SHMUP fans! What do YOU like?

1. Fluid responsive controls
2. Lots of bullets/projectiles on the screen at any one time.
3. Enemies that don't cheat!
4. Some semblance of a plot/story[ Yes! this is important! Just look at the Cave games and... Touhou. This will create both appealing characters and a world which will in turn give the game character and substance ]

 

Deathsmiles straight up but other are cool like wonton51

 

1. Smooth, responsive 1:1 relative touch controls.
2. Bullet-hell, although not required. That means lots of bullets with some in fancy patterns, and a visible hitbox that is smaller than the actual ship.
3. High-intensity music.
4. Appealing graphics.
5. Good, fair scoring system that encourages competition.
6. Anything else Dodonpachi.

 

hit the nail right on the head

 

I would only consider myself a newbie "SHMUP" fan as I only have a few (and they're all on iOS) but what I have found that I really like about the Cave titles I have is that great music, good sound effects, and memorable voices are essential to my enjoyment. Even though I can't understand Japanese, just hearing the laughter of the boss at the end of stage 3 or 4 in Espgaluda II just sounds cool, along with the other bosses in the game.

Due to the bullets taking up so much screen real estate I guess that's why it is fairly important to me to be hearing quality (and creative) music and sound effects while playing.

Interesting bullet patterns along with cyclical difficulties are enjoyable to me as well. Maybe I'm not that "hardcore" at these games but I do enjoy in Espgaluda II how the boss battles start with relatively light bullet patterns that progressively get more and more dense until I'm at the point that I'm positive I'm going to die, throw on awakening mode, and right afterwards I've finally reached a certain point in the boss's health meter where all the bullets now go away, I rack up points, and then the bullet intensities start over a little easier then building up again.

Wow - that sounds lame when I write it that way but I'm sure anyone who enjoys SHUMPs even a little bit gets an idea of what I'm talking about... and I don't even consider myself a "true fan" (yet - I'm starting to get there though).

 

What kirby said too! =D

Yeah, I'm not a hardcore shmup/bullet hell fan..but I do enjoy them.

I guess to break it down, for me, I have separate preference for shmup vs "bullet hell".

For bullet hell games, its more important to me to have nice bullet patterns to weave around, and to have different mechanics such as grazing and such. This can make for a more involved scoring system. The only Cave bullet hell game I have is Deathsmiles, but I like Danmaku the most.

For shmups, its fun to have a variety of enemies of different strengths (seems like in bullet hell games, most enemies die so quickly..lol..). Because bullets in shmups I've tried seems to have random pattern, I prefer to have ways to get out of that situation if needed (ie: limited bombs). One of my favorite is actually Vetica, which has nice variety of enemies & weapons.

 

What annoys me is the word "SHMUP." It makes me want to punch a kitten.

 

Lol.. I used to call it shoot them up..until on the forums I saw everyone call it Shump.

In terms of what I don't like are the obsticle dodging in shumps (platforms, asteroids, etc...). I know some of the obsticle avoiding stages could be included to break up the rhythm, but I don't like those personally. I hate games where if you get hit once/or die, you have to restart the whole stage.

For shmups, I'm fine with the hitbox being the whole ship. For bullet hell, I prefer the "tiny dot" thats the hit box.

You get get some of the members in the bullet hell/shmup group for reponses.

 

Study the nes and super nes era of games. The principles used in those games still hold true today. Even though graphics were bad back then , the games were fun. Study those games and you will start to see similar features that will help you make your game.