Today, I did some more thinking on the idea and have decided to tweak it a bit. Originally I was planning to make a shooting game where the player controls a cannon shooting things flying through the air. I wanted to try a cel shaded style, though, so I thought I'd make it cute. Today I was sitting in class and realized that shooting fireworks instead of missiles would be a lot more playful and match the art style better, and could actually lead to some really interesting gameplay.
I then spent the next few hours figuring out how to make a game about putting on a fireworks show. I've decided to call the game "Boom!" for now.
The Premise
The player controls a cannon that shoots fireworks into the sky above a watching crowd. The player can choose the firework color by moving the right analogue stick. Each of the four main buttons fires a different type of firework.
The main goal of the game is to keep the crowd happy during the performance, while carefully managing the number of fireworks used - each firework costs money, and the player only has a limited budget to work from. This means using all the fireworks up front will leave the rest of the show empty, and the audience will leave in disgust. The gameplay comes from choosing what fireworks to fire, when, and where to fire them.
Here is a graphic showing all of the elements of gamepay. Ignore the terrible art and the clutter of the screen - I wanted to get as much on there as possible just to show how everything works.
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| Concept for Boom! gameplay |
Pacing
Choosing the pace at which you shoot will be a very important part of gameplay. In the lower left corner of the screen, you'll notice there is a blue and yellow bar. This is represents the length of the show. In the blue sections, the audience is expecting a slower pace, and will be patient with longer times between fireworks. In the yellow sections, they expect a faster pace. If too long goes between nearby fireworks, their happiness will drop - and it will drop much faster during the yellow sections. The player will have to ration out their budget to keep the audience happy.
Location
Everyone wants to be able to see, so the player must make sure to spread fireworks over the whole field. Fireworks higher in the air have a larger range. Clouds appear and can block audience view, and must be dispelled by a firework. Leave a cloud too long, and it might start raining! Fireworks placed on top of each other give fewer points.
Combo
The player can string together certain types and colors of fireworks to create combos. For example, the player could use colors together to make the flag colors for the country the show is set in. Other combos might simulate shapes (flowers), explosions (three flash-bang style fireworks at once combo called "Bombs bursting in air"), etc.
Bonuses
The player will get a bonus if they fill audience requests. Occasionally an audience member will ask for a certain type and/or color of firework. Sometimes, several will get together and ask for a combo. Filling these requests generates bonus happiness and points. There will also occasionally be rainbow rings in the sky - aim your fireworks here for bonus points.
Progression
Difficulty can be changed, which changes the budget available and the patience of the audience. Different stages can be selected, which changes the city in the background, audience preferences and standards, available budget, and firework costs.
Audience Happiness
Each audience member has its happiness evaluated based on how recently a firework has gone off near them. Audience emotions range from the following values:
- Very Happy: High increase in points per second, bonus for fireworks seen.
- Happy: Small points per second, bonus for fireworks seen.
- Unimpressed: small negative points per second, normal score for fireworks seen
- Unhappy: medium negative points per second, no score for fireworks seen
- Angry: high negative points per second, no score for fireworks seen. After a short time as angry, audience members leave the field.
If all audience members leave, the level is automatically lost. There may be other loss conditions, as well, such as having a low enough score at different points or having a low enough total crowd happiness.
Fireworks Types
There are four types of fireworks that can be purchased. Using the same firework type over and over reduces it's effectiveness until it hasn't been used for a while (similar to the bonus system at the end of a song in Rock Band).
- Flash+Bang: Very cheap, but lacks color so can't fill most requests. It doesn't last long but has a high range due to it's bright and loud explosion.
- Shooting Star: A wide trail going up followed by a few colored sparks. Medium price, long life, short range, colored.
- Crackler: Loud, colored bloom, followed by crackling white sparks. Medium life, medium range. High price.
- Traditional: Huge, colored bloom. Longest life and range, very expensive.
Finale Mode
Filling requests also fills up a meter (which will be displayed on the cannon itself). Once the meter is full, the player can press a button to go into Finale Mode. In Finale Mode for a short time the player can fire fireworks without worry about budget. There is still a fixed fire rate, but this allows the player to recover if the audience was getting upset. It's best saved for high audience expectation moments, but can be used to get the player out of a pinch at any point in the show.
Going From There
That's a LOT of features, and I almost certainly won't implement them all in my PS2 module game. However, I am thinking of taking this game to other platforms, possibly just building it in Unity. I like the idea a lot and I think it's fairly simple in execution. I'm looking forward to working on it!
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