Touhou: An App for That?

[catacyst]

*Those from the imageboard, sorry if you've seen this already, just need to do my research*

So for my last semester of programming we have been tasked with completing some sort of project. My friend proposed that we make an iPhone app, preferably some sort of vertical shooter. Naturally, I suggested a Touhou theme or Touhou relation in some way.

We are currently in the process of designing and planning this project, and I decided to ask some questions of our "target audience".

First off, has anyone here attempted this before? If so, are you still working on the game or have you given up due to difficulty/shorthandedness?

Second, would anyone (even those without an iPhone) be interested in an app of this sort?

Third, how would any of you like the interface to be? Such as how you would control your character, shoot, bomb, etc.

Thank you all, and input is greatly appreciated.

[Ghaleon]

I imagine playing Touhou on a touchscreen would be incredibly difficult. I know I'd hate to have my finger blocking my view as I move around.  So the old "tilt the phone to move" would probably work better for me, except I really wouldn't like that for moving up and down (left and right only). Maybe up and down would be good if it had some kind of generous threshold, I don't know.

I tried the Touhou DS, and was rather dissapointed. I mean it was a cool effort that was a nice homage to Touhou, but really, as a game itself, it is not very fun at all. I'd reccomend making fewer quality stages than more, or longer stages if possible. Or maybe boss only would help. Given the iPhone's lack of buttons, I would imagine shooting should be done automatically, bombing would probably be a button in the corner of the screen or something (shaking just wouldn't be responsive enough IMO). Maybe you can select one side of the screen with up and down arrow on the top and bottom respectively, and the bomb button in the middle, with the score and whatnot in between. Player can choose if the toolbar thingie is on the left or right side of the screen. Then moving sideways can be left to tilting the screen left and right. Shooting would still have to be done automatically though because moving and shooting at the same time that way would be too difficult (though shooting can be a button if you move up and down by tilting too. I can't imagine people would enjoy the game if it felt like some zero-grav space sim because of that though).

Alot of the Touhou vets and shmup vets seem to favor the PCB score system the most, so you may want to emulate that for score if you care.

That's all I can suggest I guess.

[Suikama]

I imagine playing Touhou on a touchscreen would be incredibly difficult. I know I'd hate to have my finger blocking my view as I move around.  So the old "tilt the phone to move" would probably work better for me, except I really wouldn't like that for moving up and down (left and right only). Maybe up and down would be good if it had some kind of generous threshold, I don't know.

I tried the Touhou DS, and was rather dissapointed. I mean it was a cool effort that was a nice homage to Touhou, but really, as a game itself, it is not very fun at all. I'd reccomend making fewer quality stages than more, or longer stages if possible. Or maybe boss only would help. Given the iPhone's lack of buttons, I would imagine shooting should be done automatically, bombing would probably be a button in the corner of the screen or something (shaking just wouldn't be responsive enough IMO). Maybe you can select one side of the screen with up and down arrow on the top and bottom respectively, and the bomb button in the middle, with the score and whatnot in between. Player can choose if the toolbar thingie is on the left or right side of the screen. Then moving sideways can be left to tilting the screen left and right. Shooting would still have to be done automatically though because moving and shooting at the same time that way would be too difficult (though shooting can be a button if you move up and down by tilting too. I can't imagine people would enjoy the game if it felt like some zero-grav space sim because of that though).

Alot of the Touhou vets and shmup vets seem to favor the PCB score system the most, so you may want to emulate that for score if you care.

That's all I can suggest I guess.

Know you that you can make your own stages and characters for Touhou DS :V


Also if you're gonna make a Touhou app, make it a Touhou dat*shot*

[beaver1231]

*Those from the imageboard, sorry if you've seen this already, just need to do my research*

So for my last semester of programming we have been tasked with completing some sort of project. My friend proposed that we make an iPhone app, preferably some sort of vertical shooter. Naturally, I suggested a Touhou theme or Touhou relation in some way.

We are currently in the process of designing and planning this project, and I decided to ask some questions of our "target audience".

First off, has anyone here attempted this before? If so, are you still working on the game or have you given up due to difficulty/shorthandedness?

Second, would anyone (even those without an iPhone) be interested in an app of this sort?

Third, how would any of you like the interface to be? Such as how you would control your character, shoot, bomb, etc.

Thank you all, and input is greatly appreciated.

Might I suggest that you don't do it this way?

The iPhone to me just dosen't seem powerful or good enough to handle a bullet hell game.

- For controls, the finger will block the view, especially if you're moving the character by touch screen.

- Are you sure we can see all of the bullets clearly in the game?

- Not to mention, how are you going to make sure that I can see m score and the scoring system clearly?

There probably ones I forgot to mention, but I think this will do for the time being.

I'd suggest a game like Breakout or Arkanoid, since Highly Reponsive To Prayers (Touhou 1) has already been done before. Do it with better sprites or something like that.

I look forward to seeing what you will do.

[catacyst]

Kk, thank you all for your suggestions as they are most useful.

We play-tested a few other shooting game apps on the iPhone for further inspiration, and were slightly impressed with the feasibility of making a game of the genre. Here are a few of our new ideas:

So basically, we were thinking you could move the character by placing your finger on them and moving it around. Shooting would be automatic as long as the finger was on the screen, and bombing would be done by either quickly tapping the screen or the use of another button located on the screen. As for a score/life/bomb area we were thinking of using a condensed version, but we aren't sure as to have it along the side or the top of the screen.

We definitely aren't sure as to the iPhone's true capabilities of handling crazy bullet patterns, so further testing and research will still need to be done. Would anyone be incredibly opposed to perhaps dumbing down some of the patterns to a certain degree if necessary?

Also, as far as story/theme/characters, we haven't the slightest clue.

Thanks again

[mew77]

I could help with the plot..there's a few ideas I was considering.

But since it's just an app you guys should focus on the games

[Ghaleon]

So basically, we were thinking you could move the character by placing your finger on them and moving it around.

If the phone is capable of some true danmaku that will be a mistake because the player will not be able to see below their character, and will have many frusterating moments of moving backwards into a bullet that their finger moving their character was covering. Of course, fast bullets or less dense danmaku will make this a non issue. You absolutely must make sure dangerous stuff never actually spawns from below though.

As for making your own stages for the ds version, I think the small screen was also part of the problem. The screen cut in half thing didn't really help either. I mean, it made reading ahead far nearly impossible.

[catacyst]

Ok, good news/bad news, however you may take it. As some of you may already know, I lost my partner on this project. Since, I've decided to convert the platform from iPhone to PSP for a multitude of reasons:
1. PSP is quite conducive to Homebrew development (similar to iPhone)
2. Coding in C or C++ is significantly less frightening than Objective C
3. PSP is more powerful and will make intricate danmaku patterns far more possible
4. I own a PSP

I'm slightly concerned on how to maintain the vertical shooting element on a horizontally oriented screen, but a Nameless Fairy showed me an interesting video on Youtube of PCB running on a PSP, and it seemed to work nicely. Also, the PSP platform would completely remove all concerns about control and touchscreens.

Further opinions?

[beaver1231]

Ok, good news/bad news, however you may take it. As some of you may already know, I lost my partner on this project. Since, I've decided to convert the platform from iPhone to PSP for a multitude of reasons:
1. PSP is quite conducive to Homebrew development (similar to iPhone)
2. Coding in C or C++ is significantly less frightening than Objective C
3. PSP is more powerful and will make intricate danmaku patterns far more possible
4. I own a PSP

I'm slightly concerned on how to maintain the vertical shooting element on a horizontally oriented screen, but a Nameless Fairy showed me an interesting video on Youtube of PCB running on a PSP, and it seemed to work nicely. Also, the PSP platform would completely remove all concerns about control and touchscreens.

Further opinions?

You're already beaten to it. Do you want me to link a video here for your reference?

[Ghaleon]

Ok, good news/bad news, however you may take it. As some of you may already know, I lost my partner on this project. Since, I've decided to convert the platform from iPhone to PSP for a multitude of reasons:
1. PSP is quite conducive to Homebrew development (similar to iPhone)
2. Coding in C or C++ is significantly less frightening than Objective C
3. PSP is more powerful and will make intricate danmaku patterns far more possible
4. I own a PSP

I'm slightly concerned on how to maintain the vertical shooting element on a horizontally oriented screen, but a Nameless Fairy showed me an interesting video on Youtube of PCB running on a PSP, and it seemed to work nicely. Also, the PSP platform would completely remove all concerns about control and touchscreens.

Further opinions?

Making stuff for the PSP easier than the iPhone?! *boggle*. I mean I've made stuff for the PS2 (nothing real, just like a text-only math/sorting program) and it was hard as fuck, I hear making software for the PS3 isn't easier. To think they allow you to use a REAL programming language for the PSP, zomg.

Anyway, I think it'd be better simply because the iPhone really really cannot be a good danmaku platform IMO due to the lack of buttons and..well...touchscreens aren't very good for the genre IMO.

Making a game is always alot more work than everyone anticipates though, so I really suggest you focus on making your Touhou PSP game as barebones as possible before worrying about aspects that may make it fun. I don't know how much game-making experience you have already, you might already know that, but just in case you don't...Trust me that you don't want to start off ambitious, or else you'll likely end up with an unfinished project.

[mew77]

If touhou DS took inspiration from Knights in the Nightmare we'd all be happy.

[Aya Reiko]

Ok, good news/bad news, however you may take it. As some of you may already know, I lost my partner on this project. Since, I've decided to convert the platform from iPhone to PSP for a multitude of reasons:
1. PSP is quite conducive to Homebrew development (similar to iPhone)
2. Coding in C or C++ is significantly less frightening than Objective C
3. PSP is more powerful and will make intricate danmaku patterns far more possible
4. I own a PSP

I'm slightly concerned on how to maintain the vertical shooting element on a horizontally oriented screen, but a Nameless Fairy showed me an interesting video on Youtube of PCB running on a PSP, and it seemed to work nicely. Also, the PSP platform would completely remove all concerns about control and touchscreens.

Further opinions?

I think you've already solved on how to put a vertical shooter on a horizontally oriented screen; tilt the screen 90 deg clockwise.

[catacyst]

I actually experimented with a 90-degree control system for the PSP. Controlling the character effectively isn't possible, the only freely accessible button is the left bumper, and the layout is just far too cumbersome to work with.
With Touhou on the horizontal orientation, you retain easy access to all available buttons without critically sacrificing room to see the action.

[Letty Whiterock]

A Touhou app would have to be just a portable version of the wiki called "The Touhou Compendium."

[beaver1231]

I actually experimented with a 90-degree control system for the PSP. Controlling the character effectively isn't possible, the only freely accessible button is the left bumper, and the layout is just far too cumbersome to work with.
With Touhou on the horizontal orientation, you retain easy access to all available buttons without critically sacrificing room to see the action.

That "90 degree control system" happens to be "Tate" mode, a function commonly implemented in most console ports of shmups.

Also, are you going to cut half the screen away for the status screen? Or is the whole screen going to be used for the game? Because I won't want the screen to be smaller than it already is.

[stassy]

Touhou shmup port is unlikely because it will be rejected by Apple Store unless charged for 15 bucks...I like the Touhou encyclopedia, you could even port it to Ipad  :V