starting a new platformer game for 2013

So as one of my goals for the new year I am starting my next game.

My 3 year old has found that platformer games are his favorite on our iPad and has been having tons of fun on them, so I decided I would make a platformer myself.

The AppGameKit that I have been using to develop has been fairly successful for me so far so I have decided to continue forward with that for this project - although as a side note I am determined to teach myself  Java and make a native android app this year as well.

I'm not fully clear on what my full goal set is for this platformer?  It is my first one ; and I have not been playing them a lot lately. I used to love Super Mario Brothers as a child .. and Super Mario Brothers 3 was probably my favorite .. but the genre has changed a lot.

My son's favorite one's on the iPad are

Lep's World HD
Muffin Knight
Mikey  Shorts

They are all fairly easy to play (even for a 3 year old) and have a lot of fun game play.

I'm not sure that I want my platformer to look just like any of those so I will have to see what happens as my engine matures!

I hope to make something that has the following though:

• a flavor that is all my own
• art that is thematic
• something that tells an interesting story (not just level after level)
• levels that have a vertical as well as horizontal elements
• 'boss fights'  - I've noticed some platformers seem to skip these
• physics puzzles
• a built in level editor  - I quickly realized that hand coding every block will kill me time-wise!

I've only been working on this since the beginning of the year, but already I have a basic structure in place and the editor already started!

The level editor is extremely alpha but I'm loving it so far, I am going to put a lot of work  in to this. What I've done in it already has been so valuable I immediately realized this was a huge idea that will be critical to making successful levels.