I'm working on a #shmup / #stg beginner tutorial for #pico8. I wonder what kind of Shmup to make. I made 10 mockups and I wanted to collect feedback before deciding which one to work on. Which one do you like most?
The screenshots look all fairly similar (and apparently all good) with sparse bullet patterns, a forward-only weapon, medium intensity dodging and a moderately crowded amount of enemies. So, in order to make an interesting tutorial, take care to include interesting features:
colorful sprites (unlike 01 and 10). Maybe a somewhat higher resolution would be more suitable,
tiled backgrounds (07 and 08 have the most complex ones)
complex lasers with repeated sections (06) and decorations at the base and head (02, 03, 04, also 09 but it looks too simple); all Dodonpachi games contain magnificently phallic examples
if not considered too complex, bending lasers (Raiden, Gunhed...)
dumbfire projectiles (if at all possible, not only forward)
aimed projectiles
self-guiding projectiles
collectible items
varied scrolling rates and directions, and more generally camera movements (including zooming)
complex and controlled enemy formations (both spawning and movement)
Make a plain, mainstream game instead of pursuing fancy mechanics: a tutorial should be concerned with common and/or basic techniques that are going to be almost always relevant, not with extreme and specialized ones.
I should clarify that bullet patterns and density aren't indicative of the final product. I'm really just trying to pin down the broad look, setting and legibility. Every mockup just has a popcorn enemy, a pickup, a bigger enemy and a few bullets.
I'm using the Pico-8 Fantasy Console (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXveyqOYB5w) so I'm married to this specific resolution and color selection. Pico-8 is fairly constrained. Not too dissimilar to something like the Game Gear. So the overall design I'm following is the recent Aleste 3. I think I can pull off more bullets and more elaborate special effects but I need to test that in prototypes.
