Turning Laser Defender into My First Attempt at a Full Game (Pt. 4)
If I were to include a real narrative in this game, here are a few things I would almost certainly do: Stakes: Two pilots talk to one another at the beginning of the game, between each of the 5 stages, and at the end of the game. I am extremely glad I spend a great deal of time on this game. Well.
In this last section, I'll briefly discuss some of the design elements I haven't covered and also provide some final impressions of what I've learnt overall.
Narrative: The Shortest Section
Yeah… this shouldn’t be the shortest section considering what I've been responsible for with my tabletop experience. All I can say is that it just wasn’t the focus of this project. I was more interested in expanding my knowledge both around engineering and creating art.
There is a story here, it’s just flat and uninteresting.
If I were to include a real narrative in this game, here are a few things I would almost certainly do:
Stakes:
Two pilots talk to one another at the beginning of the game, between each of the 5 stages, and at the end of the game. There is more than enough room for me to create a story with stakes.
One idea I have is to make both characters more connected to one particular world. Maybe if the player saves enough escape pods from a given world they are saving someone or something important to one of the pilots. This is a way I could connect the narrative to both gameplay as well.
Another idea is to give each of the bosses relevance in the story. I took the time to make 5 different bosses with very different mechanics. I could easily create a story tie to the pilots, game world, over-arching story.
Oddly enough, making this game was a constant reminder of the importance of narrative. I realize that classic shmups don’t always have much of one, with plenty of exceptions like Spriggan Mark 2 which has some very long dialogue sequences for any game of that era.
In fact, I have already created the basis for a narrative: opening background story, a solar system with named planets and organizations, two pilots (in desperate need of personality… sheesh!), and a fairly diverse set of enemies.
Additionally, the gameplay is already set up for narrative: “Save and work alongside the peoples of a solar system while fighting off their oppressors.” It already isn’t just “blow up everything on the screen.”
A great narrative is absolutely possible in this game- it just needs a lot of thoughtful writing and some elbow grease! I'll probably map this out as an exercise in the near future.
Music & Sound
This is yet another section that I did not spend a great deal of time on, maybe half a week? Again, it just wasn't my focus the first time around.
As I mentioned above, music is actually an area in which I have a fair amount of experience. However, there was still a very significant learning curve as I had no experience in sound engineering.
So, I had a big choice to make- what software to use? I ended up being extremely happy with my decision. I have found FL Studio to be extremely user-friendly and easy to learn.
https://nightlakegamestudio.itch.io/aether-runTake care and good luck with all your projects!
Nick
nick@nightlakestudios.com