"Endless Perfecting" is a story about a mad scientist, specializing in biotechnology at Golden Gate University, who becomes obsessed with immortality, not from fearing death, but from pride. Ever since learning about HeLa cells, a type of cancer cell that is functionally immortal and endlessly self-replicating, he's studied how to use cancer cells not just for biomedical research, but for healing patients. Due to his unethical practices (specifically forging the signatures of his frequently unconscious test subjects), he loses his license, academic credibility, social standing, and, most importantly, funding.
Upon learning of his own cancer diagnosis (ironically), he becomes desperate enough to employ his latest bioengineering innovation on himself; in essence, it's a protein that alters cancer cells, giving them the ability to both genetically modify healthy cells into becoming cancerous as well as replicate perfectly without any loss to the new cells' genetic material (a major cause of aging). Fortunately for him, it gives him the immortality he seeks, constantly replicating and healing himself; unfortunately, for everyone else, his cancerous body is constantly mutating, expanding beyond the confines of a human shape, and spreading everywhere, consuming more and more of the global biosphere, with entire cities being claimed before anyone even knows what's happening.
After a decade of warring with the "Continental Tumor," the armies of the world have become desperate enough to use nuclear weapons on the vast tumorous mass, creating an extensive radioactive zone across Western North America and destroying the "Carcinogenic Doctor," but turning everything west of the Mississippi River into a wasteland. However, a team of scientists at Princeton University has studied a similar cancer cell in their lab and learned that the protein that strengthens the cancer cells also lets them heal all genetic damage, even from high doses of ionizing radiation. Now knowing that it's only a matter of time before the Continental Tumor will regrow, stronger than ever, the team travels all the way to San Francisco, the source of the carcinogenic spread, to hunt down any remnants of the "Doctor" and destroy him once and for all.
The game is set on the Golden Gate Bridge, with the southern half leading to San Francisco controlled by the Doctor, depicted as a sentient cancerous blob with tentacles, postules, and glowing pods that cover the Doctor's half of the bridge. The northern half is controlled by the team of scientists, backed up by an army battalion, who fire syringes filled with a protein antagonist, designed to nullify the Carcinogenic Doctor's cancer-enhancing protein, leaving his mutated genetic code vulnerable to the radiation and weakening him enough for the army to take care of. You play as the Carcinogenic Doctor and your mission is to survive at all costs until the team sent to destroy you is destroyed by you or just runs out of syringes, at which point you will be able to destroy the army and continue your endless spread.
Gameplay is up for debate, though I do have a few ideas. The game can be designed as a 16-bit side scroller, with the Princeton research team on one end (represented by four NPC enemies in radiation suits) firing syringes from specially-designed guns against you, the Carcinogenic Doctor, on the other end. You have to quickly use your tentacles to protect yourself against the syringes, but if a few get through and hit you, you then have a mini-game where you have to complete your GATC (guanine, adenine, thymine, cytosine) code. The code is depicted as 16 white boxes, some left blank for you to fill in with the right letter, and organized as two rows of eight spaces, with a letter, either G, A, T, or C, in one box corresponding to the box across from it on the other row. G and C always go together, as do A and T, and thus, if you see a white box with the letter A on one row, then that means that T is supposed to be in the box across from it, and if you see a blank white box on one row, but the letter G on the other, then that space is supposed to be filled by the letter C. (In essence, you're endlessly perfecting yourself with every attack.)
You only have twenty seconds to complete the mini-game. If you either take too long and there's at least one square still left blank, or if you put the wrong letter into the box, you return to the main game, now with fewer tentacles, a longer wait time to use them to protect against the next round of syringe attacks, and your character is pushed further back toward the city, letting the scientists reclaim more of the bridge. If you succeed at the mini-game, however, you now have about twenty seconds wherein you're able to attack the scientists and potentially kill them, though this will not be easy due to their stubborn health bars. You lose the game when you keep failing the GATC minigame five times in a row and thus have no tentacles left to defend yourself from the syringes. In turn, you win the game when the last scientist reaches 0 HP from your tentacle attacks. At that point, the army (represented by tanks) is left helpless against your attacks, and you wipe them out. Of course, the mini-game won't be necessary if you manage to deflect all syringes by the time the research team completely runs out (let's say after 300 syringes). In that case, you can simply attack the research team until all four are dead.
The "Success Screen" shows a bleak, cloudy Golden Gate Bridge completely covered by the living tumor that is the Carcinogenic Doctor. Meanwhile, the "Failure Screen" shows a clean, pristine Golden Gate with a beautiful sunset to its West.
I'm completely open to changing these details, and this is a very rough sketch of what the game might end up looking like.