it's probably because i've been looking at, uh, roguelikelikes more recently, that my mindset is that there'd need to be some randomness and a total loss state, and some choice about how exactly to progress.

there's not really any reason that the dream-pieces couldn't work in a hand-crafted linear set of levels,
and maybe a lighter punishment for failure, though that'd sort of reduce the franticness of it.
it'd have less replay value, i think? but it's not like i expect a lot of players or playtime for anything i'd make.

@kitsch reminds me of half minute hero, which was amazing and hilarious and definitely didn't use up its ideas

@amphetamine i'll have to need to look at it! i think i've heard of it before and it sounded kinda interesting

what i'm imagining:
you get a couple missions to choose from, with indicators of difficulty/reward value.

as soon as you enter a mission, the timer starts. you have to be back at the entrance (teleporter? escape pod?) before it runs out.

each mission has three objectives:
1. progress the story, in various ways.
2. recover battery power.
3. find items & loot.
each objective is optional. you can enter the mission & immediately exit again if you want.

exiting rerolls the mission selection.
BUT: every time you exit a mission, your battery depletes. running out is a total failure.
maybe the difficulty increases each time too?

one thing that comes to mind is that 90's dos platformer shooters have resources that are mostly used in the short term. like, the main gun doesn't upgrade much, and superweapons have small ammo capacity.
if i want players to seek out loot, it needs to have long-term significance. otherwise it isn't worth the risk of trying to get anything.

... i'm not sure how powerful a player character should generally be compared to most enemies. or what the enemy density should be.
having a harsh timer ALONG WITH enemies taking time to deal with would just be unpleasant.
i guess that's something to experiment with.

hm... i guess it could be interesting to have lots of short-term resources, and have them constantly being used up.
it'd be sort of another depleting meter, but a less strict one.
but it'd probably correlate with lazy enemy/level design (unavoidable damage), and progression wouldn't feel very good.

how much focus should enemies take up vs. how much focus should area traversal take up? should it be possible to dodge past most enemy groups? (maybe enemies left undefeated become more powerful on the way back out?)

can there be anything to engage with besides hurrying to the goal and fighting enemies?

thinkings for this are... "what kind of design would elicit the feeling that seemed to accompany the game in the dream."
secondarily, "what would be fun to play" is filling in the design gaps

not that i ever end up doing much, but...
i'd love to make games with environments (and the protagonist's place in them) that might cause the player to feel a bit lonely, or pensive, or unsteady, or faintly threatened, or so on... idk

but like... all in a low-key, low-energy, maybe calming sort of way, i guess

i mean, those are mostly kind of negative feelings, now that i look at them. i guess that reflects my attitude towards life <<
but i'd like to convey optimistic feelings too. finding a new home. meeting friendly people. travelling through strange and pretty locations. i uh. yeah

on even more of a tangent, i realized my semi-characters, the picayune bear and toothpaste duo, are very... wanderers. i'd imagined the duo as looking for somewhere safe to settle down. and the bear as indefinitely passing through and moving on.

though, they'd have more choice in it, after a point. the bear's motives aren't clear, maybe he just prefer not settling down. the duo might have a home, but go wandering anyway just to see what's out there. i dunno. probably won't ever get around to manifesting any of this.

oh, and i think the name of this dream-game was something like "Breathe". i'd forgotten that but it's in my notes. gives a couple extra implications about the kind of game it might be.

i vaguely imagine famitory's music as the kind of soundtrack to have for the timer game since it's fast and driving, though it's probably partially because i started listening to it at the same time i started thinking about the game