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Boghog

@boghogstg.bsky.social

2K followers 230 following 2.4K posts

I'm a gamedev (he/him) Working on ARMED DECOBOT | Mechanical Star Astra. Game designer for Gunvein I also have a game design blog/patreon & make vids : https://www.patreon.com/c/Boghogooo https://www.youtube.com/@boghogSTG

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Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · Oct 19

Since I'm new to bluesky - I'm working on ARMED DECOBOT, a game where throw dudes into dudes, my favorite thing in gaming. You also shoot & punch dudes, which are my other favorite things in gaming. It's a top down shmup/beat em up hybrid

store.steampowered.com/app/3159150/...

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Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · 11h

Was really disappointed when I realized thats what its gonna be. The games good but its like Maldita Castilla where it suggests that its a successor to an arcade series but then BOOM, C O N S O L E D E S I G N

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Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · 17h

Rolling Thunder = Namco arcade games
Rolling Bird = free indie clone of RT with procedurally generated levels
Classic Shinobi = Shinobi 1, Shadow Dancer (arcade & genesis), Revenge

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Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · 17h

Yea not too into Shinobi 3. Mechanically it's not bad and has some fun commitment to it and stuff, but the game itself either does not capitalize on it at all, or only capitalizes on the platforming but not combat (final stage). Only the falling rocks stage felt like it was tailored to the game

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Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · 17h

But why bother if you have the NES version which is an improvement to the original by being static, having progression & being easy as shit : D

Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · 17h

Yeah no kidding, though a lot of genres are like that I guess. But run n guns drifting towards boss fights doomed the development of the genre completely

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Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · 18h

And of course that's just shuffling around existing mechanics, there's plenty of room to build on them with more unique actions/interactions, more enemy type variety/complex behaviors, more complex dynamic terrain, diff types of resources, etc.

Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · 18h

Yup, and Rolling Thunder 2/Rolling Bird show that there's a lot of room there to go in both directions. Where RT2's final stage doubles down on methodical ammo management & routing, while RB randomizes enemy spawns & level layouts to test your ability to track enemies & create stage "heat maps"

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Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · 18h

Also makes it even more tragic that the new Shinobi went in the direction it did. There's so much space to explore in the classic Shinobi games that got completely buried by Shinobi 3 and people's obsession with MECHANICS FREEDOM LARGE POSSIBILITY SPACE COMBOZ SYNERGIES etc.

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Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · 18h

Every action has unique commitment, every state has meaning, every bit of terrain/combo means something unique, the games create a huge amount of permutations by changing up very simple pieces. And wouldn't you know, it works extremely well as both strict memorizers (RT2's final stage) & procgen

Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · 18h

Rolling Bird & its contrast with Rolling Thunder 1-2 really highlighted that RT has IMO the best run n gun mechanics ever and how much of a shame it is that the mostly ignored classic Shinobi & Rolling Bird are the only games that truly built on that style in any way.

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Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · 20h

....that said I don't think indie devs should take that to mean that all games should have combos as advertising. I think the lesson is that people love discrete short clips showing something cool in a very clear well framed manner they can understand. Whether that's parrying a nuke or combos

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Boghog @boghogstg.bsky.social · 20h

Twitter LOVES short combo vids it's the perfect fit for that format. That's why you see so many games seemingly start as test rooms with practice dummies & combos, rather than actual combat

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