Day [1/3] Project start!

On my way home after watching "Look Back" in theatres, I thought
"What if I made a game about the bouncing DVD logo?"

First ideas that came to mind were an idle game about leveling up your bouncing DVD logo and fighting other DVD logos bayblade style.
But, I thought it'd be more fun (and easier to make) if you were the one going inside the TV to hit the logo into the corner.

So, the idea is "You parry the bouncing DVD logo into the corner"

Mockup sketch of gameplay

After a quick mockup sketch of the gameplay, I thought about the story behind the game.
The story writing process went pretty smooth thanks to couple of constraints already set on the project.
- Because I'm a weeb, the main character had to be a cute anime girl.
- Because DVDs are a core part of the game, the setting has to be modern times.

From here, the stream of consciousness went like this

You hit the dvd logo -> what do you hit things with? -> baseball bats! -> Who'd carry a bat though? -> Dokkaebi!

Dokkaebis are Korean mythological creatures known for carrying bats, liking play, and possessing mystical powers.
These attributes all conveniently explain why the main character would be impatient enough, able to go inside a tv, and hit things with a bat.

Using inspiration of Dokkaebi and ~2000s era Korea, I made couple design sketches for the main character.

In folklore involving Dokkaebi's, it's a common trope that after encountering a Dokkaebi, all there was a bloodstained broom. So, I used brooms as a motive in designing the character. Furthermore, the choice of using unnatural skin color was debated since Dokkaebis are more often portrayed with having regular skin colors, and the red skin is a depiction closer to the Japanese Oni. But, I thought just having a small horn didn't really sell the supernatural background of the character, so I decided to color the skin red inspired by the "Red Devils" the official supporters club of the Korean national football team (it was really big during the 2002 World Cup!)

Initial design sketches and inspirations
Attributions: 붉은 악마 by Stephen Heckman, Brooms for street sale by Edal Anton Lefterov 

With the designs done. I waited until the weekend to start my 3 day development challenge
While it didn't have to be a 3 day challenge, I've just recently killed a game project I've been working on for a month or two, so I wanted a change of pace to finish making something small. 

According to plan, I was able to finish coding up the core gameplay mechanic in Unity.

Screenshot of functioning prototype

You can move, you can parry, you can get hit, and you can score.

It looks pretty barebone (especially as a still screenshot), but the plan tomorrow is to make the graphics for the main character (who I should name)

By the end of it, I want to have a polished looking game with an opening story sequence and an open-ending to leave room for future development. But, for now I gotta grind to make sure the game gets done in the first place.

I'm also planning to make a Dev log for each of the 3 days I allocated for this. I never wrote one before, but the fact that I'm making this outside of a context of any game jam, I wanted to share my progress in some form even if it's into the void of the internet.

I think that's going to be it for the first dev log. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!