Mr. Turret [WIP] - Please suggest features/enemies!

http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/9662

Mr. Turret shoots down airborne threats to our way of life! Use the up and down arrows to aim, [space] to fire. You have a limited number of shots per stage. Run out without downing all targets and you'll lose a life. Let one of the targets cross the border and you'll lose a life.

WIP Notes (Updated 11.4.11)

-Around 20 stages, each one a little more difficult
-Several enemy types: birds, wavy moving birds, flying pigs, helicopters, and planes
-A few sound FX...will include more and some tunes before final release!

Features to add: calculate time bonus/limit, calculate extra shot (stage par) bonus, online leaderboards, and of course music and sound effects (duh).

Please let me know what features and enemies you would like to see in the final product, or just your general thoughts on the game. Big thanks to the Stencyl community for your support so far, you guys are pretty awesome! 
-Magicpegasus

Cool idea, I like that it's a bit more casual than the usual Missile Command clones.

That said, it's really difficult to tell if you're aimed correctly. And the farther away the birds (?) are from the turret, the more that difficulty level increases (since a small increase in angle results in a wide divergence at the distance). I stopped playing after the third level when my shot went through a wing...

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm liking that you see the casual Missile Command thing. I was playing with the idea of protecting ground targets in the later stages.

Also, the difficulty might need to ramp up more gradually. The birds are smaller targets and perhaps shouldn't be the first things you shoot at. Or shouldn't be placed at the far right early in the game.

I'm really digging the atari feel! As others have said, it is hard to judge the angle at large distances, and it is a bit too slow. Keep working on it, though! I definitely want to see this one refined and polished!

Hey magicpegasus, its a good start for that gametype. I played until scene 18, but there was only 1 enemytype, maybe i missunderstood the wip-notes. The physics are ok, but they could be a little more realistic.

These are just suggestions! =>

Here are my feature ideas:
1. Adjustment of the shootingpower.
2. Gravity, wind, rain ... that affect the bullets
3. Maybe some other bullettypes. 3 bullet shot, rocket, bouncyball...


By the way i have some ideas for you, for the next enemy/target types.
1. Balloons that slowly rises until they reach the top of the screen and disappear.
2. Discs that fly from one direction of the screen
3. Flying saucer, that makes wavy movements (had seen a behaviour for this in the forge)
4. Parachute or Umbrella, that has the opposite movement of a balloon, when it hits the ground it disappears.
5. Moving animals, maybe a squirrel that climbs on a tree. Also fruits on trees should be no problem.

You could also add another mode => Versus mode, where on the right side of the screen, an ai-player tries to shoot your targets before you, but i don't know how much work this needs

Thanks for the great suggestions! There are supposed to be three enemy types but maybe there's some problem...a bird, a green bird with wavy movements, and a flying pig.

The suggestions I'm definitely implementing:

bouncy bullets! (my favorite part of the Atari 2600 game Combat)
the rising enemy (I think it will be helicopters)
versus mode (not going to touch ai though, I have another idea...)

and probably most important of all, an aiming reticle. I like the Battleship feel of aiming based on the angle number and previous attempts, but I think based on the feedback I've received so far that some kind of concession should be made to take some of the guesswork out of aiming.

Well, back to the lab. Thanks again for checking out my project. And please let me know if some more thoughts pop up.
-MP

Why does pressing the down button, turn the cannon up?

@cloa513: To me, it made sense to invert the y axis for cannon control. It's like you're pushing the end of the cannon down to point the barrel up, like you would if you were standing in position behind a real cannon.

I would make the canon and bird bigger. Make the bird do some funny *** when it get hit. Up should be up. Thoughed it was a bug first. Would be nice to see the way the previous bullet went. Anyway this can become an awesome game. The base is ready.

@fotogeluid: I'm starting to think that the invert y control should be an option. I wanted to have mouse controls at one point, maybe that would work too. What do you mean it would be nice to see the way the bullet went?

What do you mean it would be nice to see the way the bullet went?

I'm sure it means that you could see where you shot last, so you could aim better next time.

You can make also some sort of upgrades.
ex:.
If level 10
 draw line 'x-center of cannon' 'y-center of cannon', 'x-center of cannon +cos*200' 'y-center of cannon +sin*200';
Set color (red);

That should make a red line long 200px that helps player to aim, like if he had a longer cannon.

Nice explosions!

@ silux: whoa, thanks for the tip! this may out me as a stupid, but i have no idea what the f sine and cosine do, and had trouble figuring out how to draw a "laser sight" for Mr. Turret. I will implement your suggestion soon!

No problem!
2 years ago i would say exactly what you said when someone would have suggested the same thing

 draw line 'x-center of cannon' 'y-center of cannon', 'x-center of cannon +cos(direction of self)*200' 'y-center of cannon +sin(direction of self)*200';
Set color (red);

sin() and cos() give the length ratio of a segment projected on a plane.
if the line is parallel to the plane cos() gives 1 and sin() gives 0.
if the line is lightly inclined to the plane cos() gives a number near 1 and sin() gives a number near 0.
if the line is strongly inclined to the plane cos() gives a number near 0 and sin() gives a number near 1.
if the line is perpendicular to the plane cos() gives 0 and sin() gives 1.