Capture points
Description: Ariel view of a maze that contains two characters and 4 capture points. the characters compete against each other to try to control all 4 capture points. Characters can throw spells at each other to send them back to spawn. There will be separate spawn points on either side of the maze where the characters will start and be sent back to when killed.
mechanics:
The left player will move with W/A/S/D and the right player will move with the arrow keys. movement will be at 90 degree angles around the maze.
The control and shift on either side will be the capture and shoot controls.
Feel: the game will invoke a feeling of urgency fast paced music and twitchy controls. It also will bring a strong feeling of competition with the player next to you because you will likely kill each other several times before anyone succeeds in capturing all 4 points.
prototype goals: I will get one player moving and shooting as intended in the prototype. I will always have a maze of some sort built and a single capture point working.
At a high level, I think a game like this can be fun. The details will be super important, especially how the movement works (and speedup/slowdown or just start/stop movement?) and how you aim (how are you aiming your spells?), and what the spells are and how they work, how you toggle between them, etc.
Think what the end goal on some of this is (4 spells means you can just pick between them with the keys, for example), but aiming is an issue.
Why not use two xbox controllers instead? Much more flexible, can shoot in any direction while moving, etc.
For the prototype, I agree with focusing on the movement and shooting! Perhaps put in some different spells (even if they are just different colors of the same one) so you can test the spell switching (if you have multiple spells)?