MoveAndAttackInDifferentDirections

When a character is free to move about in two or three dimensions, there is a tendancy to lock the player's direction of attack to the player's direction of movement.

However, this makes the game more difficult for the player, since the only way to attack an enemy is to move directly towards it--which also happens to be the line of its attacks towards the player.

Therefore, make at least one attack independent of the player's direction of movement. This allows for indirect attacks akin to "drive-bys".

• In most Shmups? the player moves side-to-side while firing up-screen
• In Jackal? the player has a grenade which fires in the same direction as the player, but also a machine gun which always fires up-screen
• In many games, the player has seeking missiles which travel towards the enemy, regardless of what way the player is moving

CategoryGoodIdea