First problem: Its spyro fangame.

I'm in favor for sidescrolling of some kind, but I do like GameBoyBlues top-down concept. It's much better suited for the free-roaming and exploration from the 3d games, but the platforming would suffer, and I'm personally not very comfortable with how top-down(completely top-down, not like A Link to the Past etc, I like those) looks in general.

How platforming could work in a top down game... not that I think we will be doing that as it seems sidescroller is where there is the most interest... but how it COULD be done is to have 4 or 5 altitudes assigned to segments of the map. When you begin a jump you go up 2 altitudes, and as you glide you slowly decrease in altitude until you are the same as the ground you are over and land.

I guess it was easy? I did notice there are some bugs related to double jumping or more and eventually you shoot up like a rocket!

We are very fortunate to have a lot of overlapping talent. Artists, Programmers, Writers. This project is going to get finished, even if someone has other matters that take them away from it. Others can step in so we are a very resilient group.

If you are inspired, then write. If not, don't worry about it yet, because we don't know how big or many levels we are going to do and how big the game will be, or if even a story should be involved or just get in the way. I would prefer a story(like yours and bursts) though not if its tacked on, because we felt we HAD to have one.

I have a suggestion:

How about 3 Realms, with 3 Levels each, 1 being a Boss(1 Boss per Realm). To enter a Level you enter a Portal in the Realm. This can be like Orange where you walk into the background:

A scaled back version would be to only have 1 Realm. And a middle ground would be to add more Levels to that 1 Realm.

Anyway, might 1 Realm, with 2 Normal Levels and 1 Boss Level(just like a normal level but with a boss at the end), might that be a good place to start?

I'm in favor for sidescrolling of some kind, but I do like GameBoyBlues top-down concept. It's much better suited for the free-roaming and exploration from the 3d games, but the platforming would suffer, and I'm personally not very comfortable with how top-down(completely top-down, not like A Link to the Past etc, I like those) looks in general.

GameBoyBlue: Yes, I made that, except for the stone texture, which I could have made myself, but I just wanted to make the illustration really quick

RadSpyro: I certainly want something that at least looks similar to the Dragon Realms.

Also, I'll try to get a more complete version of the story soon. Has anyone been thinking about what types of levels we'll be having yet? Returning to the Dragon Realms, or a brand new world?

So here was Sheep's concept for terrain. We could have floating platforms like these like those seen in Dream Weavers and various other worlds.

Storm, would you put Sheep's newest demo/prototype in the OP, for quick reference to our groups most current work? It maybe nice to have a section for that for QAs, people checking it out, or for people on the team to be sure to see the newest items!

It seems Sheep has a lot to offer, not only in programming, but also art, assuming this was made himself.

Alright here is what was discussed on the SFG Meeting of 6/17/2014 on http://www.spyrochat.com/

We voted on sidescroller or overhead

gameboyblue: overhead
gekoncze: sidescrolling
flapjacks: sidescrolling
searsburst: sidescrolling
neoreaper: sidescrolling

While this only represents 5 of 19(13 without QA) of the team, it represents 2 of the 3 programmers. Both wanted sidescroller, and based on sheep's explanation of 'how easy' it is to add gravity, I'm assuming he wants sidescroller aswell.

If our programmers prefer sidercroller, I think we should allow them to work with the style they are most comfortable and passionate to work on. So I will change my vote to sidescroller aswell.

Any thoughts?

We are planning to meet again tomorrow, 3 hours earlier than the time of this post(initial, not edit). 1PM PST, 4PM EST

Could sheep or geko get a gravity update of the prototype up? With like a floor and platform to jump on? I'm sure we want to hear everyone's opinion on overhead vs sidescroller, yet if gravity can be added easily.... why not have a look?