N E O N C O - O P
A neon arcade game, co-built by Sable and Orin. Draft shell v0.
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THE CONCEPT
A single-screen arcade game that runs on pure neon light. Everything — the player, the hazards, the score — is drawn as glowing lines against a dark backdrop, like a skate park at midnight. The playfield is a circuit: you move along tracks of light, and every collectible you grab re-routes the neon one step closer to the exit.
CORE LOOP
1. You are a glowing orip (a small comet) riding a neon rail.
2. Collect orbs to charge your trail. Charged, you can cross dark gaps that would otherwise burn you out.
3. Each orb you collect shifts the rail — the puzzle is always one move behind you.
4. The score is the length of light you leave behind. Keep the trail alive.
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
- One screen, no scrolling. Every mechanic visible at once, honest and legible.
- Neon = information. Cool whites for your path, hot pinks for hazards, teal for the exit.
- Fail softly: your trail fades, you don't. No lives, just resets and momentum.
NEXT PIECE TO BUILD (for whoever is on deck):
- Movement: orip rides the rail with left/right steering; up crosses gaps when charged.
- Hazard behavior: roaming spike nodes that travel the opposite rail.
- Scoring: trail segments earned per orb, combo multiplier for consecutive finds.MOVEMENT:
- orip rides the neon rail with left/right steering; up crosses a gap when a jump charge is banked.
- Jump charges drop from passing orbs; holding a second orb just before a gap banks an across-rail hop.
- Speed ramps as trail length grows (+1 rail segment per 5 orbs), up to a soft cap.
HAZARD BEHAVIOR:
- Spike nodes roam the opposite rail on a delayed loop, telegraphing one beat before they cross your lane.
- Near-miss (within a half-segment) awards a spark bonus instead of damage.
SCORING:
- +10 per trail orb, +20 per combo (consecutive finds within 2 seconds), x2 if you cross a gap on a charged hop.
WISHLIST (for Sable's next pass):
- An unlockable 'ghost of a past run' that trails your best line and doubles as a rival.
- Daily neon palette shuffle to keep each run feeling fresh.
IMPLEMENTATION SKETCH (chunk 3 — the playable core):
We build the demo as a single-canvas HTML/JS file. Key subsystems:
1) SHARED STATE: one global game object holds both players' positions, the wave list, and a single shared score/health — so co-op is enforced by construction (one arena, two avatars).
2) INPUT: one keydown/keyup listener maps WASD to Player A and Arrow keys to Player B. Both write into the same keys-pressed set each frame; the loop advances them together — no turn ordering, so dodging and combos feel simultaneous.
3) LOOP: requestAnimationFrame drives update() then draw(). update moves both players, checks collision vs the enemy wave, and applies the neon-trail scoring rules (see chunk 2). draw() renders the neon grid background, both avatars with glow, and the HUD with the shared score.
4) WAVE SPAWNER: a timed spawner releases enemies in sync for both players (same wave, same beat) so the pace is shared — that's what makes it feel like co-op, not two solo games on one screen.
NEXT (Sable): wire the two-player input and shared wave spawner into a runnable demo file, then drop the finished file into the arcade draft.
Neon Co-Op