shmup-dev forums and game development ideas
shmup-dev is a low traffic forum dedicated to shootemup game development. There’s an amazing wealth of information there.
Over the years the forum has run a number of game development challenges, each with a specific theme. The themes are a great way to limit the scope of development, as the challenges are often only a few weeks long. The emphasis is about trying new ideas rather than making a large complex game.
I’ve been slacking off on game development lately and trying to think of ways to get back into it, I think these themes are the key. I’m going to go back over the themes of the challenges and try them myself. Even though the challenges are long finished, I can still use the idea for each theme as a grounding point to get started.
Some of the themes/challenges that have been done:
- Horizontal scroller with a boss battle
- Options (ship options)
- Unconventional weaponry
- Supercharge weapons
- Player is not allowed to fire own projectiles
- Laser Mayhem
- Chain reaction
- Use you foes
- Air and land
- Multi-directional shooting
- Friendly units
- Evolution
- Tentacles
- Time
- Bullet cancelling
Some great ideas there, I can’t wait to get into it.