For the 7DRL this year I'd like to put together a 'comic action game' and roguelike hybrid for my niece. So I've been researching some of the better games in that genre to see what makes them tick. If you don't know the type I'm talking about, the defining game is Bubble Bobble. Snow Bros, Don Doko Don, Mario Brothers, Nightmare in the Dark, Zupapa and Fairyland Stories are also examples.
Like any identifiable genre of games, there are a couple of things each of these games have in common.
1. Single Screen
2. Multiplayer
3. Platformer w/jump through platforms
4. Bright Cartoony graphics, sound and music.
5. Kill the baddies, get to the next level.
6. 2 step process to killing bad guys.
It's that last one, #6, that is the most interesting. Each one of the games has a 2 step process for defeating the enemies. The first step somehow disables the enemy, the second kills the enemy. Sometimes you have to kill in a special way to get the enemy to drop loot and prizes.
For example Bubble Bobble's process is this: 1. Encase in bubble, 2. Pop Bubble and chase down the fruit. Mario Brothers does it similarly, pop the enemy from the bottom, then run up and kick them off the screen, then chase the coin that appears.
Snow Bros and Don Doko Don do it even better. You disable the enemy (with snow or with a hammer, respectively) then you can kick/throw the disabled enemy at other enemies. Only enemies killed by a thrown enemy drop loot. This adds a cool little twist to the game as you try your best to get a 'special kill' on an enemy for the loots.
I hope to take this formula and add procedurally generated levels, enemy placement, etc...maybe ditch some of the tropes, but definitely keep the double and triple layered kill procedure. Binding of Issac did the single screen procedural game fairly well but used an arena shooter game play instead of the comic action game play.
We'll see how it turns out. I think my niece will like this sort of game, and if it turns out really lame that's okay. 7DRL is good for experimentation.
