My Shmup Game Psichodelya

[gru]

Hello everyone,

my first post here. I have started a new small project which would be a fast, old-school style top-down shmup in the likes of Aero Fighters, Giga Wing, Espgaluda,Raiden, more recent Jamestown and mostly DoDonPachi. Target platforms would be Windows & Mac. I am working in Unity engine.

Here is how it looks on one of the recent videos, note that enemies and background is placeholder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx4EEJNNdP8

Also the tutorial:
http://youtu.be/_5Gar5Xiyj8

I will be posting more video soon.

Now for some info about the game itself and the project:
• The base coding is mostly done. That means:
• Game mechanics for 1 or 2 players coop
• Controls for two independent players on KB or Gamepad.
• Main menu functions. Options screen, ship choosing, scoreboard etc.
• HUD design and logic.
• Player and enemy states and logic.
• Saving data to disk and of options.
• Etc.

Also the site is completed, designed and coded 100% by me. It will be up in a few days.

Tell me what you think....

[Shmuppet]

I have started a new small project which would be a fast, old-school style top-down shmup in the likes of Ikaruga.

I thought I heard you right.

That's what your game is shaping up to be like, based on video impressions.

[gru]

Well I admit it's true. It's an influential game to me. I know one of the rules on this forum is "Don't copy Ikaruga!" but I didn't let it out on purpose, no.

Is that good or bad?

I have seen some threads on this forum and I must admit I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed... You guys are really experienced in this. That's why I will take constructive criticism seriously here.

[Shmuppet]

Is that good or bad?

As far as I'm concerned, copying a shmup isn't bad at all, especially if it's a good one. Everybody does it in some way, shape or form at some point during their shmup development. I was inspired by ChoRenSha 68k for the PC, to the point where I blatantly ripped off its shooting mechanics. I'm putting them in a different genre though.

I have seen some threads on this forum and I must admit I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed... You guys are really experienced in this. That's why I will take constructive criticism seriously here.

If in any way you're referring to me, I'm seriously happy about that! I started near the bottom too. I was criticized A LOT on my early shmups. I would say that the first shmups I made, Arms of Avalon and Saberella(look it up on youtube!), were pretty good for an amateur, but still pretty crappy. So you improve. The best way to do this is to take notes from popular commercial shmups. How long do minor enemies(popcorn) last? How many bullets does the player shoot? How hard is it to reach the final level? Are the bosses challenging? Does the game give the player enough tools to overcome any situation?

Start playing a lot of commercial shmups. Try out the ones for download in the forum(like mine, haha)! You don't need to beat them, just learn from them.

[gru]

I'd just like to point out that I am actually not copying that game. In Ikaruga you can "suck in" the bullets of the same color, which makes you relatively safe. In my game, you can only take like 3 shots with the shield of the same color, and you are instantly killed by bullets of the opposite color. I handle scoring completely differently. Also, almost always bullets are combined on screen so you have to tactically switch shield in relevance to bullet density. Player is never "safe". I can also tell you that I'm designing it as slow, and intense, no breaks, and little popcorn enemies and with random (seed) patterning here and there to avoid "playing by hearth".

Currently I'm working on the game alone, as a programmer and designer.
If anyone is a designer or an artist, and would like to help, feel free to PM me.

[n0rtygames]

Currently I'm working on the game alone, as a programmer and designer.
If anyone is a designer or an artist, and would like to help, feel free to PM me.

I can point you in the direction of the pixeljoint.com forums... Put up an advert there for unpaid work and you'll usually get at least a few replies to help you with the workload!

[mystran]

I'd just like to point out that I am actually not copying that game. In Ikaruga you can "suck in" the bullets of the same color, which makes you relatively safe.

But that "suck in" is exactly what makes the color mechanic work in games where it does (haven't actually tried IKA, but E2:VR is one of my favourite shmups): you essentially have two games on top of each other and you have to choose at any given moment which one gives you better survival or scoring potential. The same color bullets are not "relatively safe" but essentially score items (ie the polar opposite of dangerous), and on top of that, each of the "games" can be made impossible(!) on it's own, since by switching colors carefully (and sometimes fast in a fairly strict rhythm) you can make holes into otherwise impenetrable patterns by sucking just enough of one color, before you have to switch.

In my game, you can only take like 3 shots with the shield of the same color, and you are instantly killed by bullets of the opposite color.

What this essentially does it just give you "extra lives" against one color. Since the player is still supposed to dodge everything, you simply convert a failure into a lesser failure. On top of that, if you still keep the "opposite color kills faster and/or scores more" rule, you're giving the player a choice of "do I want to try to play well, or should I prepare for certain failure and try to minimize the cost." If that's what you intend, then fine, but IMHO it doesn't seem like an interesting game mechanic (certainly nothing like the feeling you get from perfectly dancing between colors, maybe in a harder than necessary way to get a faster kill or better score, etc).

Compare: "which color I'll fail anyway" vs. "when should I switch colors to suck in maximum number of points while still successfully avoiding the other color." Now, whether or not you want to copy something is your choice, but if you do want to copy something, make sure you copy the fun parts first.

I handle scoring completely differently. Also, almost always bullets are combined on screen so you have to tactically switch shield in relevance to bullet density. Player is never "safe". I can also tell you that I'm designing it as slow, and intense, no breaks, and little popcorn enemies and with random (seed) patterning here and there to avoid "playing by hearth".

If by "slow, intense, no breaks, and little popcorn" you mean that bullets move relatively slow, patterns are scary and/or dense and there's a pressure to kill enemies fast before the next ones become too much of a threat, with little to no sections without large enemies, then that sounds like a sensible design goal.

If by "slow, intense, no breaks, and little popcorn" you mean enemies take long time to kill, emit constant non-stop patterns, and there's no breathing room and little to no popcorn in the game, then .. well, consider this: what are the moment where you want the player to feel great (eg that huge bullet clear that finally lets you catch a breath, or the end of the huge stream of enemies and bullets that you thought was impossible, or finally getting out of that crazy maze of moving dots to clear that group of popcorns that pushed your nerves to the limit.. I actually call these "pleasure release mechanics"). Great games have moments like these (at least small ones) every few seconds. Make sure you design them in.

My 0.02, in case it'd be useful.

[gru]

You actually have given me a few important points, and yes I did have thoughts in that direction. I will drop just a few comments:

you can make holes into otherwise impenetrable patterns by sucking just enough of one color, before you have to switch

that is a great mechanic. I did not really find it to be necessary to make the game fun. I was going for an approach in between classic one-shot kill, and some safety without healthbar. I can also allow for mistakes this way.

Since the player is still supposed to dodge everything, you simply convert a failure into a lesser failure. On top of that, if you still keep the "opposite color kills faster and/or scores more" rule, you're giving the player a choice of "do I want to try to play well, or should I prepare for certain failure and try to minimize the cost."

hit a nail on the head here. I was kinda going for that choice between points and safety, and the player would choose the challenge for himself most of the time. I can understand how it does not sound actually super-thrilling. But it does not have to be the best mechanic on Earth. I would disagree to it not being fun, or not being better than plain.

[mystran]

Since the player is still supposed to dodge everything, you simply convert a failure into a lesser failure. On top of that, if you still keep the "opposite color kills faster and/or scores more" rule, you're giving the player a choice of "do I want to try to play well, or should I prepare for certain failure and try to minimize the cost."

hit a nail on the head here. I was kinda going for that choice between points and safety, and the player would choose the challenge for himself most of the time. I can understand how it does not sound actually super-thrilling. But it does not have to be the best mechanic on Earth. I would disagree to it not being fun, or not being better than plain.

Yeah, well, I obviously did try to exaggerate for the purpose of making the point more clear.

Well it doesn't sound like it would make a game less fun (in the worst case you can ignore it), and doing more damage by color still means there's other reasons to bother switching. In general it sounds like "safe" if not necessarily "epic." Just wanted to point out it doesn't necessarily have such a large impact, compared to the "suck in" mechanic (which can drastically change how you need to play).

[gru]

Hey again,

I have a new video of the game, just to showcase the art and the new soundtrack (made by Dylan Barry).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mevGUGKCgY0

however, I could use your opinions on one thing: There seems to be a strange disagreement between the orthographic view of the camera and the perspective of the background. Can you notice it, does it bother you and would you recommend going full normal to the background view?

[railslave]

Hey again,

I have a new video of the game, just to showcase the art and the new soundtrack (made by Dylan Barry).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mevGUGKCgY0

however, I could use your opinions on one thing: There seems to be a strange disagreement between the orthographic view of the camera and the perspective of the background. Can you notice it, does it bother you and would you recommend going full normal to the background view?

Damn it thats a beautiful backdrop. love the sunny vibes. Well done on getting that artist..

[nasty_wolverine]

however, I could use your opinions on one thing: There seems to be a strange disagreement between the orthographic view of the camera and the perspective of the background. Can you notice it, does it bother you and would you recommend going full normal to the background view?

Yes, i can notice it yet, and its a bit jarring, either you should adopt a complete isometric (like how the background are) or a complete orthographic view.
it just doesnt look consistent.

[ciox]

On one hand I think about games with 3d rolling backgrounds, where the background is just crazy and the perspective is never taken into account. On the other hand with the background being all pre-rendered you might as well make it consistent.

[gru]

Hi again, I have taken your feedback into account, and now the backgrounds are almost completely top-down.

I'm looking for another artist willing to collaborate, if you have talent in 3D please PM me for more info!


Here's how the art looks so far:

Hope you like. Let's make something great together!

[railslave]

:O

very nice, going to miss that earlier perspective , but , you cant please everyone..

[gru]

Thanks man, there's a lot more art coming in, as one level is finished. It looks especially more realistic with clouds on.

[gru]

Total cores are calculated on level end. This is how the score is summed up at that point:
o Bonuses are awarded for: remaining lives, killed percentage on stage (same for both players), max chain number, remaining bombs, remaining shields and by adding that on total score.
o This is how these are calculated in pseudo-code:
o BonusLives = lives * 30 * BaselineScore;
o BonusKilledPctg = killedPctg * 100 * BaselineScore;
o BonusChain = recordChain * 10 * BaselineScore;
o BonusBombs = bombs * 5 * BaselineScore;
o BonusShields = (shieldsRed + shieldsBlue) * BaselineScore;
o TotalScore = Score + BonusLives + BonusKilledPctg + BonusChain + BonusBombs + BonusShields;
Here’s how scores are added in level:
o Each extra shield over 5: 5 * BaselineScore;
o Each extra powerup over 5: 20 * BaselineScore;
o Extra lives over 5: 30 * BaselineScore;
o Extra bombs over 8: 10 * BaselineScore;
o Most importantly, scores for enemies are calculated when killed, proportionally to their projected lifetime. That means, if killed exactly at the projected lifetime, player gets Score x 1. If killed before, up to 2 x Score. If killed after, exactly 1x Score. Observe the following graph:



o Same score is awarded if killed by bomb or by fire or by stream.
o Base score varies from enemy to enemy
o Projected Lifetime can vary also
Player also gets one BaselineScore at play for each chain over 5 per kill.
Level Ending score is in millions, ensuring that no two players score the same.

I'd also like to announce our super-important online leaderboards, that are already integrated in-game. Here's how it goes:
- Custom system for online profiles.
- The game has unlimited number of profiles
- Each profile remembers best score per stage pass
- Sum of best scores is displayed at local leaderboards (ranking for best local profiles)
- Player can choose to publish these profiles online, for public viewing, but also from the game.
- Player can filter online profiles to show local machine profiles only (and their corresponding global place without all the other profiles)
- Instant rank updates.
- System has been test to so far with 40,000 profiles

[gru]

After many fluctuations of the above position, we are still looking for a reliable and quality 3D artist.

The payment model is profit-share. The chosen artist will get a fixed percentage of profit awarded on the completion of our crowdfunding campaign, and on the project completion. The project state is very near complete. What's holding us back, is the lack of backgrounds.

We are primarily interested in a reliable person with at least some experience with working in a team. You will be given simple, clear instructions on how the creation process works, and a high degree of creative freedom regarding what exactly you will be making.

For more info on what you'd be needed to make, please look above.

There are 4 level backgrounds to be completed. You should be able to complete each one in a short amount of time, which should be about 3 weeks per map.

The new person is required As Soon As Possible. Please email me directly at pcbastion at gmail.com noting your previous experience.

Kind regads,
- Gru