Since October 2014 I'm working on my own shmup (called Quyrium) and I'd like to share its progress to get your feedback as early as possible. I'd also like to get inspirations and ideas from other people, so feel free to contribute to the development process.
Bear in mind that I'm the only person who's working on this project and my resources (mostly time and money) are limited - therefore, I won't be able to deliver a game that can keep up with all the juggernauts out there. It's also worth mentioning that I'm a programmer with a little art-background, so don't expect top-notch artwork.
I also won't be able to pay anyone who contributes to the project (at least for now) but if you give a noteworthy contribution, I'll put your name in the credits and you'll get a free copy of the game.
But enough talk... I'll try to keep this post as compact as I can, so feel free to ask questions if you want to know more details about a certain topic.
Grammar warning: I'm from germany, so english is not my native language and it's very likely that you'll find some weird wording (please let me know where things can be improved)
General
The game is primarily inspired by the classic japanese vertical scrollers from the mid-90's (and clearly the DoDonPachi-series) and it is set in the year 2143.
WIP-Screenshots
Core features
- 5 stages
- 3 different ship types
- Local 2-player co-op
- 4 difficulty levels
- 2 different game modes
- An uncommon cooldown-based item system (inspired by Hack'n'slash games)
- Online leader boards
- ...and more
Plot
Spoiler
NOTE that this is just a short breakdown of the story to give you a general overview
In the year 2129, overpopulation and fatal pollution on earth forced the humans to reach out into space, hoping to find a planet that can be colonized. A few years later they discovered a planet with an environment which seemed to be suitable for the human organism (at first). As research progressed, it became obvious that the newly discovered planet is still uninhabitable because the cyan-colored dust, which entirely fills its atmosphere, makes it impossible to breathe without appropriate protection equipment. Although the recent discovery was a failure, scientists figured out that the dust originates from an unknown crystalline mineral with an unprecedented energetic potential. The codename of the discovered planet was Quyrion, so the scientists called the material Quyrium.
Because Quyrium was so powerful, the humans started to extract it for their own use and it quickly became the most important resource on earth. It solved all energy issues and it became an incredibly valuable medium of exchange.
Over the following years, more and more areas on earth became uninhabitable and the overpopulation seemed to be unstoppable. This situation constantly caused numerous conflicts among many countries, so they started to build devastating Quyrium-based weapon systems to defend themselves. This led to the "Cold World War" - a steadily growing worldwide political tension.
In 2137, this conflict ended in the biggest war in history. Billions of people died, numerous countries were completely destroyed, the world economy collapsed entirely and Quyrium became the only relevant currency.
On October 1st 2143 at 1:27 UTC, all space centers simultaneously received numerous emergency calls from the workers on Quyrion. They reported gigantic air raids, carried out by strange-looking spaceships. Every single emergency call was interrupted within seconds and any contact to the people on Quyrion was lost. Before anyone could react to this incident, all governments reported the same overwhelming attacks on earth.
Nobody knows who the invaders are but now it's on you to strike back and defend humanity!
In the year 2129, overpopulation and fatal pollution on earth forced the humans to reach out into space, hoping to find a planet that can be colonized. A few years later they discovered a planet with an environment which seemed to be suitable for the human organism (at first). As research progressed, it became obvious that the newly discovered planet is still uninhabitable because the cyan-colored dust, which entirely fills its atmosphere, makes it impossible to breathe without appropriate protection equipment. Although the recent discovery was a failure, scientists figured out that the dust originates from an unknown crystalline mineral with an unprecedented energetic potential. The codename of the discovered planet was Quyrion, so the scientists called the material Quyrium.
Because Quyrium was so powerful, the humans started to extract it for their own use and it quickly became the most important resource on earth. It solved all energy issues and it became an incredibly valuable medium of exchange.
Over the following years, more and more areas on earth became uninhabitable and the overpopulation seemed to be unstoppable. This situation constantly caused numerous conflicts among many countries, so they started to build devastating Quyrium-based weapon systems to defend themselves. This led to the "Cold World War" - a steadily growing worldwide political tension.
In 2137, this conflict ended in the biggest war in history. Billions of people died, numerous countries were completely destroyed, the world economy collapsed entirely and Quyrium became the only relevant currency.
On October 1st 2143 at 1:27 UTC, all space centers simultaneously received numerous emergency calls from the workers on Quyrion. They reported gigantic air raids, carried out by strange-looking spaceships. Every single emergency call was interrupted within seconds and any contact to the people on Quyrion was lost. Before anyone could react to this incident, all governments reported the same overwhelming attacks on earth.
Nobody knows who the invaders are but now it's on you to strike back and defend humanity!
- Challenging but always fair
- Easy to play, hard to master
- Reward risky play styles
- Make the player feel powerful but never overpowered
- Offer suitable difficulty-levels for casual- and hardcore-players
Setting
The game is set in the year 2143, so many elements are futuristic and fictional. The overall atmosphere is supposed to be dark, mysterious and unsettling.
The stages will involve some parts of earth (in a post-apocalyptic scenario), space-scenes and fictional landscapes on alien planets.
Art
The general art-style is inspired by Raiden IV, Ikaruga, Eschatos and all the other games that make use of a 2D/3D-mix.
Enemies, backgrounds, the player ships and certain projectiles are polygon based but most of the bullets and special effects are based on 2D-sprites.
Many special effects will be a little bit "over-the-top" - Let's be honest... It makes you feel awesome if you can unleash a dazzling inferno.
The enemies will have shapes that are mostly inspired by insects, which doesn't necessarily mean that they'll look exactly like such. I simply pick up certain elements and combine them with whatever comes to my mind.
Player ships
Striker
The Striker is supposed to be the all-rounder. It has an average damage output and average movement speed.
Interceptor
The Interceptor is fast and it has a wide spread-shot but its damage output is relatively low. When the ship moves horizontally, the four drones will slightly rotate towards the current movement direction which gives the player quicker fire-coverage.
Bomber
The Bomber is the slowest ship but it has the highest damage output. Optimal for more precise dodging and quick kills.
Combat system
The primary weapon is a laser spread-shot and the secondary weapon is a focused beam which significantly reduces the movement speed of the ship.
All player ships can switch between two combat modes: Offense and defense.
In offense mode, the damage output goes up but only offensive items can be used and the movement speed as well as the fire-arc will be reduced.
The defense mode does the complete opposite: The damage output is lowered, only defensive items can be used, movement speed and fire-arc will be increased.
Pick-ups
Quyrium
Most enemies will drop Quyrium-crystals which can be used to buy items.
Medals
Medals can be collected by cancelling bullets. At the end of the stage, the medals will be cashed in for score. If the player "scratches" cancelled bullets, these will turn into big medals which give a higher score.
Items
Some enemies will occasionally drop items which can also be bought between stages and before starting the game.
Item system
There are six items (3 offensive, 3 defensive) that can be picked up during gameplay and can be bought in the item-shop by spending Quyrium.
Defensive items
Shield (Tier 1)
The Shield surrounds the player ship for a few seconds and cancels all bullets which get inside its range.Cooldown: 10 seconds
Neutralizer (Tier 2)
The Neutralizer quickly covers the entire screen and cancels all bullets for a brief moment. Cooldown: 14 seconds
Time Dilation (Tier 3)
This item slows down the entire gameplay for a few seconds which enables the player to perform tough dodges or risky grazing which would be impossible at regular speed.Cooldown: 20 seconds
Offensive items
Hail Storm (Tier 1)
Unleashes numerous homing missiles which will chase randomly picked enemies that are currently on the screen. The missiles deal a decent amount of damage but their accuracy is not perfect.Cooldown: 10 seconds
Power Bomb (Tier 2)
A devastating bomb which detonates after a short delay and deals a significant amount of damage to all enemies which are currently on the screen.Cooldown: 14 seconds
Overdrive (Tier 3)
The Overdrive signficantly boosts both of the player weapons (laser and focused beam) for a few seconds. The damage output is always the same, no matter which ship type is used.Cooldown: 20 seconds
Scoring
Of course, killing enemies is an essential source for scoring. Additionally, everytime the player damages an enemy, the dealt damage also adds to the score.
All scores scale with the difficulty level, so a higher difficulty automatically means higher scores.
The multiplier
The multiplier affects all points which are granted to the player during gameplay and it's a key element for high-scores.
To increase the multiplier, the player has to damage/kill enemies in quick succession. If the player stays inactive for a short time, the multiplier will quickly decrease.
If the player dies, the multiplier gets halved but it will never go below 1.0
Scratching
I still need a good name for this, because it could be understood as "grazing". Initially, the game had grazing as a scoring mechanic but it got replaced with this one.
If bullets are cancelled, they will turn white and freeze on their positions for a brief moment (before they turn into medal-items). During this timeframe, the player can touch those cancelled bullets to make them turn into bigger medal-items to increase the score.
Additional bonuses
After successfully clearing the stage, the player will get additional bonuses:
- A specific stage-clear bonus
- All collected medals are cashed in
- The player will get points for the percentage of killed enemies per stage. A kill ratio of 100% grants a special bonus (2x 100%)
- If the player manages to clear the stage without dying, he will get a "Perfect"-bonus (2x stage-clear bonus)
- If the player manages to clear the entire game he will get a "Full Clear"-bonus (all stage-clear-bonuses summed up)
- If the player manages to clear the entire game without losing a credit, he will get a significant "1CC"-bonus (additional "Full Clear"-bonus)
- If the player manages to clear the entire game without dying once, he will get a "Perfect Clear"-bonus ("Full Clear"-bonus x 2)
Difficulty
Currently, there are four difficulty levels:
- Easy - most suitable for beginners
- Normal - for players with at least a little bit of experience
- Hard - for advanced players
- Insane - for hardcore-players only
2-player co-op
The multiplayer-mode in this game is a little different than what we know from classic arcade-shmups:
- Both players share the same score
- Both players share the same life-/credit-pool
- The item-cooldown is also shared among the players
Release
I really hope that I can release the game for PC/Mac in early 2016 but I'll only do it if it's actually done. I'm also not sure if I should put in on Steam Greenlight but I'll think about that once the game has reached a solid alpha-state.
Feedback
First of all: Thank you for reading!
Please feel free to give any kind of feedback - and let me know if you want to become a tester or if you want to contribute in some way.
) but I'm not happy with the first playable stage yet and the menu-UI is still a mess, so I'm still holding back. The main reason is that most people will judge the overall quality of the game by the first time they play it and if it sucks on their first try it will suck forever (in their minds) - that's just how it works.
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