Any shoot'em ups not based on scripts / memorization?
Re: Any shoot'em ups not based on scripts / memorization?
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Last edited by Chirpy13 on Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Any shoot'em ups not based on scripts / memorization?
Thanks for singling those quotes out, Chirpy13 - I missed them earlier. Always funny to see Labrador-level intelligence in command of a keyboard.
IGMO - Poorly emulated, never beaten.
Hi-score thread: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34327
Hi-score thread: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34327
Re: Any shoot'em ups not based on scripts / memorization?
Terry Cavanaugh's Self Destruct is a good randomized shmup. It's sort of a survival/score attack game.
More broadly, I've always felt that shmups & RNGs aren't necessarily foes; they just haven't been put together in the right combination. E.g., you might have a set of bosses to choose from, and that each boss might have a set of preconfigured patterns. So long as the constituent parts are of high quality, then mixing them up randomly will still give you a quality game. Same might be said of levels. There isn't a whole lot to recommend this approach over strictly designed content, which is probably why it isn't done very often. Shmups are hard enough and usually have complicated scoring that replayability isn't a problem. But an easier or shorter shmup might benefit from such an approach. A semi-randomized caravan game, for example.
More broadly, I've always felt that shmups & RNGs aren't necessarily foes; they just haven't been put together in the right combination. E.g., you might have a set of bosses to choose from, and that each boss might have a set of preconfigured patterns. So long as the constituent parts are of high quality, then mixing them up randomly will still give you a quality game. Same might be said of levels. There isn't a whole lot to recommend this approach over strictly designed content, which is probably why it isn't done very often. Shmups are hard enough and usually have complicated scoring that replayability isn't a problem. But an easier or shorter shmup might benefit from such an approach. A semi-randomized caravan game, for example.
The freaks are rising through the floor.
Recommended XBLIG shmups.
Top 20 Doujin Shmups of ALL TIME.
Recommended XBLIG shmups.
Top 20 Doujin Shmups of ALL TIME.
Re: Any shoot'em ups not based on scripts / memorization?
Randomized but preset patterns seem to have been with shmups for awhile. I like it, it keeps things fresh, but as Moniker noted, I'm not sure it has that much more to recommend it over very well designed preset patterns.
One interesting approach from a programming perspective (I used to code z80 assembler back in the day) would be to try and design a set of rules, what we might call the "thou shalt not" of shmups, and have randomization work within those limits. In a simple sense it would be things like measuring distances between randomly created bullet patterns so that the player always has room to escape, or making sure that laser/needle style bullets dont cross at unfair angles, etc. There's a lot of "pre imagining" the back-engine could do, ruling out bad/inescapable results several hundred frames before they happen. I bet Zanac works on some similar principles regarding enemy placement etc.
Done well that could be a really exciting game skewed more toward intuitive reaction time. I don't think you'll ever fully get away from some amount of preset patterns though. Just dodging through a mucky mess of random bullets doesn't sound visually appealing or that fun.
One interesting approach from a programming perspective (I used to code z80 assembler back in the day) would be to try and design a set of rules, what we might call the "thou shalt not" of shmups, and have randomization work within those limits. In a simple sense it would be things like measuring distances between randomly created bullet patterns so that the player always has room to escape, or making sure that laser/needle style bullets dont cross at unfair angles, etc. There's a lot of "pre imagining" the back-engine could do, ruling out bad/inescapable results several hundred frames before they happen. I bet Zanac works on some similar principles regarding enemy placement etc.
Done well that could be a really exciting game skewed more toward intuitive reaction time. I don't think you'll ever fully get away from some amount of preset patterns though. Just dodging through a mucky mess of random bullets doesn't sound visually appealing or that fun.