just had this idea for a simple "old school" shoot-em-up type game (of the old Galaga variety)...could make for a fun little project basicly inspired by games like Phoenix, Demon Attack!, and Galaga...players are in control of a ship that sits at the bottom of the screen that can move left/right and fire thier weapon against each wave of enemies...typical of the "old school" genre. bifference being that the player only has a "boomerang" as the default weapon...when players have this, pressing the fire button throws it...when the boomerang makes contact with an enemy, it just bounces off (pushing the enemy a little ways in the process)...however when the boomerang makes contact with an enemy bullit, it collects it...eventualy the boomerang will return to the players ship, and the player can use any bullits that have been collected (these are shot out by pressing the fire button while the boomerang is flying around)...and when an enemy is distroyed, however many bullits the player has (that haven''t been shot yet) acts like a score multiplier (of course the whole point of the game is to get as high of a score as possable)... additionaly when players are hit and they have no remaining bullets, they lose a life...but if they have at least one bullet and they are hit, thier remaining bullits will shoot out in a semicircle destroying any enemy they encounter (sort of like one of those "super bombs", but the bullits cannot pass through enemies...and because the player then has no remaining bullits there is no score bonus for killing enemies this way)...actualy this is sorta like rings in Sonic...except colloceting 100 or more doesn''t give you a extra life (thats done through the players score instead)... Now the boomerang and bullit collecting (and score bonuses) gives a little bit of stratigy and such to the genre...the enemies can be designed to give the game a little bit of puzzle value...for example when the boomerang hits a enemy it bounces off them, but it also knocks the enemy around the screen a little...if this "knock-backed" enemy hits another they both could be destroyed (without the player fireing any shots)...and/or enemies could have little "buttons" that when hit with the boomerang cause certain things to happen (a larger enemy breaks down into two smaller ones, the enemy drops a "power-up" that gives the player limited invinceability, maybe the enemy is "bullit proof" until the "button" is hit then it opens up for a few seconds to allow the player to shoot it,...lots of possabilites) Do you think this could make for a fun little game?

I think this sounds like a great game! It combines the playing of Galaga with the boomerange from Zelda, which is an odd combination that I never thought of before...
In any case, it has to be done right the first time, or else people will dismiss it as a crappy game, but you seemed to have thought of some cool ideas, like targets/buttons on some enemies and collisions.
So long as the play control is easy and intuitive, it should be a good game.
I would imagine that if you were at the left of the screen and shot straight out, and then moved to the far right, the boomerang would arc to reach you, like in Zelda.
Also, would the boomerange only grab one bullet, or as many as it comes in contact with? Would there be a limit to the amount it could carry before not picking any more up? (something upgradeable during the game?)
Basically, how hard would it be to avoid the bullets that you don''t collect for yourself? And is there anything else you can do besides the boomerang, like move forward and backward as well as left to right? Can the boomerang get special powers, like shooting a super bullet when you hold the Shoot button longer?
Or getting blades that can cut through the enemy? I am thinking of R-Type, where your shots can be upgraded as you destroy the enemies.
I honestly think this is one of the better ideas for a shooter. It could even work as a top-down Bomberman-like game, where boomerangs are the order of the day along with guns or water balloons. B-)

quote:
I would imagine that if you were at the left of the screen and shot straight out, and then moved to the far right, the boomerang would arc to reach you, like in Zelda.

Yes...but it can bounce off of enemies as well as the screen edges

quote:
Also, would the boomerange only grab one bullet, or as many as it comes in contact with? Would there be a limit to the amount it could carry before not picking any more up? (something upgradeable during the game?)

it can collect unlimited bullets...and the boomerang isn''t upgradeable...however I have planned on allowing the player to obtain multiple boomerangs

quote:
Basically, how hard would it be to avoid the bullets that you don''t collect for yourself? And is there anything else you can do besides the boomerang, like move forward and backward as well as left to right? Can the boomerang get special powers, like shooting a super bullet when you hold the Shoot button longer?
Or getting blades that can cut through the enemy? I am thinking of R-Type, where your shots can be upgraded as you destroy the enemies.

the basic game logic would work something like this:

If player presses fire button:
{
If player has a boomerang then throw it

else

If player has bullets then shoot them
}

additionaly when the player is able to fire bullets (when the boomerang is off flying around and the player has ammo) if the player simply holds the fire button down the ship will shoot rapid fire...if the player double taps the fire button, the ship will shoot 4 bullets in a spread fire pattern (provided the player has the ammo to do this)...there can be a number of fire patterns depending on how the player presses or holds down the fire button...

Additionaly some enemies will have "options"...which are little floating orbs that circle thier craft...some "options" only act as a shield...others will fire at the player every couple of seconds...the orbs can only be destroyed if the ship they are circleing is distroyed...however if a boomerang were to hit the ship...the orbs will fall to the bottom of the screen where the player can catch them, at which point they will circle the players craft until the player is hit (the orbs that fire bullets won''t take any from the players ammo supply, so such orbs would obviously be valuable)...

As for control...I''m thinking the mouse would work very well (only needing the mouse X axis as the ship can only move left/right)...and only the left button would be needed for fireing...and I want to keep the game as basic and simple as possable control wise...and I also want to stay away from weapon "upgrades" and such as they are cliches of the genre...

Cool idea, do you have the resources to make it??
I''d like to play that.

I''d suggest using two buttons, one to fire the boomerang, and one to fire bullets, and here''s why...

If the Boomerang absorbs enemy shots, then it''s the player''s primary method of defense, as well as attack- and depriving him of this when he has bullets stored could cause issues, especially if the action gets fast as the levels go up. At any rate, I think it''d be a nice touch, and it wouldn''t complicate things for the player or your logic that much to detect the right mouse button in addition to the left, or the alt key in addition to space.

Otherwise, this sounds like a cool idea. Be sure to post a link if you pursue it.

- HC

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