http://www.youtube.com/user/STGWeekly
A weekly show featuring gameplay of STG or “shmups” with approachable commentary from passionate fans of the genre. We comment on 1 credit clears or high scoring replays typically: discussing strategies, techniques, mindset, aesthetic or anything related to the game or the genre.
I recently gave a lecture on shmup development with Unity as part of a course at RMIT University.
You can download the lecture slides and example project.
Lecture slides [PDF]
Unity shmup template [ZIP - Unity 3.5.3 project]
The example project is a template for Unity shmup development – it contains just a player, an enemy and a scrolling background, however it implements many of the optimizations needed to get a shmup to run properly, such as:
It’s written in Javascript, and is thoroughly documented with inline comments. The code is intended to be understandable to novice programmers.
Strike Suit Zero looks like a return to the golden era of space shooters, such as X-Wing vs TIE Fighter and Wing Commander.
DroneSwarm was my entry in the 2k7 shmup-dev competition. My latest game, DroneSwarm Command is a sequel of sorts. It’s an iPad strategy game with some shmup elements.
Find out more at droneswarm.com.
DroneSwarm Command on iTunes.
If you’re making a shmup, you’re going to need music and sound-effects. Take a look at a new digital synthesizer and sequencer called AudioGL – it has recently entered a paid-beta phase ($80 to buy-in to the beta test, the final product will probably be around $200). There’s also a free trial.
Wingbreaker, an iOS shmup is now available for free on the App Store.
It’s a vertically scrolling shmup with tilt controls, dual weapons and lots of customization options.
There’s already a thread for Wingbreaker on the forum.
Heaven Variant is a looking for support get get onto Steam. Vote for their steam greenlight approval here.
Find out more about Heaven Variant on their website here.
Rhythm Destruction is a new game from Curious Panda which plays like a traditional shmup, where you control your ship as you traverse through a stage, dodging enemy movement paths, bullets, and environmental hazards. The twist however, is that enemies and objects are destroyed with timed key presses to the beat of the music.
If you’re a programmer developing a shmup it can be hard to find high-quality graphics for your game at a reasonable price. This forum thread lists many of the websites that offer free or cheap 3D models for use in games.
3D models for your shmup
If you’re interested in developing a shmup but don’t know where to start then this should help you. Here are 3 threads in the forum providing shmup-templates, which are frameworks with the basic controls and systems in place to quickly create a shmup.
Game Maker Open-Source Shmup Engine. And Warbird – a barebones game developed with this engine.
Simply choose the engine you want to work with, download the template and start making your shmup! Please post any questions in the forum. The Unity 3D framework is currently in-design and feedback is requested.
Recent forum posts