Another mechanic I'd like to propose: Henna tattoos. Maybe it could be done as a power-up system like FFXII's grid system, but the idea would be that each piece represents a skill or ability, and would create a radial pattern that would appear on the character's skin. The design would have to be a color that really popped off the skin color, but how cool would it be to run into a boss that was covered in a beautifully intricate design, and think, "Oh, crap..."

That sounds sexy. 

As much as I disliked FFXII, it's grid(license) system for expanding your characters was near brilliant.
Branching it out to being henna tattoos on characters sounds awesome. But wouldn't they be black? If not... A glowing azure blue?

Making a game engine from OpenGL/AL is a huge pain, but very rewarding and fun at the same time.

Near-full control on what goes on in your application? Yes please.

I felt so limited with things like Allegro and SDL. Freedom ahoy!  :D

[Sigvatr]

Sigvatr. hes gey

Don't hate the haters. 

[More games need Coffee as a weapon/equipment.]

More games need Coffee as a weapon/equipment.

Agreed.

Us programmers practically live on the stuff, anyway. Might as well make the game's characters live on it, too!
 

After taking a good look on the features I want to add, I've pretty much concluded that I'll need to remake this app, most likely in Python.

Which GUI libraries do you recommend? 

wxWidgets.

Although a lot of people dub it as complicated and just down-right 'horrible', it's a wonderful cross-platform system.

I don't know whether or not you can get it working with Python, but it's worth a shot?
 

ime massively cross platform development is an unachievable holy grail. too much shit to consider. i'm not a techhead though so it's probably just something i don't WANT to face.

It's way possible. You just have to design from the ground up to support multiple platforms(front-end, back-end, like said) and actually have access to the software/hardware interface libraries so your program will be compatible. Not to mention the compiler, of course.

PS3, PSP, Xbox 360(not XNA), and Wii, etc, would all require lots of money and patience to get licenses for. And most people don't really want to do this.

I hope you guys don't mind pen art.

Early sketch of a game idea I'm conceptualizing. It might look similar to another game you've played. 
The image is pretty big, so I'm linking it.

Hearts May Cry?

When it comes down to it, basically.

God why is the light in my room so bad I can't get a decent shot! I guess I should venture outside...

I wouldn't risk it, if I were you. 

I hope you guys don't mind pen art.

Early sketch of a game idea I'm conceptualizing. It might look similar to another game you've played. 
The image is pretty big, so I'm linking it.

If it was full-on 3D you could pull off so pretty awesome camera angles, and such.

I say go for it, man! :D

Are there any good tools/methods of making a voice sound monotone or otherwise digitalized?

Some good examples(I can only find myself able to reference shmups at the moment) would be the female voice from DoDonPachi, and the female voice in Galaga Legions.

I'm currently using Audacity, and have a very small(no) budget for any commercial tools at the moment.

(Unless they have some shadowy deal with Apple)

If I'm not mistaken, they do.

I believe Adobe approached Jobs about why Flash wasn't supported a while ago. They were apparently denied, but it looks like Apple(Jobs) finally gave in.

I really the sketch you got over the ones you modeled, but they're not too bad either.

This looks like a shmup I'd really want to play. procedurally generated stages?   

Yessir!
I've finished the pseudo-code for the stage generation. All the processes and steps are listed out, etc. Now I just need to make specifications for the different stage types/areas/enemies/etc. which will all come later.
[EDIT](to prevent confusion to my below post, this first method I created was basically fail, and created extremely cluttered and fragmented stages.)

I thought all rappers/bboys wear pants that low  If it isn't true I'll blame my friends for giving me that impressions. 


Got map obstacles done. Now you can hide behind trees or other obstacles that can block bullets to keep you safe from people's attacks. Will implement hitpoints to obstacles that are destroyable so you can't hide forever and it is more fun blowing things :D

I'm still having a problem with obstacle and pixel movement though. Right now if you walk and hit an obstacle, you stuck there until you change direction. But what I want is to let the character trying to go around the obstacle, if possible, without changing the direction. I guess I have to look into that later.

Welll uhhhh, low is one thing. But they generally have underwear/boxers to cover the space lost. That.... Just looks like his trousers are ready to drop and unleash 'the mighty jungle' on you. 

I just noticed... That guy's pants look a bit low, according to his anatomy and where his pack ends.

Now you need Mario to the right, with Peach trying to squeeze in between them, and have her looking  at Mario.

Priceless.

[16 times the amount of work]

It's simple. Pixel art doesn't scale itself. So size is problematic. The bigger the size(usually) the more detail required to look appealing.

16x16 tiles would be simple and easy. But 32x32 tiles are effectively four times the work. 64x64 tiles effectively eight times the work, and 128x128 tiles are effectively 16 times the amount of work.

With scalable graphics, this isn't exactly true. Even though things also typically require more detail the bigger they are, adding such detail is usually much easier. Directly due to the fact you're not working with and manipulating each and every pixel.

Also, Tidus from FF10 looks like Meg Ryan.

Owned, Check, and mate. 

Very awesome indeed, hima. Cool to see you posting this on TIG. 

[[Z4R]Infinite Star Expanse]

Hello everyone!
This is [Z4R]Infinite Star Expanse.(ISE)

ISE plays off of many elements of the shmup genre to attempt to create something new and fresh. Something seasoned shmup players will enjoy, and something people new to the genre won't be afraid to try.

X! [Z4R] is a tag I use for all games made by me.(no collaboration, with the exception of sound)

You may also want to look at the original dev-topic posted for the game here at Shmup-Dev.

Any and all commentary is appreciated. 
I'll post updates as they happen.

I've cleaned up the topic, made it a bit shorter and more readable.

So what are you doing, exactly? 

The game is focused around Current Year(2009/10) + 500.

Before we go that far though, about 200 years into the future, planet Earth is deemed no longer inhabitable, then begins the Pioneering Age. Humans eventually found four other inhabitable planets over a harsh century, and live there to this day. What came of Earth is practically an urban legend now; twisted tales that more easily resemble folklore.

"300 years have passed... And the years are catching up to us." - Methuselah II

This game, I hope, will have a deep entertaining storyline. I'm not a brilliant writer, but I'm certainly not bad either. Comic relief is definitely something I'm good at, and something I'll be going for.
 
My goal with this game is to go off the typical tangent of shmups, but still provide a classic shmup experience at the same time. I'd like the story to be one of the main focus points in this game, whereas usually in shmups(and many other games) the story is either minimal or ignorable.(and usually not interesting whatsoever)

One thing about this game, not entirely unique, is the 'options'(nodes that provide extra firepower) system. Much like the options in shmups like Gradius or DoDonPachi. Although these options are mounted to your ship as a system of interchangeable weapons. The amount of options you may have depends entirely on the ship you're piloting.
It's also worthy to note that you'll be able to level up these options as the game progresses. Giving a much more RPG flow to the game.(but hopefully without the monotonous grinding)

So... What are you doing that's really different? 

All stages of the game will be based on procedural generation. Predefined elements like enemies and terrain will be created beforehand, but the actual levels will be entirely generated. The generation will be based on 3 keywords, provided by the player. Those familiar with the Chaos Gates from .Hack// should understand this system pretty well.

My hope is to bring something new and fun to the shmup genre, this generation system will hopefully knock one of the most painstaking elements of shmups: Brute memorization.

Finally, some pretty stuff!
WHFF has been taken down, and I've lost a lot of the data. I'll be trying to find and replace the missing pictures ASAP.

I'm going to be dumping all kinds of art and visual teasers for the game below. With a little commentary on each.

What am I doing right now?
26/11/09: Finishing the designing process