Quote: "And motivation gone! Gah! I was so looking forward to working on Manuel last night and now I feel like doing anything but that."
Andrew! Don't say that pal!!
You need more of my emails to keep up with your work??
This may not be a PoP, but then again, you are not a team of professional developers with big funds helping you out!
As for the 'fun' part in the game, why don't you make a nice long story? The story could start of with what Manuel is doing, his path to his goal etc. Each level could be in a different environment (outdoors, indoors, caves, hills, and so on). The final levels could well be his approach towards his goal (a sweetheart, a big boss, dangerous territories, anything!).
This should keep you involved in the game development. You would have to keep thinking of good unique levels, different enemies, different textures (for different environments) and so forth.
Do anything you want...but
just don't stop on this
-filya
-- game dev is fun...but taking up too much time --