Quote from TaylorDisplay MoreIt’s also shmup and not schmup!
I think the main difference between Galaga and other Space Invader-style games is the enemies detaching from their formation and diving down the screen...
External Content www.youtube.comContent embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.I’m also so not really sure players want Galaga with a storyline. Modern shmup players generally want 25-30 minutes of high-octane action (games that loop forever died in the golden age of arcades) and a difficulty ceiling that makes beginners and expert players look staggeringly far apart. This is not indicative to an in-depth story...
Anyhoo, I play lots of arcade shmups! I can 1cc a few CAVEgames [1, 2], and I have made shmups before [1, 2, 3]. So, here is what I noticed from the trailer:
- All bullets just fire straight down whereas all bullets in Galaga are aimed at the player. But more importantly ever good modern shmup uses the players position in some way to determine 99% of patterns. This is because it avoids the “wall of undodgeable shit” problem as the player can use advanced techniques like streaming, feathering and bullet herding to control the screen. This also gives you free reign to turn it up to 11 without worry.
- Enemy explosions are a single frame image, player explosions are that image stretched infinitely in X, and cannons don’t explode. Part of the fun of shmups is a visceral, sensory overload and currently you haven’t got this going. Geometry Wars and Galaga Extreme do this with flashing lights and particles, games like DoDonPachi do it with constant explosions and showers of gold.
- Unless you’re Armed Police Batrider most shmup fans groan at the concept of 20+ ships. AFAIK CAVE have never released a game with more than 3 ships in their main game mode. Once you’ve got your fast linear ship and slow wide ship you’ve got room for another with homing/wave nobody uses and then you’re pretty much spent. It’s much better focusing on three big options than all the granularity in-between.
- Your fast mode is too fast and your slow mode is too slow...
- Even non-bullet hell shmups tend to have much smaller hitboxes. It doesn’t really hurt to just to make it smaller, the player feels less like they get robbed on death and it lets them do more interesting stuff.
- If you’re going to have a high rate of fire, and the goal is not to be precise with your shots but point it in the general direction of the enemies, then your bullet speed should be much higher. Otherwise your bullet trail looks really ugly as you move around the screen. (Edit: for player bullets only)
- Your scoring system is 10 points each time you hit something. This is really not a competitive scoring system!
This is a really nice game for someone starting game development and there is lots of potential. But I’m not sure about the price tag or getting people excited for a sequel.
Thank you for your feedback!
We have just uploaded the newest version on http://radlabgaming.itch.io/space-masters-blasters and as you can see many of the suggestions have been implemented. With brand new animations for the explosions, sounds, and etc.
The reason we have a wall of bullets is it allows for the use of some of the special tools you have as the player. Including Time-warp and Space-jump!
I would love the support from you and your friends and hope you enjoy the game much more with the new changes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APKMEVwFrvA&feature=youtu.be
