First Weekend and First Milestones

So this weekend I decided I wanted to take part in the One Game A Month challenge. I enjoy participating in game jams and I wanted something a little more long term. February as it so happens is a short month, kind of a stepping stone between weekend long jams and month long jams. Sure, it's heavily weighted to one end but it's still somewhere between. Anyway, during this month I'm going to make a game.
I've had this idea kicking around for a while, a game that's much like one of my favorites, Zombies Ate My Neighbors. It's an isometric run and gun on the SNES that featured tons of B movie horror villains and lots of fun game play. This game, working title Space Invaders Horror, will also be an isometric run and gun although I plan on putting in some roleplaying elements as well. I would like a more robust story than "save your neighbors from various creatures" among other things such as an inventory of some kind (health, keys, weapons, tools, etc) and  a couple of skill trees (exploration, hacking, and combat).
The story I have so far in my truncated design doc is as follows...

A group of energy aliens travel back in time to when you were a young nerd really into science fiction in order to kill you before you discover their weakness. You start as a suburban nerd in the midst of an alien invasion. When the invasion starts you salvage a power glove type device from an alien android that allows you to hack on a level you never dreamed of before. With this new found hacking ability you learn to fight, hack even better, and move around faster and more efficiently. The aliens drive you into the forest where you discover a top secret facility. Once through the facility you discover Albert Einstein in cryo stasis whom you decide to wake up. He becomes a home base talking head. He’ll talk to you throughout the rest of the game as you travel to visit the president, save the celebrity hottie, and ultimately unite the world in order to bring down the mothership.

Now, a few things. During this game a month challenge I might only get the first level done. In fact, that's what I'm shooting for, a polished first level. However, upon finishing my design doc I discovered that taking an idea you've had for a while and turning it into a game is super difficult. It's like a baby that I've been nursing  for a year or so that when it comes right down to it I'm gonna have to cut features from. It's easier to cut features from a traditional jam game as I'm making it on the fly but this isn't an ordinary jam game. I'm seriously hoping this first level turns out great. If it does, who knows, maybe I'll keep building a level each month.
This past weekend has been pretty productive for me especially since I've been a little under the weather. I managed to get a little isometric block running around other little isometric blocks in Game Maker (my favorite jam engine). This is the first time I'm making an isometric game so it felt pretty good that I've got one of the core mechanics ('run' from run and gun) already working. I had some depth issues but I managed to figure it out. After I got the block running around I turned to design work. I figured that since this wasn't a 48 hour jam but rather a month long jam I'd need a guiding force to keep me on task. I actually sat down and thought some things through. I wrote down a concept, a story summary, a game play summary, a control scheme, some notes on art style, an asset list, and finally a general schedule (week 4 is polish).
Well, that's it for weekend 1. As always there will be minor updates throughout with more significant ones posted after significant progress. I might consider writing a postmortem after this but I don't find them to be that helpful. I'll be posting again soon.