   My first written design (Unfinished)
  Project KyuuiGenre: Vertical Shoot ‘em up (Shmup)Console: Arcade/PC (Undecided)Players: 2 PlayersType: Bullet HellDifficulty (Ranged)EasyMediumHardVery HardControlsThree controls are presented through the game.PC (Default Controls) A – Shoots (Hold A to use special weapon)S – Emergency button (Bomb/Laser/Etc…)D – Roll (Rolling allows for a fast evasion spin that has some invincible frames if timed right)Story Description and CharactersTsubasa – The former teacher of Dokusai and Ysashii. (Diseased)Dokusai – A group that believes in a world that’s ruled by a dictatorship. Their leader’s name is Taikai. (Early 60s)Taikai – The leader of Dokusai who is seeking out the Kyuui. Taikai is intelligent and is charming. He holds no bias against anyone, however, he will kill anyone that attempts to interfere with his plans.Jinsei – A small group of skilled pilots trained to fight against the Dokusai.Yasashii – An old man who is the leader of Jinsei and Mitsukai’s grandfather. He guides the Jinsei members where to go and has trained them to use their ships. For an old man, he is in good health. (Age: Mid 60s)Mitsukai – The grandson of Yasashii. Mitsukai’s parents (Who were rebellious against the Dokusai) were killed off by Taikai. Taikai had then delivered Mitsukai to Yasashii informing Yasashii that his son and daughter in law were now diseased. Mitsukai cares for his grandpa very much and wishes to help him defeat Dokusai and Taikai. Like his grandfather, Mitsukai is very kind, however, he is also sheepish and naïve. (Age: 19)Aiko – Aiko dreams of becoming an amazing pilot. After hearing of Yasashii’s skill as a former pilot, she had travelled to receive training from him. Aiko is a nomad and has no real home to go to, however, Yasashii continues to attempt to convince her to live with them. (Age: 18)Jack – Jack is Mitsukai’s friend whom had trained with him at a young age. They had become best friends over the years and are not too competitive with each other, however, their skills are well matched and like Mitsukai, he takes his training serious, however, Jack still keeps a sense of humor while trying to remember not to get his head filled with arrogance. Jack is like a second child to Yasashii, however, Jack’s real parents are still alive (But neglect Jack). (Age: 19)Storyline: The Dokusai are trying to find a lost ship called Kyuui. It’s up to a small group called the Jinsei to get to the ship first and stop them.ObjectivePrimary Objective: Complete the game while losing the fewest amount of lives they can.Secondary Objective (Optional): Try to gain as many points as possible to gain a high score.IntroductionThe introduction will start with artist CGs that will introduce the storyline through dialogue. First, Dokusai shall be shown commanding his army to search for the Kyuui. The crowd will be cheering and applauding their leader. Afterwards, it will switch to images of the Taikai alarm sounding off. The three teens are shown in the ship and the words “LET’S GO!” then showing the title screen “PROJECT KYUUI!” An option to skip this sequence is given by pressing the Enter button on PC (The 1 Player/2 Player button on an arcade cart.) When the title appears, the player can then, press start and enter the option screen.Option ScreenThe player is given different options to choose from such as starting the game, dodge mode, boss challenge mode, infinite looping mode, which each have their own scoring system.Choosing to start the game takes the player to the difficulty menu in which they can choose easy, medium, hard, or very hard depending on how difficult they want the game to be. Difficulty affects the amount of enemies in the game and the boss’s bullet patterns as well as their health. Afterwards, the player will then be able to choose their character (Characters only affect the dialogue throughout the game) and customize their ship.  The options available will be the speed of the ship, the ship’s bullet pattern (front range to wide range), the type of emergency button they want to use (Varying from bombs, lasers, and so on), and holding A (Shoot) to use a special ability or weapon or ability (Small laser, a shield, etc… which will be determined through a bar that they can be charged up by killing enemies. The bar goes up to 3 spaces, each bar allowing you to use your ability.)If the player is to choose boss challenge mode, they will face every boss without losing 1 continue (If they do, it’s game over). This feature must be unlocked by beating every boss in the game. After defeating all the bosses, it will go into a second loop of the bosses and they will become harder than before.Dodge mode will disable every weapon available (including shooting). The player will have no bombs, no weapons, and only the roll feature. The objective is to live as long as possible without dyeing.Infinite looping mode consists of the player going through a constant loop of different enemies and as the player progresses, there will become more variation and amount of enemies through the loop. The player will only have 1 continue and the rules are similar to the boss looping.This is my first design for a game so far. A friend of mine is a huge fan of Shoot Em Up games like this and I've found them to be a great way at starting a design. The story isn't that great due to the fact that most shmup fans aren't too interested in the storyline. Their number 1 concern is to get the highest score possible and/or to 1CC a level (Defeat the level without losing any continues). Their other concern is the gameplay as well of course, as a matter a fact, the storyline I have provided is just beyond standard line. Anyhow, the storyline is just there to give an excuse to why they're going out to fight.Please give all the critique you can. Just remember, it's UNFINISHED by quite a bit, I don't think it's anywhere near done because I have to discuss the enemy design, the character design, the hitbox on the planes, the design of the planes, the setup of each stage, the bullet patterns of the bosses, the gameplay style, etc... Also keep note that it looks a LOT cleaner on the file I wrote it on.   
  When designing a Shump, you have to put a fair amount of effort into the patterns of enemies (and their attacks), especially in Bullet Hell Shupms.The reason for this is in these games, this is what the player needs to be good at handling to achieve their goals. Mastering these paths is one of the key features of the Shump game genera, especially the Bullet Hell subgenera.When designing these patterns, you have to design them with specific movements that allow the player to do several things:1) Get out without being hit (if you have a damage system rather than a 1 hit kill system, then you will still need a way for the player to get out without taking any damage)2) Get the most kills/points3) Collect any powerups.The thing is, you don't need to have all of these on the one path through the enemies (although if you have a 1 hit kill, you will need to make sure that all paths you allow do not get the player killed).Also, with the powerups, if you have multiple powerups available in an enemy wave, you can also give individual paths that only allow the player to collect 1 of the powerups or allow paths to collect multiple powerups (or all of them).The size of these paths determines the difficulty of them. A wide path is easy and a narrow path is difficult (as it requires much more precise movement. Also, if you allow multiple paths through an enemy wave it is also easier.This also means you can have both easy and hard paths through a single wave. You might have an easy (wide with several ways through) path but it does not allow you to collect any powerups, or kill many enemies (get points), however, you can also include a harder (narrow and only a single way) path through that give you the maximum benefits (score, powerups, etc). This way a beginner can still play, but the expert players are rewarded for their efforts and sill.The big mistake many people make about Shumps is that they are just waves of enemies being sent doe the screen to the player and the player just needs to be quick with their trigger button. But in fact, shumps are highly complex games and have quite detailed and carefully designed enemy placement and movments.   