ATTENTION! Your Opinion Needed!

[akira251@hotmail.com]

Hi there everyone at the SHMUPS forum! My name is Daryl Ward (aka akira251), and even though I'm a new member, I am not new to the forum: I've spent a lot of time over the years reading other peoples posts and keeping an eye on the scene from a distance

The reason I have called for your attention is that I intend to produce a SHMUP for XBox Live and PC. I would like to ask for your honest opinions on a couple of things... because you guys are the ones who I would be producing the game for: real shoot 'em up fans who want to play quality shooters!

To describe the game to you, I would say that it would heavily influenced by Cave's output: being an avid fan of the genre I would ensure that the game play quality will rival Cave's productions without being a total rip-off.

The graphical style will be mainly cute'em'up pixel art: Army of Trolls are the prime candidate for producing the bulk of the main gameplay art.

For an example of Army of Trolls work, try this link : http://www.armyoftrolls.co.uk/website/h ... y_hawk.htm

The story of any game is extremely important to me and I believe that this game's story provides an emotional undercurrent that drives the manic shooting action along.

To summarise the plot, Planet Earth's Guardian has been defeated by a world conquering force that has subsequently captured the guardians heart and is now holding the heart captive. Without a heart, the Earth Guardian cannot stop the evil force from taking over and corrupting the Earth's Creatures and Buildings. You play the role of Rose: a masked enigma who has the gift of Redemption. You are the only thing that can restore the corrupt forces, and it is your task to retrieve the Earth Guardians's Heart and help him overcome the oppressive evil in an epic final battle for the Earth's Future!

The game will showcase a couple of innovative features: I don't want to reveal too much, but the game play is built on saving things rather than destroying them... other game play mechanics that are more typical of the genre will be prominent, such as incredible bullet patterns, dynamic difficulty levels that increases when the player is winning, but decreases when the player uses our version of the "bomb" that clears the screen , and a scoring system that rewards not using the "bomb".

The soundtrack is also another important aspect, and a major inspiration will be the Guilty Gear series by Arc Systems. I myself will be in charge of the music production for the game.

It will also be in ENGLISH! Major plus for those who can't read Japanese.

The questions that I want to ask are these:

Do you like the above idea? Does the idea of a Cave inspired Shmup that does not require importing or translation appeal to you?

If I was to produce this game, so that it was available to buy on XBox Live and PC, and if the game was of the quality that I have promised (i.e. up there with Do-Don-Pachi and Ketsui) , how much would you consider buying it for? Please try to give a cost in cash if you would buy for the PC or Microsoft Points if you would buy it for XBox live?

What is your choice of controller? i.e XBox Pad, Arcade Stick, Keyboard etc.

What other things would you like to see in a game like this one, that haven't been mentioned before or used in another game?

These questions are just a starting point but please be honest when answering, I appreciate your help! If you have any questions for me, do not hesitate to ask!

Thanks for your time and patience people, peace!

Daryl Ward
(akira251)

[Ed Oscuro]

Really don't care about the story, and if at all possible please put together some minor tiles for building up backgrounds, instead of that "poor man's Zelda" style "one tile in a spot" method they're using in that screenshot.

Oh yeah, don't forget the gameplay, that's really where you want to start. It sounds like you might want to look at the first stages of the first two Raiden Fighters games (variable but I mean the forest and military base ones) where you get bonuses for precision bombing. I'll take a wild guess and assume you're thinking of Quickshot style bonuses on everything; eh, mix it up a little. RF games make it pretty straightforward with "saved the house" and "defended the tank." You could also add precision destruction of parts of enemies but I could see that getting stale in a hurry.

Anyway, good luck, and remember: before you start saying "my shmup will have innovative features," most everything's been tried before.

I would like to see a choplifter style of stuntman shooter mechanic, where hovering over spots makes something obviously happen between the ground and air (Raiden Fighters games have this with searching out the Fairy / Miclus but I never can figure out where the hell to look).

Also, please don't base the game on not shooting certain targets, that is a fail right there.

[emphatic]

Sounds good! Here's some ideas that you are totally free to implement if you like 'em: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=22942

[Udderdude]

Good luck getting it on XBox Live arcade. Your best bet is just to get it on their community games thing.

[akira251@hotmail.com]

Ed Oscuro - thanks for the feedback, you've got some great ideas and thoughts on shmups. I do like the the Raiden Fighters games, and the sub missions within the stage are a great idea. As for the game becoming an anti-shooter, this won't happen! I do have scoring systems planned but could you elaborate on what you defined as the Quickshot style bonuses?

emphatic - great ideas! I wasn't expecting or thinking of flight perspective ideas but it's given me another layer of depth to be aware of. Thanks mate!

Good luck getting it on XBox Live arcade. Your best bet is just to get it on their community games thing.

Udderdude - good call, I actually meant the community games thing, rather than Xbox Arcade... Who knows? It's not unheard of that a community game moves up to official XBox Arcade status!