3D Rail Shooters
by Jerane Alleyne · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 01/05/2006 (2:12 am) · 15 replies
I have been going over ideas for a new game once our current project is finished....in this case somethign that would be fairly simple and take much less time to put together. Not long ago I was thinking about those "on rails" style shooters, such as Starblade, the Panzer Dragoon series, the original Star Wars arcade game, even After Burner and Space Harrier(both of which sega recently remade). I've seen so many top-down and side-scrolling shooters, and was curious why there have been no rail shooters done on the same level of conbsistency, at least to my knowledge.
I'm seriously considering this as a project to undertake. With the experience from working with Torque, and what we have done for our game so far, this seems like creating something like this would not be too difficult (relatively of course ;).
I would like to know if anyone else has considered doing this type of game. With so many side-scrolling shooter games out there, I would figure this might be an attractive alternative, given much of Torque's inhierant abilities.
Later ;)
I'm seriously considering this as a project to undertake. With the experience from working with Torque, and what we have done for our game so far, this seems like creating something like this would not be too difficult (relatively of course ;).
I would like to know if anyone else has considered doing this type of game. With so many side-scrolling shooter games out there, I would figure this might be an attractive alternative, given much of Torque's inhierant abilities.
Later ;)
#2
yep. my first game will be a shooter of this sort.
01/05/2006 (6:56 am)
"I would like to know if anyone else has considered doing this type of game. "yep. my first game will be a shooter of this sort.
#4
I've played Panzer Dragoon 1 for Sega Saturn and Panzer Dragoon Orta for Xbox and I'm a huge fan of the series. I'm an even bigger fan of the Star Fox series (except for the two on Game Cube) because I believe the gameplay is slightly more exciting. I love spinning and dodging enemy attacks and quickly countering with my own. In Panzer Dragoon, it's a little harder to dodge attacks because of the lack of stunts you can pull off. It's just a lot slower, but still great. I think Torque would be perfect for this type of game. If your serious and fully able to make this idea come to life Jerane, and could use what I have to offer, send me a line. My email address is in my profile.
-Ajari-
P.S. Jerane, I just did some research on you and your game Event Alpha. You seem to be fully capable :)
01/05/2006 (7:58 am)
I'm dying to make an on rails shooter. I have been for a very long time. One of my favorite genres of all time. The thing is I have little to offer but ideas, some "decent" concept sketches, while my specialty is music and sound effects though so I would't have a problem helping out in that department either. I have some simple 2D game ideas we are working on until we work ourselves up to a full 3D on rails shooter. That's our plan for now. I would like to get our 3D modeller involved as she's made some great fighter designs in the past, but she is a little fed up with me switching ideas (I hate it too but we gotta make sure we choose the best game idea that we could realistically pull off) and is hard at work painting backgrounds for our upcoming 2D experamental game, and finishing up a web site to promote my music services. I've played Panzer Dragoon 1 for Sega Saturn and Panzer Dragoon Orta for Xbox and I'm a huge fan of the series. I'm an even bigger fan of the Star Fox series (except for the two on Game Cube) because I believe the gameplay is slightly more exciting. I love spinning and dodging enemy attacks and quickly countering with my own. In Panzer Dragoon, it's a little harder to dodge attacks because of the lack of stunts you can pull off. It's just a lot slower, but still great. I think Torque would be perfect for this type of game. If your serious and fully able to make this idea come to life Jerane, and could use what I have to offer, send me a line. My email address is in my profile.
-Ajari-
P.S. Jerane, I just did some research on you and your game Event Alpha. You seem to be fully capable :)
#5
Several months ago, someone released a demo called Leave No Survivors, which was created with TGE. If I remember correctly, several of the missions were "rails" type levels.
Aaron E.
01/05/2006 (9:28 am)
Hi,Several months ago, someone released a demo called Leave No Survivors, which was created with TGE. If I remember correctly, several of the missions were "rails" type levels.
Aaron E.
#6
01/05/2006 (10:24 am)
Sin and Punishment is one of my favorite rail shooters. It had horrible voice acting (though for a Japanese release, all the VA was in English so I didn't have to think during cut-scenes) but in true Treasure fashion, the gameplay was excellent. It used to be a pretty expensive "rare" game for the N64, but I think the trend ended since I've seen it show up for really good prices on EBay and various import sites.
#7
The vector-based Star Wars arcade game was one of the first video games I had ever played, so that style kinda stuck with me. I do like the free form games as well, but I think that rail shooters do provide a different experience.
@Ajari: We're still in developer hell right now, so it'll be a while before we are ready to start on this new thing, but it is definitely somethign I'd like to pursue when we're ready. Would definitely like to hear your ideas then ;)
The type of game I was thinking about definitely fall more into the realm of Starfox than Panzer Dragoon. One of my favorite levels was the one where you were takiing on the large battle ships. Have you ever played Galaxy Force 2 in the arcades? The music and the atmosphere of that game was really great. I found the emulator for that game and pull it out every so often :D
Its good to see that there are interested in doing this type of game!
01/05/2006 (3:24 pm)
@Jason: XBox Arcade is an idea for sure, tho I wouldn't count out a PC one as well ;) The vector-based Star Wars arcade game was one of the first video games I had ever played, so that style kinda stuck with me. I do like the free form games as well, but I think that rail shooters do provide a different experience.
@Ajari: We're still in developer hell right now, so it'll be a while before we are ready to start on this new thing, but it is definitely somethign I'd like to pursue when we're ready. Would definitely like to hear your ideas then ;)
The type of game I was thinking about definitely fall more into the realm of Starfox than Panzer Dragoon. One of my favorite levels was the one where you were takiing on the large battle ships. Have you ever played Galaxy Force 2 in the arcades? The music and the atmosphere of that game was really great. I found the emulator for that game and pull it out every so often :D
Its good to see that there are interested in doing this type of game!
#8
I prefer Panzer to starfox, guess its the whole fantasy side of thigns i love, plus being able to shoot left /right and behind is a cool element.
01/05/2006 (4:31 pm)
A rail shooter is agreat idea, definetely something we might be interested in pursuing once illumina is out the door.I prefer Panzer to starfox, guess its the whole fantasy side of thigns i love, plus being able to shoot left /right and behind is a cool element.
#9
@Ian: Yeah I do prefer Panzer's invironments and atmosphere over Star Fox's too. It's more serious and deeper. The very first time I played PD for Saturn over my uncles house I was struck by the first stage music. I've never heard a real orchestra in a game before that. And while the graphics were horrible to me even back then (I was dead set on the N64...what a dissapointment...) the scenery and atmosphere pulled me deeper into the game and I've been a fan ever since.
-Ajari-
01/06/2006 (7:23 am)
@Jerane: I've never heard of Galaxy Force before. I probably have it on MAME. I'll look for it when I get home. In Star Fox, I would have to say that is my favorite level as well. When the music changes into a serious dark, dangerous sounding theme with the military snare drums kicking in right before you go inside of the battle ship and it starts shooting at you. That impressed me the most. In Star Fox 64 I'd say I enjoyed the battles with Star Wolf the best. I liked the dogfighting and shit talking that went on during those stages. Also, it was really satisfying to shut them up. Whenever your ready just let me know.@Ian: Yeah I do prefer Panzer's invironments and atmosphere over Star Fox's too. It's more serious and deeper. The very first time I played PD for Saturn over my uncles house I was struck by the first stage music. I've never heard a real orchestra in a game before that. And while the graphics were horrible to me even back then (I was dead set on the N64...what a dissapointment...) the scenery and atmosphere pulled me deeper into the game and I've been a fan ever since.
-Ajari-
#10
-Broken_Sword-
04/10/2006 (9:05 pm)
I'm was considering of making it, but I'm an Illustrator not a programmer. Perhaps someone could give me an idea how this can be done? Should I stick a Camera to a path, then parent a bounding box on the camera, so that the player object able to move only within the bounding box/vamera view? -Broken_Sword-
#11
05/02/2006 (7:10 am)
@Broken Sword Did you get any further in this idea? If you have time I would love to bounce some ideas off of you. As I am working a Starfox like rail shooter. Would you be able to email me? big _ Mojo at yahoo.com. There is an underscore between big and mojo
#12
05/06/2006 (9:50 pm)
Any movement on this at all?
#13
-Broken_Sword-
05/14/2006 (10:17 pm)
There is.... Broken_Sword! I lost my way around this Torque Scripting... I don't know what to do to make what I want to see. I forgot to tick "Notify Me" box.... sorry :(-Broken_Sword-
#14
07/18/2006 (12:49 am)
I forgot to hit the notify me button as well does anyone have any suggestions for this at all? I could use the help..
#15
This is what I could think of... setup some camera paths and several zones..., say we start from A when the player hit fire, the camera/car/dragon/cart will move immediately from initial point to a trigger zone1. until a certain condition are met then goto trigger zone 2, and so on... but this won't be as smooth as panzer dragoon. I don't mind Time Crisis Style, but I want to see more panzer dragoon style (mounting player on the top of another player, in this case.. a dragon).
the coding part... well.. I'm still going through GPGT................ i don't know how to plan the code... I don't know how to start the code, it's like I'm walking in a broad-daylight while hitting walls.... that's fine.. I'm fully insured :D ha ha ha
07/18/2006 (8:38 am)
Hi there,This is what I could think of... setup some camera paths and several zones..., say we start from A when the player hit fire, the camera/car/dragon/cart will move immediately from initial point to a trigger zone1. until a certain condition are met then goto trigger zone 2, and so on... but this won't be as smooth as panzer dragoon. I don't mind Time Crisis Style, but I want to see more panzer dragoon style (mounting player on the top of another player, in this case.. a dragon).
the coding part... well.. I'm still going through GPGT................ i don't know how to plan the code... I don't know how to start the code, it's like I'm walking in a broad-daylight while hitting walls.... that's fine.. I'm fully insured :D ha ha ha
Torque Owner Jason Farmer
But saying as Torque works on XBox360, perhaps there's room for a rail based shooter in the mould of Panzer Dragoon... just not too close a clone eh? :-)
Personally, I've never been a fan (Rez being the only exception) of this genre, I like the freedom to go where I like which is why I never got on with simple racing games, always preferring the free-form games like Midtown Madness and GTA (even in it's 2D incarnation)
But, the Indi scene has opportunities for all kinds of games, so why not give it a shot. As you are well aware, Torque can do it. It has a nice path system.. you'd need to do some work to constrain your movement to a path, so you can move about a bit.. unless you were thinking about having a game purely about being a gunner on the back of a jeep shooting the aliens or having the player moving from fixed point to fixed point like in Time Crisis. This can all be done with the stock engine I think.