Hey everyone,
I'm a final year Computer Science student at University of Bath, this will be my third time entering the competition!
It looks like everyone's got some really creative ideas, it's interesting to see what you all think of the skeleton project and how differently each person is developing it, I've done like Josh and made some heavy alterations to the project, but the core mechanics and infrastructure are still there. I think there's no harm in taking a few liberties with the skeleton project if you feel that's going to help to demonstrate your game development capabilities better.
What I've got so far is basically a grid of rooms, the player can shoot stuff, and there are giant snake-worm-things that split in half when you shoot at them, it might turn into something procedurally generated but essentially I haven't quite turned it into an actual game yet, it might turn into something board game related. If anyone's interested, I'm putting GIFs of my progress up on my Twitter @Jindont every so often.
As for general ideas, I'm always a fan of collectibles, I think that giving players something to collect helps a great deal with the longevity of your game. My previous entries were both infinite runners, but you would earn coins from getting far in them, and that would allow you to unlock more levels with cooler obstacles (multiple environments and obstacles is also something I would suggest, if that's a direction your game can go in).
Currently I'm in the same position as Calum, I have a major deadline a few days from now so I'm only spending a few hours each evening on my entry, hopefully I'll get to put more time in once that's over though!
Good luck everyone, I'm looking forward to seeing what you all come up with!
Oli