Some ideas I have for some dev to freely use (please do)

[emphatic]

I have some ideas that could be implemented in manic, CAVE-style type games that I think would be cool.

#1. When you die, you have 1 second to hit the bomb button 20 or so times (an invisible counter) and, if your fast enough, your ship will release one of your smartbombs, harming enemies in the proximity of your ship and recieving points for it. This would take away frustration from ALMOST getting that extended life or helping you damage a boss. Or pressing the bomb button one millisecond too late to save your life in the first place. Just keep mashin'.

#2. If the engine the game is created in supports it, say you reach a forest stage. Explosions on the ground and dust rising from craters tell you that your are being under attack from above your ship (this could actually be a very short movie sequence, say 2 seconds). Zoom in on the ship and watch it (and the background of course) revolve 180 degrees and start to fly upside down. You'll see the sky that is now underneath your ship, complete with clouds and a very screwed up perspective for a shmup, right? Also, some mountain tops could appear with enemies firing from "below". But perhaps this won't work, I haven't really thought this through from a design point of view.

#3. Cool (imo) concept for a smart bomb. When released, instead of a big explosion, rings of "hot air" expell from the center of you ship, and the background underneath will look like you're moving/holding a lense above it. Sort of rings on water. Ripple bomb?

I have some more game concept ideas, but sadly, they don't apply to shmups.

Emph

[worstplayer]

I have some ideas that could be implemented in manic, CAVE-style type games that I think would be cool.

#1. When you die, you have 1 second to hit the bomb button 20 or so times (an invisible counter) and, if your fast enough, your ship will release one of your smartbombs, harming enemies in the proximity of your ship and recieving points for it. This would take away frustration from ALMOST getting that extended life or helping you damage a boss. Or pressing the bomb button one millisecond too late to save your life in the first place. Just keep mashin'.

Done (Although it's 1/4s and you only have to hit the bomb button once)

#2. If the engine the game is created in supports it, say you reach a forest stage. Explosions on the ground and dust rising from craters tell you that your are being under attack from above your ship (this could actually be a very short movie sequence, say 2 seconds). Zoom in on the ship and watch it (and the background of course) revolve 180 degrees and start to fly upside down. You'll see the sky that is now underneath your ship, complete with clouds and a very screwed up perspective for a shmup, right? Also, some mountain tops could appear with enemies firing from "below". But perhaps this won't work, I haven't really thought this through from a design point of view.

This actually sounds like great idea.

#3. Cool (imo) concept for a smart bomb. When released, instead of a big explosion, rings of "hot air" expell from the center of you ship, and the background underneath will look like you're moving/holding a lense above it. Sort of rings on water. Ripple bomb?

This is pretty common effect for boss explosions, but yeah, bombs should have that too. Or trails behind ships. I love this effect

[emphatic]

Cool. About #1. Pushing the button more than once would bring a little bit of challenge to it. That's what I liked most about the idea when it came to me.

Another idea I have is:

#4. Secret weather triggers. As you're flying about shooting down stuff, chaining and what-not, a gray cloud appears. Place your ship ontop without shooting for 2 seconds and you'll activate a trigger that's used later on in the the stage. You'll get into an area with large trees. Rain starts falling and the leaves on the trees, heavy with rain starts falling off the trees (no trigger activation, no falling leaves). Shoot the leaves, recieve hidden bonus (1 up perhaps?). Some other stage could have other triggers for different weather phenomenons.

Your game looks cool. I will check it out tomorrow.
Emph

[croikle]

#2: Xiga in Radiant Silvergun? Not really familiar with it, but I watched a vid at some point, and the background moved a lot.

[ForceDevice]

#2: I kinda used it in Knight of Cancer (see sig), stage 4... but it's just an upside-down level. I was going to make it turn 180 degrees after the midboss, but it was too complicated to do it the way I wanted (it's kinda hard to explain, it would turn around the ship in a 3D-ish way, with the rooftops covering the screen for a second).

[Aru-san]

#1. When you die, you have 1 second to hit the bomb button 20 or so times (an invisible counter) and, if your fast enough, your ship will release one of your smartbombs, harming enemies in the proximity of your ship and recieving points for it. This would take away frustration from ALMOST getting that extended life or helping you damage a boss. Or pressing the bomb button one millisecond too late to save your life in the first place. Just keep mashin'.

20 presses in 1 second? IIRC, unless with hardware autofire, that's humanly impossible. Not even Meijin can pull that one off.

If it were something like 8 or 10 presses in a second, then that would be good.

[emphatic]

20 presses in 1 second? IIRC, unless with hardware autofire, that's humanly impossible. Not even Meijin can pull that one off.

If it were something like 8 or 10 presses in a second, then that would be good.

Agree. I didn't "test" that out before writing it up. But at least 5-8 times would work.

Emph

[emphatic]

Thought of a new cool thing. Almost no modern shooters are fun to play for two people at once because scoring is so important. Ever played ESPGALUDA with a friend? It's horrible. It's actually worse if you're both good at it as you both may have a similar "route" for your game runs. So both people will play it very similar at the same time.

How about you have a chain system that uses a "ghost" player that pops into the game (as a second player) when your chain drops below a certain number and steals all of your bonus items by killing enemies (enemies release crystals/gold like Galuda/Mushi).

All aimed bullets will still be going towards you and take no notice of this ghost ship that's programmed to attack the enemies 0.2 seconds after they enter the screen: this gives you an advantage if you know the game well to kill enemies before the ghost ship does, this way raising the chain back up again.

Also, the ghost ship has a bigger hitbox, but can stand 20 hits before it dies, giving the player a couple of choices: banish the ghost ship by raising the chain or stop shooting and try catching the ghost ship in the crossfire.

Also, a perfect chain for the entire stage will trigger a "good" ghost ship that helps you fight the boss (also vunerable, but from friendly fire, don't kill it and get an extra stage bonus).

Here's another optional cool thing. The ghost ship will initially be programmed after how enemies are placed through the stages, but as you play, your manouvers through the stages are recorded (best score recording is saved in stored) and after you reach a certain level of expertise, a HYPER or ULTRA mode is unlocked where the ghost ship follows is the current high score recording. So if you break your chain in this mode, you'll be playing your own damn self! This could of course also be used to perfect your runs as you'll have to be one step ahead of... yourself.

Sounds good, yes?
Emph

[Aru-san]

Thought of a new cool thing. Almost no modern shooters are fun to play for two people at once because scoring is so important. Ever played ESPGALUDA with a friend? It's horrible. It's actually worse if you're both good at it as you both may have a similar "route" for your game runs. So both people will play it very similar at the same time.

How about you have a chain system that uses a "ghost" player that pops into the game (as a second player) when your chain drops below a certain number and steals all of your bonus items by killing enemies (enemies release crystals/gold like Galuda/Mushi).

All aimed bullets will still be going towards you and take no notice of this ghost ship that's programmed to attack the enemies 0.2 seconds after they enter the screen: this gives you an advantage if you know the game well to kill enemies before the ghost ship does, this way raising the chain back up again.

Also, the ghost ship has a bigger hitbox, but can stand 20 hits before it dies, giving the player a couple of choices: banish the ghost ship by raising the chain or stop shooting and try catching the ghost ship in the crossfire.

Also, a perfect chain for the entire stage will trigger a "good" ghost ship that helps you fight the boss (also vunerable, but from friendly fire, don't kill it and get an extra stage bonus).

Here's another optional cool thing. The ghost ship will initially be programmed after how enemies are placed through the stages, but as you play, your manouvers through the stages are recorded (best score recording is saved in stored) and after you reach a certain level of expertise, a HYPER or ULTRA mode is unlocked where the ghost ship follows is the current high score recording. So if you break your chain in this mode, you'll be playing your own damn self! This could of course also be used to perfect your runs as you'll have to be one step ahead of... yourself.

Sounds good, yes?
Emph

Wow. Now that I actually think of it, I have never seen a single shmup with GHOST data implemented in it. That would be a pretty nifty feature; maybe something that doesn't necessarily replace the replay system that we have, but expands upon it by being able to play AGAINST said replay.

For doujins, that would be pretty awesome for someone to play against a ghost of a superplayer.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

You know, if you want to start programming you might drop me an PM. I'm busy with college but could defiantly point you in the right direction.

[emphatic]

You know, if you want to start programming you might drop me an PM. I'm busy with college but could defiantly point you in the right direction.

Thanks, but I don't think I have what it takes to actually complete programming a game. I'm an at home dad right now, so I don't have the time either. Just got an idea that I really think is too good to keep to myself.

Perhaps programming games is easier than I think, still it's going to take lots of time I don't have. I see a lot of great Doujin games (fun to play, nice sprites etc.) but it seems that the focus when it comes to originality is not put into scoring mechanics, but the overall theme. Even though there's about 10 games with broom riding witches or such.

Emph

[Pixel_Outlaw]

Fair enough. I usually take about a month to produce a game working about 1-2 hours per day. I mostly make old style games however where you just make it faster and add more enemies with each level.

[undamned]

20 presses in 1 second? IIRC, unless with hardware autofire, that's humanly impossible. Not even Meijin can pull that one off.

16 was hailed to be Meijin's top
-ud

[null1024]

Are you sure you're too busy to code something? You've got a lot of good ideas...

PS:
yoyogames.com -- Game Maker. Very easy, very powerful. I use this. [I also have source for my games avalible, if you need somewhere to start]

freebasic.net -- FreeBasic. Not so easy, but easier than C/C++.

[emphatic]

Here's another smart bomb idea:

Hold down the bomb button when you feel you're about to hit trouble. If you're hit by a bullet or an enemy this discharges two bombs instead of one. No points are awarded from enemies killed by this bomb or cuts off your chain if the game has a chaining system.

If you succeed in avoiding getting hit, you just let go and no bomb is dropped. Just hitting & releasing the button right away releases a smart bomb that gives you points for enemies as well but will cut of any chain.

If you're on your last bomb and you hold it and get hit, you'll also loose 1 power up.

Not too easy (like autobombing games) and rewards accomplished players.

Emph

[worstplayer]

I actually had similar idea for my next game. Pressing B will start charging special attack and when it's either full or you release B the attack is executed. If you get hit, energy will be simply used to create shield.

However the idea of "sacrificing" powerups when you run out of bombs is new to me, and sounds really cool, i might use it if you don't mind.

[emphatic]

Hey, as the thread title says - please do!
Emph

[emphatic]

I had an idea last night as I was going to bed. At first, it was just an unorthodox smart bomb mechanic, but I think it can really be turned into something like a scoring mechanism as well.

So, what I had at first was:

a) You have a lot of bullets on the screen
b) You press the 'B' button, making all bullets freeze (sorta like Kakusei mode, but taking it further) and stop the scrolling of the level
c) When bullets are in this "paused" mode, you can shoot them (while a visible timer counts down), and this was the end of the smart bomb idea really

But now I'm thinking that the canceling can ramp up your score as well and/or replenish your bomb stock:

a) Lots of bullets
b) Press 'B', bullets freeze, but, starting from the opposite corner of the screen a "fuse*" function starts
c) Maneuver close to the largest bullet you can get to, wait for it to "lit up" and shoot it
d) Depending on your overall chain, bomb stock or whatever can be used to set a "rule" 1 of 2 things will happen
e) The shooting of the large bullet will give you a higher score for all frozen bullets on the screen or the timer will reset and give you time to take on other bullets of lesser size than the first

*Fuse function. Like running lights in a Christmas decoration, each bullet creeping closer towards your ship will "light up" (all of them will remain frozen though).

In addition, the player could be allowed to use the B button even with no available bombs, but then the level will continue to scroll, and enemies will fire new bullets that can't be destroyed.

Sounds good?

If different sized bullets will look weird, perhaps clusters will suffice...

[Ixmucane2]

If the screen is filled with bullets and they freeze in place, there's very little opportunity to maneuver anywhere to pick off "large" bullets; getting in front of bullets to shoot them would be particularly unlikely, as they tend to come in tight streamers.
Going near the frozen bullets, in a variation of normal grazing, seems simpler and more natural to me than shooting them.
Sufficiently grazed bullets should disappear (to open passages), and they could have a variety of useful effects: be launched back at enemies, earn a little freezing time (so that a precise and efficient player could eat a whole screenful of bullets in a single chain), explode destroying other bullets and /or enemies, etc.