buko-studios

Latest Updates

[03-Jul-2014] Opening up this section.

You have come here because you play Shoot-em-ups.
You may be a BulletHell-Maniac, Enjoying a good home-brewed Danmaku, or fallen in love with Touhou.
We hope you find something of interest in this section.

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Players

Your mission to play shmups!
We encourage you to 

Give feedback to developers.
Positive or Constructive Criticism.

'Buy' games that you like.
This rewards developers for a good job, gives them the opportunity for some R&R, and allows them to continue to make games that you enjoy.
You spent $ at the local arcade. Reward the developers if you enjoy their game!
 
Talk about games you like - help them go viral.
Let us know what games you are playing and where we can find them.

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Games to watch

Lets keep a close eye on these games..

*want to be featured here? drop us a note and provide a watch image 160x240px MAX

 
Show them some support, they may also be looking for feedback or testers.

Shmups need your support!

Active Kickstarters

Steam Greenlight

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Games from group members.

These have been developed by members of this group! Making a game is a great challenge, Much kudos to our champions!

*have a community shmup not listed here? drop us a note and we'll add it! *help us out with a 50x50 thumb icon for your game for our grid of games.

Developers

Volcanic-Penguin [Vectorus]
pixelstab[TShmup]
Mika-Chai [GigaForce][StarShip ESPER][Prince of Dragon]
MuraveiMacro Space Shooter
pzUH Space Madness
Axcho Space Hero
ASDgamesAsd Type>
TheWetFloorsign[SHMUP in progress]
C3WhiteRose [Air Striker 1945 (Demo)][CV Invader 2][CV Invader]
Zappan [Starfield Zero]
whrndpx Simple Shmup
DynamiteManEXE[Shooter Test]
GamesFuhrer [Hikouki Tomodachi]
blazelimit FusionQUEST

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Social Gamers

If you would like to share your gamer tags, steam-ids, messengers, drop us a note. We'll add you to the list.

[Steam]Buko_Studios
[Game Center]Buko-Studios
[FB]Buko_Studios
[Twitter]Buko_Studios

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Games List

*Send us a note if you know of a Shmup that should be listed here!

Latest Updates

[05-Jun-2014] Added in the Exp Chart.
[22-May-2014] Just kicking this off with a few thoughts and some key sections.

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Our Mission

You have come to this deviation because you are a developer or wish to try your hand at it.
Our intent is three fold.

1) Showcase developers who wish to make themselves known. 

2) Provide a host of development resources and guides for creating shmups.

3) Create a meeting place for developers to team up, or share their experience.

We hope you are with us on this and we would welcome all assistance and contributions.

As the information we host grows we may segregate or move parts of this to another site or deviation.
In theory we can organise and network everything together in an accessible way.

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Shmuproom Developer Experience

Our Champions of Shmup development
Right now we have 12 members of our shmuproom who have successfully created shmups playable online.
Quality varies, but simply having a first project is a great achievement in itself.

Our current group Champions are as follows.


 

Are you a member with a live shmup but not on this list? Drop us a note with a link to a playable version of your game.
 

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Resources

We will expand on this section in due course, right now "Google is your friend".
There are many many tutorials and guides out there on developing your own shooter/shmup.

We would also suggest visiting the following two sites.
Shmups forum
Shmup-Dev

Community

Right here in the shmuproom, get involved, comment on the journal entries and other members deviations.
There is also a great community forum at the Shmups forums

The Roles of a developer

You may be specialised in one of the required fields, or you may wear many hats.
One thing is certain, creating a shoot-em-up game can be a big challenge in itself.

Lets start by discussing the many roles in a development team.
*We will not be discussing PlayTesting beyond that of the role of the designer.
*We are segregating marketing and distribution for another section (Promotion).

Design

Designers themselves can specialise in specific tasks.
A game development often goes through a number of phases through to completion.
Prototyping is an important phase that needs design input.
You may be involved in writing scripts or narratives for the game.
Levels will need to be designed, scripting waves, and a need for quality assurance and testing.

Visuals

Art, Animation, Effects and Motion Graphics. These are your tools in exciting players and creating cool stuff.
There is much work to be done in creating a shmup, in the early stages you may be working on 'pre visualising' the game.
Later you will need to create assets for each section of the game, from Ships, Enemies, Backgrounds, HUDs, and User Interfaces.

Code

Games have logic. This is the primary function of Code to creating something that is playable.
The rules for the game must be created, they must function as designed, free of bugs and glitches.
There will also be a variety of ways that the Code could provide features and interfaces with the other areas of Audio, Visuals, and Design. 

Audio

The sound and music of the game.
Kicking tracks and audio FX. These enhance the experience, offer immersion, stimulus and reward.
Not only can the Audio stand out in its own right. The players experience is heightened when the audio is in harmony with the design and visuals of the game.

Production/Direction/Administration

Last but not least, as with any project, there must be a degree of administration.
Depending on the size of the project, number of members in the team and the development goals/brief,
someone needs to be keeping track of the progress.
This includes ensuring everyone is happy, knows what they are doing and things are moving in the right direction.
Even a single lone wolf developer needs to commit time to ensuring his roadmap, strategy and progress are looking good.
 

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Fresh Juice on our Facebook page! We hope you 'like' it!
www.facebook.com/BukoStudios