A detective out of time
In the proposed setting of New Chicago IX, a private detective follows a missing-person case into a powerful energy company's facility. He wears a fedora and trench coat and narrates every lead like a hard-boiled noir hero, even when the answer involves robots shooting at him.
The city treats its absurd technology as ordinary. The humor comes from the detective's unwavering seriousness, with room between the jokes for music, neon, machinery and a little mystery.
The platforms are the arena
A distant, downward-looking 3D camera would show several platforms at once. Moving between them with automatic jumps becomes part of the fight: choose a route, aim freely, avoid incoming fire and use knockback near the edges.
The planned action is compact and readable. A handful of enemy types, energy-powered weapons and a few memorable locations should carry the experience without turning it into a sprawling game.
Chapter I: The Long Discharge
Neon Alibi is conceived as a short, linear adventure of roughly two to three hours. The Long Discharge is the working title for its first case: a deliberately overdramatic noir chapter in a city that takes its own nonsense completely seriously.