Sunday, October 26, 2014

Okay, New Focuses (Or Is It Foci?)

I've put the drawing thing aside until I can get much better at it. Instead I'm coding a prototype shoot 'em up game (side scrolling) that incorporates a shooting scheme.

First, all enemies drop power-ups. Some drop a specific type while others will randomly drop one of three. Each power-up will charge that type of weapon on the player's ship to the maximum amount of the next power level. The problem is that the higher the power level is for the weapon the shorter its duration.

For example: the Level 5 charge of the cannons shoots in many directions but constant fire will deplete it in a scant 10 seconds. The only way to keep the weapon level is to destroy another enemy and pick up the power-up it drops.

This does sound simple when you look at the first few levels where the enemies can only take a few hits before being destroyed. In later stages enemies can take more damage and take more charge of your weapons, thus making those power-ups harder to acquire. In fact, the player might end up concentrating on killing just a few of the enemies at a time in order to maintain maximum weapon power.

This is where two other types of weapons come into play. I don't want to give away the concept, but each weapon has strengths and weaknesses that make them ideal in different situations. Switching between weapons will allow the player to approach waves and bosses in different ways.

Or, at least that is my hope. This experiment might go to the crapper if I cannot get it right. Here's to hard work.

--HardWearJunkie

No comments:

Post a Comment