Shmup Level Design/Scripting : I'm so lost.

Steven Strait · 2014-10-08T14:31:58

First, greetings and salutations. I'm a new poster here, though I've browsed the forums and articles many times in the past, and have come to ask for assistance with my current project. Any help, even the tiniest of nudges in the right direction, will be most appreciated. I am currently, as the title suggests, working on a Shmup style game, specifically a Vertically Scrolling Arcade Space Shooter. The game is written in Java, using the wonderful Libgdx framework. I have the core mechanics working, namely the enemy movement, power-ups, etc. I can have endless random waves of enemies to shoot but I'm completely at a loss when it comes to creating actual levels that control when and where the enemies should spawn. A bit of research has led me to believe that there are two main ideas when it comes to this. First, using a spatial map editor system to place enemies that are activated when the camera/character draws near. Second, using LUA or XML files to script enemy spawning based on time. Either of the options would work for me but, sadly, I'm not even sure where to begin to implement either one. My question is, what would be a good method for creating levels/waves for a game such as this? Again, any help or advice is very much appreciated. If more information is required on my part, please, ask away and I'll do my best to answer any questions.