I think this is an excellent idea. Yume nikki's style is a good basis to work from in a collaborative project.

My 2 cents suggestion would be a loose maze-like structure where worlds are seperated by doors/portals. Key items might be required to access certain doors incentivising exploration. Each could be connected to a hub area by which previously explored worlds can be accessed.

This structure lets the project be arbitrarily large depending on participation. Perhaps a certain amount of key items are required to access an end area or win state.

One consideration would be that participants would need to be given requirements as to how their works would connect in the overall structure (placing of doors and such). Another would be who gets to make the hub and end areas if there is one. But that can either be popular vote or just assigned based on merit.

Either way i think the project is a cool idea whatever form it takes.

Edit: some other musings.

A standard tile size of 16 px gives a good balance for artists of varying skills imo. This also would inform screen resolution. Map sizes could have min to max ranges up allow consistency with flexibility. Tile animation could be arbitrary but setting a limit on the number of frames is probably wise. A base player template could allow player customisation submissions (collect outfits?). A lot of this could be done with modifying standard template sprite sheets in a tool agnostic way. Palette could probably be freeform with recommendations.

I suggest 16x16 tiles. 16 is a very easy number to work with mathematically, especially in terms of game design, and a lot of people are familiar with 16x16 images as that's the same resolution that Minecraft uses.

I think a map 16 tiles wide and 16 tiles high (so a 16-width square) maximum would be best. That way it wouldn't stretch too far and it would be easy to design, but it also wouldn't feel too limited.

I think restricting everything to one palette is a bad idea. If you want to require that a certain palette be used, I suggest incorporating multiple relatively large palettes. That way contributors have reasonable design freedom but nothing is too chaotic or out of place.

I think 3 is a good maximum for level collectibles. 3 is a good number for most things like this. It's small and easy to work with.

A hub world would probably be good. It's not as cheesy as instant transportation, but also more stimulating (less boring) than an endless chain of rooms with the same goals.

I think two animated tiles is enough. Maybe one for water and one for some sort of hazard. Could be lava, acid, etc. No need for excessive motion everywhere.

Enemies would be fun, but then there would be the necessity of adding either health or a death mechanic, or both. Neither of those are hard to implement of course, but it is still slightly more work. Still, enemies are fun to play around with and add some real interactivity to the game, so I would say yes.

I think the Reddit alien is a good choice for a character. It symbolizes the community and is cute. What more does a protagonist need?

A good soundtrack would make the game beautiful and immersive, so I would definitely suggest making sure the music is pleasant.

Speaking of music, I compose a lot, so if you are interested, I might be able to contribute like that.

i mean, is it top down or side scrolling? this might be crucial

For question 5, there could be a hub world that is just doors to each contributors level. Or there should be a portal/magic door where you start and end in the level and those could connect each contributors level. I’m totally for helping make a level and be part of this :3

Would be kinda neat if everyone could draw their version of the Reddit alien in different art styles and maybe even with unique accessories or clothing for each level.

I think this is a great idea! And I am definitely down to join in! maybe the game could have pushable blocks to give it a little puzzle aspect?

Personally I like games with atmosphere that have a lot of replayability. At least have a few reflective moments like you see in Japanese slice of life anime. Moody skies, rain, storms, insect noises, wind, animal noises, all that incidental stuff that adds up to atmosphere.

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It seems like this game is trying to be as simple as possible. Like something more of an interactive artistic experience than a game with mechanics, which is fine.

It’d be easiest if all maps are self contained and you can do them in any order. Otherwise you’ll be trying to find ways to link all the maps into some kind of narrative. (Though linking them through collecting key items to use in other worlds could add a lot of substance.) like finding a key used to unlock a door or interact with and npc in another world.

The first idea that comes to mind is that the character is exploring some kind of dream land. Traveling from world to world Collecting things to store in their Dream Sanctum. The player could decorate their “room” with the things they’ve found. There might even be some kind of nightmare that’s devouring the worlds.

Second idea, same thing, but things have been scattered and mixed up between the worlds. You need to collect and direct NPCs to their correct world?

Some possible easy additions…

Push block puzzles. Quizzes on the worlds you’ve previously visited. Sneaking sections. Racing?? Pac man esque enemies Rock, paper, scissors inspired combat.

If you ever need a musician, I'm down

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… ok but what does this have anything to do with me drawing a stick?

This sounds fun

I'm open to doing programming and pixel art for this project, skeddles please mention me on reddit if any other things related to this pop up so that I can see it. This is going to be fun.

If it's in Godot, count me in as a Programmer.

You can also make a sick cutscenes for your story (if any) using the art posted here.

Aside from the art styles, what is there that would set different areas apart? In order to keep the player engaged throughout the game, there need to be various game mechanics to hinder the player.

It looks like people are interested in adding simple enemies, but if they're everywhere and that's it, things can get monotonous very fast. I would recommend splitting the world into subareas with dedicated themes and mechanics (you could also have all areas in a subworld share the same palette for visual continuity)

Do we have any ideas for storyline? Storyline on its own can create a game with just basic mechanics and make it incredibly interesting and fun.

Maybe someone with veteran ability could post a big link library for us neophytes like the stack. This looks like an obtainable and very interesting way to learn programming.

I have a few questions regarding the player movement:

#1: Will the character be able to jump?

#2: Will the character be able to move continuously in any 360 degree direction, ignoring the grid (like in Undertale)? Or will the character only move up, down, left, and right, keeping the character within the grid (like in older main-series Pokemon titles)?

I also have several suggestions for game ideas:

#1: Teleportation Tiles to quickly get from one place to another, at the very least within my map. We can then mask it as anything we want to fit our themes, such as two connected holes in the ground.

#2: Chest/Box Tiles that can hide collectables, and could be locked until you have a certain # and types of collectables.

#3: Ice-like Tiles that force the player to keep moving until the player lands on a non-ice tile or bumps into a wall. I feel that this is somewhat situational for artists who are going for more of a ice-theme or a factor with moving tiles-theme, but it could still add some neat interaction with the game world.

#4: Storytelling via Map Design. If we can't have cutscenes, I think we should instead rely on both the mechanical and visual aspects of the map design to tell a story, depending if the artist wants to or not. We could all tell our own separate mini-stories within our maps without overriding each other's narrative. If we could also rely on dialogue or in-game text when interacting with the map, that'll be cool as well.