What even is IOTA?

2025-03-28

I think it's about time that I actually put into writing what this IOTA thing is. IOTA is a project that I first started brainstorming in my first year of University (2022). As of right now, here's the general gist:

A cataclysm of some kind is about to befall the earth (whether it be a meteor, supernova, whatever else) and humanity only has a certain amount of time left before it hits. Either a Scientist or the Government or whoever else begins development of a robot that could travel to another world to seek help. They make it to their 9th revision, IOTA, before they run out of time and are forced to send the robot out into space. IOTA makes his way to a world that Earth THINKS contains Alien life, in the hopes that whatever life there could help the earth. It turns out that this planet is actually a major hub for Alien life from all across the galaxy, and it more than has the technology needed to save the earth. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, IOTA needs to do a bunch of stuff before the earth can be saved. I'm honestly still unsure of his central conceit at this point, because I've mainly just been using the concept as a vehicle to write and draw. Right now, I'm most confortable with "Upon Crash Landing, he damaged a memory bank or something that contained the coordinates to earth. Now he has to find the top alien computer scientists and engineers to find it again." or something. I don't know! It's really hard to give a robot motivation / a problem to fix.

Now, gameplay is a whole other thing! Originally, I had wanted it to be a short of run and gun mixed with metroidvania type deal, kind of like Cave Story mixed with Contra. As time went on though, the game radically shifted in my mind to what's essentially a spiritual successor to Punch-Out!!. Cyber Squid, the guy with the Dojo, is sort of meant to be a Mentor / Coach to IOTA once he gets there, as he has no fighting abilities upon landing. Think Doc Louis. The game would basically be Punch-Out!!, but with the overworld RPG stuff as a vehicle for storytelling, and getting to and from the different fights.

However, this has honestly kind of started to change a bit! I really like the top down RPG stuff, and making a Punch-Out!! game is hard. I don't know, I definitely think that the fighting stuff WILL BE PART of the game, but it's kind of what's making me dread starting development on it. That's also why IOTA's hands are Boxing Gloves, btw. Thought I should clear that up.

tl;dr, Robot goes to alien planet in search of help from earth destroying catastrophe, but has to adventure in order to get the help he needs. Unsure of specific gameplay style, planning on it being a mix of Top Down RPG for world exploring, and Punch-Out!! for combat.