Notester82

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

Puzzle, Rhythm, Roguelike, SHMUP, and Indie game nerd - Electronic music enthusiast - Hobbyist gamedev - Occasional artist - Abstract and Vectorheart art lover - (Current pfp by CivilDog)


Notester82
@Notester82

Meeeeeep, I caught wind of a game jam being hosted by Team Overloaded and M.Knight about making a caravan shmup1 (type of shoot-em-up where runs are usually short and your goal is to score as much points as you can within that short time period), Gunner Parade '23! I'm not the biggest shmup connoisseur, but I've still tried out a heckton of them (Eschatos, Platypus, Monolith, Espgaluda II, Jamestown+, Blue Revolver, Ikaruga, Graceful Explosion Machine, Everyday Shooter, Zenzizenzic, Trigonarium, Dead End City, Super Galaxy Squadron EX Turbo, okay sorry I think I've made my point), soooo...why not try making one for the first time?

A bit nervous about some of the nuances I might encounter, but I'll see what I can do!


  1. Okay actually, you can make any kind of caravan game, it doesn't have to be a shmup! However...shmups are pretty darn cool and I want to challenge myself! Will this backfire as I don't immediately have a non-shmup backup if shmup stuff gets too complicated? Only time will tellllll


Notester82
@Notester82

Alrightyyy, what does one do when they're wondering how the heck they'll tackle a shmup game jam? Well they watch Bog Hog's "SHMUP WORKSHOP" series (thus far) 2 videos a day while taking notes on everything! I-I've actually been meaning to give those videos a peek for a while now and now's a good excuse for such. I imagine that they're not the be all end all for shmup gamedev...but at the same time, they might as well be because holy heck, it's a hecking good and detailed series for explaining shmup game design!

Cool, I've got knowledge, and a new lamborghini but also KNOWLEDGE, but I also need an idea...preferably more than one so I can have backup options...hmmmmm. See, it was kinda funny watching episode 6 of SHMUP WORKSHOP ("Scoring Systems"), as I learned about/got reminded of several different archetypes of scoring, which then had me puzzled on what systems to try and implement. Grabbing pickups, bullet cancelling, enemy chaining, grazing, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ;u; Maybe I'll keep a balance of things that would be easier to implement and things I want to reach out of my comfort zone for, but so far I've got an ideaaaa

A picture of a page from a grid notebook that contains a sketch for a caravan shmup. The top of the page reads "Quad" in square geometric writing, the middle of the page shows the player (consisting of 3 hollow squares spinning around a small filled square) shooting towards a group of 3 rectangles and through an array of small square tiles with a combination of a straight and X-shaped shot pattern while a big square is lurking on the top-left corner, and the bottom of the page contains textual notes on what the game may feature.

Yep, quadrilateral caravan shmup. Meep! Felt inspired by Super Star Soldier (to the point where I'm using the shot type in that game...Have I ever played it? Not yet, have only seen gameplay so far (sorry). Does it seem cool and fitting? Yesh!) and will aim to make something similar to that whilst hopefully doing (my own) interesting thiiings. I don't have any other sketches/planning other than the above image, but I imagine that I'll draw out enemy waves or something later. For now though, this felt like enough planning to just start (because I was eager to do so)... But first, I looked at a GameMaker project about hitboxes and hurtboxes because I had the foresight to realize that the singular collision boxes that are built into GameMaker objects won't be enough for having separate hitboxes and hurtboxes for enemies (but also my enemies are just simple shapes? Not complex machines or creatures or anything?? But I guess it's still good to configure custom hitboxes and hurtboxes either for leniency or something???). Then I started development!

A gif of the player from the previous sketch in motion, moving around in a dark gray background and shooting squares in the same straight and X-shaped shot pattern from the previous sketch.

Here's what I have so far, a player made up of a small square (their hurtbox) and 3 rotating hollow squares. They can move around and shoot squares! And yes, I normalized the diagonal movement (making it so you don't move faster diagonally than cardinally, most shmups peeps like when movement's like this since it's more consistent, which is critical for dodging things sometimes)! This seems alright, but as I shared this gif with someone, I realized that perhaps the player's weapon looked a little puny.

A similar gif to the one above, except the bullets are bigger!

Now that's more like it! I've only been focusing on movement and shooting so far so I've yet to determine stuff like playfield boundaries and enemy sizes. I felt worried about the player bullets being too big or something, but eventually I just upped their size and made the bullets shoot faster. Balancing can come later but this certainly looks more fun! Another juicy thing I wanna do is making the square rings spin faster while firing.

Anywaaaay, simple (but still kinda involved) day 1! I suppose I'll think of how to tackle enemies next, and I still feel like doing custom hitboxes and hurtboxes instead of the singular collider GameMaker has for enemies. Also a little more planning/scheduling, maybe? I'll seeeeeeee...


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