Shmup styles...

[Ravicious]

Been very busy lately and finally made enough time to ask what everyone's favorite shmup type is and what kind of graphics are the best.

What kind of graphics do you prefer in a shmup?
-Retro (limited to 8 colors or less)
-Pixels (much like Aerofighters, Darius Twin, Metal Slug)
-Semi-realistic/Anti-aliased (Strikers 1945)
-Cartoon/Anti-aliased
-Fully 3d (Ikaruga)
-Something else...

What theme do you like the most?
-Airplane/Spaceship
-Super-human
-Mechs
-Cars

What kind of shmup would you like to see?

[captpain]

Pixel Art. Graphics like Metal Slug.

Airplanes, Military/Sci-Fi.

[xris]

I would like to play a full on horror shmup. So, I'm excited about Guwange.
I guess I like stuff with humans, but space ships are pretty cool.
Cars? Did I miss something? Post-apox mad max style!!!

[Momijitsuki]

As far as graphics go, I love pixels. Though if 3D is done well, I'd like it, too.

I'm not too picky as far as shmup themes go, but my favorites tend to be super-human based.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I suck for good pixel art. Air Zonk and Harmful Park graphics left me rather cold, whereas I can't get enough of Sexy Parodius. If you can't employ a good pixel artist, vectors are probably a safer solution. Having said that, the only polygonal shmup I don't think would look better in 2D is Ikaruga, graphically accomplished like very few polygonal games, let alone shmups.
I think good artistic director will make good use of any technique at disposal. It's not only about the art, but also about its implementation (Thunder Force VI looks cheap and untidy despite all this lovely hardware design). On the other hand, to me Contra: Shattered Soldier has more of a Contra look than Contra 4. Also, the Mega Drive/Genesis' drab colour palette worked a treat in Contra Hard Corps.
As for settings and vehicles, they just have to look good to me. I have a soft spot for steampunk themes (Progear, Koutetsu Teikoku), hard SF (RayForce, R-Type, Last Resort, Gunhed), quirky fantasy (Seirei Senshi Spriggan), Parodius cutesy, and I do admire female anathomy, but then again, if something looks good, it just does, therefore is pleasing to behold. Small hint - I don't think in this day and age people terribly need another brown and grey grim war themed game.
If there is one aircraft I'd like to pilot in a shmup, it would be the loveable Po-2, although I don't think the Americans have what it takes to make a decent game about Night Witches. Japanese could do the trick, though.
P.S. Games such as Guwange and Sengoku Ace hold a special place in my heart, but it'd be hard to compete with Japanese developers in this department. From what I know, there wasn't a shmup in the early medieval European settings (pine log houses, earthwork, thatched roofs...). In Japanese games, houses in a "medieval European" village might as well have gothic ogives and buttresses (there was a village along those lines in Suikoden II). This is something even the Americans could handle better than the Japanese (as Dragonheart proves).

[Herr Schatten]

Graphic style: pixels all the way (provided you have an artist who knows what he/she is doing)
Theme: Anything that hasn't been done a million times before. In the end, it's all about quality, though.

Obiwanshinobi pretty much nailed it. There's really not much to add.

[ZOM]

Good pixelart is king
And I'm a sucker for fantasy settings in shmups, but good mecha-filled SF like RayForce will satisfy me even more. Although, I particularly like to steer dragons...

I guess Obiwanshinobi *really* nailed it.

[ATH-A700s]

For best style I enjoy cartoon (If Mushihimesama fits into that category) or pixel.
My favorite shmups tend to be in the superhuman theme.

[worstplayer]

3D is nice in theory, however in practice very few developers can really make it look good. Pixel art is really nice when done properly, but again, it's more often than not badly done. Vector/pseudovector (ABA games,Geo Wars) is cool too (and pretty much impossible to fuck up).

And theme...either planes/space or biomechanic (too bad there's so few of them and they're mostly memorizers).

[Gunbirdie]

For grafx Sol Divide.
Cho Aniki games have a pretty cool theme.




Also lolis.

[MX7]

Depends. I like the austere pomp of Under Defeat and Ikaruga, two games that force you to question exactly why you're blowing all this stuff up.

But I also love the day-glo headache of Pink Sweets and Muchi Muchi Pork!, with their bright colours and sickeningly cheerful music.

I don't object to lolis. It's nice for a shooting game to have character. All this longing for gun-metal grey reeks of teenage angst.

[Ravicious]

I ask because I was working on a project that was a horror-themed "fright-jet" shmup that had gigantic monstrous bosses; they bleed a lot when you shoot them and reveal their gory insides as you damage them. I call it Dementia. Just to stay on topic I enjoy gathering this sort of information for future reference toward my game development.

[Drum]

Style-wise, I love imaginative and macabre stuff that doesn't really fall squarely into one definite genre - stuff like Bio-Hazard Battle, Gynoug, Psychosis, Samurai Zombie Nation, Dead Moon, Chimera Beast, Black Heart, X Multiply, Toki. Dementia sounds like it's *perfect* for me. I like clean, professional pixel art but I also like it when the art isn't that slick - like it was done by somebody with bigger ideas than their technical ability. I think that can enhance the visuals in certain games (I think Chimera Beast, for instance, has great graphics even though they're pretty sloppy in some respects).
Cool little background details are great too.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I ask because I was working on a project that was a horror-themed "fright-jet" shmup that had gigantic monstrous bosses; they bleed a lot when you shoot them and reveal their gory insides as you damage them.

Shattered Soldier did the meat and gore (and some mysterious body fluids) thing right wit polygons. I'd say it outcreeped Silent Hill (perhaps the same artists worked on both franchises). I didn't even mind the "blood" not being red in some cases. In Homura it looks like censorship, but not in Shattered Soldier.

[Klatrymadon]

I like clean, professional pixel art but I also like it when the art isn't that slick - like it was done by somebody with bigger ideas than their technical ability.

Yeah, definitely. I live for very finely-drawn 2D artwork, but I can still get behind slightly scruffier stuff if there's a clear sense of strong artistic vision. X-Multiply is a fine example of this, as - ignoring that it's conceivably quite gaudy anyway - several of its sprites look a bit rushed compared to the rest (the X-002 itself, for example), but none of them ever detract from the what the game is aiming to achieve.

To answer the question, I'm interested in any visual style as long as the game is doing something interesting or unusual with it, although I do tend to gravitate towards hand-drawn 2D games with surreal and often biological themes. Well, when I'm not worshipping Parodius, anyway.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I would like to play a full on horror shmup. So, I'm excited about Guwange.
I guess I like stuff with humans, but space ships are pretty cool.
Cars? Did I miss something? Post-apox mad max style!!!

You can find a car themed shmup that was done by none other than Video System Co. (the developer/publisher behind the famed Aerofighters arcade shmup series) with their Turbo Force PCB (aka Hyper Force, another variant name but same gameplay and graphics as the former PCB title). Is regarded as the first arcade shmup title to have autofire capabilities from the get-go upon inserting a credit and starting a session.

Even the promotional Turbo Force arcade flyer is worth noting for it's dramatic overall oil-based painting artwork presentation. Back in the early 1990s, my local arcade that I used to patronize, used have an Turbo Force PCB conversion kit set up with three players at the same time as so not to leave the odd man (or gal) out.

A very detailed high-res sprite fest (in the vein of Guilty Gear/BlazBlue sprite artwork) for a tate based arcade shmup title would works wonders. If arcade developers could take advantage of the full 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio format when tated and have the top/bottom of the screen with extra user info or cool shmup themed artwork to gloss over (this would work if said game is presented in 4:3 mode with resulting free screen space at either ends).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[xris]

Thanks for the info.
OT, but I have to ask a stoopid question...
Is Spy Hunter a shmup? That came to mind when I thought of cars.
I agree that a high res shmup is going to have to be necessary soon.

[WHARXOR3]

My favorite game is ESP Ra.De.. I prefer a guy flying that a ship. Graphics retro please.

[gray117]

^ I don't think the retro suggested at the top conforms to the look of ESP Ra.De... or is that something you'd like anyway?

It is inevitably a balance between game construction and asset production that will decide the best option for yourself.

Do not always rely on what audiences think they want It's good to engage with them to add to your vision, but make sure you yourself are suitably motivated

From your description of the game content I would suggest a pre-rendered pixel / reworked pixel art method for technical reasons.

This will probably grant you the best work flow in achieving the results you are after, and something I'd want to look at.

A fully 3d realtime production/product is quite limiting and depends upon a mastering a restrictive [yet dependable and re-usable] art technique and can very easily see resources spiralling beyond your control. Done well in the style you describe will require a big investment in time, it is, however, dependable. Weaknesses: Time, and any weaknesses in the art work will be inversely multiplied by the nature of the medium.

A fully 2d production requires mastering a relatively free-form [and potentially destructive] process... which in isolation can be a demanding process - particularly when iterating upon work. Advantages are the immediacy, control and tailoring of literally every pixel, weaknesses are the same.

In summery use 3d to help manage key areas of your work. Use 2d for speed and/or to tailor that style [perhaps tweak, perhaps complete re-drawing].

Work from clear resolution iterations - this way you could always provide optional display styles with reduced overheads... Its far easier to produce hard edges from anti-aliased images than vica versa, and far easier to reduce polygons/textures than to add to them...

As mentioned I advise this from a technical stand point - simply because I'd think it gives you the best shot at producing something I'd really want to see.... but you could always prove me wrong - the audience doesn't always know what they want

[Sasupoika]

Pixels or pre-rendered.
As for theme I like Airplanes most! I really enjoy setting of Battle Garegga and Dodonpachi Daioujou. I would even add Ketsui, but I haven't played it.

[sunburstbasser]

I like when 2D games create the illusion of a third dimension. Pretty much every game Sega made using Super Scaler comes to mind. Ray Force and Souky do an excellent job of creating the illusion of depth in a more traditional vertical shooter, and I like those games a lot. Things like sprite scaling and rotation, though dated by today's standards, still look great to me.

I like to pilot either piston planes or good looking spaceships. Dragons are also cool when they look really mean, like in Cyvern.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

For shmups or any 2d game i generally prefer classic pixel art like metal slug. Although im fine with anything aslong as it looks good and everything has a general style to its presentation. Its colouring where i can be picky with. I prefer a simple colour pallette where everything can be seen easily especially the bullets. Also its more friendlier on the eyes aswell. Its prolly cos of this that i have a soft spot for old NES/ TG16 graphics (in any game but recca and 8bit mega man spring to mind) moreso in many cases then later 16bit pixil art, especially the larger sprites of 16bits.

For the player im not too fuzzy but i prefer ships with the raystorm / kamui been my fave ship

[esreveR]

Pixel graphics. Pre-rendered looks good only if it's in a shitton of colors and there's plenty of animation.

I like airplane shmups in a near-future setting, although sometimes far-future, present, cold war, WWII, steampunk styles work well (Ibara's style is amazing).

Mechs are good but only in a realistic fashion. As there's often a lot of better alternatives to mechas in military combat, there aren't a lot of situations like this.

It's also good to have some shmups where you can play a human but board vehicles. I especially like Metal Slug because they still try to maintain a degree of realism to combat.

And lastly NO POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

I have more to say probably but I'll post it later.

[null1024]

Pixel art [like DDP or something, nothing that seems too retro] and spaceships or humans [ESPRa.De is probably the sole reason I put humans].

3d is nice, but I like 2d more, and prerendered is usually very ugly. Mars Matrix might be one of my favorite games, but it doesn't change how ugly it is [but it's not eyewrenchingly terrible]. Pulstar does it reasonably well though, enough to look good.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Mechs are good but only in a realistic fashion.

Huh?

It's also good to have some shmups where you can play a human but board vehicles. I especially like Metal Slug because they still try to maintain a degree of realism to combat.

O... kay.

[Marurun]

Graphics wise for shooter games I really can't choose since the older games I like are obviously well drawn 2D graphics, while games like ESP Ra De, Mushihimesama, etc. are pre-rendered graphics that look awesome even though they aren't technically pixel art. I like very few 3D shooters, excluding Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga, and Gradius V(Ironic, all Treasure made to boot.) The style of games I tend to enjoy most are ship related or people using a ship(as in you can see them on it) in sci-fi/fantasy surroundings.

[Drum]

Mechs are good but only in a realistic fashion.

It's also good to have some shmups where you can play a human but board vehicles. I especially like Metal Slug because they still try to maintain a degree of realism to combat.

O... kay.

I know ... I would have picked Boogie Wings!

Mostly I'm mystified by the political correctness thing ... what shmups are 'politically correct'?

[ROBOTRON]

airplane/spaceship
pixels

I don't know, just gimmie the shmup and lemme play it.

[s3rris]

Good pixelart is king

I think this sums it up.

[peace4myheart]

-Pixels (much like Aerofighters, Darius Twin, Metal Slug)

-Airplane/Spaceship

I like military theme like battle garegga and my all time fav is Raiden II