The Basics: you are taken to an alien world to explore uncharted lands and learn about its strange inhabitants. All of the different areas within this world are inhabited by their own unique life forms and it is your job to seek out as many of them as possible. Each animal, plant, and environment will behave differently depending on how you interact with them, the more things you try, the more the world will open up for you to explore.
As you progress through the game your character will adapt to its environment depending on the ways you play. The more you do of an activity (climbing, swimming, etc) the more suitable features your character will adopt to become better at that ability. these newly developed skills will allow you to explore more of the world, and travel to specific places that can only be accessed with that certain skill. The more you re-play with different strategies, the more you uncover in this strange new planet.
World Exploration: This is a game designed for a touch device. Game play consists of walking around a 2D world (sort of like Chronos Trigger, old-school pokemon) and interacting with as much of your surroundings as possible. You interact with your environment with touch controls, first tapping on the item then you can do several different things with it. let's say you want to climb a long plant - after you have selected it, you will run your fingers along its stalk to have your character climb along. Maybe you want to shake it, then you shake the phone, or you want to attack the stalk, then you will quickly slide your finger towards the plant to attack it. each motion will be simple enough to remember but still make doing these actions quick and fun.
Your character will not be able to perform very well as you start the game, so the more of one command you do, the better your character will be able to execute it. This is not only important to shaping how your character will transform, but also determine your strengths when you interact with the animals of this world.
Battle mechanics: Animals will either run, attack or some will have their own ways of relating to you. Battle, much like everything else; consists of a pallet of touch controls. Simple enough as it is not the absolute focus of the game, but complicated enough that it is fun, somewhat strategic, and not a button masher. the abilities you gain through out the game will determine how your character fights and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Lets say you have smashed a lot of obstacles so now your character has become husky and grown horns, this will make you a strong fighter but you are also very slow. Instead, lets say you climb a lot and so you now have long limbs, you are not very strong but it is much easier for you to avoid getting hurt and you can run away in a pinch. This allows for different game play styles and makes replaying the game more interesting.
when all your commands do not need to be selected from a list, it makes the screen nice and clean with nothing eclipsing the artwork. If you can directly interact with the environment it would not only get rid of the need to select from a list what you want your character to do, but it would be more fun and would have the player feel like they were actually part of this world.
Conclusion: I hope I have clearly talked about this concept,thou I have not mentioned the story, nor listed some details I wanted to keep it as simple and clear as possible. As this is a world exploration game, the artwork is very important. I want this to be something where people start off this game and find the world so interesting, that they want to explore all of it. To see the crazy and beautiful lands and animals. As such, I have put a lot of work and research into the art for this game, to be full of fantastic color, imaginative lands and all kinds of animals. Every where you go there is something different to look at, no dull brown trees or fields of puke green grass but savannas of bright colorful life. Fields of glistening blues and purples that when you walk through, petals trail behind you. a world inspired by the most beautiful parts of our own but abstracted into something that could not exist, making it all the more fun to find out what these things surrounding you are.
Battle mechanics: Animals will either run, attack or some will have their own ways of relating to you. Battle, much like everything else; consists of a pallet of touch controls. Simple enough as it is not the absolute focus of the game, but complicated enough that it is fun, somewhat strategic, and not a button masher. the abilities you gain through out the game will determine how your character fights and what their strengths and weaknesses are. Lets say you have smashed a lot of obstacles so now your character has become husky and grown horns, this will make you a strong fighter but you are also very slow. Instead, lets say you climb a lot and so you now have long limbs, you are not very strong but it is much easier for you to avoid getting hurt and you can run away in a pinch. This allows for different game play styles and makes replaying the game more interesting.