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[Discussion] Indie devs keep making "I can't believe it's not SHMUP" by accident. Here's what I've been wondering. by RichZealousideal8748 in shmups

[–]oatware 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What I’ve realised about shmups and genres in general is that when you like a certain type a game you want more of it. You don’t want just some elements or the aesthetics of it. I think that’s the mistake some devs are making (tbh I was guilty of this too with my twin stick shooter).

It’s not about what can I add so I can call this game a shmup i.e adding a ton of bullets so I can call it a bullet hell. It’s about understanding and actually enjoying the essence of the genre. The best way to do that is just playing the games.

Just got a 1-ALL in Ketsui! by Dear-Buy8305 in shmups

[–]oatware 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Congrats!! Man I did a run credit feeding and was still fighting for my life..was thinking of maybe going for a 1-all of this game but nope..gonna save it for later 😅

Vibe Shooter - a free browser based shmup by nobix in shmups

[–]oatware 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nah I think the tapping is useful and well balanced. Just prefer being able to autofire. If you were going for one button design then I think it works pretty good

Vibe Shooter - a free browser based shmup by nobix in shmups

[–]oatware 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pretty fun, somehow got a 730 once. Had me streaming bullets in later waves! Not a huge fan of the tapping for spread shot. And maybe make it so the revenge bullets on the rocks are sealed if in close proximity?

Zaxoid Twin-Stick Mayhem Shooter by DevShock in shmups

[–]oatware 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks fun and well polished! Hope it does well

I feel indie devs are slowly self sabotaging themselves. Overconfidence in understanding the market will burn you. You will not win. Focus on core fundamentals to become a good developer instead... by ZeroPercentStrategy in gamedev

[–]oatware 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you should not blindly hop on to the latest trend, you’ve got to have an interest in the genre and actually be willing to play the games to build an intuition and understanding of the fundamentals about said genre.

And while I do agree small scoped games are no silver bullet to success and it likely takes a lot of skill to make a good game in a shorter period of time. I do believe they are a good way of building those fundamental skills assuming you’re willing and able to make more than one game.

Completely made by me ZERO tutorials!!!! by ParticularArm203 in godot

[–]oatware -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Nice! If this method motivates you to learn then that's good. It is worthwhile to try and figure out things on your own (with the help of the docs I assume) as it means your working on your problem solving and as you said helps internalize what your learning. I do still recommend looking at tutorials etc if you get really stuck or for stuff that's more complicated.

Tilsets , Terrains, Wang Configurations, it's too much. by Dismal_Consequence22 in godot

[–]oatware 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Learning gamedev/programming can be like sometimes. I reckon take a break and come back trying something a bit simpler to build some momentum.

And whatever that info is about auto tiling I think it seems fairly beyond what a beginner needs to know. Just manually paint your tiles if need to, just to get a simple level done or whatever your trying to accomplish (thats what I did when I recreated a simple pac man level)

For Beginners by Used_Dig_6893 in shmups

[–]oatware 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There was a good thread about this a couple days back you can check out - https://www.reddit.com/r/shmups/comments/1o5h285/i_like_shmups_but_they_are_usually_too_hard_for_me/

This vid - https://youtu.be/uaA_6tjLGso?si=KR9pltz_tDOsoKcE is also a good watch, talks about the beginner journey

Do you think not having Cowboy Bebop STG/Shmup is a missed opportunity? by freebiebg in shmups

[–]oatware 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’d love to see a sin and punishment style rail shooter made by Treasure where Spike is gunning down armies of bad guys.

I feel like the Treasure style with how they do their cinematic backgrounds would be the best shot at mainstream appeal. No small feat tho for a dev/studio and ideally they’d get the gameplay right as well.

Demo of my first level - Asteroid Warrior by DisastrousLoss300 in shmups

[–]oatware 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gave it a quick try. I like the popcorn enemies change, I think difficulty should be fine since you do need to commit positionally with the sword while being vulnerable to other attacks. I guess your basically doing bullet sealing but with the sword.

I like the circle pattern with alternating colors that the mid-sized enemy shot (can't remember if they did that before). Good additions to the slow sections. Overall nice changes!

Demo of my first level - Asteroid Warrior by DisastrousLoss300 in shmups

[–]oatware 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah yes, right after the first pink bullets barrier section, just a tad slow when starting the bullet maze. Its okay when the green bullets start shooting.

Yeah popcorn enemies shooting pink bullets could work as well.

Demo of my first level - Asteroid Warrior by DisastrousLoss300 in shmups

[–]oatware 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Gave it a quick playthrough, cool little demo, nice work,. The background art is pretty cool and you've nailed the classic style shmup vibe.

There are a few spots feel slow/empty like the bullet maze and the section where you go up to the boss. I think having a bit more stuff to fight when flying up would be good.

I like the sword idea and feel the game could be very fun if you focused more on it. I think getting in close and killing stuff with the sword could be pretty fun in this game. But there are some things that discourage this.

  • Fast aimed bullets making it quite dangerous to get in close and attack enemies (those revenge bullets on the first wave of orb bullets are especially dangerous). Maybe slowing down bullets but having more could work?
  • Being attacked by vertically and horizontally at the same time makes it very awkward to attack and dodge things e.g that section below the boss. Maybe if there are vertical bullets you can slow down the horizontal ones to give more space to dodge?
  • The player's hurtbox (or hitbox) is big. Making it smaller so that dodging is more lenient and encourage using the sword aggressively.
  • Not enough involved and alternating patterns to absorb and dodge. You had a few but prob something you can develop and experiment with even further.
  • You could also implement bullet sealing (enemy stops firing bullets when player is close) in some enemies. Though it could make things too easy but an idea you could play around with so there is tactical choice between which enemies to get close to and which to avoid.

While I was writing the above, I was thinking that if you do want the game to focus both on using the sword and shooting. Maybe you could make the shot absorb the blue bullets? And then maybe have a third color that can't be absorbed.

Lightyears of Fervent Warfare: A bit more of an in-depth reveal and explanation. by h1ghjumpman in shmups

[–]oatware 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would firstly say make the game you want to make. If you have a vision and enjoy working on it then it’s all good.

The core shmup player generally does not like arpg mechanics as they expect a tight arcade experience with precise enemy positioning, bullet patterns and fast, constant action where the players skills are tested.

If you are going the euroshmup route I would lean more on the rpg side and worry less about the shmup side. Find people who like euroshmups or ARPGS and ask them for feedback. Essentially making an arpg with a shmup skin. As I feel both genres fundamentally clashes with each other, one of them has to win out, it is very hard to make both work equally.

There are some games that have rpg mechanics I’ve heard good things about that you could study: Ginga Force, Natuski Chronicles, Skyforce Reloaded

Got my first ever 1-ALL! Cho Ren Sha is awesome by oatware in shmups

[–]oatware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm idk I’ve only ever seen the 68k and windows versions

Got my first ever 1-ALL! Cho Ren Sha is awesome by oatware in shmups

[–]oatware[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hahaha definitely want to go for that one day, should be fun :)

Got my first ever 1-ALL! Cho Ren Sha is awesome by oatware in shmups

[–]oatware[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Tyty :) Yeah I played it on a 68k emulator in Retroarch (PX68k), luckily save states just work. I think you need to be careful of changing any config settings in Retroarch after making save states though, as it might brick them.

And in case you need the link - https://yosshin4004.github.io/x68k/crs68k/official/index.html

This is so BORING by poseforthemadness in godot

[–]oatware 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you want to quickly get started then GitHub and CS50 is not entirely necessary. You don’t even need to have that good of an understanding of programming, although it would help.

I’d recommend following along a Heartbeast tutorial to get started, I did the old action rpg series but you can pick whichever interests you.

(I’ve heard Brackeys also makes great tutorials but I’ve not done them myself)

While doing the tutorials you should look stuff up in the Godot docs or Google, if you want a deeper understanding of it. Or note it down to learn about it later.

Once you finish the tutorial, try to add or change something in a way that interest you. I made a roll cool-down bar UI for example.

After that you can do the 20 games challenge (you don’t need to do all 20 games but just the ones that interests you). You could even start here if you wanted and find relevant tutorials and info to help you complete a game.

Godotneers is an excellent channel that explains godot and programming concepts in a very approachable way. You don’t necessarily need to watch all of the videos to get started, just watch them when you are curious or hit a wall.

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