Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?

Bullet hell shmup with a time-travel mechanic. After you get enough hand-wavey energy/points/kills/whatever, you can warp back to some earlier point and play alongside your previous run(s).

I envision kinda puzzle-inspired gameplay: use your skills to navigate the bullet hell, take out high-value enemies; then warp back to clear even more of the screen, or take on previously-unassailable obstacles.

I have lots of peripheral (and conflicting) ideas floating around the core mechanic. For example, maybe you could also spend your warp energy on a high-damage beam that connects your ship with a previous iteration, so you can sweep around the screen with it. Maybe some barriers or enemies can only be quickly destroyed by that beam; otherwise it takes ages and more skill than I possess. Maybe you can siphon your ghost runs so that they disappear before they actually warped back.

Every level should maaaaybe be possible to complete in a single run, if only just. I’m not sold on that though because it seems like it could limit the level design. There should definitely be some kind of bonus for completely clearing the level of all enemies, no matter how many times you have to warp. These two things are in tension.

The whole concept came to me after I played Braid, and from watching more skilled players shuffle their ships through the beautiful onscreen patterns that difficult bullet hell shooters tend to have, especially at the higher levels. I had a very barebones proof of concept of the main mechanic working at one point in FlashPunk, which tells you how long ago it was. I think the premise has some value though. I mean, I’d play it.

Mixture of Satisfactory and Subnautica where you build intricate factories under water and the surface is dangerous because of periodical hailstorms that would wreck your buildings there and scorching heat that makes the hail melt and maybe even briefly boil the surface.

As game progresses climate get worse and you are forced to retreat to greater depths with your factories and you need to research technologies that enable that in time.

INTRO: you crashland in a small capsule, much like in Subanutica. You have a multitool with a pocket dimension for inventory but it doesn't let you deconstruct the capsule. So you scout around in shallow waters not being able to do much because multitool is not suitable for biomatter. You find a cave with a pocket of air. Then the first hail comes. Initially it's not that bad but gets larger so it starts dealing damage to you. It could kill you if you didn't retreat into the cave you found underwater. It ends quickly but as you emerge you find out that your capsule was broken into pieces. This time your multitool has no trouble of recovering scrap materials and placing them in the pocket dimension along with a fission battery that miraculously survived. You are building enclosed space under water larger than your capsule but with thinner walls. It's still full of water but you build your first water electrolizer powered for now with recovered fission battery. Oxygen is used for pumping out water to provide space for machines you can build inside. With the structure full of oxygen your suit can create breathable atmosphere inside of itself. Fire would be disastrous, but you are hoping at some point you'll be able to find ways to produce inert gasses to make interior safer. Hydrogen is stored to provide your constructions with neutral bouyancy. You fashion out a knife out of scrap and go out to look for something to eat. You submerge your first building a bit deeper but only as deep as thin walls allow. You are starting to wonder how will you get power when fission battery runs out. You scan your environment with the use of the multitool and when you find useful materials AI of your multitool unpacks new construction plans and production recipes that let you build more and explore further.

Tens or hundreds of hours later you float quite deep admiring your sprawling web of minifactories connected by flexible conduits carrying various material and parts at dazzling speed. Most of the connections go even deeper to rare mineral mines but some go up to get some ice from massive hail that periodically strikes to be utilized for cooling (when summer arives) and for extraction of substances only available in the atmosphere of the planet that get captured in the hail as it forms there. Apart from wildlife there are small drones around that swim in swarms and maintain your structures and upgrade them when it's time submerge them deeper. You wonder, what this planet throws at you next and how bad will it affect your operations and plans.

honestly with StepN I'm making 1000$ a day by running, i don't need any other game :D

Give me another Freespace game. I never expected to get such excellent storytelling from a space sim.

Other than that, I'd really like to get a game based on Mistborn. I think the allomancy mechanics could be very fun in a video game.

Subspace Continuum was nice ... a Linux or web version would be nice.