The ultimate mainstream shmups guide

[SPM]

Brainstorm time: let's gather ideas to help create popular mass-appealing shmups (that will also keep the hardcore fanbase satisfied).
Not just a thread for devs, but to find the essence of the genre and convey it to more people in "their own gaming language"

For instance, by finding solutions to common negative critiques:

>>> "1 hit deaths suck, too punishing" and "it doesn't matter, I can keep continuing",

Instead of lives, present them like a "health bar" divided into "sections". Same thing, different feeling. Credits? What's even that? Have (limited) "lives" instead.

>>>"Too short" and "too expensive, I beat it in half an hour... refunded"

Credit-feeding should be limited and/or unlockable. Make it so that most players won't reach the end before at least 4-5h unless they're really good. I'd limit it to 3-5 credits or even remove it completely and use a proper unlockable training mode instead, like some roguelikes.

>>> "No replayability"

Games need to have some sort of progression these days (getting good is not enough if you don't unlock something... We've become doggos and want our treats! hahaha). Give people something to unlock (ships, modes, challenges, customization, ...) but avoid grinding fests!! People love this aspect from roguelites Vs roguelikes, but there have to be other ways to do it. e.g. Sky Force may be popular, but won't keep the hardcore fanbase satisfied... 2 criteria! Remember!

>>> "1CC? continues? no-miss? What are you talking about? You missed one enemy at X:XX"

New games should keep these concepts, but use "modern" (understandable) terminology.

That's it for now from me. I mentioned roguelikes several times, but that's a genre that made a comeback, and the same should happen to shmups! It might be happening, actually ^.^

[To Far Away Times]

Jamestown's multiplayer has some interesting ideas. If multiple people are playing you can bring the other players back to life by surviving long enough. The survival time needed to revive your teammate increases the more you die. You can also use your frequent hypers and clear the screen of bullets which can help save your teammates that way too. Your hyper multipliers stack too, so you can get more points if everone uses hyper at the same time. It can also be an up to four player game, while most shmups are 2 players max. It is probably the best "multiplayer" shmup I've played. None of this affects the single player, which plays traditionally with a standard lives system.

Senjin Aleste has a similar ship revival mechanic applied to single player with 4 ships (no increase on the timer the more you die though as far as I know), which I kinda dig, even if it sorta trivializes the difficulty a bit.

[DMC]

I think a caravan mode game with battle royal concept like Tetris 99 could work--at least in theory:

1. Make the game free online with cross-platform online multiplayer to get lots of players.
2. Battle royale like Tetris 99. Let's say between 4-99 players, Everyone starts simultaneously. Everyone plays 2 min, and the 50% with the best score by 2 min, keep playing 3 more min. Everyone else comes back to the lobby.
3. Simple accessible, easy gameplay, something like 90s caravan/carnival games such as Spriggan, kids should be able to play without dying all the time.
4. Add some kind of gimmick weapon that can enhance scoring but do not need a strategy guide (such as a lock-on weapon that targets multiple enemies for multiplier with some nice visual feedback, juicy x10 cubes or gems).
5. Some visual feedback of how you're doing, such as you current rank.
6. Tons of achievements for improving on the rankings. Lots of rewards.
7. Lots of flashy tables. Total rankings. Country rankings. Monthly rankings. Some diagram showing your trajectory.
8. Monthly or bi-monthly stage designs or themes. Preferably some mainstream game references or so (like Tetris 99 has a metroid or fire emblem theme sometimes),
9. Get redditors, youtubers, twitch players etc to hype it.
10. You can challenge anyone that has a similar rank as you for a VS duel or go for a random/friend duel. Something like Twinkle star sprites or Shmups skill test.

[Steven]

Don't forget to intentionally cut out half of the game to sell it as DLC on day 1 for more than the same price as the game itself.

[Sumez]

For people to understand scoring and the replayability inherent in improving your skills, your best approach would probably be to have some sort of upfront online leaderboad based metric, which doesn't just rank players based on high score (if it's dominated by top players, most people wouldn't feel compelled to even consider competing), but also tracks your progress in terms of various achievements (genuine achievements in the game, not platinum trophy "Achievements"). Lure them comfortably into competitive gameplay, step by step. Let the goals be obvious. Allow gradual unlocking of multiple credits, but hide every step of genuine progress behind what you can do on one credit to help enforce that mindset.

Also, credits in the classic arcade sense is a novelty that really makes no sense for any game that isn't a straight port. Just build in some sort of in-universe gameplay mechanic that serves the same purpose, making it easier to grasp than an abstract number that just gives the player an advantage from pessing an "insert coin" button (which means any new player would just do that).

[davyK]

A large campaign mode would be required. Allowing unlimited continues of course, but each level or level section could grade the player. (S+,S, A, B, C etc).

But it needs to have regular set pieces. Cut scenes et al.

Lots of ships to choose from and have an EXP system in place of a power up system - but maybe have a shop feature to allow selection of weapons , power a la RPGs. Maybe have a ship building system too - much like the build a character system many mainstream games have.

Any completed levels could be replayed for rank. Maybe getting an A rank would reveal an actual score attack option for that level.

[Sima Tuna]

An appealing "mainstream" arcade mode needs to have some normie-filtering game mode that will keep the game journalists busy. Basically, I envision a game with two modes:

"Story" mode: This mode would have a level select screen or world map, character upgrades/loadouts and persistent progression. Think of how Ghosts and Goblins Resurrection or the more rpg-style Kunio games did this. Normies like arcade gameplay fine, they just don't like arcade game structure. They don't like having to get gud or dying and losing even 1 minute of progression. So the "story" mode would do away with arcade progression. Maybe you could even have mid-level hard savepoints so the normies could put their game down to watch an episode of the hottest new Amazon Prime show while eating some Doordash'd Thai food?

Second mode would be the Arcade mode. This mode would have none of that bullshit in it. The devs would trim the extraneous levels from the story mode down to between five and seven lean, mean stages. Difficulty would be increased and lives would be implemented. You'd press a button to insert a credit just like in emulation. All the character progression shit would be removed and replaced with the same abilities, but as in-game power-ups. Loadouts/character selection would be chosen at start and fixed.

I think there have been some games which have successfully tried to marry the mainstream with the arcade. I'm reminded of Fight 'n' Rage, which has unlocks, multiple endings, short cutscenes, extra characters, extra modes and in-game currency. All that shit normies love. Ninja Warriors Once Again is arcade as they come, but even it added unlockable characters. The 3ds Kunio games have more rpg/open world elements, even compared to the NES RCR. A lot of euroshmups seem to hit the mainstream really well, but they falter on the arcade side.

Incentivizing scoring is easy. All you have to do is properly communicate with players what the benefits of scoring are and make it fun to do. Make it clear that scoring gives you extra lives, extra continues or whatever. If you want noobs to score more then give them more benefits to scoring and communicate those advantages so even a novice player understands. Even if they can't score the game, you have to start by making them want to. I never knew what the hell point there was to scoring shmups when I was younger. I thought it was about showing off your e-peen. But Castle Shikigami 2 still encouraged me to score by making the coin collecting so fun.