Animation Lead on Wanderstop! She/Her & Transgenderrific! Past: Radial Games, Gaslamp Games



gosokkyu
@gosokkyu

After years of on-and-off development, Vanillaware artist and vintage game fanatic Shigatake's vertical STG DEVIL BLADE REBOOT is finally complete and on the verge of release—this is the latest game in a loose series of hobbyist STG they've been making since the original Famicom version of Dezaemon way back in 1993, and their first commercial, self-published title. Shigatake's understandably been busy with their day job in recent years—not just the likes of Unicorn Overload1, 13 Sentinels and the GrimGrimoire remaster, but also helping out KEIZO with new HD illustrations and assets for Astlibra Revision—but they've been very insistent about getting this game done, and I think it stands a shot at finding a large audience.

This new game was developed using Shooting Game Builder, a STG-specific shooting game creation tool that underpins many of the more interesting doujin STG of the last 10+ years, including globally and/or Switch-ported games like Mecha Ritz, Kaikan, GRAND CROSS: ReNOVATION and many others. Shigatake handled all the art, programming and game design, with music by hasu2010, who you might recognise by their recent work on the early-access dungeon crawler Path of the Abyss; they also received production help from buddies in the STGBuilder scene (many of whom also got their start with Dezaemon, unsurprisingly).

The "reboot" aspect comes from the fact that this game is basically Shigatake reimagining all their old Dezaemon-era ideas and wishes using all the new tricks afforded to them by their new engine, not to mention their own ever-expanding skillset and eye for production tricks. They've also thrown in a retro mode that recreates the look of the PS-era Dezaemon version—this isn't just a fun extra but, as they've explained, an attempt at staving off refunds from those people who bash STG for a dearth of content.

They put out a one-stage demo way back in 2018, which you can still find here. At the time, Shigatake wrote up their concepts behind the game systems as they relate to the "STG Dilemma"—I translated them way back when and I'm reposting them here, mostly just to get them off pastebin, but I can't guarantee these ideas will still be reflected as-is in the final game:


  1. never not saying this


"Indie STG Production Diary #2: The Story of 'The STG Dilemma'"
written by Shigatake, translated by nobody important, taken from https://www.pixiv.net/fanbox/creator/3930/post/123102

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※Before you read this post, please understand that it's a purely subjective analysis based on my own tastes, and I don't mean to disparage any of the STG series out there.

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●"THE STG DILEMMA"

I'm an enthusiastic (and enthusiastically awful) STG diehard, but as a player I often feel "the dilemma of STG proficiency".
Because these are fundamentally simple games, there are many elements that rely heavily on player skill; as such, many of the fine details tailored towards experienced players can prove to be huge hurdles for inexperienced players, and it can be difficult for both audiences to enjoy a particular game.

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●SPECIFIC EXAMPLES

--Games with a heavy emphasis on power-ups (Raiden, Darius, Gradius, etc)

While the feeling of steadily becoming more powerful is always fun, on-the-fly recovery from death can be very difficult and is a common point of frustration for new players.

--Games with "gotcha" traps that require a certain amount of memorization (Thunder Force series, etc)

Experienced players can quickly adapt and enjoy the challenge of devising patterns, but beginner players are easily susceptible to unavoidable traps and they can tend to take a long time to figure out how to negotiate them.

--Games anchored around unique systems (R-Type's Force, Radiant Silvergun's mandatory chaining system, Ikaruga's polarity system, etc)

While these games can offer very deep gameplay, the stage design is so heavily predicated on players knowing and understanding these systems that players who don't grasp the systems are at a huge disadvantage.

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●PC version "Devil Blade" concept

With those problems in mind, I tried designing the PC version of Devil Blade with "an STG that's easy for beginners but deep enough for veterans" as the core concept:

(Beginner guidelines)
・Designed with the premise that beginners can clear the game
・"Shoot, dodge & destroy" are the fundamental tenets of STG; minimize or excise other elements wherever possible and focus on simple game rules
・playing for score is completely optional (crucial)
・it's possible to clear the game even if the player doesn't fully grasp or utilize each shot type
・no power-up system (painless recovery)
・use bombs to replenish shields (encourages use of bombs)
・make sure enemies have obvious tells for their special attacks so that they're easy to avoid
・the bosses will lose a set amount of HP whenever the player is hit
+the boss's HP will gradually decrease over time in order to eliminate prolonged boss battles

(Veteran guidelines)
・an involved scoring system for veteran players
・proximity-based score multiplier system (high-risk/high-reward)
・point-blanking enemies in quick succession triggers a "berzerk" state (tough!)
・constant point-blank destruction required to maintain and increase the berzerk rate (even tougher!)
・different scoring potential for each shot type (technique = higher score)
・additional bonuses based on bomb stock (discourages players from bombing through challenging sections)
・disable the boss' automatic HP reduction* (stops the player from accidentally gimping the difficulty)

[TL note: it's not stated, but I think he specifically means when the berzerk state is active]

The feedback and opinions I received after releasing the demo make me think my guidelines are working as intended.

demo play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBKvyaItQCY
download link: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AhgfiTdPXcRighvZATe1xvBtpl6c

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postscript: Devil Blade - Dezaemon version

I didn't really expect anyone else to ever play it, so I balanced the game around what I felt was fun, and as I repeatedly tested the game the difficulty level crept higher and higher.
As a result, many players have told me it's quite a tough game; that being said, it was very well-received by players of a certain skill level, so I suppose that's natural selection at work.
Incidentally, I didn't really think about the scoring system too much, but a few players praised the game for its score-attack elements, so one of my core goals for the PC version was to more consciously design something that's fun to play for score.


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