New ShMUp, help required

[Marcuz]

So, here's the concept of a new shoot em up i'm thinkering with.

the working name is "Bolder", which is lame, but it points to what i'm aiming.

horizontal OR multidirectional (later i'll explain) shoot em up.

very few colours on screen, it may be as low as 4, either in grayscale or themed colours. they may and probably will change during the flow of the adventure, except if we will go for a greyscale, idea that i like a lot, no matter how unpopoular
along this premise, let me say that it may be well suited to be a single level game or demo or even a game like the ancient coin ops, where after a level is done, it starts again but faster.

the game is aimed to an A500 for specs, but in case the work is big (i'm figuring it should not) well, ok, A1200.

there are 2 different scenarios (not in game, i mean developing scenarios) i see, plus tweaks in between:

1) simpler realization game
horizontal game
the background is a fixed 1 colour screen, it doesn't change ever;
the only animated sprites are the main one (the player) and eventually the enemy ships;
the game flows continuously, after the level is done it restarts faster.

2) harder realization game
the background is 1 colour flat, but it changes dynamically colour while flowing: either by tyles or copper.
as the tiles are anyway 1 colour only, this don't stop from the game being multidirectional: the main ship may flow in any direction, the game field is infinite.
this may be done in 2 ways: the farther from the sart, the harder, or once reached an extreeme of a large field you get at the opposite .
in this scenario, anything on screen is animated:
big planets rotate, enemy ships etc.
since everything is pattern dithered in 2 colours (which we may later add one colour more) animation would be in the best of cases done with 3d objects by some 3d developer and then rendered in 2 colours.

in both cases, any sprite on screen is done euther in 2 colours (black + transparent) or 4 (black, lighter colour, transparent, unused).

the effect of movement is done with 1 pixel sized black or white dots, floating on the background field.

so ideas welcome, more graphics and audio people, and coders wanted.

my mock up screens:

[Codetapper]

May I ask, what's the purpose of going for so few colours? The A500 can handle more than 4 colours easily!

[BippyM]

err greyscale on a500 is 16 cols and a1200 256 cols, and tbh Marco.. I don't think this would be popular in just 4 colours!

Maybe something like Sin City's approach.. Greyscale with flashes of colour (red)

[Marcuz]

Codetapper: it is just a style choice, which has the advantage of being easy on the machine, that could be employed for more effects and bigger sprites; but please keep in mind that i don't know anything of coding.
my main reason is the style i have in mind

Bippym: that is a good suggestion, the Sin City feeling; i tryed to make compos just in black and white but the white background is too hard on the eyes.

btw, while your objections are sound, with this idea i'm willing to trust that in a retro board there is someone who would lik ea game like Astrosmash in 2007

also we could trash away the dithered sprites and use very cartoony renditions in black+white (or 1 colour)

i'll make a couple of screen more later