Flower killing game...

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Pixel_Outlaw
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Flower killing game...

Post by Pixel_Outlaw »

I'm a good way into developing a classic style game in which you must kill ever growing flowers. You may move your ship along the 4 edges of the screen in order to kill the ever blooming flowers. This game uses a sofware renderer intended to provide low resolution (320x240) even when the graphics card cannot. I don't really know where to go from here with the gameplay concept. I would like the game to be over if a flower reaches the blue inner border of the screen. Also I might like to have bees come out of the flowers and fire at the player on occasion. Anyone interested in this concept?

I will admit first this this game is a product of playing many early shmups, that in essence is what I want this game to play like. If you do not enjoy those you will probably not enjoy this...

The arrows move the ship and the z button fires the ULTRA MEGA ANTI FLOWER device...

I really plan to use some old sound effects for this game. The target look and sound should feel like early 80's. Sprites shall have no more than 3 unique colors and 1 transparent channel. The idea here is to produce a simple and fun early style shmup.

Name still in progress.

Image

*EARLY test concept*
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=3239 ... 8114394287
Some of the best shmups don't actually end in a vowel.
No, this game is not Space Invaders.
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the2bears
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by the2bears »

I like this so far, I think it's got a ton of potential.

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Herr Schatten
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by Herr Schatten »

It looks very interesting. From what you describe it reminds me a bit of the old Amiga game Growth. I used to play that a lot as a kid.
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halsted
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by halsted »

Very interesting concept. The growth pattern reminds me strongly of kobo (http://olofson.net/kobodl/download.html), a game with which I was briefly obsessed in the early aughts.

One thing that game does very successfully is that it introduces interesting strategic importance to the order in which you kill nodes -- flowers in your game. Each cluster can be destroyed by killing a flashing core in the center and, thus, optimally you can plot out which nodes are the best to kill to expose the core.

I'm not saying you need cores in your game -- it might detract from what you're doing -- but you could have little "pruning spots" that take out multiple stalks at a time, you could have shootable "multiplier buds" that spawn along the inner stalks, or bugs that crawl along the stalks that function like the fruit in Ms. pac man.

As I say, looks like a great concept, looking forward to seeing more.
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kdmiller3
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by kdmiller3 »

That's pretty slick, and you definitely captured that early-1980s feel. I'm definitely looking forward to where you take this. The "outside shooting in" mechanism is unusual yet familiar, since I've run across a few games that work that way. I can't for the life of me think of their names, though.

SFXR is sort of the go-to application for creating retro sounds, though it tends to achieve a softer mid-1980s console sound. Square waves and 1-bit noise (using linear-feedback shift registers) were typical of early 1980s hardware, though quite a few games used discrete electronics if my understanding of MAME is accurate. The distinctive sound of early Williams games came from a Motorola 6808 CPU driving an 8-bit DAC with procedurally-generated waveforms. You have a lot of options to try out. :)
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genecyst
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by genecyst »

i like a lot the way you work on very simple concepts creating something with his own gameplay, which is one of my favorite things in a game.
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Pixel_Outlaw
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by Pixel_Outlaw »

Herr Schatten wrote:It looks very interesting. From what you describe it reminds me a bit of the old Amiga game Growth. I used to play that a lot as a kid.
I never had the chance to try the Amiga. So I missed that game. Thanks for trying this early test concept.
halsted wrote:Very interesting concept. The growth pattern reminds me strongly of kobo (http://olofson.net/kobodl/download.html), a game with which I was briefly obsessed in the early aughts.

One thing that game does very successfully is that it introduces interesting strategic importance to the order in which you kill nodes -- flowers in your game. Each cluster can be destroyed by killing a flashing core in the center and, thus, optimally you can plot out which nodes are the best to kill to expose the core.

I'm not saying you need cores in your game -- it might detract from what you're doing -- but you could have little "pruning spots" that take out multiple stalks at a time, you could have shootable "multiplier buds" that spawn along the inner stalks, or bugs that crawl along the stalks that function like the fruit in Ms. pac man.

As I say, looks like a great concept, looking forward to seeing more.
Thank you. Actually Kobo and Gyruss were the main inspirations behind this game. I don't plan to go with the core idea simply because it would mean a fast level kill while the plant is growing.

kdmiller3 wrote:That's pretty slick, and you definitely captured that early-1980s feel. I'm definitely looking forward to where you take this. The "outside shooting in" mechanism is unusual yet familiar, since I've run across a few games that work that way. I can't for the life of me think of their names, though.

SFXR is sort of the go-to application for creating retro sounds, though it tends to achieve a softer mid-1980s console sound. Square waves and 1-bit noise (using linear-feedback shift registers) were typical of early 1980s hardware, though quite a few games used discrete electronics if my understanding of MAME is accurate. The distinctive sound of early Williams games came from a Motorola 6808 CPU driving an 8-bit DAC with procedurally-generated waveforms. You have a lot of options to try out. :)

Thanks, I really enjoyed games like Gyruss but wanted to force a square playing border to try something new and give my game a unique feel. I actually did use SFXR to create the sounds. :)
genecyst wrote:i like a lot the way you work on very simple concepts creating something with his own gameplay, which is one of my favorite things in a game.
Thanks, individuality is very important to me in a game. I've done enough vert shmups and wanted to try something new. I think the tube shooter is an overlooked shmup genre so I wanted to make a game that sort of roots for the underdog.

EDIT:

I just finished the bee sprite. Quite cute for a 3 color 16x16 I think...

Image

Image
Some of the best shmups don't actually end in a vowel.
No, this game is not Space Invaders.
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AuthenticKaizen
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by AuthenticKaizen »

very nice concept!
im looking forward to see this game more fleshed out...
"Those who say it cannot be done should not interfere with those of us who are doing it." (S. Hickman)
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battlegorge
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by battlegorge »

I like it, is it possible to win? :)
You could make the leaves fly towards the player when a flower explodes.
Then add different colored flowers with different leave-patterns.
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genecyst
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by genecyst »

i agree with you about individuality, i can't enjoy very much a game if it hasn't his own gameplay.
nice bee.
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P_HAT
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by P_HAT »

i love the name, grandma
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Herr Schatten
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by Herr Schatten »

genecyst wrote:nice bee.
Indeed. The sprite captures the spirit of early arcade games greatly.
Skyknight
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by Skyknight »

For the name...Mandragora or Alraune?
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Pixel_Outlaw
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by Pixel_Outlaw »

Still working on getting some enemies in there but I did manage to rework the flower tiles and also add some enemy shots and level reset along with a score system...

Image

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=96ef ... e7375ca78c
Some of the best shmups don't actually end in a vowel.
No, this game is not Space Invaders.
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genecyst
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Re: Flower killing game...

Post by genecyst »

do you plan to put an image on the background?

it should be fine if you change the background any X flowers destroyed...
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