It's a pretty well-established fact that the Holy Grail of Game Development is a new feature that's A. quick to make, B. popular, and C. doesn't take many more resources. (Fast, effective, cheap: Pick any two.) It's also fairly well-known that Mr. McConville likes hard games, and there are likely a few players around that feel the same way. So, just tossing out a quick suggestion: Iron Knight Mode.
The basic idea is similar to your standard 'Ironman' game mode for most, wherein players can't regenerate energy or respawn. There are, obviously, a few different variants on the theme, but what I'm thinking of goes something like this.
* Players start with 3 hearts, regardless of HP bonuses on their armor. Vitapods do not drop, locking players at that level of health for the duration. (A distribution of 1-strength Vitapods at the terminal might be a good idea, though.)
* Once Iron Knight mode is chosen by the party, new members may not join. (This easily sidesteps the potential situation of a newbie or, well, random player accidentally wandering into a group like this.)
* Hearts and health capsules (and possibly remedies, too) don't drop at all during the level. Players have to get through it with their limited resources.
* Players can only respawn in-between levels. If there's a TPK (total party kill), that's a wipe. Players can revive others, though obviously with only a few hearts between them, it'll have to be a careful decision.
And, of course,
* Rewards are significantly increased for Iron Knight mode, perhaps culminating in something particularly good (a set of tokens?) when the party gets all the way through.
Obviously, I don't expect to see this anytime soon, but I think it'd be a neat addition, especially for those who enjoy an absurd challenge. Any thoughts on how it could be added to?
I like this idea. Allowing skilled players the option of turning up the difficulty of the game for added rewards is always a positive.
The rewards are where you should watch - it's possible that the way this mode is designed may skew the rewards towards the beginning and make it most profitable to do a bunch of Level 9 Iron Man runs followed by a quick trip back to Haven. Why risk 10 energy trying to beat Hard Mode Jelly King when you can get 80% of the reward by doing level 9 again?
This could quickly lead to some major elitism if a low-skilled player joins an iron-man group and results in a wipe.
I'd shy away from any Iron-Man exclusive rewards. They are likely to drive a major wedge in the community as skilled players obtain the exclusive rewards and low-skilled players hit a dead-end. Making Iron Man runs slightly increase the player's rate of progress is fine.
Overall, I like this idea.