My idea for the game visually is basically a 3D world on a 2D grid with a top-down point of view.  This way I don’t have to deal with all of the complexities of 3D collision detection but I still have some stylistic freedom with the world rather than being cornered into standard pixel art if I did a straight 2D game.  The player will be able to move in any direction and the camera will be looking down at a fixed angle.  To avoid needing any kind of “x-ray” functionality where the player character is visible behind objects that are blocking him/her from the camera, the camera will be able to rotate 90 degrees at a time around the player character.  So, if the player character is behind a tree or a building or some other obstacle, the player can just rotate the camera until he can see the character again to control him/her.  This will also take full advantage of the fully rendered 3D world and hopefully create a fun exploration experience.

I have the very basic of some cubes moving around on a plane to represent the look that I eventually want, but once I get the simplest of environments put together I’ll start publishing some screenshots and even very, very early versions of the “game.”