Side Hack

A project just started here on TV Tropes; it will be Nethack, but an Action RPG from a Side View. There is currently nothing playable, however that will (hopefully) change soon. Anyone willing to jump in and program something or add to the ideas below should feel more than free to do so; so spread the word and offer your help!

Current agenda:
 * Decide a programing language. It should:
 * Be something easily compiled for/run on multiple Os' and computer platforms.
 * Be something a lot of people know.
 * Have plenty of support. (An outmoded language could kill the project).
 * Be easy to handle.
 * Be able to sustain a large number of sprites without slowing down on most computers. (We don't all have gaming pcs).
 * Create a website.
 * Something free that anyone can edit, like, you know... a wiki.
 * Program a demo.
 * It doesn't even need to meet all of the 'requirements' listed on this page.
 * Recruit help. We'll need it.

The vision:


 * The style will be something along the lines of Metal Slug meets Castlevania.
 * The original would allow you to sit for an infinite amount of time before making a decision; thus that must be kept in some form.
 * To keep this element, entering a subscreen or menu could pause the action.
 * All characters would have to be able to jump, so the spell, skill, or boots would make you jump farther.
 * There could be spells, skills, or items for multiple midair jumps, walljumps, and/or super jumps.
 * Objects would appear on the ground similar to castlevania.
 * A single soldier ant could kill a hapless player; therefore most random enemies will act along the lines of boss battles, as opposed to hordes of weak foes.
 * Having several rules for monster generation will help. Some weak monsters are there to act as filler, while others act as mooks for a tougher miniboss.
 * The rooms themselves will need to be pretty innovative to look nice and retain the secret passages, and vaults.
 * Randomly generating everything will be necessary to keep the feel of the original.
 * Procedural generation of main area branches, alongside with pregenerated or preset Special Rooms with specific generation rules, will allow for a unique feel each playthrough while keeping a sense of cohesion.
 * Generation of world should follow a sequence: Create outline of World Map, create primary branches of areas, insert Special Rooms, insert random rooms, add random elements.
 * Some "core" skills should always be generated, while others are randomly made available at world generation.
 * A feature to pause the game and survey the situation with the mouse would be nice.
 * Engravings, altars, thrones, items, and other intractable things, could be marked by an arrow or something.
 * Important objects could be highlighted in some way to emphasise something about them, more colours in the highlight means more details on them.
 * Pets might follow you around, but still be subject to your attacks.
 * The controls would have to be either simple or fun
 * A system for macros would help, specifically for the #keys.
 * Wands, thrown weapons, and other projectiles could be assigned to a sub-weapon key, and would be controlled like in super metroid.
 * In addition to the ability to completely remap the keyboard, it would nifty if there was a way to map stuff to combinations typically found in fighting games.
 * The interface will borrow heavily from Super Metroid and later Castlevania games.
 * Boulders, secret passages, pit traps, and the like may have to be changed, decreased, or removed entirely. (It doesn't need to be the same all the way).
 * Anything involving clicking somewhere/typing would pause the game and bring up a cursor/text box. (Teleporting, wishing, and engraving for example).
 * The speed modifier (fast, very fast) would affect how fast a creature runs, attacks with a weapon ect....
 * A box at the top of screen will notify the player of most events like normal.
 * Most importantly, It should still be hard.
 * Players should be able to vary the difficulty from "Tough but Fair" to "Outright Masochism".