New shmup concept/game idea 'Kamikame'

[D]

This game just gave me a great new idea.
http://www.siliconera.com/2017/07/29/sh ... emy-shots/
There have been several grazing shmups in the past. Personally I do not like it at all, perhaps it can be fun for more advanced players. It just seems like a really big gimmick to me.

But what about this.
Getting hit by bullets will not kill you, it will make you stronger.
Getting hit by too few bullets will kill you. so you're always flying all over the place to get hit
The idea is to get hit by as many bullets as possible and fly into as many ships as possible. It's kind of where the whole grazing thing was going I guess.
It will be like the reflector shields (don't you just love that) in Giga Wing and Mars Matrix, but just all the time. It becomes the whole game, except you do not reflect the bullets back, you absorb them to get stronger.
The one thing that still needs some thought is dying. Right now I'm thinking about kind a combo meter that DoDonPachi has, but in reverse. When you start, the meter is full, but if you do not get hit enough with bullets, the meter goes down. If it's all depleted, you die.
Of Course getting hit by larger bullets, wide lasers, etc will give you more charge. So the player will be flying towards the bigger bullets, sometimes absorbing a really wide laser blast from a boss.
Perhaps the biggest gain could be to point blank the enemies en immediatly flying into the explosion.
Enemies start of firing alot, which you should all capture, then enemies start shooting less and less and now is the time to shoot them and fly inside their explosion.
This opens up alot of new strategies.
The game will be a traditional normal shmup with power ups and a smartbomb (perhaps a melee attack, but it should remain simple)
This is not a gimmick and is a completely new type of game. It will be so relaxing to not having to be affraid of getting hit, but welcoming it!
I have it all in my head right now. Let me know if anyone is willing to set the shmup world upside down. Perhaps someone who is in the progress of developing can steer into this direction.
Does a game like this exist? Will my idea get stolen? Time will tell.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Sound like BulletMagnet's kind of game.
I've kind of thought of this from time to time as a joke (I'm sure a lot of us have, at some point), or as a potentially-interesting "arrange mode" for Ikaruga.

The game will be a traditional normal shmup with power ups and a smartbomb

Does... the smarbomb create bullets instead of clearing them?

[Rozyrg]

My immediate thought with this idea:

• 1. Your craft slowly descends, falling off of the bottom is what actually kills you
  2. absorbing 'shots' would pull up you up the screen bit by bit (up to a set maximum height)
  >2a. Staying at max height will put you in greater danger; but will grant you gradually increasing bonuses as long as you stay there.
  3. hitting obstacles would either knock you back a dramatic amount or push you off in one go
  >3a. levels could be designed around varying obstacle reactions/behavior

In my mind, I see it almost like an obfuscated version of something like Kaboom, where the idea is to constantly keep on a strict, safe path.
If you allow for more paths, levels could be constructed as simple mazes, with different routes being either easier or harder and more optimal for scoring.

In any case, I would keep the actual shooting part as simple (and unobtrusive to the main mechanic) as possible. You don't want to split the player's attention too much, especially if you've worked out all kinds of clever things to do with this mechanic.

Another idea: having a Quarth style 'speed-up' that lets you scroll/move through the stage faster, which could play into a time-based scoring element.

[BulletMagnet]

Sounds like BulletMagnet's life.

Fixed.

[D]

The game will be a traditional normal shmup with power ups and a smartbomb

Does... the smarbomb create bullets instead of clearing them?

The smartbomb painfully extracts bullets from enemies/bosses. The enemies will shake as if they are resisting the extraction process, they feel violated and after the whole smart shake one more to show their disapprovement of getting violated.

My immediate thought with this idea:

• 1. Your craft slowly descends, falling off of the bottom is what actually kills you
  2. absorbing 'shots' would pull up you up the screen bit by bit (up to a set maximum height)
  >2a. Staying at max height will put you in greater danger; but will grant you gradually increasing bonuses as long as you stay there.
  3. hitting obstacles would either knock you back a dramatic amount or push you off in one go
  >3a. levels could be designed around varying obstacle reactions/behavior

In my mind, I see it almost like an obfuscated version of something like Kaboom, where the idea is to constantly keep on a strict, safe path.
If you allow for more paths, levels could be constructed as simple mazes, with different routes being either easier or harder and more optimal for scoring.

In any case, I would keep the actual shooting part as simple (and unobtrusive to the main mechanic) as possible. You don't want to split the player's attention too much, especially if you've worked out all kinds of clever things to do with this mechanic.

Another idea: having a Quarth style 'speed-up' that lets you scroll/move through the stage faster, which could play into a time-based scoring element.

This could be fun, but it is a different game than my idea for 'Kamikame'

I would love to be able to somehow design the whole game, but I guess skilled developers have their own ideas for games. If any developer is doubting their own idea, please let's work together and do this. Let's at least talk about it. I bet it will gain some recognition if only because of the 'original' concept.