Idea Are scrolling shooters saturated?

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
I am planning to start a new game development on January 2020 after I finish my current game and I got some ideas.

The main idea that we thought through that would have a pronto design and short development is a Scrolling Shooter. I even did a very simple POC in 4 hours. But I am thinking if this is already a very saturated genre.

I am planning to make something in the lines of Tyrian and Xenoraid, with ships built from few pieces, dynamic everything (levels, enemies, bosses), factions, etc.

I can pull it off in a 6 month time frame. My major issue is... what if the market is already so saturated that it can't even sell on Steam (PC plataform)?
 
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Widget

Guest
The entire market is saturated.

You have to come up with something that makes your game stand out from the others in the same genre. Being good is not enough, there's no shortage of good games, you have to provide a unique experience (but also be good).
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Yeah, like that. I usually make a game "clone" with things that I would like the original to have.

On this shooter the dynamic part will play a big role on that. This is something that I don't see in other games.
 

Kezarus

Endless Game Maker
Thinking about simple, very simple (to not scare players), modular construction like Cosmoteer. But that in a Shoot'em'up. With dynamic levels and enemies. Adaptative gameplay. In a map with many factions that you push out of systems or help them conquer.

Easy and kinda fast to pull off. Never see something like it, but I can pretty much be terribly wrong. [=
 

Lumenflower

Yellow Dog
Have a *scroll* through Steam and find a bunch of scrolling shooters that are already on there. For each one, ask yourself why a customer should buy your game assuming they already own this existing one. Your game doesn't necessarily need a massive USP, but it does need something unique enough to draw players away from other similar games. I don't play many side scrollers so I don't have a specific example, but as a strategy addict if I saw a game that didn't offer me anything I couldn't already get from XCOM or Age of Empires, I wouldn't bother buying it.
 
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Danei

Guest
Personally, I think such a thing sounds unique enough that I'd potentially buy it, but it would depend on a few factors such as the nature of weapon/ship/construction balance, theme/aesthetics, how much of a bullet-hell game it is, and scoring/victory systems.
 

jonjons

Member
How about a car transforming into a space ship, i rebember a very old game for ms-dos fire and forget 2, couldnt stop playing it. Unfortally this one had a 3rd person view, it might be hard to do...
Scrolling shooters may be saturated indeed, you could try to make the spaceship customizable, or the game based on some recent movie that could get people intrested in.
 

Yal

šŸ§ *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Or why not make a turn-based strategy/shmup hybrid? Since levels would autoscroll (e.g. move one cell left between every turn), there'd be limits to the playable space that could prove interesting.
 
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