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[antymattar]

Hi!

I am making a game that is a shmup. All the basic stuff is in. Parents are done(This is GM) all I need now is some more enemies (And maybe an artist who would draw all the other sprites and tiles but that's another thing). I was wondering if you would like to help meinvent some new ships. They should be enemies or something but I just need designs and functionality descriptions. I can even draw them etc. Just help me, cause I'm totally un-creative at the moment. You can also help in any way you think is best... I guess.

Ok, so here's what I have now:


I guess I should also describe what they do so that you can think of something new. I'l go by their numbers:

#1:Its a standard ship, it just goes left. When hit it starts burning and falls down to its death.
#2:It also flies straight to the left, but it also fires bullets to theplayer. It also rotates.
#3:just like the first one but this one also flies towards the players y axis.
#4:This ship drops mines that drop to the ground, its a bit hard to kill due to it having 4 health.
#5:This is more of a mine than a ship. It doesn't move at all and is easy to kill.
#6:This ship flies a bit when you first see it, then it slows down and charges a lazer beam.
#7:This ship doesn't shoot. Its more of a good looks thing. It a train that carries a buntch of #8 ships behind it in a trail.
#8: Its a wagon for ship # 7.
#9: A catapult for the Medieval level. It throws a rock at a certain distance. This can damage the player.
#10: A dragon for the Medieval level. It just flies. and when hit, it falls to the ground and collapses. I could make a fire breathing version.
#11: Another one for the Medieval level. He doesn't shoot, he just charges to the other side of the map. It's still dangerous in a tight tunnel.
#12: Its a UFO that follows certain orders and flies up and down. He doesn't do much else.
#13: Another UFO. This one flies under the player. When at the players x axis, he starts to rotate at the x and y coordinates of the player(when the player was at the same x as the ship) and shoots at the center.
#14: Its a ship that follows orders(That means it can be assigned paths) and it will fly up or down through them. Its quite hard to kill due to having 6/7 health.
#15 and #16: This ship is interesting. It tries to reach the players x and y coordinates and meanwhile it also tries to go in the direction of the player. It sort of flips with a slowdown delay thingy. If you have played platypus then you should get what I'm talking about.
#17:A blimp for the Berlin level. It stands almost still with a very small x movement. It shoots lightning blots from the top of the screen. Insta death...Well, actually I am using the 80's standard so everything is insta-death.
#18: A ship just like number 2. Just a different style. Maybe it should have more health.
#19: This is a tank enemy. It rolls, just along the ground  and shoots at the enemy.
#20: That long thing is a snake. It has a tail and it tries to ram into the player. Upon death all the bits will jump in their direction so the player has to be a bit careful with this one.
#21: A standard rocket. One of the prototype enemies shoots these. They follow the player around before they die.

All the other enemies that don't have a number are prototypes, and I don't have a clue what they should do or behave. I just drew them.

So please, any suggestions design/art c&c is welcome.

[antymattar]

Nobody? I fixed som of the bugs they had but really. Anybody?

[baconman]

Vertical? Horizontal? 360-moving? From the looks of it, should we assume it's a basic, Gradius-like right-scrolling shmup?

If you're specifically looking for art feedback/assistance, you might want to have a mod move the thread there. But as far as function goes?

A second #5 that moves in a continuously increasing "direction", so as to go in circles to patrol some areas or protect some power-ups or core enemies.

Two variations of #6 that, as they slow down, will aim their lasers at either (player_x, player_y + 25) or (player_x, player_y - 25). This way, sometimes they will simply limit your mobility, and other times, they will cross-shoot in front of you - so they won't shoot you directly... but any sudden movement from you will run into their lasers - this effectively creates a "net" effect that can make other enemies firing at you be a tremendously more threatening. The +/- 25 might take some feeling around, because you don't want to *completely* restrict the movement, but you do want it to be validly threatening. And possibly "breakable" that way, too.

Most of the enemy designs are functionally sound. Now, what's going to make you game interesting is your shot types. Don't forget that enemy firepower can be upgraded throughout the game as well!

[braindigitalis]

Am i the only one to think that the first prototype  on the left (big long yellow one) looks like some giant alien space-vibrator? 

Have you considered making a level where the entire level is a ship? (See level 3 of R-Type)
You seem to have most patterns covered, how about for snake enemy 20, make each of its segments a seperate sprite, and have it move in slow lazy arcs, lingering on the screen and wriggling in a sinousoidal pattern like a nematode worm? This would make it a pain to kill, if you then make each segment require a seperate shot to kill the whole, it becomes a more interesting enemy.
You could go one step further, so that if you split it, each split part becomes independent...

[antymattar]

@ baconnman: Thanks! The idea about the mine patrolling thing inspired me to make a whole minefield level! Thanks. I am totally going to ad that.

@braindigitalis: <_< its not a space vibrator! Its a dildo. 
But really, the snake is already made of individual parts(like 20 of them). I tried making the parts vital to the snakes destruction, but it makes it way too difficult to kill.

[forwardresent]

I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but I do love my shmups.

I really like enemies that require a certain strategy to beat, like destroying weakpoints before destroying the core. Let's say you have a slow moving enemy with a few turrets or guns on it, destroy the guns and an energy core of sorts is revealed. It doesn't have to be overly complex and should be able to be killed in a few seconds, maybe the challenge is that they come in pairs or fire bullets/rockets that curve.

Whilst enemy variety is important to keep the game fresh, what really makes a shmup for me is the bullet patterns and level design. If there are environmental hazards too, like shifting walls or closing gates, it's all the more hectic.

[antymattar]

Yeah! I could add a multi stage enemy. With a trret, and then he loses the turret and runs towards the player.

[forwardresent]

You could totally do that as a sort of suicide bomber enemy, if once it's weapons are destroyed it had a sudden speed boost towards the player it would keep them on their toes.

I also thought a little more about this earlier, what about smaller enemies that travel with larger ships? Like essentially two floating turrets that revolve around a larger enemy. An interesting mechanic might be that they also generate a shield around/repair the larger enemy, and at least one of them has to be destroyed in order to damage the larger ship.

Just throwing this out there.