casualcoder wrote:Scrolling can definitely work. There are a lot of vertical shmups that you may not even notice scroll to expose a larger horizontal field.
I'm not talking about single player though; when it's a single player in a vertical shmup, horizontal screen scrolling isn't disorienting because it only happens when the player moves. However, this game is meant to be a 4 player shmup. It's touted as a main feature. Have you tried playing a vertical shmup such as Dodonpachi in multiplayer? It can be very disorienting when the other player starts moving left and right rapidly, causing the entire playfield to shift unexpectedly and forcing your eyes to adjust to your new screen positions as your friend moves around. This is why games with no screen push scrolling (most Psikyo games, Giga Wing, many NMK titles such as Rapid Hero) work well for multiplayer. I can't think of a single shmup tailored with multiplayer in mind that wouldn't have been improved by simply removing screen scrolling.
My recommendation is to try a game with screen push scrolling in multiplayer (basically anything by CAVE aside from Progear such as Donpachi, Dodonpachi, Espgaluda, or even something like Raiden Fighters which also has very rapid movement on several shot types) to see what I mean, then compare it to a game that has no screen push scrolling. It's much easier to stay focused on your own ship and where bullets are even when your friend is moving around if there's no screen scrolling when you move.
I think the trick is to scroll only when absolutely necessary, as in when the ship is very close to the edge of the screen.
There's a few schools of thought on how to do this, but for singleplayer this method means you have to move really far to the side "push" the screen edge. It's generally considered an inferior way of doing it compared to how most shmups do it where the screen scrolls evenly as you move around the screen with the screen trying its best to keep the player "centered" with the screen's scrolling position when possible instead of only pushing the screen when near the edges. CAVE's games are generally the gold standard for how to do screen push scrolling, but they're also meant to be played in singleplayer, as evidenced by DDP and Progear locking you out of the loop in multiplayer even if both players fulfill the normal loop requirements.
For multiplayer, the ones that only push when very close to the screen edges reduces the problem somewhat, but can still start to get those disorienting movements of the entire screen when your friend moves around if both of you happen to be at opposite sides of the screen. With 4 players onscreen, there's a good likelihood of this happening at any given time.
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Another point is removing the up/down movement scrolling entirely here is it looks like it could be an easy fix to implement, at least as far as not affecting game balance. All of the footage makes it look like when the screen is scrolled up to the top, you can see the physical bottom of the playfield (look at the position of the subs/boat when at the top of the screen), so it looks like being able to scroll the screen down isn't actually exposing any new play area/dodgeable space per se. Hitbox size adjustments can also be made if you're worried about reducing the total size of the playable area due to removing screen scrolling.
I also notice that when the player moves up, they get hidden behind the interface. My recommendation is to do what Progear/Akai Katana/Rolling Gunner do and hide the elements (portrait, lives) when the player is near them or turn them transparent.
