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[Captain_404]

Alright, where to begin?

This takes the concepts behind Punnett Squares and applies them to enemies in a shmup.

Each enemy has a set of traits (2 right now) which can be passed on to other generations of enemies. Whenever you kill an enemy, it drops a seed which floats up to the top of the screen. Once two seeds have been gathered, it generates two new enemies with the traits of their parents. Thus whatever you kill most, you'll end up fighting most. (and hence the pgc)

In order to deepen the gameplay, I think it's going to focus more on 'pruning' the most possible types of enemies rather than killing everything you see. I think it adds an interesting bit of strategy to the otherwise pretty normal shmup.

The control scheme is built for this at the moment, roll over an enemy to target them, click to fire. There are no bullets to dodge right now.



http://ian.janasnyder.com/redsky.swf

I'm just not sure what I want to do with this. A frantic shooter would make it almost too hard to keep track of all the traits (there will be more than just two) but I don't want to make it too slow either...


Anyway, I'm just looking for a bit of feedback seeing as I've really run up against a wall. I hope that's all right.

For now, the point of the game is to get all four types on screen at once.


Also, hi! I'm new here! (please don't kill me!)

[increpare]

Woah; love that lacquery shade of red dude!

Thus whatever you kill most, you'll end up fighting most. (and hence the pgc)

Is it a case that the enemies only get generated when all the existing ones have been cleared off the screen?

One possible alternative breeding scenario would be to have each enemy drop a seed up at a regular interval.  That way, the enemies who last longest on-screen would breed.  Or maybe, if there is some sort of enemy movement, to only allow enemies to breed who manage to make it to the bottom of the screen.  And if a person has multiple lives, it might be nasty to give a big weighting to any enemies who kill you.

As for the 'click on enemy to fire' system, it felt like it could get a little laborious.  Have you thought about implementing a panzer dragoon-style "hold down mouse button to turn on fire mode; in this mode whenever you move your cursor over an enemy with mouse button held you will fire at it" mode?  Might make things a little bit more fluid.

Just some thoughts!

[Captain_404]

227 views and only one reply? Is it really that bad?


Thanks for the thoughts, increpare.

I like your ideas if the game ends up about surviving and killing off baddies, but that might not work as well if it's simply about getting as many different types of baddies as you can. If it's about diversifying rather than killing everything you see. Still, I'll have to experiment with that and see if it work out well.

I hadn't actually given thought to that style of shooting. Personally, I like that accuracy that this assures, but I suppose a quick way to wipe out everything is always good too I'll probably end up including both options in the end.



New demo, same url: http://ian.janasnyder.com/redsky.swf

added:
-movement
-death
-enemy bullets

Important parts of every shooter


There's a bit more gameplay to comment on now I hope.

[increpare]

I hadn't actually given thought to that style of shooting. Personally, I like that accuracy that this assures

Oh, so it's possible to miss?  (playing on laptop: now that things are moving I really can't comfortably play it with a touchpad).

[Captain_404]

I hadn't actually given thought to that style of shooting. Personally, I like that accuracy that this assures

Oh, so it's possible to miss?  (playing on laptop: now that things are moving I really can't comfortably play it with a touchpad).

Well, the shots do home in on whatever enemy you have selected, but it's fairly easy to select the wrong enemy if two overlap at the right time.

[___]

227 views and only one reply? Is it really that bad?

There are a lot of lurkers on these forums :D

Good stuff so far, KEEP GOING.

[Friendly Rhinoceros]

I like the concept, but if the point's still to get all four types on screen at once, then there should be at least six flying around at any given time.  Right now, at least for me, it's less puzzle/strategy and more luck of the draw.  Maybe I'm just missing something, but I can never seem to get all four.

Also, I think it would help if the enemies were smaller on the screen and had more distinguishing characteristics.  Keep them all shades of red (it looks great!), but maybe vary the shapes more.  Right now I can't recognize them very quickly.

As for concept, maybe instead of killing these guys indefinitely, you just kill them at first to breed them (like you do now), and then this breed assists you in a boss fight.  The bosses could have weaknesses to certain types, etc, etc.  Not sure if this is the direction you want to go, but I think it would be a fun blend between the puzzle elements you have now and the shmup elements that are a bit lackluster.

Keep working!  This could turn into a pretty cool little game.

[Captain_404]

Heh, you should have seen my original build of the game! It only had four on screen at any time, meaning to get all four you had to do everything perfectly! (including being handed the perfect set-up) I spent hours just testing it to make sure it was possible.

I've gotten comments from other sources about my enemies not being easy to recognize, that's definitely on my to do list.

I like the boss idea, it does seem like it would blend puzzle and shmup decently well.



I think my main problem is the tendency for this to be a puzzle game. Puzzles tend to look for only one outcome, usually achieved by a single method; my game, however, changes itself based on the user' actions and opens up to many different combinations of enemies. The two parts contradict each other.

I suppose balancing that contradiction is the heart of any game in this contest.

[Captain_404]

I'm still working on balancing some of the gameplay mechanics you all suggested, that will come in another update I hope.

For now, I've added some procedural music which I'm really liking.

Same ol' link as every other time: http://ian.janasnyder.com/redsky.swf

[Corpus]

I tried this on the last build, and my thoughts were thus:

• Lovely graphics.
• Not really sure what I'm meant to be doing - the effects of my actions were not clear to me.

The same applies to the newest build, although, now that you've added the Everyday Shooter-esque guitars (or were they in the last build? - I was playing with sound off), it's become much more of a chillaxing game. What I mean by that is that it's pretty cool just to sit and play and enjoy the "music" you make.

[moi]

As already said, the idea of getting more of the enemies you kill the more is not very fair (for the computer ) so maybe you could refine the concept a bit more...
The graphics are very nice but IMO it would need colours because ATM it's very diificult to tell the different types of enemies apart.
And maybe make the objects smaller because there is barely enough place for 4 enemies. When I heard the word pruning I was imagining Hordes of enemies, something like a RTS playfield full of units

[Melly]

First of all, I love the graphics, but you really need to give the enemies more contrast.

Second of all, besides the gorgeous graphics an sound effects (Everyday Shooter inspired?) the whole genetic replacation effect of enemies isn't noticeable.

Still, an interesting entry.