MY idea for a shmup. *"Story" and first ship idea

Icecap Veiwin · Post by **Icecap Veiwin** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 2:08 am

As we all know, the importance of computers has taken a great stride, and technology as we know it has increased, beyond our limits. As the average person whittles their day on a powerful computer, a secret government agency, the Space Fighter Protection Agency (SFPA) is harnessing the infinite power of technology to create space fighters beyond our comprehension. But why is there an SFPA? The answer is quite simple -- the Roswell incident. The entirety of the incident scared not only the common people, but people in high places as well. However, commoners were able to shake off their fears and continue living, whereas the government remained wallowing in fear; and the constant evidence of life upon other planets didn't exactly help either. As a result, in the year 1985, the president had secretly begun an undertaking beyond all - the construction of protection against alien invaders.

Now, this may all seem like poppycock, but in present day, threats have been sent by a galactic empire to this agency to stop production (of space fighters) in return of the sparing of their planet. As a result, the government became incredibly cowardly and spendthrift. The current President took money out of important things to the civilians (such as schools, business, etc.) to fund the SFPA program. The pilots were disgusted by the government's cowardice and left, taking hold of the SFPA space station (orbiting around the planet Mars). The pilots became mercenaries, receiving bounties from aliens searching for "space assassins", as they were called in the heavens. With the absence of protection, the Earth began to slowly decay.

Ashamed to see their planet abandoned and withering due to their leaving, the pilots finally offered a truce to the President, and promised to fight for the revival of the planet. This is the story of their battle - the first Solar War.

F-1010 SAINT RHAPSODY

The Saint Rhapsody is the flagship of the F-101X space fleet. It is sometimes referred to by aliens and other pilots as the "Bandit Wing" - a name that fits it well, due to its ability to take energy from slain ships and use it to its advantage.

The energy harnessed can be used in several ways:
-Currency, to buy weapons, bombs, and other arms for the ship.
-A constant flow of energy can be used to form a force field around the ship, to protect from enemy fire. (energy slowly depletes as shield is kept up)
-As energy is taken into the ship, the pilot can be more expendable with the energy, and make the ship's arms more powerful. (Since bullets take so little energy, even when powered up, they are not accounted for on the Energy Count.) (Bullet Power is increased in stocks, with a maximum of ten stocks. Stocks do not carry on with missions.)
-In a last-ditch effort, the Saint Rhapsody can use all of its stored energy to release a blast of astronomical proportions. (In-game, the blast fills up the whole screen, and to measure its power, it is said to be able to destroy a planet. But strangely, it's not enough to destroy a typical boss...That's how shmups work, I guess.)

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So basically, the first few missions will be your character as a mercenary, the "training" missions per se, then it'll continue on with you allied with the SFPA.

Any ideas for new ships? I was thinking of putting in the Vic Viper as a homage. Should I?

ForteMP3 · Post by **ForteMP3** » Sun Jun 19, 2005 9:08 pm

Homages are cool, just make sure they're secret unlockables, having cameo ships as regulars is kinda odd, unless you're doing a game that's made to get away with it (IE:Raiden Fighters)

Customizable weapons are always good.

Icecap Veiwin · Post by **Icecap Veiwin** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 12:30 am

Some questions:

What should I program my shmup in? What's the best?

Any ideas for new ships? If you want, submit your ideas for ships and I'll include them (with credits for those people

)

ForteMP3 · Post by **ForteMP3** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 4:01 am

Programming language is a matter of two things, preference and skill level. If you're completely new to programming, you may want to use something like GameMaker since it's very useful for entry level programmers. Assuming you know more about programming, you may want to go with something more advanced like C++ or DirectX.

Me, I use GameMaker for the time being, as it's very beginner friendly, but does have a lot of flexibility to it as well.

marcus12024 · Post by **marcus12024** » Thu Jun 23, 2005 4:03 pm

I've been having a great time with Torque2D. It's still in the "early adopter" phase, meaning that it's still being tweaked, but it's all ready a very nice engine to work with.

You can do an incredible amount of work with the scripting language (Torque Script) alone, and are free to tweak the actual source code in any way you please.

Best of all, it's only $100 USD for a license right now, which is pretty cheap for something so robust. Check it out at: http://www.garagegames.com/products/62

It also includes a very nice particle (system) editor/viewer, a GUI editor, and a tile editor. There are many more tools being worked on, and everything is shaping up quite nicely.

Icecap Veiwin · Post by **Icecap Veiwin** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 1:23 am

First graphics:

F-1010 Saint Rhapsody. IMO it's a little dark and small.

F-1028 (unnamed). It's probably going to have a Gigawing-style gimmick.

TGK · Post by **TGK** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:06 pm

The first one is nice

The second is a tad generic. Add some pizzaz...

TGK · Post by **TGK** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:14 pm

The Popcap framework is free, open source, and is decent. You can also make your game for commercial use (this is true last time I checked). It must be heavily tested, since most Popcap's games are made with it. But there is almost no tool to speak off, except a font maker/editor.

It is all C++ and DirectX. Not that hard to get into.