(Summer Game Bug Catch Quest = Shadow of the Colossus + Cave Story + Pokemon + Zelda)
-MUSIC QUEST + BUG CATCH
"Adults can only think about things they understand, so everything stays on that boring human level."

I. Creature Catching/Raising and Combat::
  A. Find eggs or catch infants (feed them/interact with them/catch them)
    -Eggs will hatch after a certain number of steps (???) (way less than Pokemon)
  B. Fight with familar active to gain exp for them (or "food"/meat/exp. crystals/etc.)
    1. Familiars, once hatched, have 3 different "ages"
      i. Infancy:: Follows you around and jumps when you do. Will attack any hostiles nearby and perform their attacks when you press the attack button. Follow is slightly delayed because they're not synergized with you yet. Can be picked up and tossed/bounced off of enemies. 
      ii. Adolescence:: Delay on mimicry is lessened. Can be ridden as a mount (cannot be picked up).
      iii. Adulthood:: Same as above, except for in this stage their attacks are more specialized/unique and less generic (like in Adolescence (like in Cave Story) and generally more powerful.
    2. Familiars will revert back to an egg form if they take too much damage. You are free to pick up the egg again or leave.
    3. Can only have one active familiar at a time, but can keep up to three with you at any given time (in backpack??)
    
II. The world and general level/world design principles::
  A. World is both nonlinear and linear
    0. Starting area is a central hub which can connect up to several other hub areas (see Super Mario 64/OoT)
    1. There will be no (or very few) artificial boundaries in the world to prevent you from exploring. In this respect I feel Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 did it best/Seiklus + LoZ. 
      i. Some boundaries = strong ass animals (Snorlax)
      ii. The few boundaries that exist should open up large new areas, not just little nitpicky areas where you have to backtrack a shit to find
    2. There are a wide variety of critters scattered about the land (think Pokemon Platformer). While some of them may share similarities in abilities, each of them should have something unique about their script/mount/attack abilities. 
      i. Obviously, critters are grouped by area (try to make uniqueness of animals in each area a little better than Pokemon RGB's placement)
      ii. Day/Night Cycle hides critters based on time of cycle (Gold/Silver)
      iii. Some critters are hidden in a LoZ puzzle based way (e.g. headbutt a tree/rustle a bush)???
        -Each type of critter has a passive bonus to their attacks (i.e. surf for water, rock smash for ground/rock, cut for grass, etc.)
      iv. Some rarer critters have a small % of being spawned in many of the areas, and there may be swarms/migrations of other types of critters.
      v. NPCs who trade with you for rare critters.
    3. The purpose of the main storyline of the game will be to the defeat the 5-8 colossi of the island (creatures who have been colossalized/mutated/twisted by eating the SPIRIT FRUIT (Yoshi's Island/Shadow of the Colossus variety)) to collect their energy into the SPIRIT EGG.
      i. These Colossi will be located in the hearts of each of the main areas of the island (like Shadow of the Colossus), with a semi linear path to each of them branching off from their themed areas (Ocarina of Time).
        a. Buggy Birdy Treetop Skies
        b. 
      ii. Upon defeat, the area of the colossus that you defeated will be MUCH less populated with hostile creatures, leaving you freer to explore it and making backtracking not as much of a pain...
    4. At the end of the main story line of the game, you will fight a boss rush::
      i. 
      ii. Your rival, who uses ADULT, slightly altered versions of the starter critters?. He then awakens the...
      iii. SPIRIT EGG BEHEMOTH + friends
    5. After the game is over, END GAME CONTENT (Pokemon)::
      i. Colossi have been reawakened as harder forms
      ii. Defeating them and collecting a certain % of critters on the island unlocks a final final trial.
  B. World should be flowing with life::
    1. Day/Night Cycle, Environmental Ambience (moving animals and sounds (Echo Island++)), Uncatchable/Ambient critters.
    2. Use Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time as a reference for "atmosphere". 
    -Fishing minigame/bird watching/cat chasing/bug catching
    
III. ETC::
  -Yu yu hakusho spirit animal spirit egg digimon
  
  -Feline/canine, deers/elks/moose/antelope/gazelle/bongo, giraffes/zebra/horse, hippo/pigs/hogs, crocodile/lizards, hawks/falcons, hedgehogs/rodents/, bonobos/chimps/gorillas/monkeys/lemurs, kangaroo/koala/wallaby, parrots/songbirds/sparrows, ducks/geese/swans, bug swarms