Alright, for the first two jobs, I was initially thinking in propose them already, but I think is better to let people decide so....
JOB 1
DEFINE AN INDIE
I know this is a really weird first job, but there it has always been some sort of debate about when something is an indie and when something isn't or if a game "stopped being indie" so I'll prefer to let to you the answer! Give a proper explanation about what you think so in the future there it will not be any misunderstanding.
JOB 2
PROPOSE A PLAYSTYLE
Fighting Games come in all sort of flavors, which one will be the one you will select? Maybe a classic 2D fighting game? a wacky platform fighter? a 3D fighting game? a secret fourth option? a mix of all? Give your ideas! You can either just respond plain to the question or try to bring a more fleshed out concept of how you see this game.
Both jobs will have till Monday for decide the outcome, so take your time!
Job #01: I'll suggest a fairly typical definition; an indie game is a game in an original IP developed by an individual or team (which will be referred to as an "indie studio") who are functionally independent during development up until the game's release. (Third-party support - be it publishing, financing, or otherwise - is permissible, so long as the game itself is developed without direct external control or third-party ownership prior to release.) As for defining an "indie studio"... let's keep it vague; a studio that is independently owned outside of the influence of a larger publisher or development studio. However, if an "indie studio" is acquired by a larger publisher or development studio (such as Embracer Group), and their IP is acquired along with it, a game that might have been "indie" at the time of release no longer meets that classification.
This definition is open enough to allow for some leeway heavy-hitters - for instance,
No Man's Sky, despite being published by Sony, would still be indie because it was developed by indie studio Hello Games, while we also leave obviously indie companies still up for grabs even if they've had some external support (like French Bread, who've had games published by SEGA), while a game like
Minecraft is no longer indie due to Mojang's acquisition (and therefore, the
Minecraft IP's acquisition) by Microsoft.
Job #02: Just for the record, I think that something more like Smash really runs the risk of ending up feeling derivitive of Faz's
All-Star Strife project. With that in mind, I'll deliberately go a little offbeat... and propose a traditional 2D fighter with "free-flight", loosely akin to games like
Astra Superstars,
Antinomy of Common Flowers, or
Psychic Force. (Wouldn't be the first time an indie crossover fighter deliberately got weird with it; just look at
Indie Pogo!)
Note; characters don't necessarily have to be able to fly in their source material for inclusion, but their design should at least have some kind of explanation for how they're managing it this time around, no matter how much sense it might actually make in terms of either realism or their source material. (For instance, Quote using a jet-pack, Gunvolt using electromagnetism, or Shovel Knight using a modified, Propeller Knight-inspired helmet could all work just fine.)
Characters are always in flight during a match, and can - as with almost any other 2D fighter - move laterally forward and backward at will. However, they're also capable of jumping both upward
and downward, and can perform forward or backward dashes in pretty much any state. Because of this, the game doesn't feature traditional command inputs, with moves being inputted with an attack button of choice and a directional input of some kind. The game's a four-button fighter, with Melee, Ranged, Special, and Super Moves all being on the A, B, C, and D buttons respectively; with all Melee and Ranged attacks having charged variants, while some Special or Super attacks might have charged variants depending on what they are.
An example template for this would look like the following;
This might seem like a lot of total moves (it comes up to a maximum of 21), but it's actually less than
Smash (25).