Prologue/Level 1:
The game opens with the main character floating in space near Earth's moon. The main character is starting his first day of basic I.B.L.O.U. training. This level would be a tutorial type level where the player can learn the basic controls and mechanics of the game. The controls and goals of the levels would be explained to the player through radio briefs from the Captain. The objectives would be simple: grab the gravity gun, pick up a few pieces of trash, and bring them back to the trash freighter. Once the objectives are complete, a cut scene would ensue which would segue into level 1.The camera would pan to a shot of an approaching space pirate ship. The music would change in accordance with the more dangerous atmosphere of the level. Now the player's objective would be to gather up trash and shoot it into two exhaust ports on the pirate ship. This message would be relayed to the player via a radio message from the Captain. Lasers would shoot from the pirate ship, creating obstacles that could damage and potentially kill the player. And once one of the exhaust ports is destroyed, the pirate ship would dispatch smaller fighter ships that would shoot more lasers, creating more obstacles for the player to dodge. The level would scale in difficulty: enough trash can be gathered to destroy the first exhaust port without having to enter the grid of laser fire, but in order to destroy the second exhaust port, the player must time his or her movements through the laser field to collect enough trash to clog the second exhaust port. Upon the destruction of the two exhaust ports, the pirate ship would be severely damaged, causing it to retreat. Then a congratulatory cutscene would follow and the player would move on to level 2.
Level 2Extremely large trashteroids (large clumps of trash that float through space) are careening towards Mars City. These trashteroids, if unchecked, could break through the Mars Atmospheric Shield and threaten the integrity of the Mars City Dome. Unfortunately, the Vaporizemorator Cannon is broken and in need of repair. This is where the player comes in. As a technician, it is his or her job to enter the cannon, repair it, and fend of the trashteroid attack. The level would star with the player hovering near a giant laser cannon sticking out a domed city on Mars. The planet would take up the entire portion of the screen and the camera would be fixed, so the player couldn't stray to far from the city. The player would be instructed by the Captain to enter the laser cannon and repair it. We didn't discuss the possibility of a repairing mini-game at our meeting, but I think it might be a cool idea. Secondary, but something we could throw in just for funsies. Anyhow, once the player is in the cannon and it is repaired, he or she assumes control of the cannon. The objective would then be to aim and shoot the cannon at falling trashteroids before they hit the translucent blue shield surrounding Mars. The cannon would have infinite ammo, but the player's rate of fire would be limited by an 'overheat' meter; if the gun is fired too fast, it will overheat and force the player to wait for it to cooldown before it can be fired again. I visualize this meter in the lower left hand corner of the screen. In the lower right hand corner would be a numerical representation of the Mars' Shield Integrity. It would start at 100 and drop for every trashteroid that hits the shield. The numbers would start as blue, but change to yellow if the integrity drops below 50, change to red if it drops below 25, and start to flash if it drops below 10. The shield would also change color to correspond to its health. If the integrity drops to or below 0, the shield would break and disappear, but the player would not lose until a trashteroid collides with the city itself. The player would have to defend Mars for a period of about two minutes. The difficulty of the trashteroid shower would increase as time goes on, with more trashteroids falling at a higher velocity towards the end of the shower. If the player survives the trashteroid shower, another cutscene would ensue showing the pirate ship from the first level hovering a few miles away from Mars space. Then a mini boss fight would ensue where the player would have to shoot down projectiles from the pirate ship while simultaneously attacking the pirate ship by shooting switches on its weakpoint. The ship would be destroyed if the player could toggle every switch at once, but the switches reset themselves after a while, so the player would have to shoot quickly and accurately while making sure not to allow Mars to get damaged. Once the player destroys the pirate ship, it will make a crash landing on Mars. Then a cutscene would show the player wandering off towards the pirate ship to settle matters once and for all.
Level 3
This has been the hardest level to plan so far because it's so unlike the others. Rather than take place in outer space, this level would be confined entirely to the downed pirate ship. The most difficult aspect of creating this level so far has been deciding which camera angle we want to use. We settled on a sort-of 'over the shoulder isometric' camera view or something; it's comparable to Zelda: A Link to the Past from SNES. Other than that, I don't think we really thought of too much for this level. There will be a boss fight, and the identity of the evil bad guy will be revealed. The emphasis of the level will be on exploring/adventuring the derelict ship, with some attention given to basic combat. But nothing concrete for this level really exists yet. We figured we have our work cut out for us just getting the first two levels finished.
