This lead me to the idea of playing as a ninja, with the ability to run on walls, leap from building to building, and do flips mid air to dodge incoming projectiles. If the controls are done right, the user will be able to master the controls and feel awesome competing in this environment. I've always loved the SNES and N64 Mario Kart battle games; despite the limited number of levels, I could never get enough of the competitive play. I feel following a similar game design will give a long life to our game, despite our limited time to create only a handful of levels.
I have a fear that the idea will get shot down because it is 3D and perhaps seems too hard to polish. Obviously I have never developed something of this magnitude, and I recognize my own tendencies to underestimate scope at times, but I do feel that with a solid team this project could most definitely be pulled off. I spent a few hours of time in Unity3d creating a engine using my own physics and collision (rather than using Unity's.) Currently I have a ninja character Max Locher threw together for me, that runs on walls (and jumps between two parallel walls while running forward), runs up walls, picks up items, and more. The only thing missing here is handling our own graphics which we will have to do in XNA, as opposed to using Unity's graphic rendering capabilities.
The last concept of using the player's Xbox avatar accomplishes two main goals. First, it gives us a crisp and polished model to use that helps set the mood of being less realistic driven. The game will instantly have an infinite number of variety for the models, as each player will have a unique custom avatar. The second goal accomplished is that it helps draw in the audience we are developing for. Many of the players heavily involved with indie games will have spent time customizing their avatar, and some will have spent money on their avatar-- so being able to play their avatar as a freaking ninja should be a pretty big appeal for a lot of people!
