Here's a mock-up. The shapes would look more identifiable in the actual game, but whatever.
- I'm guessing there will be six characters and each will have their own color. Saturation levels aside, the horizon color on the left will match the player. Both the enemies and the right side of the horizon will match the character rescued from the level. Bullets could be inverted with an extra shape for homing projectiles. (The later seems to be the norm for the shooters I've been watching.)
- The window is 854x480 pixels for a wide 480p resolution that can be displayed on YouTube. That's likely to be my new standard when not making multiplayer games.
- Meters are on the left. The bottom one increases upwards with health that might be refilled by timed power-ups inspired by Hydorah. The top one increases downwards with special attack energy that might be refilled by grazing bullets (such as in rRootage).
The metered health poses a problem when dealing with the walls. Players with any health remaining can't simply blow up after a collision. Meanwhile, continuing through a solid obstacle doesn't make much thematic sense. I could reposition the player, but that seems like it would break up the flow. Right now, I'm thinking of turning the walls into non-dense poisonous clouds. Players would still get hurt, but nobody would expect instant collisions. ;)
[Edit: Here's another shot. Most of the shapes are still not likely to stay, but each piece looks more distinct to me.]
