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Kensei
11-11-2008, 09:03 PM
The evil Wormees have invaded!
Only you in your ship, the ShipEE, can stop these creatures from doing whatever evil thing Wormees do!
One thing is for certain, it won’t be peace for all!

This will be a top down, vertically scrolling shoot em up game (See below GIF)

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z210/KenseiZA/Random/shipe.gif

As I said in the competition announcement thread, my idea would be to stick to the one hand gameplay - so, instead of having to fire the ship and move it out the way of the enemies, you will just have to move out the way of the enemies.

This will be a remake of the game I made for my Mobile Programming course in my Honours degree (which was actually made for a mobile :p) But, to make this more exciting, I will make it using Game Maker so I am not limited by the cellphone's capablities.

Yay?


Releases:
Version 0.1 - 12 November 2008 (http://rapidshare.com/files/162998814/wormeez_0.1.exe.html)

Bonezmann
11-11-2008, 10:09 PM
I'm looking forward to it. :)

dislekcia
12-11-2008, 02:05 AM
Remember, in top down shooters:

Small/tiny player ship = good.
Continuous fire > slow fire/high damage.
Hit area = very important, don't gimp the player!
Small hit area on player ship, big on enemies (never think same!)
Reward players for getting close to bullets and surviving.
Controls need to feel responsive and if they're slightly laggy, forgiving enough not to kill you.

Kensei
12-11-2008, 02:39 AM
Awesome ideas, dislekcia, thank you.

The ship in the gif is too big, the actual ship is literally half that size (I think I made it 32x32)
I have the basic game mechanic working but, unfortunately, it seems that the hosting is not up still so I will hunt for alternative tomorrow...er...later today.

edg3
12-11-2008, 07:29 AM
Something that Ive seen work really well (and that is very addictive) is a horrizontally scrolling shooter (facing to the right). There was a game on my old Sony Ericsson that used that style. The only thing that differed was that you could show more enemies coming towards the player.

To have the larger playing/movement area you could use rooms in GM, and possibly make a minimap to show where the enemies are. The only reason Im bringing it up is that the more enemies you have space for, the more action packed it can be ;)

Gazza_N
12-11-2008, 07:45 AM
The evil Wormees have invaded!
Only you in your ship, the ShipEE, can stop these creatures from doing whatever evil thing Wormees do!
One thing is for certain, it won?t be peace for all!


If ever we need an ossum blurb writer for games, I think we know who to approach now. ;)


Something that Ive seen work really well (and that is very addictive) is a horrizontally scrolling shooter (facing to the right). There was a game on my old Sony Ericsson that used that style. The only thing that differed was that you could show more enemies coming towards the player.

Idunno, edg3. I've played that game too, but with modern phone screens being vertically larger, I'd argue that top-down would provide the most screen space for enemies.

Unless, like, Kensei forces to player to flip the phone on its side to play. ;)

Kensei
12-11-2008, 11:19 AM
Thanks, Gazza_N, I do try to make a possibly dreary game sound like it is the next best thing :D

I know some phones do support the side scroller style, my Nokia N82 was designed that way and I think the iPhone also is created that way. My issue with making it a horizontally scrolling shooter is it becomes a two handed affair, or at least I might as well introduce a fire button :p

I do see your point and perhaps I will make two versions.

First basic version is up - arrow/keypad to move, if you get hit by the wormee it spawns you at the start... nothing drastic

I think I will make the ship smaller...

edg3
12-11-2008, 05:43 PM
Idunno, edg3. I've played that game too, but with modern phone screens being vertically larger, I'd argue that top-down would provide the most screen space for enemies.
Ah, but thats not what I mean, the vertically larger is the point of it. you have a whole screens space to move in. I'll try remember what its called and show you a screenshot.

Kensei
12-11-2008, 06:10 PM
like this:
http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/17/gradiusrebirth_2.jpg

edg3
12-11-2008, 08:29 PM
If the ship was hugging the left side and it was portrait not landscape it would be more like what Im trying to show. I literally mean holding your phone normally with the taller screen and playing from left to right.

I cant find a screenshot anywhere, I cant even find that name (was on the Sont Ericsson f500).

dislekcia
12-11-2008, 08:35 PM
If the ship was hugging the left side and it was portrait not landscape it would be more like what Im trying to show. I literally mean holding your phone normally with the taller screen and playing from left to right.

I cant find a screenshot anywhere, I cant even find that name (was on the Sont Ericsson f500).

The problem with that is that you have less time to see bullet patterns AND if you want to kill a specific enemy, chances are you might not be able to get to the bottom/top of the screen fast enough.

Unless the game specifically caters for that, but they usually don't.

Kensei
02-01-2009, 03:17 PM
I'm gonna withdraw myself from this month's competition - going to spend the time working through a lot of XNA tutorials and stuff :p

Edit: Who knows maybe I can morph this into an XNA based game just for fun :D