Hello, I intend to make a shmup with insects and paralax scrooling. I am open to new ideas for make it a saleable game. Any feedback is welcome. :)

A mainstream SHMUP or one for the hardcore fans?

Pretty much any shmup that advertises its graphics prowess, particle effects, XXX number of power-ups/enemies/weapons, its "retro-ness" is a mainstream type shmup. Jets & guns, geometry wars are more mainstream type shmups

The hardcore style shmups are usualy more innovative then that. The focus is more on gameplay built around strong yet simple mechanics. radient silvergun, Kamui, mars matrix are more hardcore shmups (note only Kamui listed there has power-ups of any sort).

www.shmups.com is a dedicated hardcore community for these style games, complete with a message board. tons of resources and information for what they are interested in and thier buying habits.


Remember though, a huge part of the appeal of shmups isn't just the shooting of things...dodgeing enemy fire and ships is fun too (huge part of why 'bullet hell' games became popular with the hardcore), a lot of the mainstream shmups seem to forget that.

good luck

By shmup with parallax scrolling I presume you're talking about a horizontally-scrolling shmup. Check out Apidya -

">youtube vid. It has limited parallax scrolling but for 1992 the graphics were pretty good, and it has insects galore! It might give you some ideas for how to create a really good shmup.

A theme like "silly characters and opponents in nonsense environments", (e.g. Parodius) or "futuristic jets against aliens on Earth" (e.g. Space Invaders, Raiden), or "steampunk characters and opponents on Earth" (e.g. Progear), or "assorted starships in exotic deep space and planetary environments" (e.g. Tyrian, Blazing Lazers) is normally only an unimportant skin over the mechanics that actually define the game; more so in a genre that doesn't have much room for storytelling, compelling characters and moments of reflection.

"Insects" are also too vague as a theme: there can be actual insects in natural environments (e.g. Apidya, Mushihimesama), mechanical insect-like things (e.g. Dodonpachi), insect-looking aliens in space (e.g. Galaxian, Insectoid), or hopefully something new and original.

I think the right way to make such themes useful is using them as a context in which some mechanics you want to use make sense and become a coherent system.
For example you could implement a random tight formation of unusually weak enemies as a swarm of fruit flies: a swarms of starships, or even of small drones, would be much less credible (they would be too expensive, well guided and solitary). Bigger and tougher insects, like caddisfly larvae and scarabs, could be streamlined armored bosses; large targets could be butterflies, dragonflies and other insects with large wings.

On the other hand, many usual shmup features like disciplined formations and ranged weapons are much more suitable for starships than for insects: what are your gameplay priorities? You might find out that insects are a bad fit for the game you want to make.

Which brings us to the other point, parallax scrolling.
Since parallax effects can be used with any sort of scrolling with backgrounds, you seems to have no idea of what kind of scrolling is more suitable: both your game design and your graphics are too undeveloped to give relevant advice.