My Idea for the Next DDP

[Blackbird]

Hey guys! I've got this really great idea for the next DoDonPachi game!

I was thinking about Cave's recent efforts to branch out into different genres and to appeal to Western audiences, and I thought it would be a great time for them to make a spin-off to try new things in a familiar setting. Being arguably their most popular series, DoDonPachi makes an ideal setting for a spin off game. Ok, not 100% sure on that, maybe Mushi or Deathsmiles is more popular, but for the sake of argument let's assume that it's DDP.

DDP is, in my opinion, the best of Cave's settings to appeal to a Western audience, because it can easily be adapted to a distopian sci-fi setting, which is very popular in the West right now (Mass Effect, 40k, Starcraft, Dead Space, blah blah).

With this premise, let's get to the proposed spin off.

DoDonPachi, as a title, is difficult to pronounce and foreign to a Western audience (understatement). Most Westerners probably wouldn't think that the translation, "Angry Leader Bee", sounds like a cool game title either. Then again, they did like "Angry Birds" so maybe the title should be "Angry Bees" so we can make a clever pun about reproduction and anger-sex (trollol). In seriousness, though, I would entitle the game "DDP: Plasma Death" or perhaps simply "Plasma Death" because when you get right down to it, DDP is about melting things with massive laser beams, and that's awesome.

Plasma Death, the proposed spin off game, would be a First Person Shooter/Adventure game in the DDP universe.

In this setting, humans have manufactured a race of sentient war machines - reminiscent of mechanical insects - as futuristic weapons of war. However, Inferno Hornet (Hibachi is again a little too out there for most Westerners), the "queen" and master computer of the war machines, becomes corrupted by hatred and an unstoppable desire for destruction. Hornet's corrupt code infects all the subordinate war machines like a virus and forms a terrifying mechanoid army that seeks to indiscriminately destroy all life.

As a last defense against the legions of Inferno Hornet, a new race of android soldiers are developed by reverse-engineering and upgrading standard service androids. These new soldiers are dubbed the Element Dolls and are organized into a self defense force. The Element Dolls are designed to be humanoid and to have some capacity for humanoid emotions and empathy. They are designed this way so that they will have an innate desire to protect their human masters, as well as be easier for their mechanics and support crew to interact with.

The protagonist of this story is AI, a professional soldier android that is programmed to have a strong sense of justice. She believes she is a superhero with a strong sympathy for mankind and a desire to protect everyone, but this makes it difficult for her to deal with setbacks.

Element Dolls have diverse attack capabilities. Powered by a micro fusion core, Element Dolls can locally recall and fire specialized weapon pods from an entangled string dimension that uses nanomachines to manufacture ammo. Different nanomachines are found throughout the level, allowing the player to manufacture different kinds of weapon pods in their "pocket dimension" and then equip them to attack with. The different kinds of gun pods are generally called "Flak" weapons as a group. They typically have a wide area of attack and are especially damaging against lightly armored enemies and aircraft.

AI and other Element Dolls have an integrated scramjet in their torso. When the fusion core fires the turbine, the Element Doll can move at supersonic speeds within a local radius. The effect of this is - by rapidly moving their limbs to create extreme air friction - that they can generate a field of superheated plasma around their bodies. The movement is so fast as to be imperceptible - the Element Doll appears to be standing still.

The iconic plasma can then be focused as a superpowerful melee slashing move to slice enemies in half, or projected into a focused, destructive beam that melts even heavily armored enemies into slag.

Finally the Element Dolls have several boosting techniques that can enhance their mobility. Turbo jets can be used to ascend into the air for short periods of time, after which hitting an enemy with the Laser can delay your descent. Hitting an enemy with the laser and jumping into them the same time adds momentum to your jump, which is further increased if you turbojet at the same time. You can essentially "vault" over enemies, even tall ones. Finally, you can activate a "dash" of turbo to quickly speed along the ground for a few seconds, but the dash must be executed within a few seconds of destroying something.

Regarding the design of the game itself, I would design and promote this game as being extremely fast-paced and ruthless, with extremely aggressive enemies. The machines hate everything, even each other, so machines can be provoked into attacking each other. The levels are designed to have multiple tiers/elevations and you can traverse the level via multiple routes to reach the exit, particularly if you use boosting techniques to move around the area quickly and reach otherwise inaccessible heights.

Cover (piles of scrap) is available, but often explodes or melts after being hit by enemy fire.

Essentially, the game will be consciously positioned and marketed as being fast-paced, aggressive, and unlike the widely prevalent cover shooters.

Enemies will have mixed types, both larger, heavily armored behemoths and smaller mobile enemies that try to hunt you down. Some "bullet hell" elements will be incorporated in the shot patterns of larger enemies, but their attacks will be telegraphed in such a way that you can read the trajectory even in a 3D setting (for example, by sight-reading the direction a vulcan cannon is aiming before it fires). Aerial enemies hunt you in packs and clusters, but Flak cannon spread fire is effective against them. Faster enemies are difficult to focus the Laser on.

The iconic Hyper element is preserved as a two tier system. Rapidly killing enemies in succession with the Laser melts the enemies into golden heaps of melted slag. Collecting the slag before it cools to a dull slate grey color fuels and overfills the Element Doll's fusion reactor, enabling Hyper.

The activation of Hyper creates a few frames of invulnerability, and significantly increases damage output (maybe the equivalent of getting double or quad damage in Quake?). While in Hyper, the player moves faster and the damage radius of weapons is increased.

If the gauge is sufficiently filled before Hyper expires, Berserk mode can be activated. While in Berserk mode, the player can literally rip enemies to shreds by physically ramming them. Speed, damage, and area of attack is increased even further, but the player overheats at the end of Berserk mode. While overheating, the player cannot boost or activate Hyper.

Similarly, fragging enemies with the Flak cannon shreds them into piles of shards that gleam silver. If the shards are collected before they stop gleaming, the material is teleported into a nanofactory for assembly into superweapons (nukes). Nukes inflict massive devastation on a wide area, and also negate some projectiles in their area of effect for a few seconds. Dropping a nuke while airborne creates a large, persistent blast, while firing a nuke on the ground creates a massive barrage of homing missiles.

Putting this together, the player will try to rapidly blow through the level, destroying enemies quickly one after the other to build their bombs and hypers as quickly as possible. The boost feature and turbojets are used to rapidly transition between different battlefields and groups of enemies to keep a chain of death going. Once momentum is gained, Hyper is used to leave a swath of destruction in your wake. The game will be essentially designed to so the player can flow quickly and rapidly through the areas. If the player plans well, enhanced mobility can be maintained at almost all times.

Sample levels might include clambering over the ruined wreckage of cityscapes, an aerial battle atop the decks of giant flying battleships, and a shelled-out martian landscape dotted by domed-habitats.

During the course of the game, AI faces difficult experiences which make her resent her human masters, ultimately realizing that they are largely responsible for creating her enemies and, by proxy, the destruction that they create. At the same time, AI is conflicted about her humanity. She likes simpler emotions and superficial feelings, but dislikes feeling human emotions on a deeper level. Seeing humans die has instilled in her programming a fear of being victim to human weaknesses. She has a recurring nightmare of being damaged and crying blood, just like a human. This is ultimately realized in the climactic battle against Inferno Hornet. Although Inferno Hornet suffers critical damage, AI's cranial shielding is also damaged in the battle. Leaking oil from her eye ducts, her CPU's shielding fails and she becomes vulnerable to Inferno's hacking attempts. The Inferno virus infects her brain and causes her to hallucinate, believing that she is actually crying blood. Suddenly aware of the pain that a human would feel, she is driven to madness by the sudden state of agony. Blinded by rage and pain, she exacts vengeance on the humans that caused this madness, ultimately slaying her handlers.








....No, really, I'm actually serious.

[Korszca]

First Person Shooter/Adventure game

This is as far as I got.

Sorry, but I don't want Cave making FPS games just because.

[Bee Cool]

Cave should get together with id Software and help make a new Quake game.

[chempop]

Blackbird wrote:
First Person Shooter/Adventure game

This is as far as I got.

Sorry, but I don't want Cave making FPS games just because.

This.

[SuperSoaker360]

First Person Shooter/Adventure game

....No, really, I'm actually serious.

There isn't a smiley for the face I'm making right now.

[Blackbird]

Dammit guys, you're not supposed to take the post seriously! It was supposed to be ironic meta-humor about the slew of bad shmup idea topics we have had around here lately. *slumps* Ah... I fail at humor... so bitter...

[Korszca]

Dammit guys, you're not supposed to take the post seriously! It was supposed to be ironic meta-humor about the slew of bad shmup idea topics we have had around here lately. *slumps* Ah... I fail at humor... so bitter...

My first thought was to ask if KiethSomataw99 had hacked your account.
Then I thought better of it... just in case you weren't kidding.

[nZero]

tl;dr

[adversity1]

[Eno]

As a last defense against the legions of Inferno Hornet, a new race of android soldiers are developed by reverse-engineering and upgrading standard service androids. These new soldiers are dubbed the Element Dolls and are organized into a self defense force.

Element Marines, please. Marines is a must.
And don't forget multiplayer with voice chat support too.

Dammit guys, you're not supposed to take the post seriously! It was supposed to be ironic meta-humor about the slew of bad shmup idea topics we have had around here lately. *slumps* Ah... I fail at humor... so bitter...

My first thought was to ask if KiethSomataw99 had hacked your account.
Then I thought better of it... just in case you weren't kidding.

I thought the same.

[Elixir]

they've already announced that sdoj is the last in the donpachi series so i guess you're shit out of luck

[TrevHead (TVR)]

they've already announced that sdoj is the last in the donpachi series so i guess you're shit out of luck

Really!? im both happy and sad with this news. But this is CAVE we are talking about here where they change their plans as much as Asada changes his underwear.

As for a spin off DDP, I say fuck FPS and make a Panzer dragoon / Sin & punishment rail shooter or Zone of Enders clone, where we get to fight against all the bosses in 3D

Also I wouldnt mind if CAVE made a run and gunner

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Cave should get together with id Software and help make a new Quake game.

Theres rumours that there is to be a new Quake based off the original Doom-eske original. God knows if it will be any good, I remember reading an article that Carmark (or some other bigshot in Id) admit they dont like to play modern shooters because theyre so slow paced. Makes me wonder just how many of these older big name devs are creating games they have little intrest in playing because thats what modern gamers buy

sorry for the double post

[kernow]

First Person Shooter/Adventure game

This is as far as I got.

Hey guys! I've got this really great idea for the next DoDonPachi game!

Beat you wooo!

[gray117]

they've already announced that sdoj is the last in the donpachi series so i guess you're shit out of luck

... their words count for nothing, they said the same about doj... which is actually a good thing...

[mesh control]

Keith?

[Ed Oscuro]

I read the topic title

[Weak Boson]

DDP Vanquish Label? Hell, I'd play that.

[BeruBeru]

This thread instantly reminded me of this
http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9462

[StarCreator]

This thread instantly reminded me of this
http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9462

It should, because this post was intended as a parody (homage?) of that and many other posts by that same author.

[Nick420]

lol funny thread, I got to first person shooter then seen the posts haha.

[Blackbird]

I just want a first person shooter where the guy isn't sitting behind an invulnerable crate for 10 minutes at a time! Is that so much to ask T_T!? *clenches fists ineffectually*

[AntiFritz]

Call of Hibachi: Modern Beestorm?

[RNGmaster]

I actually would have liked to hear what Keith thought of Saidaioujou...

He seems to have disappeared though :V

[Estebang]

I just want a first person shooter where the guy isn't sitting behind an invulnerable crate for 10 minutes at a time! Is that so much to ask T_T!? *clenches fists ineffectually*

Those are third-person shooters.

[BIL]

I actually would have liked to hear what Keith thought of Saidaioujou...

He seems to have disappeared though :V

That's because Keith is lead producer on Saidaioujou. Who said Cave doesn't pay attention to this forum?

[wariomona]

There's also the Serious Sam series for non-cover-based FPS action.

But yeah, I don't think Cave could make a FPS. (Hell, could any Japanese developer? Well actually I just thought of Platinum obviously. But generaly FPSs are not the sort of thing that clicks with that country)

[AuraDRGN]

Call of Hibachi: Modern Beestorm?

[Ed Oscuro]

I just want a first person shooter where the guy isn't sitting behind an invulnerable crate for 10 minutes at a time! Is that so much to ask T_T!? *clenches fists ineffectually*

You can't clench your fist because you're holding a gun.

[matrigs]

tl:dr but i tried ctrl+f for "loli" and didn't find anything so i guess that idea won't work.