Research on Side Scrolling Shooter

Given the task of researching more on what our game could include to make it stand out, I decided to go a different route than what everyone else on the team did.  The ideas we have for enemies all sound great, and out mall cop character is fine the way we have it already (in my opinion).

But what boils down to a great shooter is the weapons.  So what could we have our mall cop have?  Go the standard route and keep his weapons down to what regular mall cops have, include stuff he has available to him in the mall (a la Dead Rising), or go all out crazy and include all the weapons we could think of?

Considering this game is based in a dream, going the latter would seem the best option.  But having a mixture of all 3 sounds the best in my opinion.  Because dreams are based on our own psyche, it can include any and all objects.  It works on the basis of familiarity and goes to the surreal.

So our team has mentioned a sort of upgradeable system that would work like this:

Baton -> Club -> Knife -> Sword -> Flail

As we can see, it goes from something he uses daily to something out of the ordinary.  In this way I believe we can achieve something that can stand out.

This is just a small bit on the melee side.  What will be the selling point is the guns.  So what can we work for our mall cop?

Taser -> Pistol -> Shotgun -> Mini-Gun -> Laser

An idea I've had before is this concept of an add-on.  It can be let go and dragged with you, and would act as a secondary weapon.  This idea may be hard for our mall cop, but a generality can be applied.  His segway is always the weapon.  So why don't we have the weapon link onto the segway and change as we go?  Have a standard segway with attachments for weapons.

Now the next problem arises is how do we handle the weapons?  Two ideas come to mind:

-Have them stack on top of each other (a la Super Metroid)
-Have them replace each other (a la Contra)

The stack system could be used as a damage recourse.  If our cop is hit, he downgrades to a lower weapon.  But that means it will be difficult to utilize a rock/paper/scissors mode for our enemies.

The replaced weapons does the exact opposite, of course.  We can do a weakness for our enemies, but have the frustration of locating them, or accidentally taking a weaker weapon.

Lastly is the concept of where we get the weapons.  Should we get them from the enemies themselves, or will they be scattered around the area?  Something to talk to with my team, of course.

Side Scroller Concepts (Part 4)

Still on the genre of a side scrolling shooter, we decided for the next one page document to go over a "Metal" setting.  In this game, the heroes are 4 band members trying to get their way to the top while rocking out to rock n' roll hits.

For this one, I was tasked with designing the four main characters.

And here are the four members.  A bassist, a drummer, a guitarist, and a singer (in that order).  They are designed to each use their music as their weapon and upgrade as they go.  You choose which one you want to be, and pick up your bandmates along the way.  Each has a unique way of dealing damage to the enemies trying to keep them from "rocking out!"

Side Scroller Concepts (Part 3)

Our new idea for a side scrolling shooter comes in the form of a mall cop as he makes his way to number one bad ass mall cop.

We have ideas for multiple level designs, but we will show off only one.  The Mall level.  This is a rough concept which will be updated with colors by another artist.

It's pretty self explanatory.  He travels across many different shops on his way to the final end boss.  Things added will be a HUD which will display his weapon and health.

Next up, though, is the design I have for a regular zombie and the boss zombie.

What's the worst enemy of the mall cop?  Punk teenagers.  So the obvious zombie?  Punk teenager zombie!  He has the notable spikes, mohawk, skateboard, and tattoos, but now with an insatiable appetite for flesh and brains!

And here is the boss design.  Something huge and menacing...and a little bad on hygiene...

Side Scroller Concepts (Part 2)

Here is included the designs I came up with to show off in our one page document.  They are initial designs for the playable character if we decide to go down this route for our game.

The first design is a cute version -

Along with the character is what could be a walk and flight animation, as well as weapons the character would utilize, and any animal friends who could help him along the way.

The second version is more gritty -

This is a more unconventional method to a furry animal, utilizing man-made weapons for survival.  The walking animation from the cute form would still play out, but the flight and possibilities of friends/enemies are a different design.

Side Scroller Concepts (Part 1)

I was able to find time today to put up my initial ideas for our scrolling shooter.

First I want to show the list of what I thought makes a good and a bad scrolling shooter.  I also found time to make a list of "types" for weapons I found would make an interesting game.

Next, I will show my concepts for three types of character designs.

The first row consists of something we see in a lot of vertical or horizontal shooters, and that is the ship design.  Included is a simple concept for a jet, a spaceship, and an alien craft.

The second row are designs if we want to do a human character.  Included are the typical action star, and a ninja.

The last bit of character design are animals.  They include a close range and a long range weapon in their design.  I made a penguin, a bear, and a squirrel.

The last row are ideas for extra components designed for each sub group.

Ideas for Vertical Side Scrolling Shooter

Over the weekend, I looked over at some scrolling shooters, both old and new, to get an idea of what worked and what didn't.  I also drew up some character designs which we could use.  I couldn't upload the images as of this post, but I will include them in the next blog post.

From what I saw, this is what worked great for a scrolling shooter:

-Diversity of weapons *
-Ratio of enemies is on par with the weapons and difficulty
-Movement patterns of both the enemies and player
-Hitbox of the player works
-Strong use of bosses in varying difficulties and different patterns *
-Enemies could have weaknesses
-Usually consist of hard but short levels
-Enemies work with the design of the player
-A form of scoreboard (either in points obtained from enemies destroyed or a simple story) to keep the player entertained

And here is what I saw didn't work so well:

-Slow moving (both from the player and the scrolling environment)
-Seeing no diversity of weapons or enemies
-Repetition (goes with the above 2 examples)

Ones with * next to them stood out the most to me.