'Tallicaaa!

Somehow I have unintentionally cast James Hetfield as the lead protagonist in my GDD?!

Well, James Hetfield spliced with a Gorilla...

In brief, he is the only other character in Kold with abilities which (almost) match Sheol's. And he too, is an outsider with no frame of reference as to where he came from or why he's there. This guy (nameless as of yet) has been 'awake' a little longer than Sheol and being somewhat older, has kind of taken on the role of town Sheriff, policing the area na d protecting from the Departed. I won't spoil my story idea just yet, but the two are linked in some way.

Additionally, here is a mock up screen of the 'Sustenance Gauge' or Health/Ammo meter used in the game and it's brief description.

Health & Ammunition monitor

All of Sheol's abilities are mutations of his own body. The Rifle, the Bio-Tool, the Cry and Consume are Sheol's body's natural adaptations to overcome obstacles in his environment. The ammunition used for particular attacks all comes from the same resource - him. Obviously during combat and occasionally through other accident's Sheol will also take physical damage and once again, his bodily resources are channelled to heal his injuries. These resources are known as 'Sustenance'.

Sheol's Sustenance is measured on a gauge which is divided into two sections:

The RED area measures the amount of sustenance distributed to HEALTH.

The GREEN area measures the amount of sustenance distributed to AMMUNITION.

By pressing the 'BACK' button, the player can pause the game and bring up the Sustenance Distribution Screen. Here they can adjust a slider attached to the gauge using the left analogue stick. Moving the slider to the left will increase the amount of sustenance devoted to ammunition while decreasing the amount devoted to health and vice versa.

This way, the player can manage Sheol's bodily resources and distribute them to which ever area they deem most important at any given moment. For example; if the player finds themselves taking a lot of damage from enemies, they can pause the game and distribute more sustenance to health in order to prevent Sheol from being killed. Alternatively, if they find that they have the upper hand in battle but need powerful attacks to take down an enemy, they can distribute more sustenance to ammunition.

Obviously, while each extreme has it's benefits, it also has its downfalls so the player will have to be careful to fine-tune Sheol's sustenance in order to meet their current needs.

The total amount of sustenance comes from food and rest. As Sheol takes damage and/or uses up ammunition, his total amount of sustenance will decrease and the sustenance gauge will reduce in size to convey this. He can replenish his sustenance at any time by sleeping in an empty bed or by eating small animals or fallen enemies. Sleeping will replenish the gauge to 100% however different animals will replenish the gauge in small chunks of various amounts.

(NOTE: if Sheol has a backpack, he can carry dead animals inside and eat them later on by selecting them from his inventory)

The bar will only appear on-screen during normal gameplay either when Sheol takes damage or when he is firing a weapon. It will remain on screen for 30 seconds prior to that, after which time, it will fade away. The on-screen representation of it will be a smaller, less obtrusive design showing simply the two colours and their percentages, horizontally along the bottom of the screen.

Finally - just an idea I had, hehe.