Polarity, original game concept (long)

POLARITY

--STORY--
The year is 21XX. People have begun to colonise space. You are Senior Engineer G. Boots. You were overseeing the construction of the magnificent space station Polaris when the unthinkable happened; a nearby star collapsed into a black hole. The half completed space station has been torn to pieces. The Polarity Drive used to hold the space station together has exploded leaving the debris magnetically charged. You are the only survivor. Using your polarity boots you must navigate the debris and escape the pull of the all consuming black hole. Wormholes, previously used to navigate the space station are littered amongst the debris; their destinations are unknown. Use them in the hopes of returning home. But be warned: the charge of your polarity boots is not infinite; collect the batteries floating in space in order to keep them functioning.

Can you find the wormhole home to your friends and family? Or are you destined to fall into the lonley abyss of the all encompassing black hole?
--Introduction end--

This story is obviously rather weak, just something I threw together to give the game a setting. It can be replaced with something deeper or discarded entirely. While I recognise the value a narrative brings to the game I don't see it as integral to this game's design.

--GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS--
>Basic genre is a 2D side scrolling puzzle / platformer.
>Begin a stage, free floating in space, the goal of each stage being the wormhole at the end. Being in space means there is no true "up is up", "down is down" orientation. Movement through the level can be in any direction and platforms can be oriented at any angle.
>Move through the stage by controlling the polarity of your boots. Hold one button to make them positive, hold another to make them negative, hold neither to leave them neutral. Opposite polarities will attract you to a platform, whilst same polarities will push you away. When neutral you will float freely through space at your current velocity and direction.
>You only have direct control of your movement when stuck to a platform, ie: there is a magnetic field holding you to the platform, creating friction and allowing you to move side to side. Without a magnetic field platforms are frictionless and you cannot move upon them.
>In space there is no friction, hence your velocity and movement vector will remain constant until you use the polarity of your boots within the magnetic field of a platform.
>Stray too far outside the main area of a stage and you will float freely away into space, resulting in your death. Dieing results in restarting the current stage. I don't imagine the game having a lives counter, rather you get infinite retries. Maybe include the option to skip a level if the player is finding it too difficult.
>All platforms in the game will have a positive, negative, or neutral polarity, and come in rectangles and circles of varying sizes. Some may move and some may alternate polarity.
>Spiked platforms will be present as obstacles; contact with them will result in death.
>Explosive devices (maybe mines, left over from construction) will be present as obstacles, free floating in space. Some may have their own polarity to make navigating around them extra difficult.
>Switches will be present (think Super Mario Bros. switches that you have to stand upon) that upon pressing may change the polarity of a platform, open a path, activate moving platforms, or other such triggers.
>The energy of your polarity boots is not infinite. Collection of batteries that will be free floating in space is necessary to keep them functioning. Energy levels can be indicated by a HUD meter, or perhaps a visual cue emanating from the boots themselves. A gameplay element could be that at low levels the boots have a lessened effect; a weakened magnetic strength, making navigation more difficult.
>The gameplay can be further complicated by the existence of over arching magnetic fields that may affect a certain area, or even an entire stage. Small black holes may exist within the stages that add extra turbulence to your movements, drawing the player towards them regardless of the boot's polarity. Falling into their centre will result in death.

--GRAPHICS--
I envision the game with simple 2D graphics though it could function just as well in 3D on a 2D plane, only in such a case the perspective will have to be made clearly recognisable to the player so as to avoid confusing them; shifting camera angels could make the game artificially difficult. The polarity of a platform or object should be obviously shown with colour coding, e.g.: red for positive, blue for negative, grey for neutral. Magnetic fields may have a visual representation to assist the player, something like colour shading, with higher saturation for stronger fields. Backgrounds can be a simple star-scape, or a busier scene full close up planets and nebula for added visual flair.

The game can be made with very simple sprite based graphics, although an enterprising graphic artist has the room to do much more either with complex 2D overlays and backgrounds, or full blown 3D models and environments; the gameplay isn't dependent on the graphic representation.

--CODING--
The physics coding I imagine working as such:

>The player will have a 2D movement vector. When attached to a platform (boot's polarity opposite to the platform's polarity) the vector should be (0, 0), at this point side-to-side movement by the player will grow the vector in an accelerating fashion (think of the way Mario runs, gaining momentum). Upon freeing yourself from a platform (either by running out its length, or by "jumping" off the platform by changing your boots to the same polarity as it, pushing yourself away) the player vector will be altered by surrounding magnetic fields depending upon the polarity of your boots. If you are in open space and your boots are neutral you will move freely with the vector remaining constant until you come in contact with an object or you activate the boots within a magnetic field.

>The magnetic fields of objects will have both a direction and strength, represented as a vector. A standard rectangular platform will have a field reaching perpendicular to its length, with a minimum strength at its furthest distance of 0, and a maximum strength, when flush with the platform, of 99; i.e.: the magnetic field gets stronger the closer you are to the platform. Circular platforms will emit a magnetic field in all directions. Black holes will work similarly to circular platforms, only their gravitational influence will act constantly, regardless of the boots polarity. The movement vector of the player will be adjusted by either adding or subtracting the vector of a magnetic field based on the polarity (and energy charge, a multiplier) of the boots. In this way magnetic fields can overlap and the player movement vector should be easily calculable. Platforms will not affect one another; stationary platforms will remain stationary and moving ones will move along a predefined path. To have platforms affecting one another would complicate things too far and ruin the mechanics of the game.

--SOUND—
I have a musically inclined friend interesting in creating some original background audio for the game. Sound effects could be basic or nonexistent given that the game takes place in the vacuum of space, this is a bit of a cop out though.

--LEVEL DESIGN--
The level progression should be a gradual learning curve, with the early levels introducing the player to the various game mechanics, middle levels mixing the mechanics together, whilst later levels being a veritable minefield of obstacles to truly test the most skilled players. The success of the game obviously hinges on the level design and I envision a lot of testing being necessary to fine tune the levels to the desired level of playability and challenge. My chief concern is that levels will get derivative of each other and become uninteresting to play. I hope to avoid this by varying the use of obstacles and by employing some unexpected challenges for the player.

Some level ideas to give you an example:
>Early stages, enclosed around the borders to allow the player to familiarise themselves with the polarity boot mechanic without fear of dying.
>A stage centred around each new obstacle/mechanic as it is introduced.
>A minefield stage, with explosives littering the area. Precise manipulation of the player movement vector is required to navigate to the end.
>A stage requiring heavy conservation of boot energy in order to make it to the end.
>A stage with a black hole at the center, requiring careful navigation around its perimeter.
>A stage with all platforms coated in spikes (spiked platforms may still have a polarity) requiring the player to navigate without ever touching foot on a platform.
>A traditional platformer stage, with all platforms oriented the same way, as homage to older generation platformers.
>A minimalist stage, with few small platforms, requiring precise targeting to avoid flying off into the stages outer edges.