Let's Talk About Score

[Luca Natale]

How do you make high scores possible in your arcade game?

I have considered a high score to be the hallmark of an arcade game. No time for deep storytelling and all that crap, just put in a quarter and blow stuff up and do your best! And when high scores reward the player with extra lives and sometimes even better endings, players are compelled to do more than just make it to the end of the game.

But the question is this: how does one get a high score? Many kind of arcade game genres have a solution to this, like collecting medals in a curtain shooter for example. In beatemups, however, I have found that I wasn't able to do much to make my score go higher. A lot of the classics like Streets of Rage 2 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn't seem to offer many ways to boost score; all you could hope for was the bonuses at the end of the stage that weakly add to your score based on remaining health, time, etc., and also clearing the game on one credit, and that's if using a "continue" didn't reset your score.

There are some beatemups out there that do offer ways to score lots of points, for example Sengoku 3 and Night Slashers X. They both have a score system based on long combos, once you get more than 20 hits in a row in NSX you'll see your score go up real fast! The problem with this is that some characters do more damage than others in fewer hits, so lighter and faster characters have an unfair advantage over stronger and slower characters.

I would say my favourite scoring system in a beatemup would be from Fight'N Rage. This game emphasises juggling your enemy and inflicting excessive damage for more points-- if you continue to juggle an enemy that has long since run out of health, they will explode into bones and you'll gain 500 points. Radical!!

In conclusion, I brought up the topic of scoring because as I am developing my own game on the OpenBOR engine, I have thought hard about what the player can do to score a lot of points. I would love to incorporate a feature like the one mentioned in Fight'N Rage, but I fear that may only be possible with tons of scripts and complexity. I have also considered the combo-based score, but once again, the stronger characters are going to hit the enemy less than others!

If you have any suggestions or thoughts about my ramble you would like to share with me, come and let me know, I would really appreciate it, thanks!

(P.S... if you haven't played Fight'N Rage yet then definitely grab it, it is a must-have for beatemup lovers and arcade goers!)

 

[DCurrent]

@LittleBlueRiolu,

Anything outside of native behavior will need script to work. That doesn't mean it has to be complex or difficult though. The real question is just how you want it to work.

One thing I thought about doing, although I never implemented yet, is a skill system. Basically, you'd get a multiplier that goes up and down based on your performance. As you dish out hits or defeat enemies the multiplier gradually increases. Maybe it goes up more for juggle combos or whatever. If you take hits or have to use a breakout special, the multiplier goes down a bit. Lose a life, it drops hard. Use a continue, and it actually becomes a penalty to your score for a while until you can build it back up again.

HTH,
DC

 

[Bloodbane]

I have also considered the combo-based score, but once again, the stronger characters are going to hit the enemy less than others!

I agree with that. Adding score based on combo is good but only for combo based characters or at least agile characters. For powerhouses, you'd have to add score based on other thing. Skill is good idea as Damon posted above.
My suggestion is from powerhouses usually have : slams/throws. Give score bonus if they managed to slam/throw an enemy. That might sound unbalanced but for me it's balanced enough cause grabbing an enemy is riskier than beating them from a distance, not to mention grab can only affect one enemy (for most grabs/throws and characters) while punches/beats can hit multiple enemies. Adding special bonus multiplier for slamming/throwing bosses might work also.
That's not applicable to Final Fight series final bosses sadly but we're discussing bosses in general.

That's what I have in mind ATM.

 

[Luca Natale]

Hmm, these are both interesting ideas. For awhile I have also thought about adding a multiplier based on how many lives the player has. This would be fine to implement because players will not gain extends by points in my project.
Bonuses by slamming is something I had a similar idea as well; awarding a bonus for disposing of enemies with particular attacks. Finishing an enemy with a normal won't score bonuses but using a heavy/special/slam attack would incur a bonus and a special death animation. It's pretty basic on its surface but maybe with some simple scripts and clever manipulation of native components, I can build upon it and make it identical to Fight'N Rage's "excessive force" feature.

 

[Bloodbane]

Yep, that's the idea. Rewarding player who can connect strong attack which is hard to do such as Ralf's Galactica Phantom with score bonus is another way to give chance for powerhouses.

I have also thought about adding a multiplier based on how many lives the player has

Something just crossed my mind, if players get score bonus from current lives, I'm afraid players might play defensively and use safe moves instead of riskier moves.

 

[aL BeasTie]

- You could implement pickups that give different scores/points and drop from enemies. They could be added to death animations, fall and pain etc. You could even give 'Medals' for killing a boss a certain way.
- AND/OR Points could be awarded to player from the enemy animations, like death etc. ( so extra points to defeat them with a difficult move )
- Bonus stages with time limits, collect the 'coins' - defeat enemies within time limit etc.