Found a DragonRuby sample that demonstrates drawing tiles of a map and navigating it, when the whole map would be well too large to load at once. I've had an idea for a bit for a "Musou" game (a la Dynasty Warriors), but with simplified graphics, and some inspiration from Fire Emblem. I've always loved the special animations for critical hits, which would then be implemented as special move cut-away animations. There'd be different characters (I'm thinking the first will be based on the "switch-hitter" ranger build, aka Yamson, having both a Sword and a Bow), some kind of over-arching story line, and the classic "one against hordes" gameplay, but with simplier graphics, primarily.

Diving in: the first character would have both a melee and a ranged attack, allowing me to explore creating both. Controls-wise, I imagine playing this with either a mouse and keyboard, or a controller. That being the case, the control-scheme needs to accomodate it, and I think the fewer buttons the better. A primary and secondary attack, a dodge/block/etc.. button, and a button for activating a special/super attack. Heck, that last one could even be something like primary + secondary. Keyboard/Mouse specifically, I think movement keys (WASD), reaction (space), primary attack (mouse left), and secondary attack (mouse right) covers it. Restricting buttons makes the game somewhat more accessible, but also restricts design feature creep.

Consider Yamson:

• Primary Attack: Sword or Bow
• Secondary Attack: Switch between Sword and Bow?
• Reaction: Dodge
• Special: ???

There could also be fighting-game-like key-combos. Heck, maybe there should be a few more buttons. I'm thinking having a run button is handy, but then again it could just be, "double-tap a direction to run in that direction." Then you have:

• Primary Attack
• Primary Attack + Running
• Primary Attack + Reaction
• Primary Attack After Reaction
• Secondary Attack
• Secondary Attack + Running
• Secondary Attack + Reaction
• Secondary Attack After Reaction
• Primary Attack + Secondary Attack
• Primary Attack + Secondary Attack + Running
• Primary Attack + Secondary Attack + Reaction
• Primary Attack + Secondary Attack After Reaction

That's a lot! Then consider combo strikes! Primary -> Primary -> Reaction -> Primary, for example. It's a lot to allow. Include things like being able to charge attacks and reactions by holding then releasing the button.

Not every character will have this many options, just like not every character will have charged attacks.

Thinking of code organization a bit: Each character is a class. Possibly they inherit from a parent class. The character chosen then gets registered, and when that way custom moves, attributes, etc.. can all be setup per character class, instead of hard-coded into the game proper.

I'm a sucker for customizations, and I'd like to eventually include an inventory, possibly skill trees, and even alternate moves for the player to choose from.