A Simple Side-Scrolling Shooting Game - C# Game Programming: For Serious Game Creation - page 382

next. An overworld map generally indicates all the levels as nodes linked
by paths. Such a system has been used in some of the Super Mario games. An
overworld map makes it very easy to introduce secret paths and levels that
are discovered by doing particularly well in the previous level.

If the player is hit by an enemy spaceship or bullet, the PlayerCharacter
dies and it's game over. It would be preferable to give the player some
margin for error, perhaps by giving the spaceship some health—allowing it
to take damage like the enemies. The health could be represented by a health
bar on screen that goes down each time the ship takes a hit. You may also
want to introduce the concept of lives—the player starts with several lives,
each allowing one more go at the level before the game is lost.

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As levels progress, they tend to get more difficult. To help the player, you
could give him better weapons and items to repair any damage to his ship.
In scrolling shooting games, power-ups and other items tend to be dropped
by enemies. A new item class needs to be created, and it can be added to the
scene (possibly via the EffectsManager ) to be picked up by the player.
A health pack can repair some amount of the damage the player has
received. New weapons can deal more damage or perhaps there can be two
bullets every time the player shoots instead of one.

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You could also add alternate weapons that are triggered by different
buttons. Bombs or lasers, for instance, could be secondary weapons that
have a limited number of shots.

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RPG elements are a very popular way to add a greater degree of depth.
Enemies could drop money (or scrap that could later be sold for money).
After each level the player could buy new weapons, upgrade existing ones, or
even buy a new type of ship. You may even want to allow players to place
weapons at different locations on the ship by altering the PlayerChar-
acter 's _gunOffset member.

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The RPG elements could be taken even further by adding a layer of narrative
to the game. This could be done during the level with text boxes and scrip-
ted movements of enemies and the player. Story elements could also be
added to an overworld map or after each level.

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