Hello all, I''ve posted one or two topics before about 2D shooters (as my team is making one for university) but now I need advice on the design aspects of such a game. Basically I''m trying to figure out a apropriate design template to use in order to plan out the levels and more specifically the enemy spawning and the patterns they move in. Playing accomplished games such as Ikaruga, R-Type and the like give the impression that there''s more to the enemy patterns then meets the eye and has me thinking if there is a exact science in planning out the spawning and patterns so to make challenging gameplay. If anyone could advise me (preferably someone who''s done these types of games before) how I can go about planning the enemy spawning and their patterns then I would appreciate it, thanks. Neil

Are you selling the game?

Their can be a pattern but it wont be perfect since that would take some know how to learn how.

You have to first chart out every type of way where the enemy can come from.

Then you chart out what kind of difficulty you want and that would be determined on what type of weapons your ships has and the enemy hit points. Also if you want to progress further into the level or a pattern then that would be good. What most do is to have waves of enemies and they come first in a simple position so that you know your weapons and know the enemy, then know your ships movement to place them different places, then you go to more advances things like chasing the enemy by having the enemy move side to side, and so on.

It’s a progression and some games do it well and some don''t. But you have to first chart out everything that can be possible to know how you can progress the games action.

For instance you don’t want the level to be always the same about of enemies coming on screen or to have less enemies the further in u you go, and you don’t want to always be a gradual hill of difficulty to the end. Just like a song but it has its high and low tunes a level should be in a way the same.

PS. Do you have a demo yet?

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