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[FTLRalph]

Hey guys.

I'm working on my first Android game.  I finally have a good grasp on everything related to the Android SDK / Open GL ES 1.1 and feel I can get started on develpment.

I already have the basic art down (scaled screenshot of a portion of the sprites I already have drawn, yes - the enemies are fruits :D) as well as the movement via accelerometer, etc - nothing terribly exciting as of yet.

Before I go any farther, I'm trying to get some ideas down.  As of right now, the game is just a very typical shooter.  Fly around, shoot things, destroy certain things - new level.  (Very similar to old arcade games like Bosconian and Galaga, however unlike Galaga you can move in all directions.)

I can't seem to think of anything special to add to the game to make it unique.  I'm specifically trying to think of features that utilize the touch-screen aspect of Android devices, but anything "cool" would do.  I'm drawing a blank trying to grasp a few ideas to implement that would make this game fun - whether it be through level design, enemy attacks, powerups, etc...

Right now the game doesn't really have an ending, either.  As of now I think it'll just be get to as high of a level as you can before running out of lives and submit your score to an online leaderboard type of thing.  I'm actually okay with this, as it seems fitting for this type of game.

Somewhat unrelated to the topic (and not as important right now), but I'm having trouble coming up with something to offer in a "full" version of the game, too (as opposed to the free version which will be completely playable as-is).  I was thinking different game modes (such as "survival" - one life, swarms of enemies, don't die) but again, I'm having trouble coming up with anything worthwhile.

Basically, I'm looking for any input to make this game stand out from a typical "fly around, shoot stuff" type of game.  Any ideas are appreciated!

Thanks!

[peous]

Hi
You could add some objective to reach at the edge of the "universe".

This is the way it works on Captain Jameson. At the beginning, your are "level1" and monsters far from spawn point are too strong, so you have to level up first. Then, slowly, go farther from your start point. It think it's a good principle, that does not asks too much resources, just some kind of algorithmic level design . A lot of games works like this. (open world RPGs also, Fallout for example)

That's the kind of principle I'll try to implement in SpaceBeam, even if it's much more exploration than just shooting.

[FTLRalph]

Funny, I was looking at Captain Jameson for inspiration when I first began this project.  Not a bad idea, I like that since I already have a "leveling up" system in place to increase the player ship's power.

[whilefun]

This might not be the exact direction you're looking to take, but perhaps some kind of "defense" aspect would be neat. Like some kind of mother ship that you need to interact with and protect from the fruit baddies