NORMALIZER (STG w/ rhythm game-inspired scoring) (v0.0.2)

[Aru-san]

You can download NORMALIZER v0.0.2 here.
You can access my to-do list for this game here.

I just came up with a STG concept that bases its scoring on rhythm games (in the sense that your score per stage is capped to a set amount). Here are the plans that I brewed up (edited for forum viewing):

The highest possible score to get in this game is 20,000,000 points. The scoring system is slightly inspired by that of rhythm games.
This game will have 10 short stages overall.

Your controls
Use arrow keys to move.
Z to fire your shot. Hold to slow down and fire your power shots.
X to fire a cluster bomb. (Laser bomb scrapped)
C to fire your shot without slowing down the ship (in other words, autofire).

Power ups and extra bombs
Your ship doesn't power up. Your ship shoots 6 spread bullets at a fast rate. Power shots are all fired straight.
Your ship starts off with one bomb, but your bomb stock will go up by 1 every 2 stages.

You can get up to 2 extends throughout the game. Requirements will be based on your performance ranking.

How scoring will work
Every stage will have a set amount of enemies for you to fight.

Summarized version for enemy destruction
Popcorn enemies - worth the same regardless of what shot is used. Worth more for efficiency when using normal shot.
Medium enemies - worth more if the majority of shots used to destroy it is from the power shot.
Large enemies, midbosses, and bosses - worth maximum if killed with all power shot. Midbosses and bosses are worth more point-wise.
Killing enemies with a bomb will result in 1/10ths of the originally intended score.

Summarized version for enemy efficiency
Popcorn enemies - full efficiency with normal shot
Medium enemies (1s invulnerability from normal) - full efficiency if killed with mostly power shot
Large enemies, midbosses, and bosses (1s from normal [large], 20 shots from normal [mid], 50 shots from normal [boss]) - full efficiency with all power shot; normal shot decreases efficiency
Killing any of the above with a bomb results in 0% efficiency

Players will be notified about efficiency gains either by text (COOL, GOOD, OK, BAD, and BEST [first level only]) or by color (YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, RED, and GREEN/ORANGE on hit).

Bonuses

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Bonus type | Brief description of bonus                            | % of bonus
=================================================================================
Efficiency | How efficient you used your shots.                    | 50%
           | (e.g. using your power shot on the right enemies)     |
Hit rate   | The percentage of enemies you destroyed.              | 30%
Survival   | How long you survived the stage on your initial life. | 15%
           | Not dying in the stage will max this bonus.           |
Bomber     | How long you went without bombing.                    | 5%
           | Not bombing in the stage will max this bonus.         |

Performance ranking
You can get, from worst to best, a rank of D, C, B, A, S, Sm, Xm, and Gm. Performance rankings are based on your stage score and bonuses for that level combined.

Max score cap on levels

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Level | Ratio | MAX stage score
1-3   | 9:1   | 1,000,000pts.
4-8   | 4:1   | 2,000,000pts.
9-10  | 2:1   | 3,000,000pts.

Endgame bonuses
Bonuses will be based on the grades you've earned on all 10 stages, your remaining lives, and your remaining bombs.

An absolutely perfect run will result in 20,000,000 points.

Rank (dynamic difficulty) system
The game's rank system will affect bullet density (making it more difficult to dodge bullets) and enemy speed (causing enemies to escape quicker and lower hit rate). Rank resets to default every game, and dying decreases rank.

Rank is simple and ranges from 1 to 100. Rank will rise during normal play, though more skilled plays will entail higher and faster rank increases.

Comments and criticisms of the system are appreciated. When finals end, I'll probably start developing it on GM.

[EDIT] I'll be posting my current progress on the various builds below.

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NORMALIZER v0.1 progress (stage 1 only)

Rank system implemented
7 unique enemies programmed (3 popcorn, 2 medium, 1 large, 1 midboss)
In-stage scoring implemented and is now ironing out bugs
End-of-stage scoring written, but not yet implemented
Bombs implemented
Hit detection and respawn implemented
Limits to bombs and lives implemented
Reflect warning system implemented; normal shots will reflect for a few shots before registering on medium enemies and larger
Programmed a working gauge system to use on midbosses and bosses
Reformed the explosion and suicide bullet mechanisms
Added an HUD to the game

[Stage 1] 60/60 seconds complete, midboss complete, boss in progress.

[Ixmucane2]

• Autofire vs charging: how do they interact with the Z and C commands? I think there should be two independent weapons: one that charges up to different states (Z) if the button is held pressed (release to shoot), and one with comfortable autofire (C) if the button is held pressed.
• Holding the Z button is only required for the DDP-style dual mode bomb (X); you should either award points for not pressing Z (i.e. for forfeiting firepower) or charge the weapon continuously and automatically (press Z to shoot with the current charge state, hold Z if you want to use the alternate bomb, release and press again Z to shoot when you were holding it).
• How does the bomb interact with weapon-based scoring? A third (and fourth) main weapon (e.g. Raiden-style strong or homing missiles) would be more aligned with the rest of the system.
• How is the player going to learn which weapons score well against which enemies? Suggestion: rather than affecting only score, vary the damage each weapon does to different enemy classes, including healing/buffing enemies that are hit with the wrong weapon. The player will notice, and score will be obviously affected by enemies escaping (and possibly by a Raiden III-style bonus for killing enemies fast).
• How is the performance ranking related to scoring? Again, what feedback will teach the player what constitutes a good performance?
• What's the point of having a score cap? Not knowing where the ceiling for record scores is seems a more natural approach.

[Aru-san]

Autofire vs charging: how do they interact with the Z and C commands? I think there should be two independent weapons: one that charges up to different states (Z) if the button is held pressed (release to shoot), and one with comfortable autofire (C) if the button is held pressed.

I was trying to describe a Dodonpachi-like system where tapping Z would shoot your normal bullets and holding down Z would shoot a laser (or, in this game, more powerful bullets akin to that of a hyper). Your suggestion reminds me of the special weapons on KOF SkyStage somehow, but I'll consider your suggestion when I start programming the player ship.

How does the bomb interact with weapon-based scoring? A third (and fourth) main weapon (e.g. Raiden-style strong or homing missiles) would be more aligned with the rest of the system.

Bombing is going to affect two things:

• Points you would get from enemies would be cut by 1/10ths of their original value.
• Any kills made with the bomb will not contribute to your efficiency rating, leading to less points from the end of the level.

How is the player going to learn which weapons score well against which enemies? Suggestion: rather than affecting only score, vary the damage each weapon does to different enemy classes, including healing/buffing enemies that are hit with the wrong weapon. The player will notice, and score will be obviously affected by enemies escaping (and possibly by a Raiden III-style bonus for killing enemies fast).

Initially, this was the plan: All ship types (popcorn, medium, large, midboss, and boss) have a set initial point value on them (which is then inflated for the normalized scoring system).

• Killing popcorn enemies with either normal or power shot will grant the same amount of points during the level, but in terms of efficiency, using the power shot will result in half the efficiency marks you would get compared to using the normal shot.
• Medium enemies would give you full points (as well as full efficiency marks) if the enemy was killed with mostly the power shot (meaning that you could have some normal shots accidentally hit a medium enemy and not ruin scoring). Otherwise, you'll be rewarded with slightly less score (maybe about 3/4ths?) and slightly less efficiency marks if the majority of shots used to damage the enemy was from normal shots.
• Large, midboss, and boss enemies will give full points and full efficiency when destroyed with nothing but the power shot. Normal shots will slightly decrease the base value of the ship by a few points. Killing these enemies with solely the normal shot will result in half points and even lower efficiency.

I might have points come from the enemies to give the player an indicator as to how much the enemies are worth when they killed them. Also, I didn't put this on the plan when I first posted it, but this game is also going to have rank. Not only does this affect bullet density and frequency, but ship speeds will also increase as well, supposedly making it harder to kill enemies before they leave (affecting hit rate).

How is the performance ranking related to scoring? Again, what feedback will teach the player what constitutes a good performance?

The performance ranking will eventually be counted as an endgame bonus where higher grades yield more points. Also, a high performance ranking is one of the requirements for getting extends in the game.

What's the point of having a score cap? Not knowing where the ceiling for record scores is seems a more natural approach.

I don't know. I just thought it was a rather interesting take on a scoring system. Though it seems more tailored towards individual stages than with a full-fledged, 10 stage game, so I might add playing each individual stage as an extra (with adjustable difficulties).

I also edited the original plan to be a little bit more clear on some things. I still have to add more and change some things which I'll do later.

[Ixmucane2]

I'm glad you are considering autofire. However, my concerns with your explanation of the scoring system don't seem well addressed in your reply.

• The player should know that he's shooting enemies with the wrong weapon in real time, and thus have a reason to turn off wrong weapons; there is a glorious tradition of bombs being very bad for score, but score based on the choice of main weapons is highly unusual and needs to be made explicit.
  Displaying the value of each enemy isn't a sufficient feedback for this purpose: the fact that scores are lower than they could be isn't obvious and, even if the player notices, there might be other reasons for the score reduction.
  A further suggestion that didn't occur to me yesterday: have the wrong type of shots bounce off enemies and attack the player. Especially appropriate for shields, arms, cores and other suitable parts of large bosses.
• I still don't see the difference between the score and the performance rating. If your "efficiency" is the basis of performance rating (just my guess, since you don't explain it), you should pull it out of main score bonuses to create a trade off between scoring high or getting high efficiency at the expense of missing enemies.
  In any case, an end of level rating is completely opaque: it doesn't tell the player why he got a high or low grade. Maybe enemies could drop efficiency medals.

[Aru-san]

The player should know that he's shooting enemies with the wrong weapon in real time, and thus have a reason to turn off wrong weapons; there is a glorious tradition of bombs being very bad for score, but score based on the choice of main weapons is highly unusual and needs to be made explicit.
Displaying the value of each enemy isn't a sufficient feedback for this purpose: the fact that scores are lower than they could be isn't obvious and, even if the player notices, there might be other reasons for the score reduction.
A further suggestion that didn't occur to me yesterday: have the wrong type of shots bounce off enemies and attack the player. Especially appropriate for shields, arms, cores and other suitable parts of large bosses.

Here's a few things I could probably do with the feedback situation:

• Have a little word notification instead of a number to indicate that the proper weapon is being used. A suggestion would be just displaying BEST to notify players of what works best with what enemy, at least on level 1 only where players are just getting a feel for the game. Throughout the game, words like "COOL", "GOOD", "OK", and "BAD" could be used as a rough indicator for informing the player on their efficiency.
• Color-coded sparks and explosions. For sparks, the correct weapon would give off green sparks while the wrong weapon would give off orange sparks. Explosions on enemies could go from yellow, green, blue, and red for informing the player on efficiency.

Either way, I think players should be notified of this ahead of time if I use either system.

I could probably do something with the reflect-back mechanic as a means of loosening things up with shot changing. After all, there might be cases where you're killing popcorn enemies only for a large enemy to show up, and seeing how large enemies and higher react to scoring (hit once with normal shot, efficiency points taken off per hit), it gives players a little bit of time to react before it messes up their efficiency. I probably won't make your shots turn against you when reflected, though.

I still don't see the difference between the score and the performance rating. If your "efficiency" is the basis of performance rating (just my guess, since you don't explain it), you should pull it out of main score bonuses to create a trade off between scoring high or getting high efficiency at the expense of missing enemies.

Short answer: Scoring high, both on the stage and with the bonuses, is what influences the performance rating.
Detailed answer: Efficiency isn't solely the basis of the performance rating, though as an end-of-level bonus (alongside hit rate, surviving, and not bombing), you'll need a high efficiency rating (little spoiler: Efficiency takes up 50% of the end-of-level bonus) in order to get a high score for the stage and, therefore, a high grade.

In any case, an end of level rating is completely opaque: it doesn't tell the player why he got a high or low grade. Maybe enemies could drop efficiency medals.

Again, the score is the indicator on why the player gets a high or low grade.

I'm going to start making a one-stage build for this game soon just to showcase the system. Hopefully by then, things will all become clear.

[BPzeBanshee]

This looks well thought out, and Im looking forward to seeing this in action.
Rank worries me a little though (as it always does), because that implies that depending on what variables make the rank increase it could lead into giving the player false positives as to how he should be playing.

Score is clearly what the player should be going for, so maybe the dynamic difficulty could be like what Kaiser's come up with for Xeno Fighters R. Having said that, the Reverse Raizing system has only bullet-related dynamics in mind, whereas you want enemy movement to be dictated by it as well (and if enemy count is changed it could be counter-intuitive), so it could end up just as difficult to balance out as a Yagawa-style rank.

[Aru-san]

This looks well thought out, and Im looking forward to seeing this in action.
Rank worries me a little though (as it always does), because that implies that depending on what variables make the rank increase it could lead into giving the player false positives as to how he should be playing.

Score is clearly what the player should be going for, so maybe the dynamic difficulty could be like what Kaiser's come up with for Xeno Fighters R. Having said that, the Reverse Raizing system has only bullet-related dynamics in mind, whereas you want enemy movement to be dictated by it as well (and if enemy count is changed it could be counter-intuitive), so it could end up just as difficult to balance out as a Yagawa-style rank.

Until I start programming more levels, rank is going to be the least of my worries for now, seeing that with the simple rank system of 1 to 100 (each game starts off at 10), things won't really get too crazy until the later levels. Currently, the one-level demo that I'm making right now is going to showcase the default rank where things are rather mellow (enemies shooting low amounts of bullets at low frequencies), but expect the later levels to get more hectic, especially when designed with the optimal playing strategy in mind.

Also, my ship creating skills leave a lot to be desired. =I And...I'm gonna be using sounds that almost every Japanese doujin game maker uses (free soundpacks from The Matchmakers) in this game.

[BPzeBanshee]

If you need sound effects I recommend sfxr, its good and made with arcade games in mind.

[Aru-san]

I've decided to work on rank early on so that way, things will be a little easier on me (programming-wise, that is). Rank will affect the following:

- Enemy speed
- Enemy shooting frequency
- Bullet pattern stacking
- Suicide bullets

Of course, this also means that programming enemies, especially later ones, are going to be a pain in the ass, so don't be surprised if there are large gaps between builds. So far, I have 4 enemies designed, 2 programmed, and 1 optimized for rank.

[Aru-san]

I've decided to call this game NORMALIZER, and I'll be posting my progress on the game on the OP as I program.

[Aru-san]

For the time being, until I finish the boss, here's NORMALIZER v0.0.2 for the public.

v0.1 will have these additions when I'm finished with the things I need to do:
- A more durable boss (lol)
- A working boss with bullet patterns
- Color-coded efficiency recognition
- MUSIC
- A warning sign for the boss
- More sound effects courtesy of The Matchmakers
- An overall high score screen
- Menus
- Devil Mode
- Adjustable game settings

[BPzeBanshee]

Yet another person that's superior in Game Maker coding to me eh Aru-san.

I realise this is nitpicking on a early development release, but is the background inertia necessary, or is that a first sweep of a wobble scrolling effect for later releases? I notice it has no effect on where enemies spawn, and I'm curious, that's all.

Also, I presume you're coding in GML?

[Aru-san]

Yet another person that's superior in Game Maker coding to me eh Aru-san.

I've sort of noticed that my GML skills get better and sorta more creative with every game I make in it, at least that's what I think. There's also this to consider:

Shooting Tech Demo: First time really diving into GML territory, managed to make a rather decent scoring game that eventually got uber-gimmicky on the later releases. I couldn't figure out how to make a working lives system, so I just decided on making enemy shots deduct score and make scoring harder.

Codename TROOPER: First time diving into bullet pattern creation with GML, and even though it was just a boss rush with no enemies (mostly because I didn't know how to go about creating enemies at the time), it had a working bomb system, a working lives system (a first for me), and a sort-of intuitive scoring system (lol boss milking).

NORMALIZER is the first time diving into full-fledged shmup stage territory complete with midbosses, life gauges, and the like.

I realise this is nitpicking on a early development release, but is the background inertia necessary, or is that a first sweep of a wobble scrolling effect for later releases? I notice it has no effect on where enemies spawn, and I'm curious, that's all.

I'll probably take it out in the v0.1 release. Didn't really see much of a use to it other than to give some horizontal movement whenever there isn't anymore vertical movement (die twice and bomb if you want this). Though, I'll probably fix vertical movement so it's always moving and doesn't come to a stand-still when you die and bomb.

Also, I presume you're coding in GML?

I oughta be CRAZY if I were doing all of this with drag-and-drop, so yeah, I am doing all of this in GML. (Last time I counted, I had around over 4,000+ lines of code)

[BPzeBanshee]

I thought the style seemed familiar, I guess that Trooper.exe I found some time ago on these same forums was your doing!

But yeah, it seems you're getting better and better at it. That's generally my experience with going back to my game project but at the moment I can't think straight for any sort of real planning for it so it's permenantly on hold.

[Aru-san]

I should probably post some pictures of what I have so far. I can't believe it's been about 2 weeks into this project and I didn't even bother to post any in-progress pics.

[Udderdude]

My comments so far:

Desperately needs some different graphics for slow/fast and aimed/unaimed bullets. Popcorn enemies should also get their own bullet type.

The horizontal scrolling is pretty nauseating. I get dizzy just looking at it.

It's hard to see the enemy shots under your own. Enemy shots should appear above your shots, and your shots shouldn't obscure theirs as much. Having a different color of bullet would help here too.

The first level is quite merciless in light of these flaws, it took me awhile before I could even get past the "Die 20 times in 5 seconds" stage of gameplay.

Pretty sure Deathsmiles had a scoring mechanic where you get more gold skulls for killing different enemies with different shot types. Is that where you got the idea from?

[Aru-san]

Desperately needs some different graphics for slow/fast and aimed/unaimed bullets. Popcorn enemies should also get their own bullet type.

I can do that. I usually stick with one bullet type very early in development, then make more bullet designs later on. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but it makes things a bit simpler for me, especially when I'm just getting the basic concept down.

The horizontal scrolling is pretty nauseating. I get dizzy just looking at it.

Already taken care of. This won't appear in future versions.

It's hard to see the enemy shots under your own. Enemy shots should appear above your shots, and your shots shouldn't obscure theirs as much. Having a different color of bullet would help here too.

Nothing that a little priority adjustment can't fix. I think I already fixed that issue, but I'll double-check once I get back to working on it.

The first level is quite merciless in light of these flaws, it took me awhile before I could even get past the "Die 20 times in 5 seconds" stage of gameplay.

The first stage is a bit brutal, yeah. Either I'll nerf the enemy patterns a bit or make this a later stage in the game. More likely than not, I'll do the former.

Pretty sure Deathsmiles had a scoring mechanic where you get more gold skulls for killing different enemies with different shot types. Is that where you got the idea from?

I wasn't really thinking Deathsmiles too much when I first drafted the plans, but I can definitely see the connection. The system is pretty similar, what with killing enemies with the right shot to get maximum points from them, but I didn't intend to rip off Deathsmiles or anything.

Well, aside from working more on the boss, I'll be adding these to my to-do list on this game:
- Create new bullet designs to better discern different types of shots
- Double-check sprite priorities
- Nerf enemy patterns to better make Stage 1 more manageable to first players

[S20-TBL]

Yup, stage 1 is a beast...heh.

I noticed that once you run out of lives and are given the Restart prompt, pressing Bomb before Restart will cause your ship to use up its bomb upon respawning.

[Aru-san]

Yup, stage 1 is a beast...heh.

I've nerfed the enemy patterns in stage 1, so now it's a little more manageable...and a bit easier to get 1,000,000pts. on after some testing.

I noticed that once you run out of lives and are given the Restart prompt, pressing Bomb before Restart will cause your ship to use up its bomb upon respawning.

keyboard_check_direct to keyboard_check_pressed apparently fixed the problem.

[S20-TBL]

Found another glitch, it seems that using the Autofire key (C) prevents you from moving diagonally up-right. If you try to do so, you will either move only to the right or even get stuck in place at times.

[Aru-san]

Found another glitch, it seems that using the Autofire key (C) prevents you from moving diagonally up-right. If you try to do so, you will either move only to the right or even get stuck in place at times.

Strange. With my keyboard, I can go up-right diagonally just fine, so I don't know how to fix that.

[BPzeBanshee]

Found another glitch, it seems that using the Autofire key (C) prevents you from moving diagonally up-right. If you try to do so, you will either move only to the right or even get stuck in place at times.

That's your keyboard limitations, not a fault of the programmer. I can go in diagonals just fine.

Aru-san, to get around this people will need a way to custom-bind keyboard keys to weapon functions. That way they can bind the firing buttons to ones that will allow them to use diagonals at the same time.

[S20-TBL]

That's your keyboard limitations, not a fault of the programmer. I can go in diagonals just fine.

Hm. Now that you mention it, I replaced my keyboard recently and found I can't activate Break Mode in Crimzon Clover (also mapped to the C button) while more than 2 other buttons are pressed at the same time...

[BPzeBanshee]

That's your keyboard limitations, not a fault of the programmer. I can go in diagonals just fine.

Hm. Now that you mention it, I replaced my keyboard recently and found I can't activate Break Mode in Crimzon Clover (also mapped to the C button) while more than 2 other buttons are pressed at the same time...

If it was a cheap keyboard, no surprise it happened. It happens less frequently with USB Keyboards but is a guaranteed bitch when you go for the cheap stuff.

The official term is keyboard rollover, you can read about it at Wikipedia.

Gaming keyboards will solve this issue, otherwise you can't do anything about it short of rebinding the key controls.