So I made this game, ShmupShifter.

It was really complicated compared to what I’ve done for the compo in the past, so there were a few odd choices, and in addition to that some elements of the game are only useful very late in the game.

Consider this a postmortem. Maybe.

The Inspiration

I was inspired to make this mechanic by Radiant Silvergun.  I, lacking an Xbox 360 or Sega Saturn (and 700 bucks), have never played the game, but it seems awesome so whatever. Have some gameplay:

You have access to seven weapons which you can change to at any time. I thought the gameplay possibilities from this would be excellent, and in addition it fit the theme well.

The Main Mechanic

The shape-shifting in the game isn’t necessary in many situations until the second stage, which many players never got too. That’s kind of an issue. In the late game it is essential to use all ships in order to avoid the need to dodge patterns altogether. The ability to move around enemies means that in some cases you never need to come close to bullets, as you can herd them in any direction you want.

A lot of people did not seem to notice the importance of the speed differences of the ships, but when you get better at the game you start thinking about using ships that may not have the best fire for the situation, but that you need to move as accurately or as quickly as you need to.

Play the video to see what I mean with the stage 2-1 boss, which you can dodge above with the fast green ship.

The Purple Ship

One of the three usable ships seemed to be pretty useless to, well, everybody. This ship had:

• Slow movement
• Hard to use, weak weapon.

Because people do not see the later moments of the game, both of these traits seem a detriment. The slow movement is actually an essential part of the gameplay later on. When fire become dense, especially in the second loop of the game’s stages, it is almost impossible to weave through with the red or green, fast ships.

The weak fire is designed to prevent players from staying in the purple mode for a long time, as the combination of fine control and normal fire would make it far too powerful in later stages.

Here is an example of using the purple ship to dodge a dense pattern. The second use in the clip is what I’m talking about, when the spread firing enemy comes in from the right. You’ll notice that I die soon after I, in panic of being stuck,  switch to the red ship.

Impossible Patterns

Some people complained about some patterns being impossible. This was, believe it or not, by design. It is always (or at least, 99% of the time) possible to get the upperhand in the situation by exploiting the games mechanics, such as the ability to harmlessly go through enemies, move quickly with the green ship, and fire from all angles. The patterns which may be impossible if you approach them like a typical shmup become easily beatable if you utilize the mechanics.

The Root Cause of the Issues

The biggest issue I had with this game was that I made it for people who were into shmups, not for an average Ludum Dare player. This led me to go way overboard with the difficulty, and make stages ludicrously difficult if you don’t think them through and play repeatedly, which many people wouldn’t. Next time I’ll include a normal mode, which would be easier than this game, and an arcade mode, which would be like this game is.

Here’s just some gameplay starting from the second loop to demonstrate how insane the difficulty can get in this game. (of few of the early deaths are intentional to reduce the difficulty. Or at least that’s what I tell myself :P)

Thanks for reading my needlessly defensive explanations of all of my game’s issues! Remember to try ShmupShifter!

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A Challenge:

Beat ShmupShifter and be awarded with the TerraCottaFrog’s ld35 True Shmupper Trophy!

Tags: post-mortem