shmups.system11.org

...Sorry, couldn't resist! <3

Seriously though, I hope this forum will help the developers in the community out. I know I'll be posting here!

Anyway, I'll be honest, my first shmup project certainly isn't original. In fact, it's technically a Gradius fangame, though I'm trying to alter the gameplay to the point it doesn't feel like a 'clone' so to speak. The Vic Viper's there. The Bacterians are there. The Power Gauge is there. What's different is I'm designing the game from a purely vertical perspective, the game's resolution is also more vertical friendly. Finally, I'm trying to incorporate a more manic feel for the gameplay:IE, lots of enemies and bullets, with bosses that rely on large bullet patterns and such.

Any thoughts?

It could work. The closest we've had to a vertical Gradius is Toaplan's V-5. If you kept the gameplay similar to Gradius and had some pretty recognisable but individual setpieces, then it could be good.

Well, it would be similar in some areas, different in others.

The powerup system would remain untouched with one exception, it would be using something similar to the Gaiden system, IE, you can powerup a weapon more than once to increase its level.

The amount of enemies you'll be shooting at will be dramatically increased, as will the enemy bullet counts. The Vic Viper's hitbox has been made quite small to compensate for this. Also, non popcorn enemies will be a lot more common, it seems like they're exceptionally rare in older Gradius titles.

While I'm still trying to figure out a good formula for scoring, I'm quite set on putting in a combo system similar to DoDonPachi, where rapid kills result in combos that give additional points.

While some classic Gradius elements would be present in boss battles (Gotta blow up cores and stuff, afterall) dodging attacks will be considerably different. For example, if you see a Big Core, it's probably going to do a lot worse than just shoot groups of 4 lasers at you. Spreads of lasers in multiple directions (done in a pattern that you can weave through, of course) would be what to expect.

Sadly, I don't think doing the kinds of stages where the top/bottom (left and right for a vertical perspective) are endlessly looping (Think Stage 1 of Gradius II and you know what I mean) as I'm not sure how to implement this with the engine I'm currently using.

The standard weapon arrays will pretty much be Gradius Gaiden's, with a few exceptions here and there. I've already decided to have a Weapon Edit that lets you mix and match these weapons, I'm also debating a special Weapon Edit that gives access to other weapons (Perhaps even a few from other vertical shooters?)

And most importantly...Yes, there will be a Moai stage.

You should take a look at Salamander 1 and 2 as well, then for some more ideas. Both do the vertical Gradius thing, but I think the core elements seen in the vertical stages could be massively improved upon.

I'm not sure a 'Pachi style chain system would be suited to a vertical manic Gradius, since you'd have to create a weapon system that can explore the chaining system in place. A Mushi-style chaining system would be better suited. Heck, even the RFJ "bonus chaining" system could also be good.

One thing I'd like to see is the return of the "skill based progression" system seen in Sexy Parodius, where the better you're doing, the route through the stages change, and the harder the levels become. Would make level design a bit tougher since you'd probably have to make more levels to compensate.

Your other ideas are pretty interesting though. I'd definitely be interested in seeing them come to fruitition.

Assuming this is for the PC, what language are you programming in?

As far as suggestions, a customizable button config and joypad support would be important to include. Highscore saving and even replay saving would be cool too.

Due to my limited coding knowledge, I'm using GameMaker. However, I've become convinced if used properly, it can make a gorgeous shmup! While I don't have anything close to a playable build yet, I've done some tinkering with an engine for this project, and the initial results show promise, albiet there are some pros and cons....

-PROS-
-Easy to use, but also allows for more advanced coding and such.

-The revamped graphic system allows for some nice visual effects.

-Expandable with DLLs and similar files.

-CONS-
-Even with the revamped graphic system, 60 FPS is still unattainable unless you go bare bones minimum on visual (My engine's FPS is currently capped at 30)

-Collision problems that I've yet to fully fix (Mainly for Gradius style missile behavior and using a 'pathnode' system to direct the movement of Fan type enemies)

Sadly, I have no idea when a playable demo will be released, seeing as I do quite a bit of other things along with making this little shmup. However, for those who are curious, here's some of the stuff I have successfully implemented thus far:

-Basic enemies of the popcorn variety

-Pretty explosions! (They could get prettier, but they look good so far!)

-A somewhat forgiving collision system for the player, small hitboxes all the way!

-Functional power gauge, limitations are not yet implemented (IE, you can keep using speed up to the point your ship jumps across the screen with a single tap)

-Missiles partially implemented:Still need to find a way to effectively make them travel along surfaces Gradius style (Current method is rather sloppy)

-Options fully implented, and are practically identical to the Options of more recent Gradius games in terms of behavior (No sloppy following methods used, these Options move based on an array that stores the player's last 30 locations relative to the screen, this means these Options work perfectly, even in a scrolling environment!)

-Laser partially implemented (Functional, though I'm still debating minor tweaks to the behavior)

-Double partially implemented (currently more like 'Triple' as it fires a three way spread, debating changes to how many shots can be onscreen and such)

-Gradius style turrets just added (They don't fire yet, but they aim at you!)

I have a feeling that if I do a playable demo release in the future, it may be level made specifically for demo purposes:IE, it wouldn't be in the final version as a normal level. The purpose of my first demo would be to get input from players and see how the system I'm using feels, and tweak as necessary. Needless to say, when that time comes I'll be counting on you guys!

...As for the suggestions I've recieved thus far...

-Highscore saving will be implemented, no question about it. In fact, I have three ranking tables in my plan file so far:Arcade ranking, Score Attack (Single stage runs) Ranking, and Boss Rush (Time Attack) Ranking.

-Customizable keys will come later once I figure out how keybinding works in GM. I can tell you what the default control scheme is as of now though:

Arrow Keys-Move
Z Key-Shot/Missile (If I add custom keys, you'll be able to assign separate buttons for these if you wish)
X Key-Powerup
C Key-Cheat/Debug Key (Increase power gauge by one slot)

I just want to add that I am 100% sure that gamemaker CAN do a great shmup, if used properly.

Gamemaker is way underrated (Mainly because it's SO easy to use, that most people doing games with it have no idea of what they are doing, thus so many crap games made with it ). The thing is very powerful, and it's a very easy way for even a experienced programmer to make games in a faster way.

The older version of Gamemaker could do 60 fps. The shmup I am doing (Or at least was, I haven't touched it for too long now... which is a big, BIG shame on me, as more people are working on it other than me) begun as a 30 fps too, but I tried to go for thr 60 fps, and it works nicely so far.

I've heard the newer Gamemaker is heavier in system resources..

Holy Crap! When did this part of the Forum Show up! I seriously will be posting ideas and such here!

GameMaker is a bit heavier on resource use, partially because of the new DirectX features it supports, but some of the sacrifices are well worth it when you see the new visuals.

However, in the event some of these visuals prove to be a problem for users, I already have decided to include an alternate graphic setting for lower end computers that disables advanced blending effects like transparency and additive blending. Whether or not I'll add 60 FPS support depends on various things, as doubling the framerate at this point would also double the speed of everything, meaning I'd have to code a method to adjust game speed to compensate for the increased FPS.

In case anyone's curious, here's some early development shots. They're mainly to show what I've managed so far using the additive blending effect. As you can see, sprites and backgrounds aren't quite the priority yet....

Looking great ForteMP3.

So just how flexible is GameMaker then? I always thought it looked pretty limited......unless I'm thinking of a different app?

Explosions look great as well. Are they done in ExGen?

looks good ForteMP3 keep It up

when I click the links It only shows the one image for all three

I'm not sure what ExGen is, honestly, but the explosions and such were all done with features built into GameMaker.

Neat. So is it a particle system or are they animations?

Anyway FYI ExGen is and explosion generator (if you hadn't guessed) and a pretty superb one at that

http://www.binarysun.co.uk/products/exgen.htm

I just looked, quite nifty. The explosions in the dev version of my little game (Currently called Cavadius. Basically, Cave + Gradius = Cavadius) use three components. A sprite (The small explosion sprite used in several Psikyo games, actually) a few orange particles, and a large light corona type effect. As you can see, the three do make a nice looking explosion when combined.

Wow, nice explosion generator there. I wrote one around 9 or so years ago, but it definitely wasn't as perty... that and it was command line based (R.I.P. ye good 'ol DOS/asm days).

Nice idea to combine the 3 elements together to make the explosion. Certainly looks effective from the screenies.

I recently had an idea or two on weapons for this game, though these ideas wouldn't be implemented until near the end of the development of the game, since they'd be unlockable features. Anyway, the idea I had was inspired somewhat by Alluro95's Xeno Fighters EX:Unlockable weapons from other shmups.

For example, you could unlock/purchase weapons for your Weapon Edit setup that came from Raiden, turning your standard Laser into a Lock-On Laser, or your Double into the rapid fire Spread Vulcan. Other potential cameo weapons might include things like the Reflect Laser and Wave Cannon from R-Type, and as the final unlockables, the Shots and Lasers of DoDonPachi.

The only issue I've thought of so far with doing this would be balance with some of the weapons. For example, Vic Viper would always have Options availble, I'd imagine...So what happens when you get the Raiden Lock-On Laser, and combine it with VV's Options? Utter insanity.