Thunder Force IV sequel expectations?

[wondersonic]

Hi,
I'm a real fan of TF4 and I would like to know what would be your expectations for a sequel of TF4?

You can of course speak about other TF games.

TIA,
WS

ps: as I'm new in this forum don't hesitate to point me to any topic where such a subject was debated

[Dragoforce]

I'd expect it to be released for the Sega Saturn thirteen years ago...?

[Kaiser]

Here are my expectations:

- Sticking to classic formula in terms of gameplay. As in picking up weapons and that's it (with occasional 1-ups) though upgradable weapons would'nt hurt.... BUT please, no shops!
- 10 Stages full of blasting action and epicly sized bosses which may make you shit your own pants
- Equally good music, without it, screw this.
- Pixel-art graphics, no filter crap like HQ2X, it's for noobs!

[Gungriffon Geona]

also developed within the understandinbg that variety is key, as no one stage in TFIV shares the same backdrop or enemy set (or very rarely.)

[wondersonic]

Ok, I note all these points

According to you, what should be the screen resolution?

Note: original resolution was 320x192 with sometimes vertical scrollable areas

Following are my thoughts:
- the resolution should be increased 640x480? 800x600? 1024x768?
- the scrollable areas are great and should be kept: some traps can be hidden and some levels could be designed like small labyrinths (think about level

Of course increasing resolution does not imply using HQ2X at all, it will only result in larger areas with more enemies.

You can check this picture to have an overview of a 800x600 screen:



WS

[wondersonic]

I think 800x600 is enough (not too small, not too big).

WS

[gray117]

I hope naming follows something akin to

Project xxx : tf tribute etc etc...

Disrespectful to adopt someone else's title... let alone bringing ip owners out of the wood work. You're certainly not the first/unique in this respect, just saying...

As for scaling out using resolution... eh? ... I don't think you'll be playing a tf stle game anymore [play-wise].

I'd be happier to see new art and if the resolution was increased - sure play with the game area size - but straight up iterations look a bit too obvious, over the top and damaging to game's perspective.

All imho

[Gungriffon Geona]

I guess you don't understand game design if you're making something as asinine as resolution controlling the GAME AREA for no real reason. That's probably even lazier than doing scaling, as it requires no real effort on your part. Just scale the screen by 2x or 3x or whatever instead of attempting something that breaks the game boundaries entirely.

[wondersonic]

I guess you don't understand game design if you're making something as asinine as resolution controlling the GAME AREA for no real reason. That's probably even lazier than doing scaling, as it requires no real effort on your part. Just scale the screen by 2x or 3x or whatever instead of attempting something that breaks the game boundaries entirely.

I guess, I read your post several times without understanding it.

I explain, if the resolution increases without scaling anything, then you get a larger game area. Doing this implies to fill now this increased game area and here comes the new challenge. It is not lazier as you suggest because now you have to:
- fill this area with enemies waves
- fill this area with backgrounds
- fill this area with a new rythm that can refresh the game style (imagine fighting two different boss at the same time...)

Maybe I didn't understand what you meant, is so please elaborate.

BTW, a sequel in 320x240 is totaly possible but in 2010...

WS

[Gungriffon Geona]

see this is why it's bad altogether. by creating a game that scales resolution in this way, you have totally removed any reason to play in the smaller resolution modes. in order to compensate for the massive fucking space that you are creating at max resolution, you are nearly doubling or tripling the area that the smallest resolution player has to travel. by doing this, they more than likely will NEVER be able to see the entire level even if they move up and down. this also suddenly becomes an dilemma of if you stick some huge ass thing in the middle of the level designed for higher resolutions, the game suddenly becomes unplayable on anything lower than max because the player won't even be able to SEE the front of it. enemy waves suddenly require the player to stick as close to the right as possible hoping they can see things before they come up fully and not get fucking raped by offscreen bullets. and don't tell me there's some way to compensate. their aren't unless you plan to make the player ship move doubly fast from the original game at it's highest speed, which then becomes useless and impossible to control effectively.
And by removing scaling entirely, you remove code that I assume might be slightly more difficult to achieve at a novice level, simply because you aren't clamping values to run at all resolutions exactly the same or rendering the game to a field and then scaling that.

If all of these reasons for unbalancing the entire game structure don't change your mind, then I don't know what will. game designers for scrolling shooters never do that stuff FOR A REASON.

[gray117]

Gungriffon is perhaps being a bit too damning; I think there's always the possibility of exploring a 'reason' and creating a new game around that -especially when new tech is available.

I'm also not sure whether you intended different resolutions to be selectable?...

... However, Gungriffon is right in one important area - by and large you need to think about what type of game you want to make first, before then solving that problem within your technical parameters.

Choosing a resolution and then saying - ah crap I've got to fill it - is pretty much the wrong way to go about it. In some respects its decent way to mock up a specific idea you've had, but to avoid messy results you really need to have a good idea of what it is you want too achieve in the game.

... In many ways it strikes me you're wanting to make a game aesthetically influenced by TF but different in play style? ... and too my original point - that's probably not strictly a tf [sequel] game... more of a spin-off?

[wondersonic]

Gungriffon is perhaps being a bit too damning; I think there's always the possibility of exploring a 'reason' and creating a new game around that -especially when new tech is available.

I'm also not sure whether you intended different resolutions to be selectable?...

No, the resolution will be definitive
And I may understand Gungriffon in some way: I'm sure he doesn't want poor sequel/spin-off.

... However, Gungriffon is right in one important area - by and large you need to think about what type of game you want to make first, before then solving that problem within your technical parameters.

Choosing a resolution and then saying - ah crap I've got to fill it - is pretty much the wrong way to go about it. In some respects its decent way to mock up a specific idea you've had, but to avoid messy results you really need to have a good idea of what it is you want too achieve in the game.

Indeed, I've ideas that will at least require resolution larger than the very small 320x240 like cool 3D backgrounds (for which I have source code, not just ideas ).

... In many ways it strikes me you're wanting to make a game aesthetically influenced by TF but different in play style? ... and too my original point - that's probably not strictly a tf [sequel] game... more of a spin-off?

Fine, then this is a spin-off (english/american is not my natural language thus I don't make differences between sequel and spin-off )