Shooting Games: "Shoot" and "Do Something"

On April 17th, I gave a talk at Tokyo Indies ¹ about generating ideas for shooting games (shmups).

Here ² are the presentation slides in Japanese. However, since most of the content was delivered verbally, the slides alone may not fully convey the topic. Therefore, I'd like to provide some supplementary information.

Shmups are games where you "shoot" and "defeat enemies." It's obvious, but is that really all there is to it?

For example, what about a game where you "shoot" and "create squares"?

That's Quarth （BLOCK HOLE) ³. In the game Quarth, you shoot blocks at mysterious approaching blocks to form squares and eliminate them. So, is Quarth an shmup? The original developer calls it a "shooting puzzle game," so it must be a shmup. This means that the "do something" part doesn't necessarily have to be "defeat enemies" for a game to be considered a shmup.

Come to think of it, I've created various "do something" shmups in the past.

"Shoot" and "attach enemies" game, TUMIKI Fighters ⁴

When you defeat an enemy, it falls and you can pick it up with your ship. The enemy then attaches to your ship and starts counterattacking. As you keep attaching more enemies, your ship eventually becomes larger than the boss, allowing you to overwhelm enemies with incredible firepower. By incorporating the idea of "attaching" into an shmup, I created a slightly different kind of shooting game. It's like a combination of Katamari Damacy and Sky Kid.

"Shoot" and "drop enemies" game, Mu-cade ⁵

The player's ship and enemies are centipede-like, and by hitting enemies with your shots, you can blow them away and defeat them by pushing them out of the game field. At the time, I incorporated the still-obvious technology of a physics engine into an shmup.

By changing the "do something" part from "defeat enemies" to something else, you can create shmups of the novelty. Thinking about what goes into the "do something" part can serve as a guideline for considering game rules, gimmicks, and mechanics.

"Shoot" and "contaminate the Game of Life" game, L.A.2 ⁶

The game field consists of the Game of Life and enemies moving on its cells. The player's ship fires glider patterns, which are Game of Life patterns that fly diagonally. When they hit the Game of Life on the field, they change the color of the cells and contaminate them. Releasing the button destroys the contaminated cells and any enemies on them. It's a combination of the Game of Life and shmup.

"Shoot" and "pierce through the same color" game, COLOR ROLL ⁷

Color-coded bars move left and right, and you shoot when the colors align. The inspiration comes from games like Radiant Silvergun, where you match colors, and the rotating shield wall in the final boss of Gun Frontier, where you aim for gaps.

"Shoot" and "set off chain explosions" game, CRISS CROSS BOMB ⁸

Hitting a horizontal bomb triggers a horizontal explosion, while hitting a vertical bomb triggers a vertical explosion. The objective is to involve as many bombs as possible while skillfully avoiding the blast waves coming towards your ship from the vertical direction.

"Shoot" and "pull down" game, RAID ⁹

Your ship is descending towards a group of skyscrapers and will crash into them if you continue. By aiming bombs diagonally at the middle of the buildings, you can pull down them.

"Shoot" and "get hit by your own shots" game, HAVE IT COMING ¹⁰

You can defeat enemies in the air with your ship's shots, but the shots follow a parabolic trajectory and fall back down. If you get hit by them, your ship is also destroyed, so recklessly shooting is dangerous. However, when shots hit the ground, they become bonus items, so if you're aiming for a high score, it's important to shoot recklessly and dodge.

By devising the purpose of shooting, the consequences, risks, and rewards triggered by shooting, you can create new games. By making players think about why and when to perform the act of "shooting," you can create shmups with new ways to enjoy them.

However, this shouldn't be considered for all shmups. In particular, you need to be very cautious about introducing risk to the act of shooting. If you want to emphasize the exhilaration of destroying enemies, you should make bullets and enemy destruction unlimited, and there's no need to introduce tactical elements. Gimmicks like conserving shots to maintain combos by leaving enemies alive in DoDonPachi or timing single shots to hit enemies of the same color in Ikaruga are very interesting, but some players may find them stressful, and I don't think all shmups should be like that.

"Shoot" and "interfere" game, COUNTER B ¹¹

This game isolates the interference spheres seen in games like Metal Black, G-Darius, and Border Down. The situation where your attacks and the enemy's attacks collide and compete is irresistible.

"Shoot" and "defeat enemies together" game, THROW M ¹²

I love the part in Pooyan where you defeat the balloon-riding wolves together with meat, and I just wanted to enjoy that aspect. Defeating enemies together for high scores is a traditional game rule from long ago.

"Shoot" and "defeat distant enemies" game, MORTAR ¹³

The inspiration comes from Sega's Heavy Metal, a vertical scrolling shooter with a groundbreaking system that allows you to destroy off-screen enemies with long-range missiles.

Borrowing the enjoyment of features from other games is also an option. With fond memories of the fun of a particular feature in a game, let's pay homage with love.

"Shoot" and "make explosions to defeat enemies while using the blast to adjust player's trajectory and dodge enemies" game, BOMB UP ¹⁴
"Shoot" and "destroy enemy tanks, but you can also make holes in the ground to dodge enemy bullets" game, GRENADIER ¹⁵
"Shoot" and "jump, creating obstacles on the ground, but collecting items allows you to shoot and destroy those obstacles" game, R WHEEL ¹⁶

As shown above, packing too many gimmicks into the act of shooting can confuse players. It's fine for small games, but it's best avoided in general shooting games.

How are these ideas based on "shoot" and "do something" keywords useful in creating shmups? For example, they can be helpful in considering the core mechanics that represent a shmup. Here, core mechanics refer to defining mechanisms that characterize the game, such as the liberation beam in Metal Black or the chain bonus in Radiant Silvergun. Setting impactful core mechanics can help differentiate the game.

They can also be used to come up with special gimmicks for stages or bosses. Rather than core mechanics that apply throughout the entire game, incorporating these ideas into mechanisms that occur in specific parts of the game, such as certain stages or bosses, can add variety to the game's progression. For example, the Gradius series provides players with new experiences in each stage by having core gimmicks for each stage.

I gave a talk on considering shooting game ideas based on "shoot" and "do something." If this article can inspire readers to think that creating slightly unusual shooting games might be interesting, I'd be delighted. By not being constrained by the genre framework of shooting games and taking on game design with a free mindset, we can expand the possibilities of shooting games. By delivering fresh surprises to players, showing them that shooting games can be enjoyed in such ways, the fan base for shooting games will grow further. Shooting games have a long history as a genre. That's why I hope we can pass on their fun and potential to the next generation.