Multi weapon shmup

[chess]

Hello!

I am creating a game with 40 weapons and have allready done the sourcecode.

The movement of the fighter is A, W, S, D .
You shoot with the arrowup key.

You can over the whole time select weapons and buy them with the points you got.

You choose the weapons with numbers from the numberpad.


What do you think of this keychoice of mine?

Here is a screenshot:

[Pixel_Outlaw]

Hello!

I am creating a game with 40 weapons and have already done the sourcecode.

The movement of the fighter is A, W, S, D .
You shoot with the arrowup key.

You can over the whole time select weapons and buy them with the points you got.

You choose the weapons with numbers from the numberpad.


What do you think of this keychoice of mine?

It's about the worst choice ever. Really shmups are about simplicity of game play coupled with difficult situations. It's not really about having a huge selection of weapons. I would suggest you go play some Raiden II and some Gradius/R-Type. Then go play some danmaku games, maybe some Shikigami no Shiro. Nobody is going to like the wasd configuration because it only works for FPS games where you need a whole damn keyboard for the 10,000 control buttons. You can use 40 weapons I suppose, however is this a bragging point or is it really needed? Basically keep to the arrow keys for movement and use system mapping for everything. The graphics look alright. I think you are going to run out of steam with this project if you don;t keep things more simple.

Personally I LOATH/HATE/DESPISE buying things in shmups. This mechanic ruins the game because you have to stop midway through and waste time fiddling with nonsense. It makes recovering from a poor level or two frustrating because getting money is sort of a chain reaction when you can get a good weapon early. There is usually a best weapon in shops too and you end up playing the same path once you know what is best out of the selection. It's best not to get too RPGish in your shmup games. They are complete opposites. If you want 40 weapons then fine but make sure that they are all balanced and the player can use them without purchasing anything. Maybe have a weapon select screen at the beginning of the game.


I do like the abstract images and the art is good, but the gameplay seems like the bastard child of a FPS/RPG.

[chess]

I really think you are right.
I have thought about it and the simplicity is important.
I think a screen to buy weapons with seed capital on the beginning of every level will be best.
There are also a few special weapons in every level.

And i will return to basic arrowkey-movement
I also will reduce the number of weapons because i have seen that they are not varied enough.

The weapons i will surely add are as follows:

AK47
BAR
Dragunov
Famas
FG42
HKMP5
K98
M4A1
Browning M22
M79
"Maxim" gun
Minigun
Minirevolver
P90
PPSH
SAW Machinegun
Spas 12
Thompson

This list will change a lot till the game is finished i guess

I have chosen old WW2 weapons too because they will be very cheap
so you can add a weapon but it does not cost a lot and she is also a bit usefull.


With the key 1, 2, 3 you can chose PISTOL, GUN, MACHINEGUN

so there are the
4 arrowkeys
1 nadekey
1 key for specialmove
1 pause key
1 fire key

that is enough i think but not to much

Thank you for your nice comment and the compliment on my graphics

PS: aren`t you pixeloutlaw from pixeljoint or pixelation?

[Pixel_Outlaw]

PS: aren`t you pixeloutlaw from pixeljoint or pixelation?

No I'm Pixel_Outlaw from pixeljoint.

[Shatterhand]

What the heck is this, a shmup or Counter-Strike ?

[PROMETHEUS]

Basically keep to the arrow keys for movement and use system mapping for everything.

Doesn't make sense unless you want to play with your right hand for movements : WASD has the same layout as the arrows.

[the2bears]

Nice screenshot, hope you have a demo available soon.

Bill

[Pixel_Outlaw]

Basically keep to the arrow keys for movement and use system mapping for everything.

Doesn't make sense unless you want to play with your right hand for movements : WASD has the same layout as the arrows.

I meant have the arrow keys as default directional buttons,with the added option to button map everything. It was early and I was having a hell of a time forming thoughts.

[chess]

Thanks for the nice posts!

Another idea of mine would be:

Arrowkeys = movement
S = shoot
D = limited specialshot
A = Bomb

And erase all those weapons!

Many people said me that this is much better

What do you think?

Hi Pixel_Outlaw, i think you know who i am? o.o

[worstplayer]

Thanks for the nice posts!

Another idea of mine would be:

Arrowkeys = movement
S = shoot
D = limited specialshot
A = Bomb

And erase all those weapons!

Many people said me that this is much better

What do you think?

Hi Pixel_Outlaw, i think you know who i am? o.o

That's about right, vast majority of PC shmups use Z X C but this is also good. And erasing (already done) weapons isn't good idea IMO, they could be available as powerups.

[edit - fixed darius11ism]

[chess]

I will not erase the code;)

i will only use more less weapons and there are also 11 characters which are the point of the game

i guess the keys are great now

[Ixmucane]

Switching many weapons is nonsense; even a FPS usually limits itself to the 10 number keys, and it is a much more relaxed type of game in which there is a lot of time to switch weapons.

I can suggest two sensible arrangements: two or three weapons with individual attack buttons or a button to shoot and one to cycle between a limited number of weapons.
Of course, autofire for all appropriate weapons, movement with arrows by default and shooting etc. with Control, Alt, Shift or better yet the bottom row of the keyboard (ZXCV).

Forty weapons in total are a nice asset, but for every level only a few should be available, since there are only so many weapon types/roles: an AK47, a MP5 and a Thompson are basically the same thing (a medium speed, medium damage single barrel gun), choosing between them is pointless.

Maybe the weapons could be fixed for each level, to tweak difficulty and to vary the player's experience with old enemies (e.g. nailing popcorn enemies with a forward gun as they fly in front of the ship and getting close to use a flamer are very different techniques).
Weapons can also fit the storyline: the player could fight for survival with a weak weapon and return to the same level with a battleship to burn everything to the ground.

The fact that there are many similar weapons of presumably different effectiveness also suggests a point buy system in which the player chooses a number of weapons for a level and every one is shot simultaneously, without switching (except maybe between front and dispersed bearing of the same guns).
It might seem a drastic increase of firepower, but it only affects enemy hitpoints; bullet patterns are also a good way to decorate the rather flat background seen in the screenshot.

[Motorherp]

I think a screen to buy weapons with seed capital on the beginning of every level will be best.

Sorry to go back a step, but I'm with P_O when it comes to the inclusion of weapon shops in shmups, ie I dont like them at all since they are usually terribly implemented and destroy game balance. When trying to balance your game you should be thinking about how each gameplay element will alter the games challenge level. What you want is for your dominant gameplay elements to act to converge the games challenge to the desired difficulty level. In other words if the game is getting harder beyond the desired level then they should act to reduce difficulty and vice versa. Elements which act to diverge the challenge level can add interest but their effects should be short lived. The problem with weapon shops is that they are long lived, dominant, and strongly divergent. A player who doesn't get enough coins can't afford the bigger weapons making the game harder. Because the game is harder its then more difficult to get more coins and the game gets harder still. The same is true in reverse. The end result of this is that its difficult to keep the player in the challenge band which makes the game enjoyable. Either your game will come across as unfairly hard and fustrating or too easy and boring. Some type of good weapon upgrade and/or exchange system is possible if you keep the above in mind, but the standard weapon shop idea is fundamentaly broken and will ruin your game.

Having a think about it, you could try to fix the standard weapon shop idea by changing the coin collection mechanism rather than changing the shop. In other words, the more powered up the player is the more risky it would become for them to collect coins. This changes the weapon shop into a convergant element since catch up becomes easier for those lagging and further advancement becomes more difficult for those ahead of the game. It also adds 'risk vs reward' stlye gameplay since you can take the risk involved in trying to collect more coins in the powered up state to allow you to get further ahead and take down enemies easier. How you'd implement this though I dont know. Clearly coin collection couldn't be related to enemy destruction so you'd have to think of something completely different.

[chess]

Maybe i will add three weapons for each character which you can switch with the W key.

...maybe only two weapons, will see how funny playable this is.

I am thinking of put away the shopthingy and concentrade on the individual weapons each character has.

There is an idea for powerupsymbols i each level...

I also think that energyweapons are more similar to a game were angels fight demons....

The groundidea was to use the old human weapons which are always remaing after the war that erased the mankind.

By the way:

The story will be that Adam, the first of man which is an archangel now is chosen to reincarnate the human race by fighting against the demons in the last monumetal war between good and evil and also wants to safe Eva fro the demonic claws. That should strenghten him for beeing a better one who will be the father of all humans.

You can see many already done graphics on this side:

http://www.pixeljoint.com/p/7611.htm?pg=1&sec=icons

I am really grateful for all your helpful posts which are a lot of work to write so thank you a lot.

I would be pleased for comments on my graphics