(WIP) Wild West Shooter

[Tobe]

edit: added bigger version of the main character
I know I'm suppose to be working on Vertical Adventure, but I had a vision of this simple shooter game, I can't stop myself from not making a mock up screen shot.
Anyway, I was playing Wild Guns on my snes emulator, so I thought I did do something similar. I ended up coming with the idea of a cross between the 3rd person shooter and Space Invader. Enemies will appear on screen around the top portion, and the player can shoot or take cover behind the "sand bag". If the sand bag got hit too many times, it disappear.

Well... at least that's the idea so far. I'm thinking how the gameplay can be more interesting while not increasing the work load too much. If it's possible, I hope to make this more then just a mock up 

Here's the artwork.
     
It's incomplete at the moment, hence the character is standing in his still position, and there seems to be many error all around. There's also alot of empty area that I want to fill up with.

Added: character design sketch

Giant pistols on his back

[ndchristie]

it's nice but i think your tiles ae relying way too much on the square, which ends up flattening the playing field and ruining any sense of pespective.  there's no need t obreak them up so regularly!

[Mathias]

So, do you fail when the enemies get to you? Like Space Invaders. What will your equivelant of the flying saucer be?

You're mixing Old West and industrial environments I see, or at least it looks that way. I find this odd. I assume the plot will explain it, though.

Beautiful gfx so far. They have a nice polish.

[Tobe]

it's nice but i think your tiles ae relying way too much on the square, which ends up flattening the playing field and ruining any sense of pespective.  there's no need t obreak them up so regularly!

Do you mean that there's too many square objects, and I should add in more organic stuff? I know the perspective looks bad at the moment, and I definitely hopes to correct this. Right now, I have problem with the slight top camera view, especially to match the character style I want to go for.

So, do you fail when the enemies get to you? Like Space Invaders. What will your equivalent of the flying saucer be?
You're mixing Old West and industrial environments I see, or at least it looks that way. I find this odd. I assume the plot will explain it, though.

frankly, I haven't exactly plan out the game design at the moment, since it was more of something I did on impulse. The thing I actually borrowed from Space invader was actually the destructible cover, and maybe losing when the enemy reaches you. As of wave of enemies, they probably appears like the arcade 3rd person shooter instead.

As for the theme, I find Wild West alone to be kinda restrictive, so I added industrial stuff and hopefully some robots like we have in Wild Guns. Anyway, robots are probably easier to animate then humans, so yea...haha. On a side note though, maybe this post isn't as interesting, but is it just me, or is the whole cowboy and wild west theme less attractive. I realize the comments on this thread is lesser then my others. I wouldn't usually mind, but I'm hoping to take buyers into consideration too. What do you guys think?

[Mathias]

Oh I see. Yeah, I never really have liked wild west themes. I typically don't like westerns. I didn't even like the wild west themed level from TMNT: Turtles in Time, hehe. So spicing it up with modern elements is good.

[ndchristie]

i mean that particularly your floor tiles make the grid extremely obvious, and not only that, but making a large number of intersecting perpendiculars (squares, crosses) instantaneously flattens and distorts space, which is generally not something you want in a game unless the grid is important (i.e. a game like warsong)

[Tobe]

i mean that particularly your floor tiles make the grid extremely obvious, and not only that, but making a large number of intersecting perpendiculars (squares, crosses) instantaneously flattens and distorts space, which is generally not something you want in a game unless the grid is important (i.e. a game like warsong)

I see what you mean. My idea was that the character moves left and right by grid, rather by pixel. So every time you press the direction, he jumps to the next grid. But since I pretty much created the images on the go, the idea ended up neither here nor there.I will take note on my next try though.

Oh I see. Yeah, I never really have liked wild west themes. I typically don't like westerns. I didn't even like the wild west themed level from TMNT: Turtles in Time, hehe. So spicing it up with modern elements is good.

To be honest, this is 1 of the few times I worked on western theme myself. I'm thinking of changing the theme entirely, seeing how it's not getting attention despite just in the idea phase.