tik tok tik tok, time is running short, yet I'm still chasing the rabbit in the tunnel that has no end... My leave is over and I'm still not been able to come up with what I planned. Now crunching hard on artworks. I had a feeling I will miss the submit dateline.
I fired up my PS2 and loaded up Onimusha The New Dawn (or sumthing like that - I borrowed the game from my friend and didn't really paid attention to the title) and, well, I put the game aside after awhile. The reason? It's too complicated, I have control one guy while have to watch out (babysitting, to be exact) for the other. Am I getting old? I remembered being able to control 4 characters at once, back when I'm playing the game Throne of Darkness (though it's pretty frustrating having to worry about 4 of those dim witted computer controlled characters). Now I'm turned off just because I have to control 2 characters (and surprisingly, the Character AI is still as stupid as almost 10 years ago...Jubei keeps getting killed since she never watch out for the attacks of enemies)
So I sit there and think and think hard for the whole day: What kinda game will I enjoy? Simple and fun games - I hate to admit it, but I do really enjoy playing Gauntlet - Seven Sorrow a few days ago, just keep button mashing until I finished the game. In 3 hours. Never once I need to worry about stupid NPCs getting killed - hurray to no Escort Mission in games!
So there I was yesterday, surfing the net like a mindless zombie, punching keys that I don't even know what I was pressing, clicking links without thinking about security and so on. Finally, I stumble upon something... Lights start shining through the dark clouds in my mind, and ideas keep popping in.
So, as I decided before, I want to make a game that
-Is simple to play, just the direction keys and maybe 1 or 2 buttons to fire/use power or bomb.
-Is simple to make - if I have no fun in making it, I'm sure there is no fun in playing it, so I'd go for the Old School design. No school is better than the old school, as some one said.
-No epic story, just some simple cheap cut scenes at most, to bring up a cheap reason of why the player have to shoot things up in the game.
-no complicated power up system (as what I proposed in the beginning - I have 4 months back then), I will put in about 3 types of attacks, but they just serves the same purpose - to kill enemies -and the variation may be just area coverage and power - how many you can kill/hit in one shot or how many shot you'll need to kill one enemy.
I always have a soft spot for colorful, lovely cute-sie characters like Twinbee or Cotton 100%, and I enjoy making sprites/artworks for such characters. Since I'm having fun making 'em, as what I said in point 2 above, that'll be the way I will go. So guys, I present you my final decision (no more changing - I'm running out of time):
Alice in Shmupland Note: the smilies are not part of the title.
I already have the sprite for the main character, Alice, done. Now working at a few enemies and the background. I don't have any of the artworks at hand (I'm at the office now), will post my designs when I get home (sometimes I really wonder if I should be an artist rather than a programmer, really
)
So guys, give me some idea of what you will consider fun in a shump game, please? Design, game play, look and feel, even philosophy what ever, all are well come!
P/s: Why Alice, you asked? Well, I bumped in to a site related with Alice, and think the world and feel would be cool in a game (well, we already have the weird and bizarre American MacGee's Alice, right?). Oh, by the way, don't ask me what website I found Alice in, she don't wanna let you know....
SHMUP-DEV » SHMUP DEV COMPETITIONS » Previous SHMUP-DEV Competitions » AutoFire 2007 SHOOTER Competition [COMPLETED] » Unfinished Entries
Alice in Shmupland
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