Home-made top-down shooter. Good/bad idea?

[Vanguard3000]

Hey. I recently downloaded GameMaker, and I'm thinking of resurrecting the graphics from an old Turbo Pascal program I originally never finished, and remake said program with this utility. I called it "Azure Wing".

It'll be a top-down shooter a la Raptor: Call of the Shadows (PLEASE tell me you all know of this very famous game!), except it will have a control system similar to the (also famous) side-scroller Abuse. You will move your ship around with the keyboard, while aiming and firing phasers/torpedos with the mouse (Phasers fire at the cursor; torps fire straight forward).

Oh yeah, it's based on Star Trek. Heh.

You'll have five movie-era starships (Constitution, Miranda, Excelsior, and two self-designed ships) against hordes of Klingons (among others ;) ;)).

Since I'll probably be working on this for a while, I'l try and make a fake screenshot which'll show you what it should look like when done, and you guys can let me know what you think (or not).

So anyways, what do you think of the idea? Any suggestions/requests?

[Davidu]

Hmm, you could make it Dune, but well... ;D

Make an interactive map, ok. I want to go wherever I like. Also after a mission you go back to a space station near the place of the mission. Each space station has different prices. So you can trade for a living. If you can add some mining or manufacturing abilities, then it's great. Also, I want to be able to buy new ships, new weapons, to talk to people on the space station, to hire wingmen, to explore too...

HELL, I want too much. You can pick something from my list, lol. If you want some ideas for a space 3D action game take a look at Battlecruiser: Millenium - I heard its great, I only played Battlecruiser:3000AD, and that was great.

Well, good luck. I'd help you but I only know C++.

[Apollyon]

Can I recommend you do ground missions where you control away team members as well? I did that for one of my games I made using The Games Factory and it turned out pretty well, with each member gaining experience with each mission etc. Goof luck anyways! :D

[Terror]

well it sounds decent, but make it next generation.. that's better :)