Which genres would you like to see covered on Minis?

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Which genres would you like to see covered on Minis?

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Started 1 year ago by evanac
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evanac
Member

Hey guys,

We've come to an end on 'Ace Armstrong vs. the Alien Scumbags!' now, barring any Sony issues that may crop up, and while we have a couple of new projects already lined up, I am curious to see which genres you feel aren't adequately covered on the Minis section of the Store.

It seems to me like we're already well provided for in terms of puzzle, board and strategy games, but platform games, shooters (although this is changing) and racing games are pretty under-served.

So, which games, or what original kinds of games would you like to see and why? You never know, this could well influence our decisions regarding new titles into 2011! :)

I'm really interested to see what you might come up with - although I already have a few ideas and preferences of my own, obviously... ;)

Cheers,

Al - Laughing Jackal

Posted 1 year ago #
THOTH
Member

Definitely a fine tuned platformer, a la Prinny; a platformer that's challenging and has tight controls. There are few and far between GOOD platformers no matter what system you play so if you guys made a good platformer I would be ecstatic!!

Posted 1 year ago #
evanac
Member

Yeah, a great platformer is something I've always wanted to work on.

I actually quite like the idea of a Contra-style game, maybe with Ace Armstrong on foot? Who knows! :)

Posted 1 year ago #
ian1537
Member

tower defense

Posted 1 year ago #
onmode-ky
Member

Eh? I thought there were already several tower defense games on the PSP, even in the Minis program alone.

Turn-based RPGs are not well represented in Minis. Of course, maybe this is because people don't want to play them anymore. :( I don't think there are any flight simulators, either (I mean along the lines of X-Wing and TIE Fighter), though there is the non-Mini No Gravity. And, point-and-click adventures . . . really don't work too well on the PSP, do they? There's no point even bringing up text adventures.

Posted 1 year ago #
ianmt
Member

Yes indeed onmode-ky! I used to love TIE fighter on our old PC. I'd like to see some more Car/Racing games. Anyone remember Vroom from the Amiga? That game was so basic but so accurate it was amazing. I think we could do with something with more emphasis on the gameplay.

Check it out:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw5OfQjUxt4

Posted 1 year ago #
Carson
Member

I actually quite like the idea of a Contra-style game, maybe with Ace Armstrong on foot? Who knows!

I like the idea too.
For whatever reason, I really like side scrolling shooters on foot.
I love jumping over the enemy charging at me, so I can turn around and blast them from behind! I love crouching beneath enemy beams that are being fired by a massive turret as I button-mash the fire button, watching the whole turret light up repeatedly to unrealistically indicate a successful hit with each blow, until the turret finally explodes! Gosh, its a great genre!
I vote for contra style shooter.

Posted 1 year ago #
thumbbandit
Member

Action RPGs are very thin on the ground... I've sugested this before and someone mentioned Steam Pirates, but that looks like a turn based RPG.
Forget Contra, Gunstar Heroes, that's what I want.
Also what about SRPG like Vandal Hearts or Front Mission 3 on the PS1.

Posted 1 year ago #
THOTH
Member

Just checked out your 'Ace Armstrong vs. the Alien Scumbags!' video and it looks great! I think a contra style game would be a good project to start on. Contra 4 was awesome and I loved the addition of challenges aside from the main story. If you guys took Ace and had him wreck his ship so he's forced to blast his way through aliens, add platforming, and maybe trophies and challenges I would definitely play it.

I co-sign with Thumbbandit too. An action RPG would be my next choice with puzzle elements. That's another genre sorely lacking in good games.

Posted 1 year ago #
JeremyR
Member

The trouble with making an action RPG, is that there are a bazillion UMD games that are ARPGs (I'm exaggerating only slightly). Untold Legends 1 & 2, X-men 2, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 & 2, Warriors of the Lost Empire (just released on PSN), Dungeon Explorer, Dungeon Maker 1&2, Alien Syndrome, Dungeon Siege. Those are all hack & slash dungeon crawlers. (Also Silverfall if you live in Europe)

Then you have stuff like PSP (2 coming soon), Valhalla Knights (3 different versions), the YS series, Tales of the World: RM, even Crisis Core that are a little more than ARPGs, but still basically ARPGs.

Anyway, some ideas that we haven't seen:

Vertical retro shooter - like Galaga or Gorf or Galaxian or Space Invaders or Phoenix or Pleiades

Space combat game - Something like Elite is probably asking for too much, but something like Wing Commander or X-Wing in terms of gameplay. (Ghosting would be horrible on the 1000-2000 though)

Similarly, a simple FPS like Doom or Wolfenstein. Those games didn't have aiming, so the lack of two nubs wouldn't hurt.

Side-scrolling bike racer like Excitebike

Choplifter clone (Fort Apocalypse on the C-64 is one of my favorite games, ever)

Canasta/Hearts/Spades/Gin Rummy. - There's three card related Minis, poke and 2 solitaire. You could use characters from your games as opponents. (Well, I think Ace Armstrong is the only game with characters. But maybe the Sumo from Vibes). Probably not fun to make, but I would love to buy this.

Posted 1 year ago #
onmode-ky
Member

JeremyR, I see you're a fan of the static-screen vertical shooter. I generally prefer the scrolling kind, but I've played a few of the static ones. I think Galaga would be my favorite of those. Those damned birds in Phoenix drove me nuts. Are you familiar with Satan's Hollow?

You could use characters from your games as opponents.

Hmm. Characters from Minis that I can think of:

Newton and Sookie, the hamsters from The Flying Hamster
Clawrence, from Coconut Dodge
The Count, from Monsters (Probably) Stole My Princess
Barry Steakfries, from Age of Zombies
Freek, from Freekscape: Escape from Hell
Charlie, from Echoes
McFly and Kate Moth, from Fly Fu
Thor, from Young Thor

Well, I'm going to stop the list here, but where I'm going with this is that I think it would be pretty cool if, once we have a nice set of Minis characters, we had a crossover game. Japanese developers make these every now and then, but I don't think we've ever really had anything similar from Western developers. A mega-indie crossover seems like it would be a fun concept, to me. Of course, what to do for gameplay . . .. Some of the Japanese ones have been fighting games (Capcom vs. SNK, Street Fighter vs. Tekken, Dissidia, Tales of VS, Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki), and some have been RPGs or RPG-ish (Namco X Capcom, Chaos Wars, Cross Edge, Trinity Universe). Maybe we ought to buck those trends and do something, y'know, indie. :P

But, please, don't make it a Match-3.

Posted 1 year ago #
Carson
Member

Jeremy was referring to LJ's games, not Minis in particular, I'm sure there would be licensing issues (or something of the sort) involved if they tried.
but assuming they got permission, using characters other minis is actually a really cool idea, even if they were just in eastereggs (IE. A hidden Barry Steakfies poster, or a Clawerence trophy that falls from the sky at one point (the player would take damage if it hit them)).
I know we'd certainly like it!

Posted 1 year ago #
onmode-ky
Member

Yeah, licensing is the worst roadblock to all crossover games. But, maybe it would be easier to deal with if the game were strictly not-for-profit? I.e., Sony makes a Minis-promo game, free on the PS Store, featuring a bunch of Minis characters. In addition to the characters themselves, the game gives info and screenshots for the games from which they come. The legal agreements would just be like, "We agree to allow SCEA/E to use X character(s), owned by our Y company, for the Project A(-ko) game and only that game, with the assurance that the game will be free for all PSN users, and no revenues will be generated for any parties involved. We retain all ownership rights to X character(s)." This way, no one but Sony spends any non-lawyer money, and there's some publicity (and hopefully even a good game from Sony). The only downside I can think of is that there's no way Sony could have it advertise every existing Mini, so there might be some perception of favoritism. Oh, and it couldn't be a fighting game, because someone would end up as the crappy character.

Just an idea. A man can dream.

Posted 1 year ago #
Solo the Hutt
Member

how about Horror genre?

Posted 1 year ago #
Freelance
Member

All I want are more pinball games and vertical SHMUPS. It's good that we already have 1 pinball games, but to date there is not a single vertical SHMUP, yet there are several horizontal ones in the works. I am a sad panda.

Posted 1 year ago #
pspgamer01
Member

PLS Make this... A classic survival zombie shooter!!

Posted 1 year ago #
FuturLab
Member

@Freelance

We make Panda's happy ;)

Posted 1 year ago #
ian1537
Member

i really enjoy first person shoters and if someone could make something like nazi zombies i would be very happy.

Posted 1 year ago #
Takao
Member

I really do play a bunch of stuff so I can't say. But I can say what wouldn't be a smart idea to make, a tower defense game, a mahjong game, a sidescrolling shooter, and a match 3 game.

Something I'd love to see developers play with, is the idea of Augmented Reality. Things like Invizimals, and Eyepet only get made because of their commercial appeal, but I'd love to see a smaller developer take a more out there approach. However, this would be unlikely to happen due to the differences between the PlayStation Eye, and the PSP's camera, as well as the fact that both peripherals have rather low tie-ratios.

Posted 1 year ago #
onmode-ky
Member

It appears FuturLab have revealed the axis orientation of their shooter. Speaking of which, if it scrolls in the negative-Y direction, is it called a shmdown?

I see Takao has thinly veiled a suggestion for a side-scrolling tower defense match-3 mahjong shooter. Your player ship is a set of auto-firing towers whose orientation you choose at the beginning of each stage and which you have to navigate in locked formation as the terrain scrolls, and the enemies are floating mahjong pieces which can only be destroyed if 3 of the same type are shot within 5 seconds of each other (and, of course, chaining builds a score multiplier, yadda yadda yadda). Instant masterpiece!

Incidentally, Takao, I hope you'll take this as the constructive criticism it's meant to be: the commas in your previous post after the words "with," "Invizimals," and "Eye" are grammatically incorrect and should not be there. For the first one, a subject and a predicate should not be divided by a comma, and for the latter two, two-member compound nouns ("x and y" constructions) do not use commas. Sorry for the nitpicking; I'm not singling you out intentionally. I've just been getting ticked off of late by the new Jeep TV commercial that writes on the screen, "The things we make, make us." Some people advocate splitting double words with commas, but that's a clear case of splitting subject and predicate with a comma, which is simply ridiculous. Improper written English on TV! Thanks, Jeep!

Posted 1 year ago #
Freelance
Member

@FuturLab

You sure made me a happy panda. Looking forward for more news.

Posted 1 year ago #
thumbbandit
Member

@Takao
I said to Ofaliss that "there were no grammer nazis here"... looks like I was wrong.

I'm watching you onmode-ky lol.
;)

Posted 1 year ago #
volcane
Member

It appears FuturLab have revealed the axis orientation of their shooter.

Awesome awesome awesome :-)

Posted 1 year ago #
volcane
Member

I'd love to see a great FPS, something Doom-esque.

Likewise, there is plenty of scope for a nice racing game. How about a Wipeout-type game?

Love the idea of a side-scrolling shooter featuring Ace Armstrong on foot!

Posted 1 year ago #
Takao
Member

@onmode-ky
Haha, well, I do know I have a problem with my commas. I often read my posts multiple times and place a comma where I feel a rest should be.

As for FPS games, I don't think they'd work on Minis. The audience for those games are usually enamored in big name franchises, and rarely touch anything else. Not only that, as Minis are cross-compatible between PSP and PS3, there would be an issue with the controls. Many have complained about the few FPS games on the PSP because of the lack of another analog stick forcing the camera to be mapped to buttons. This isn't going to fly at all when someone who owns a PS3 plays the game and finds out they're only allowed to use one analog stick.

Posted 1 year ago #
evanac
Member

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the posts so far. I seem to be picking up that vertically aligned 'static' shooters (something I already have the beginnings of an idea for!) and 2.5D FPS's are the way forward! ;)

We've got a couple of things in the pipeline at present, but after that we may well do something along these lines - keep the ideas coming in the meantime though!

Thanks again. It's always nice to get people thinking... :)

Posted 1 year ago #
Freelance
Member

Well when I said I wanted vertical SHMUPs, I mean ones that actually scroll, like Twinbee and Star Soldier.

Posted 1 year ago #
Solo the Hutt
Member

@pspgamer

what game is that in the pic?

Posted 1 year ago #
Balrog
Member

The genre i'd like to see most is a platformer like Mario where you jump on people's heads :)

Posted 1 year ago #
Freelance
Member

@Solo the Hutt

I'm pretty sure that's Zombie Shooter.

Posted 1 year ago #

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