Okay, this may seem overly broad a question, I guess it is. I recently created my first shmup, it's got a few things to set it apart. (evolutionary foes, 2p mode, and soon dynamic environments, ... the thread is here ). I'm not sure how I got myself to creating a shooting game (although I DO love them, it's just that I always seemed to be working on completely different stuff, and suddenly I put together a prototype quickly and found myself 'cruising' towards a first release), but I was really surprised at the... explosion of ideas and questions that this brought to mind, as I realised what looks like a very classic (outdated even) genre actually looks open to endless innovation / improvements. What I'm trying to figure is: 1 - rather than what is your favorite shmup (Danmaku U is high on my list), why? What defines a great shmup in your opinion. 2 - features that you would really like to see in a shmup, like, stuff that you dream of, think could refresh what is at once a classic and outdated(?) genre. Maybe later I'll do a poll for features to be added to my own, but for now I hope to get some general ideas please.... shoot.
Well... Einhander. It was such a sick game for a console. Collect guns from defeated enemies, reposition guns, adjustable speed, huge bosses, hidden bonuses, transforming robots. And owning a Squaresoft game kinda felt cool. Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel I like having multiple ships that do different things like Phoenix HD. Being able to change ship parts would also be nice. A focus on weapons or ship perks rather than ship bulk. I also grew up loving Gradius! All the upgrades you'd get were pretty neat. Plus it had the classic Contra cheat code. Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
Just make sure it's well-designed. Features are great but playtest, playtest, playtest. Consider the players path and pace through a level and consider the tactile elements of, what is in my eyes, well-described as game feel. I care more about a developer putting actual thought behind a title than any feature list.
Hey I totally agree with the above the idea of this discussion is to find some inspiration both about what we like/miss from shooters we played before, and novel ideas to refresh the genre? Be assured I won't mmh extract a list from this thread and grind through it Yes there is such a thing as 'game feel'. I guess you could put game feel at the top of 'most wanted in a game'. As a dev I think of a game as having a soul, even. What's that? Well some games are interesting to play regardless of feel, and before they're games they're projects, some of which feel good, some of which don't. As such games have a soul in my humble opinion... Whether feel or soul, however, these things are hard to discuss so don't really know what to make of the above.
