Environments

Probably my favorite linear shooter of all time is R-Type Final for the Playstation 2.  It was hard, I never got very far, but it provided a great shooter experience with varied level design and fantastic encounters.  Before that it was Einhander, which also had great environments and a fantastic weapon pick-up system and progression.

We won't be able to employ such graphical wonders in our small game, but environmental progression is just as important as player progression.

In each level there will be many enemies to shoot down in waves of destruction.  There will also be mini-bosses scattered within each level that, upon destroying them, will signal an environment change.  We plan to have 2-3 environment changes within each level after a mini-boss, this will keep each level fresh as we approach our 10-minute play-time goal for each level.

We've implemented these "scene changes" to be customizable signals to tell the environment how to move to "progress" to the next area.  In the screenshots below show how the scene changes from mid-city to above the city into the clouds, once the player defeats the first mini-boss.

Above the background tilts up as the camera moves up into the sky after defeating the first mini-boss.

The player is now fighting the next waves of enemies high above in the clouds.