I drew inspiration by asking my friend if she had any ideas for a game. She aptly cried "make a game about elephants!". This got me thinking about a game that centers around a matriarch elephant "Ellie" defending her child and her herd from angry predators.

I started with two concepts as to how I would flesh out this game. The first concept is a 2d action fighter game. The layout I imagined was a flat battleground in which you directly control Ellie and have a variety of attacks and freedom to move back and forth. In the center of the battleground would be Ellie's baby elephant child. Enemies would move in from both sides and try to carry off the baby and you would need to control Ellie to fight off waves of enemies and stop them from carrying off your baby elephant. In between waves, you would be able to spent your points earned by killing enemies to buy upgrades to your elephant such as trunk spikes, stronger attacks, greater movespeed, and armor for reducing damage.

The second concept I had would be similar to a castle defense game. It would be a top down castle defense game in which you fend off waves of predators from getting to your herd. You would control Ellie a hero character and move her around the battlefield killing enemies and earning currency (probably peanuts). In between waves, you would be able to upgrade your walls and arm them with animal soldiers with various different weapons with different uses. One soldier would be an elephant who shoots water at the closest group of enemies and pushing them back to the edge of the level. Another soldier would be a snake that spits debilitating poison to slow and/or poison enemies. At the same time that you are building soldiers to defend your herd, you can also control Ellie herself and fight the enemies in person while your towers rain down on them.