This idea is definitely nearest and dearest to my heart at the moment, so I put it first. (Maybe it isn't healthy to play favorites). I really want to design a minimal rhythm game (as evidenced by all three of these ideas) since low latency and flow are the most important things to the experience I want to construct. NEST is meant to be an immersive minimal cube-colliding rhythm game. Targets are generated by your current corner location; your cube slams into the walls of the square you're in according to the beat of the song, and targets only spawn on vertices adjacent to you. During designated important moments of the song, your perspective shifts, your cube becomes the square, and a new cube spawns. Hopefully this isn't too difficult to implement... although it always is...
When we discussed the game Rez in class, it got me thinking: how come every rhythm game seems to have things approaching? Then I realized: maybe the perspective I have is not universal, and in fact maybe it is possible that in Guitar Hero or Beat Saber, the player is actually zooming toward the targets from a strange perspective. In any case, I think it would be interesting to design a rhythm game where the player is unambiguously moving toward the targets (rather than having them approach). FLYTE is an attempt at this idea; the goal in the distance has a door that opens or closes slightly based on how your performance is throughout the song (causing a disastrous space crash upon failure). The perspective on this may be hard to craft carefully, but I think it would be immersive if done correctly.
Finally, SLASH is a Katana Zero (great game, by the way!) inspired rhythm game that prioritizes the feeling of slicing. Thinking back to games like Fruit Ninja, it is clear that a well-designed slice is gratifying to the senses, and I would love to try to create such a feeling with a low-latency rhythm game designed around cutting block targets. I think the location should be discretized so that the katana sort of "snaps" into each location, allowing for a smooth slice animation. The block corpses can land on the ground and accumulate over time, testifying to the user's skill in a particular song. (Maybe they can fill a pit that allows you to pass or fail!) It isn't Beat Saber, I promise...
