Level traps, these are some of the traps that will be inplace for the level, still thinking of a puzzle aspect that the player will have to overcome to progress...

Spikes: where the player will fall to his death. Or where these will shoot at the player at some points.

Timed flames: where these will obstruct the player from progressing, till he finds a switch or a different "hidden" route to progress.Or as the name suggests the player will be forced to wait for the appropriate time to move forward.

Steamed vents: the same as the timed flames. Also these will push the player of a platform lets say, so this if timed correctly can progress successfully.

Blades{pendulums,etc}: Where these will force the player to time his progression of be sliced in half by the blades...

Moving platforms/Crushing platforms: Again a timed aspect for progression, if failed can fall to his death or get crushed once the room rotates and he gets trapped and crushed by the moving platforms.

Saw blades: These will set a deadly pace that must be either avoided or something in the level must be done to move forward or disable destroy the blades.

Cogs/Conveyor belts: Same as saw blades, these can either help or make the players life even harder to progress.

following johnnys concept of the hospital ward, character will be walking through

following johnnys concept of a train tract within the tunnel maze

Ending...

This is a tuffy! 

Something along the lines of:

Protagonist makes it to the Doctors chambers, Finds Doctor's wife in her habeas corpus state, Doctor creeps up behind and a battle begins. The Doctor is destroyed and the cube begins to crumble or to rotate in an way other than intended, so the cube is self destructing, the protagonist MUST find a way out!
Although i dont like this which lacks imagination and is over done"find the bad guy, world starts to crumble =get out" its just too Indiana Jones and very out of date.

Cant think of anything else, need help, please feel free to comment your ideas...

The player fed story and the possible link between the wife and protagonist

The player can be fed the story by either notes from the designs of the Doctor's master piece the "CUBE" and i guess parts of his journal or possibly [letters to his wife hes left around]

Another way can be from previously misfortunate souls who have been "Taken" by the Doctor, who as they have died there have left some sort of clue to a puzzle, or have collected notes or found things that the protagonist can pick up and learn about whats happening from there point of view.

What do you think?

Ok now here are some general ideas about the game.

The Rooms: Starting from the Hub, the rooms/levels will have a Victorian feel to them.
                   The more the player progresses through the rooms/levels, more of a steam punk stamp will be incorporated into the design. The first room i.e the Hub will be the oldest looking, with mould, water leaks, rotting wood, rust, a generally dark and damp room. As the levels progress the rooms will look newer in design.
Some of the levels will incorporate certain elements:Water,Fire,Steam,Electricity and Magnetism , the later two will be more evident towards the final levels.
Some form of paneling will be evident on the machinery/design of the later stages of the levels.


The Miner: In the beginning will be plain clothed. As he progresses through the levels, and collects items, such as the shoes, the arm grapple, he will take on a whole new steam punk look.

The Doctor: Possibly used some of his technology on himself, where he has managed to defeat time, therefore he could be REALLY OLD.

The Wife: Although with the doctor in his chamber,is actually not seen by the doctor, possibly enclosed in some sort of mechanical, medical test tube[ like Cinderella. awww, lol]. So the twist is that she is and has been for a very long time...dead!

The substance taken from the protagonist: Will be replaced from encapsulated in a vile that will be detached from the player and added to a "door" to access the next level. To a tube like extension that will be attached to the "door" that will access the next level.

Some concept images for the 2D game, in creation. These are how i envision the design of the cube environment.

The cubes layout and how the cubes can be rotated in respect to the other cubes around them

A 9D design of a cube.

How the single cube can be split into the 4 sections , and how the cube can be rotated.

Another way of how the cube environment can look like.

Can also be a cluster of cubes rotating within themselves

The cubes can be attached to an exit point on each side than when rotating can be attached to another point in another cube.

 Please tell me your ideas on these designs and if you like any of these.