CRRN Pixels - side scroll shmup

[crrnpixels]

Hi All
I recently came across this great forum and thought I share with you the details of proejct I work on for some time now.

From my website:
Imagine you play a game, a side-scroll-shooter stylized as a retro game. You fly, you hit the enemies, avoid bullets, collect extras and suddenly… BOOM! The graphics changes from 8bit (like Spectrum or Commodore or NES) style to 16bit (like SNES, Amiga or Arcade) and HD modern style. The game gets a bit harder but graphics and gameplay is smoother.
Imagine you can decide in realtime which style of game you want to play…

more info here: http://crrnpixels.pl/game-project-2/

YT1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMMMmIrjpLU
this one show the gfx (it's concept art not the final game gfx) in 4 modes, 1bit/8bit/16bit/HD

YT2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO0JoRwurpo
this one show some basics of the engine (which is still in heavy development)

The game is planned for iPad in first place and then for Android tablets.

Let me know what you think.

Regards

[BPzeBanshee]

Imagine you play a game, a side-scroll-shooter stylized as a retro game. You fly, you hit the enemies, avoid bullets, collect extras and suddenly… BOOM! The graphics changes from 8bit (like Spectrum or Commodore or NES) style to 16bit (like SNES, Amiga or Arcade) and HD modern style. The game gets a bit harder but graphics and gameplay is smoother.

Concept reminds me of Genetos, if you haven't given this a spin yet I suggest you do - it will help a lot in making gameplay that doesn't suck like most "art" games.

Do you plan on making the player inclined to actually roll through the different modes? Having a "one mode is easier and one is harder" would leave the users inclined to just stick it on one setting, and art alone wont sway the decision there.

[crrnpixels]

Do you plan on making the player inclined to actually roll through the different modes? Having a "one mode is easier and one is harder" would leave the users inclined to just stick it on one setting, and art alone wont sway the decision there.

Actually That was exactly the plan. 8bit version being easier HD versions being harder.
The factor could be for example number of bullets on screen. If you change from hd to 16 bit the number of bullets on screen is cut in half but you get fewer points, etc.
But to be honest I'm a real fan of pixel art and also other game gfx styles. So my initial concept was to have a game where I can see how the game art could look like in 80's 90's (8bit,arcade) etc

[Laurel_McFang]

I actually really liked what I saw. You clearly get what makes a game hectic and the enemies taking a few shots to take down made it seem really cool. Horizontal shooters have a little trouble in terms of gameplay on the iPad I have found, the dot emu r-type ports be a real chore to play so be sure to keep the scale of the levels and characters in place. Regardless it has an r-type / Gradius vibe and seems to get what makes those games great. I really hope to see more and pick it up on launch.

[mice]

Euroshmuppy:
- Slow main fire
- Popcorn takes way too many hits

Love the 3 different modes, but I'd rather spend the extra time creating a good game rather than doing 3 different sets of graphics.

[BPzeBanshee]

Actually That was exactly the plan. 8bit version being easier HD versions being harder.
The factor could be for example number of bullets on screen. If you change from hd to 16 bit the number of bullets on screen is cut in half but you get fewer points, etc.
But to be honest I'm a real fan of pixel art and also other game gfx styles. So my initial concept was to have a game where I can see how the game art could look like in 80's 90's (8bit,arcade) etc

This has me concerned. Not all 8-bit games are easier and not all HD games are hard - you've certainly done the job of seeing what the game *art* looks like last generation but tying difficulty statically to that sounds like a bad idea - with your current proposal there isn't a real push to actually go through the different modes.

May I suggest having a look through playing some games from each generation (and good ones plz) and then tying aspects of gameplay from those eras to it? I can see something real impressive if the game used playstyles unique to the modes to keep you on your toes. Can't handle 16-bit era firing fast bullet streams, warp to next mode. Can't handle that danmaku, warp again. Can't shoot enough of those 8-bit bugs down because your ship only allows one shot at a time, switch again.

Most importantly, question the game rather than the art and detach the art aspect from it. Why would I want to leave the HD mode? Why switch through the modes at all? What's even the point of a gimmick like that? Does it affect my game, if so how? In it's current state if you strip out the art aspect there isn't much "game" there, and it's this part that will be the most important for your final product. Whether the game ends up being a play-once-and-throw-away app like 95% of the market or a decent shmup that makes us keep coming back for more and want to tell our friends about is going to hang not on your art but on your gameplay.

[crrnpixels]

@all

thanks for comments. I really appreciate it.
I should mention at the begining that what you see is just a proof of concept rather than actuall gameplay.
My main idea was to see how gfx mode change will look like and how it can affect the gameplay.
I take all the crits on popcorns and slow fire, but what's more important for me is the comment from BPzeBanshee.

I'll reconsider the 8bit/16bit mode change feature again. Maybe as sugested in first reply I could do it the Genetos way or....
Any other sugestions?
I'm pixel artist for long time, really long time I love to see nice gfx. REading through the threads here on the forum I know already that you guys prise gameplay over gfx (in most cases) but IMO gfx is important too.
I really wanted to do a game that reflects different gfx styles, but I didn't wanted to sacrifice the gameplay.

On the engine itself:
- I build my "engine" on Corona SDK.
- all background gfx is based on tiles sets.
so any hints on these aproaches/technologies?

My blog was not updated for long time but the engine is capable of doing aliens waves on different paths. they are spawned at selected map positions (I use Tiled and it's objects layer capabilities for this). I work now on something similar to BulletML but done my way in Lua./Corona.

So, saying all this I hope for more feedback from you guys and I hope to show more progres on my engine soon.
Regards!

[BPzeBanshee]

I'm glad we seem to be on the same page now. Graphics certainly help, but it's like a Michael Bay film: you can have all the lens flare and explosions you like but if the meat and potatoes are crap it's not going to get good reviews.

Unfortunately my knowledge of the technical aspect of Corona or iOS development in general is next to nothing, but if there's any "bad programming" in there it's not immediately obvious going from the videos. Time will tell whether the performance is consistent enough as you get more of the game in place - consistent framerate is a pretty important thing too but I have a feeling these are things you already know.

As for BulletML, one other thing I wanted to mention since I'm not sure if they're linked or not but a few projects I've seen in the past (including a DLL to use BulletML within Game Maker, the environment I use) always seem to like to use those dot bullet "sprites" (possibly particles?) that look reasonable in front of a dark/black screen but once you spice things up slightly they become very hard to see. By doing things "your way" are you able to change this as well so that the bullets are more visible (and by extension fitting to the different graphics themes)?

[Lord Satori]

Graphics certainly help, but it's like a Michael Bay film: you can have all the lens flare and explosions you like but if the meat and potatoes are crap it's not going to get good reviews.

Well if you pump up the graphics high enough, and insert a story, you can almost completely ignore the gameplay portion of the game, and still get good reviews. Sine Mora proved that.

You don't wanna go that route, though. (I do love a good story in a shmup, though)

[crrnpixels]

Well if you pump up the graphics high enough, and insert a story, you can almost completely ignore the gameplay portion of the game, and still get good reviews. Sine Mora proved that.

Yeah, the story… I gues that's just the one thing that's left to make the game interestong now. I just saw R-Type Dimensions on YT. Havent seen it before and didnt realised that it's exactly the idea I had in mind… believe it or not.

Oh well, I will keep working on my SHMUP but maybe forget the 8bit/16bit/HD concept.
And more and more I work with Corona SDK I think it's good but maybe not for massive shooters.

Do you have any experience with Corona SDK and Shmups?

[Lord Satori]

I was being ironic. The concept you have going is amazing, but difficulty isn't the way you should go.

[BPzeBanshee]

With regard to difficulty, make it as difficult as your own skill level. If you try to do guesswork out of the difficulty you're only going to end up getting it wrong, so if it happens to end up being on the easy side that isn't so bad. Another reason why I recommend you go and actually play some shmups, see how it is they jack up in difficulty.