Ocean Empire, a game for the SDL assignment by Colin Fralick, with ideas from www.watchout4snakes.com and a friend named Giselle.
I wanted this game to feel like a struggle against something. It should be a challenge that the player will be proud to have overcome.
The first idea I had for this mechanic was of pushing something back away from the protected area, but decided that was too simple. Instead, the area must be protected from all four sides, and the player must be actively paying attention to which sides are in danger, rather than pressing a button repeatedly.
This game is mainly a test of the player's reflexes. It has a mechanic similar to many rhythm games, pressing arrows at the appropriate times, but the times are random instead of based on music. Call out the specific innovation of your game. (1-2 sentences.)
The final game has a feel, in my opinion, similar to real-time strategy game, although obviously quite a bit less complex. There is still a sense of possible loss, as the time between an enemy appearing and its reaching the protected area is still quite short. Overall, I believe the basic mechanic to be finished, if the game overall might be polished some more. I had planned to make things start out slow and then speed up, but decided against it for sake of simplicity.