test it on!).


Tomorrow
More thoughts and planning on the design, as well as trying to implement some basic movement and interactions.
On the art side the artist is currently a bit sick, so not sure how that will impact things. Would be cool to have a sketch or something to show, but it might be too early.