I'm here to talk about a Shmup I've been developing since January called...
Story
------------------------------
TL;DR: A female scientist takes it upon her self to save the human race using a reconstructed evil AI core and an unusual ship.
There have been reports of space junk and machines coming together to invade other planets in the solar system. ERF (Earth's Recon Forces) has deemed these invasions as the collective of a force named the ErgoMoto (Ergo for short). With most scientists and engineers afraid of the AI revolt, ERF has chosen to ask Gradi, an aerospace engineer in desperate need of funding, to build a ship model for ERF's units to battle the Ergo. Sadly, not even ERF's top pilots could fly her "Roc's Feather." In response, Gradi proposed building an AI to help pilots fly the ship. ERF declined her proposal stating that the Ergo are spawned with direct contact to other technology. With no way to save the human race ERF has chosen to use a scramble method to fight the Ergo.
As the scramble commences above the planet, one of the Ergo's infected AI cores crashes into Gradi's lab. She then takes it upon herself to build the helpless core into her Roc's Feather model. With no one brave, or skilled, enough to pilot her ship she takes on the mission of fighting the Ergo head on.
Overview
------------------------------
RocMoto is a "Bite the Bullet" shmup, in the sense that it prefers that players be more aggressive rather than take the back seat and dodge bullets.
Enemies and even the environment will test the player's ability to choose between being aggressive or passive.
The game and it's mechanics are pieced together to be flexible enough to support every type of player.
For more you can check out my tech demo's:
1/15/14: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl17E05ABqw
5/16/14: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzeC2Cnq0b0
6/18/14: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCLSVsJqats
7/18/14: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBgyHgLTVhk
10/4/14: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMF2F8tzGqo
The Ships
------------------------------
*Ship Images are actual size, may be skewed because of the internet*
*Shot pattern and Mechanics(Ignition, Weapon Levels, and Specialties) best detailed in Tech Demo (10/4/14)*
Each ship has a different way to play and makes sure the game is difficult and fresh in every way possible.
+Roc+
-----------
Roc is the most basic ship. It has a gravity bomb that clears the screen and an Ignition that equips homing missiles.
*Fun Fact: Roc's body design is inspired by Wipeout's Feisar and Cho Ren Sha 68k's ship.
+Mira+
-----------
Mira is similar to Roc in it's bullet pattern, yet has the ability to spread it's weapon power out by deploying clones.
Mira is the widest ship, which means it can grind bullets and crash into enemies easier than Roc, yet this also mean's that Mira's hit box is bigger than the other ships to compensate for it's size.
*Fun Fact: Mira's name is a play on the words mirror and mirage.
+Naga+
-----------
Naga is the slowest ship in the game with the oddest bullet pattern. It's special ability is a short teleportation called "Rush."
Early on Naga is extremely difficult to use, but later on Naga is equipped with 4 Homing Missiles and Electrobolt's.
*Fun Fact: Naga's design imitates that of a snake. Naga's body is the inverse of Roc.
Scoring
------------------------------
*Scoring is best explained visually in the 4th tech demo (7/18/14)*
Player's are awarded for being aggressive. Crashing into "crash-able" enemies reward the player with a single increment of points and a multiplier bonus of x.2.
Every time the player crashes, their multiplier will increment by .2.
Even though crashing gives a huge score and multiplier increment it is not the best to gain points.
For every shot that hit's any enemy the player is given 10 points.
Enemies of course have their own scores for destruction depending on the type.
Shooting will not gain player's a lot of points if they only focus on shooting.
When the player combines both methods of player, or rather their own style, they are able to gain the most points out of enemy destruction.
I've been tweaking at mechanics for a while to make sure that the first time and every time a player starts up the game it feels fresh.
At a glance RocMoto's gimmick is the ability to crash into enemies, yet the game will play more on Enemies and their effect on the environment and the player's movement.
Super Shout out to BPzeBanshee for G.M.O.S.S.E, it was an extreme help with the homing missiles.
I hope you stay tuned to what I have in store!
I regularly update here:
twitter:https://twitter.com/Maximum_Crash
tumblr:http://maximumcrash.tumblr.com/
