So, I’ve been tinkering with my game off and on again lately, mainly doing my sprite work during drawing blocks or other lulls in production, as well as hammering and fine-tuning the story and concept stuff into place for when I work up the gumption to really experiment with the engine(s, stupid hybrid game style).
The biggest factors I’m undecided on right now are the exact system of weapon management I want to use (one being to have a simple array of weapons that can be leveled up through use, and one similar to Gunstar Heroes or Sigma Star Saga where weapons can be customized through combinations of items which would be cooler but probably a bitch to figure out how to execute), and whether to retain the overhead view for the exploration segments or go to a side-scrolling, Metroid-like overworld which would be both easier to plot out and make detailed sprites for. Not to mention offer more options for crazy movement equipment, originally the Booster gear just let the Guardian (Guardienne?) execute a short dash move, in a side scroller the same ability would make a good air dash or double-jump upgrade.
At least the storyline is fairly congealed at this stage. A space peacekeeping force is sending a crack team of android operatives to figure out why the Cancer Claw, a pirate group is dicking around in an uncharted asteroid field, only to find an ancient relic that looks to be a superweapon crawling with hostile aliens. After a quick assessment, the team decides it’s better to disable the relic site rather than let their goofball nemeses get ahold of it and split up to deactivate the energy reactors deep within the rock.
Of course, it’s still a pretty ambitious (or stupid) undertaking, so it’ll be a while before it sees the light of day. I’m tinkering with a couple of shooter game ideas at the present though, so maybe one of those will pop up soon. Ish. Before that game does, anyway.
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Oh, I hear ya. And if I do go the Metroidvania route I’ll try and get most of the major upgrades out of the way early on because nothing’s more aggravating than passing an unreachable door multiple times over a six hour period. I also want to avoid the classic “You can break blocks now- BUT NOT THIS KIND HAHA!” device.
As for crossing the two systems, I’m kind of loathe to forcing the player to grind up their gear. I’ve always been fond of games where specific equipment types have their uses and stay somewhat relevant all the way to the end (Like say, Izuna- you can enhance your swords with Talismans to your heart’s content, but all the different blades have their strengths and weaknesses- do you go for the one with the slim chance to auto-kill enemies, or the one that you know deals more damage to holy beings, so on…)
Why not compromise? An array of weapons which can be leveled up through use, and combined into additional weapons which can’t be leveled while joined but can produce some pretty spectacular effects. Not only would it provide the best of both worlds, it would provide a tactical choice between leveling the weapon or getting the most possible bang in a given environment, especially if the joined weapon were dependent upon the levels of the individual weapons…
As for side scroller versus top-down, while the former offers more bizarre movement options, it’s also far more common, and I have to say there are only so many different ways to do movement upgrades that don’t get frustrating. (“Oh, look at that, a door I can’t reach. Where’s the double-jump?”)