My small indie team of 3 (including myself) are working on a twin-stick shooter/shmup for PC/Mac/Linux. We've been playing shmups for years (decades actually =) and have finally decide to jump in and develop one of our own: A Quiver of Crows - http://www.AQuiverOfCrows.com
The game has been in development for 6 months now and we've got about another 3-6 months to go. Here are some of the main design aspects we're striving for:
No Space, Ships, or Planes!
Although we love all these things, it seems like they are often present in shmups. So we've tried our best to mix things up by going with an organic flesh and bones (and feathers) approach =]
You play as a crow.
Twin-Stick 360 Degree Action
I understand everybody has a different definition for what a shmup is and the most traditional is often "auto-scrolling, left to right or bottom to top." Although R-Type, Ikaruga, and Jamestown are amongst our favorite games, we want to stretch the traditional definition a bit in hopes of standing out and offering a familiar yet less common experience.
Shoot and fly in 360 degrees
Upgradable Weapons, Bombs, Shields
These are a must for a us and we hope to achieve all that we set out to do in this category. We already have parallel spread heavy bullets, triple spread small bullets, laser beam, sine wave bullets, and heat seeking quills.
Multiple weapons types. This is the triple-spread small bullet
Less Time Dodging Bullets
This is a controversial one. Most shmups can unofficially be categorized as high-skill maze games since the player must carefully steer through the maze of bullets while shooting the enemy. We love this style of gameplay, but in an effort to bring a less common experience we want the player to spend more time avoiding the enemies themselves while actively deciding on the trajectory of the bullets they are firing.
AI
This might be controversial too. Rather than attack patterns, enemies have AI and will chase you down. Some will melee (e.g. bite or dart into you) while others keep a distance and shoot bullets at you.
Local / Couch Co-op
We miss the days of playing a video game with a friend in the same room!
Controller Support
Keyboard and mouse is cool and we'll support it, but our favorite way to play these things is with a gamepad.
Satisfying Ragdoll Physics
When dispatching of an enemy, rather than watching them explode or fall apart, they "ragdoll" and fall to the ground. Shoot up a bunch of enemies in the same place and their bodies or skeletons will pile up on the ground!
So.. What do you all think based on this first impression?
Is this something you would want to play?
Is PC/Mac/Linux cool with you? Or do you prefer other platforms?
The game is almost at alpha. Hopefully, we'll have a gameplay trailer soon and shortly after that we plan on setting up a Steam Greenlight campaign.
Thanks for reading! And follow us on twitter @AQuiverOfCrows for the latest updates on our project.
A Quiver of Crows - http://www.AQuiverOfCrows.com
@AQuiverOfCrows - http://www.twitter.com/AQuiverOfCrows
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Edit:
A Quiver of Crows is on Steam Greenlight now! Please follow the links and take a look:
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Edit:
We got Greenlit!
Thanks to everybody who voted for us!
And I think the George Martin-esque name definitely helps get attention, too haha
