If you could make your own shoot em up...

[snowman]

Wouldn;t the slow mo ****...Take away the purity ?

[Blu3Flame]

Wouldn;t the slow mo ****...Take away the purity ?

Many games already do it automatically, most if not all cave games are programmed to slow down when everything gets too hectic on screen.

[Tom Salter]

I'd say the Ikaruga chaining system is deeper than Psyvariar's buzz, but the buzz system is more fun

Yeah, but like I said above, the chaining system is just a memory test, and that's it. It's not really deep, you just remember where which colours appear, and then experiment a couple of times with paths through them. Psyvariar is far more "twitch", in that depending on your level up state at the time, there's always a huge range of possible moves to make. No two games are ever the same (unless you're a robot, like our Saur )

Electric Boogaloo, exactly how much of the game have you done then ? Sounds like it will be an interesting project to follow.

Well, so far the majority of the code structure is in, today I'm working on the scripting mechanism. There should, all big problems pending, be a playable (albeit rough looking) demo within 3/4 weeks. There would be a playable demo earlier (no bullets, or even no enemies), but I'm leaving the graphics module until the last minute.

Good news though, if you have a PS2 Linux kit, then this should be playable on it

[Blu3Flame]

http://www.emudek.org/shootemup/

For people who haven't been there, a huge page of homebrew shmups, only had the time to play a few but some are very impressive.

[?pint]

It's late and I couldn't be arsed to read all the posts in the thread... but I always have loads of ideas about what could make a game great!

For instance, with the bullet time in this case, it would be really awesome if it slowed down everything except you. Right, so normally it would be pretty damn hard to dodge bullets, but then in bullet time it's easier. That would be cool... or in bullet time you get 2 or 3 'hits' before bullet time runs out, not affecting your actual health. I don't know....... requires thought. Dammit, I need a PS2 that can play Jap games. So that I can play Jap games

[valkyrie999]

imho,
cave's method of slowing down your ship (when you keep the button pressed) is already a very smooth and very intuitive integration of some bullet time.

why not make it that way but radically more bullet-time like?
when the button is kept pressed, it becomes slower and slower until you start tapping it again.

for me it made the thunderforce method (speed up/speed down) rather archaic (and I've been a huge thunderforce fan!!!).


btw, some guys on the edge forums went on to complete a 4 player shooter experience named qexex some months ago.
does any of you know if they are still working on it ?

edit:
apparently your project is ps2 based;
did you take into account that shooters play quite differently with a ps2 pad ?

[Saurian]

The best example of bullet time I have played is in Viewtiful Joe, I feel that's a good place to start:

Bullet Time (Sloo00ooW) in Joe (puzzle sections aside) is a score multiplier, so if you were to implement this into a shoot em up it should also have a use beyond simple shot evasion. In Joe the combo starts as soon as you dodge an enemy - you keep dodging and smacking opponents in a sequence to keep the combo activated (as the combo has a time limit which resets with each dodge or strike - the combo can be neverending), then you hit Slow and each enemy you hit within Slow multiplies your score by that number. All of this can work in a shoot em up too, infact the system is perfectly sound for the genre (considering it can be neverending) - just have to work out how to implement the combo and the switch between modes.

Things to think about - how will the mode activate? if it activates via a bar like Psyvariar's shield - what causes the build-up? Can you keep the mode going? If so how? The amendment of shot patterns needed will make a lot more sence after the system is sorted.

The mode can be a bomb, a hyper mode activated by building up...something, a charged ability like Gigawing's shield or an automatically activated event like levelling up to activate Psyvariar's shield....I'll keep thinking about it, after caaaaarple zoot it might get clearer

One thing I do feel strongly about is that the system should not be just for shot evasion, the concept of using enemy shots to your advantage is my favourite thing about modern shoot em ups - Psyvariar is like Matrix:

Neo: What are you saying? That I can dodge bullets.
Morpheus: No Neo, when the time comes you wont have to.

[EddieG]

imho,
cave's method of slowing down your ship (when you keep the button pressed) is already a very smooth and very intuitive integration of some bullet time.

I really like the idea of trading speed for firepower in this way, you can get that extra power boost when you need it, as long as your willing to sacrifice speed. I would be nice to combine this with the thunderforce style ship speed control, having three or four setting with different speed to firepower ratios

As a difficulty tweak, how about throwing in extra enemies if the player is clearing things quickly, that way the less talented player gets a slightly easier game so they're less likely to throw in the towel, but the better player gets more of a challenge, a score boost from the extra kills, and doesn't get bored. It may be difficult to get right, but would add to the longevity of the game.


Eddie G.

[JammyD]

I've been thinking about doing my own 2D shooter over the last month or so. It can't be that hard to program, the artwork is what would give me problems.
After playing Iridion 2 on GBA(a great shooter btw), I'd like to do a straightforward shooter with different weapons that you gave to manage alternately. Iridion had some interesting weapons but I haven't had to use more than one so far.

I would love to make a shooter with a chargeable speed boost power up, so everything would get more hectic but you would be able to take out enemies much faster.