Hello and thank you for checking out our November update for the Shoot ‘Em Up Kit.
It has been a few months since the version 2.0.18 build was released and so we’d like to share our progress as we move towards the next release.
Template Games
We've been using the Shoot 'Em Up Kit to create some template games and new demos. These cover some of the common styles of shoot ‘em up: the side-scroller; vertical shooter; twin-stick; invaders; asteroids; and free roaming.
We’re retiring the Wizard feature as this was complex to use and didn’t give the helpful starting point that the templates provide.
Orthographic Cameras
We’re pleased to say that orthographic cameras are now working and so you can create games without the perspective warping at the edges of the screen. The sprite-only project configuration is still available as this is a useful way of building games using screen pixel co-ordinates.
Engine Tech
We’ve made a lot of improvements to the codebase to improve the stability of the Shoot ‘Em Up Kit when unexpected things happen. We’ve also improved the use of threading to make the Kit run faster and smoother on modern systems.
Multi-platform
The Shoot 'Em Up Kit is working well on our new multi-platform engine. There is still a bit of work left to do on the physics and audio but we're very close now. The new engine will allow significant performance and stability improvements on the PC; and will also pave the way for exporting games onto other devices and platforms.
Tutorials
There are new wiki guides for creating different styles of shoot 'em up. These describe all the steps involved in creating each of the template games. We will continue to create these for each of the templates and concept demos.
Art
We are continuing to build a library of components that can be joined together to create new and interesting ships, scenery or collectibles. You can combine these with your own assets to easily create entities that can be used in your game.
Many thanks,
The Tall Studios team