kakodev

[kakodev]

SHMUP Devlog #4

As evidenced by the post date on this log, I failed to make this project. I have decided to not follow through with this idea. I am glad that I took the time to delve into shumps though. These games are very fun, but I really feel like that I am not in the right headspace to actually follow through in the development of one. In general, I have never really was into “score attack” style games. 

I am going to go ahead and work on the proper project that this shmup project was going to prep me for. I was recently reminded that adding layers and requirements to project will only weigh it down. Let’s go with that.

[kakodev]

SHMUP Devlog #3

There has not been much progress since the last post. Runescape’s Double XP event has been taking much of my time. I have continued to play shumps here and there though.  I played some more of Raiden IV: Overkill, Crimzon Clover: WORLD IGNITION, and Flying Red Barrel. I was also played the handful of shmups that are on Nintendo Switch, particularly 1943: The Battle of Midway, Gradius, TwinBee, Pop’n TwinBee, Earth Defense Force, and Star Fox.

I enjoyed the cute and goofy nature of the TwinBee games, but the gameplay is oddly slow, even though its roughly as difficult as other SHMUPs. I really just am not a big fan of the horizontal gameplay of EDF and Gradius. Star Fox is a really weird game, and I want to give it another chance, but not for now.  1943 is an interesting sequel to 1942. 43’s additions of a health system and multi-stage levels are welcome additions. The difficulty level is for certain higher, but still feels good. Having played via Capcom Arcade Stadium, its funny to think of how many quarters I would have been feeding the machine to be able to keep playing like I did, as I died a lot.

With how I am, I probably should have given myself a due date that was longer out, but I am going to stick to this. Till next time.

-Kako

[kakodev]

SHMUP Devlog #2:

To research the untitled shmup project I am playing a bunch of shmups. My history with the genre is very minimal. The primary shmup I’ve played is Namco’s Galaga, via the Namco Museum for the Game Boy Advance. I do not plan to utilize the “fixed” style of shmup, tho, so I looked around and amassed a large group of games from various sources.

The first place I looked was on the Google Play Store. I found the Android port for Capcom’s 1942. I first played 1942 in a plug-in-play with bootleg roms way back when I was a kid. I honestly didn’t even know it was a Capcom game until I was poking around for this. 1942 is likely the game I will be utilizing as primary inspiration. The Android port has a “casual mode” that I like. The game begins with a fully powered up player ship, with full power guns and extra shot. This mode also allows for the “roll” mechanic to be automatically activated when the player would lose a life. I also tried the Game Boy Color version of 1942, but this version has lacking graphics and the audio is even more grating. I’d like to try the sequels in this series to see what was improved and/or changed.

After this I remembered that Thrillville: Off the Rails (PC) had 2 shmup minigames, “Event Horizon II'' and “Luftwaffe 109 II.” Both of these games are reminiscent of popular arcade games, Defender  and 1942 respectively. While I don’t think these will truly influence this project, I wanted to make note that I included them within my research. There are a few elements of note I learned from “Luftwaffe 109 II”. In the second level of the game, the level boss is a large ship with many turret guns. From rough memory, the ship takes up about 3 screen widths, and it’s life can only be truly damaged by shooting a radar tower and the bridge. When the boss first enters the screen, the player flies completely by it, thus is unable to properly damage the boss for over 2-3 minutes. Lastly the items that the player needs to damage are almost impossible to damage, as they are surrounded by turrets that take over 20+ shots to kill. By the time one kills a single turret, the screen scrolls back up to areas that the player cannot damage the boss’s main life bar. I want to avoid this kind of aggravating design in my shmup.

Afterward, I did some reading on some shmup enthusiast websites and asked some friends for some suggestions. Here is a quick rundown of all the titles I’ve played:

Truxton (Sega Genesis)

Sinistar (Arcade via Sega Genesis port)

Defender (Arcade via Sega Genesis port)

Danny Phantom - Urban Jungle (Nintendo Game Boy Advance)

R-Type Delta (Sony PlayStation)

Einhänder (Sony PlayStation)

Contra III: The Alien Wars (Super Nintendo Entertainment System)

Star Soldier - Vanishing Earth (Nintendo 64)

Crimzon Clover: World Ignition (PC)

Raiden IV: OverKill (PC)

Flying Red Barrel - The Diary of a Little Aviator (PC)

These are all pretty good games. The elements I’ll likely draw upon for my game will mostly come from Flying Red Barrel, though all these other games will likely influence this project in some way. Flying Red Barrel is an airplane based shmup in a steampunk-esque world. I like the fact that (at least so far), the bullet hell element of the game is not absurdly difficult, but with almost all enemies taking more than one shot to take down, together it creates a nice challenge that isn’t overwhelming. I need to take some more time trying to beat some of these games to extract more info out of them.

-Kako

[kakodev]

SHMUP Devlog #1:

I should probably begin my devlog with a sort of introduction of who I am and what my goals are. I go by Kakofonous A. Dischord (Kako for short), and I am most notably a web musician. In 2017, I graduated college with an Associates Degree of Applied Sciences in Game Design and Development. In the same year, I made Interstate 64, a game in the style of Desert Bus. With this devlog, I will be documenting my research and efforts in building my games.

I am working towards making a simple Shoot'em Up Game (often called SHMUP) to get my game development gears rolling. The first game I made back in high school was a very simple SHMUP made in Clickteam’s Multimedia Fusion. I think that starting back where I began, will be a great way to get me going for the larger project I have in mind.

This game will ultimately be a warm up, so the scope will be limited. If the project only turns out to be a prototype, that is fine with me. I need to re-familiarize myself with both coding and design. I will be using the Unity game engine. I will be giving myself roughly a month to produce this game. When March 17th, 2021, rolls around, I should have a very simple level to play through, with functional menus and gameplay. I will then make a decision to take the game further or make the jump to the next project. In the next few devlogs I will be discussing what games I have been playing to research the SHMUP genre.

-Kako