COSMIC RIFT RUNNER

A Roguelike Side-Scrolling Space Shooter

🎮 CORE GAMEPLAY

Create a side-scrolling shooter (left-to-right movement) featuring a futuristic spaceship as the player character. Design a roguelike progression system where:

• Permadeath Mechanic: All progress resets upon death
• Weapon Evolution: Eliminating different enemy types unlocks increasingly powerful weaponry
• Balanced Power Scaling: Weapons provide a slight advantage favoring the player, enabling extended, satisfying runs with spectacular late-game arsenals
• Dynamic Difficulty: Enemy strength scales to maintain challenge while allowing for power fantasy moments

🎨 VISUAL IDENTITY & ARTISTIC DIRECTION

Primary Style Anchors:

1. Environmental Foundation - Tsutomu Nihei

   • Gritty biomechanical ships and structures
   • Dark, atmospheric alien worlds
   • Dystopian undertones for level design and major bosses

2. Technical Interface Design - 200ok

   • Clean, modular geometric layouts
   • Precision-engineered HUD elements
   • Technical clarity for weapons systems and cockpit displays

3. Character & Enemy Design - Little Factory

   • Playful, toy-like pixel sprites with personality
   • Approachable enemy designs and collectible power-ups
   • Balances the darker environmental tones

4. Experimental Elements - Itai Rabinowitz

   • Abstract, glitchy pixel effects for special zones
   • Avant-garde visual treatment for corrupted areas and alien encounters

5. Dynamic Effects - QuickHoney

   • Pop-art inspired color palettes
   • Bold, striking bullet patterns and explosions
   • Neon-bright planetary surfaces and energy effects

6. Unifying Polish - Yuji Oshimoto

   • Master-level pixel art consistency
   • Bridges all artistic influences into cohesive visual language

Style Implementation Strategy:

• Environments & Bosses: Nihei's dark biomechanical aesthetic + Oshimoto's polish
• Ship & UI Elements: 200ok's technical precision + Oshimoto's refinement
• Enemies & Collectibles: Little Factory's charm + QuickHoney's color dynamics
• Special Effects: Rabinowitz's experimental glitches + QuickHoney's vibrant bursts

🔧 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Pixel-Perfect Physics Engine

• Destructible Environment: Every pixel is individually simulated
• Interactive Elements: Players can burn, explode, or melt any surface
• Dynamic World State: Environmental destruction affects gameplay and strategy

Procedural Generation System

• Unique Runs: Generate completely new worlds for each playthrough
• Progressive Discovery: Unlock new environments and biomes as players venture deeper
• Adaptive Content: Procedural systems respond to player performance and weapon progression

🚀 GAMEPLAY FLOW

1. Launch Phase: Begin with basic ship and starter weapon
2. Combat Progression: Each enemy type defeated unlocks weapon tier upgrades
3. Power Scaling: Gradually shift from survival mode to power fantasy
4. Environmental Mastery: Use destructible physics to create tactical advantages
5. Deep Run Rewards: Extended survival unlocks exotic weapons and game-changing abilities

Prototype

A minimal prototype using Pygame is included in prototype.py.

Requirements

• Python 3
• pygame

Run

pip install pygame
python prototype.py

For headless environments:

SDL_VIDEODRIVER=dummy python prototype.py --test