Whatever next?
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So, G-Force coming to a close its time to put my thinking cap on about my next project. I’ve known for quite a few months what it was going to be - I promised Markie of Retrovision not long after finishing Beast Invaders 2 that I’d write another game for this years Retrovision, so Beast Invaders 3 it is.
So far, here are the things I know about Beast Invaders 3:
It will be a vertical shmup
It will have beasties
It will have a fair amount of bullets.
And thats as far as the plan stretches right now. I’ve had a few flashes of idea’s over the past couple of days of what it’ll contain aside from the above, but nothing I’d be willing to go all Pete Molyneux over. Everything I think at the moment is subject to change at the drop of a hat. (Or the possibility of a more workable idea coming along).
Stuff I’d like to try and integrate includes: picking up from where I left VI visually - I’m a lot more competant than I was when I began VI and of course, like G-Force in many ways I wasn’t working to a plan with the game, just letting it evolve and see what spews out of my brainbonce at the time. This is good in some respects, as it means I get to try a few things out here and there, but bad in the long run as no plan=no end to work towards.
Whilst I’m (over)confident enough to believe I can still pull a decent game out of following that route, I’d prefer it with having a deadline on BI3 to work towards if there was a solid end goal. I know myself too well, I know I could amble forever tweaking and tinkering things until the Earth dies. Pretty shit useless with a deadline and I know also, come one week before its due out I’d be working myself into the ground trying to knock all the idea’s into shape and into something coherant.
So, pens and paper this time round. Scrawl notes down as and when I think of things, map the wave structures out - ensure I’ve got clarity on where the game heads and everything that will be involved in the game. Right now, I’m head down on G-Force, but as I said to Markie earlier “I’ll be ready to start getting stuff together mid week proper”.
I’m considering making the game more of an ambient experience - with VI I was aiming specifically to make the end user a tad uncomfortable with playing the game, using the sound, backgrounds and effects to do as many odd things to the player as I could - stopping just short of making sure they hurl their ring up. (Sorry Rich). With G-Force, I wanted an old-skool shooter which wouldn’t be too easy nor too difficult to play through. (Which I guess, I’ve hit some sort of medium somewhere as I’ve had complaints of “its too fast”, “its too slow”, “the bullets fire too fast”, “the bullets fire too slow” and so on… wether thats a good thing or not, time will tell).
This time, I’d like to make it an intense but relaxing play. How I’m going to achieve that - I haven’t a clue. But it’ll more than likely involve some serious chill out music along the way.
I’ve already started raiding through Shoot The Core and The2Bears pulling out shooters galore to play through (for research purposes, obviously). I’ve got a hazy vision of how it’ll look, it’d be safe to say that if all goes to plan - expect something abstract-ish but with beasties. I’m also considering following the Fren-Ze route of having only a handful of levels to the game rather than bashing out 10/20 upwards. Keep it short, concise, but enjoyable and challenging enough to keep going back to. Although I doubt I’ll be following Fren-Ze’s difficulty levels through with BI3.
Its gonna be fun anyway, and certainly knowing I can start digging in proper to BI3 is driving me on in racing through patching up the last few bugs and glitches from G-Force so I can begin.
Speak your brains
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Recent Comments
tim on 
Hurrah for the no hurl option!
Hoorah in general!
“Keep it short, concise, but enjoyable and challenging enough to keep going back to”
That sums up my current shmup philosophy nicely. Looking forward to this, as always. Loved BI2.
Bill
Thanks chaps.
Been having a chat to my good pal STomps tonight and I *think* we’ve managed to pull a pretty solid idea out of our discussion.
Its still not completely concrete, but slightly less hazy anyway. If I can pull it off - which is a huge *if* it’ll either be masses of fun to write or a complete nightmare.
Gonna try and get a rough prototype running next week and see if its a goer or back to the drawing board or not.
I’m really hoping I can do it without it turning into a logistical and coding nightmare though, and more importantly, make sure it works as a game and not just a toy.
Another shooter?
Maybe you could do something a bit more.. chaotic?
What you thinking Mr Rich?
A new Chaos remake or idea based on Chaos would be nice..
I have a sprite sheet to work from for just that very thing Mr Rich, not gotten very far with them though :s
Codings nowt to do with me though, I’d only make a mong of it
A mong of it?
Oh well.. so it’s shooter city is it?
Can you imagine trusting me to code something that requires a modicum of common sense, and is loaded with statistics when I can’t think my way out of a paper bag most days?
Man, it would be chaos - far too literally though
All those enemy patterns and shooter mechanics are pretty damn complex! A turn based game like Chaos seems simpler (apart from the AI).
Do OIDS!
Feck orf!
Gotta get some time this week to finish off G-Force though, baby’s doing my noggin in for the past week or so - he’s on a be wherever daddy is tip.
Its sweet and cute as hell, but not very good for productivity!
Sent Markie my idea’s draft for BI3 earlier anyway - he likes it. Think I’m gonna have to get hold of Peejay for some maths help with it though :s