A new shooting games blog, similar to FGC blogs.

[Inglorious_B]

Looking for volunteer writers to contribute to a new shooting games blog.

The objective is to create a blog similar to FGC blogs like EventHubs and Shoryuken, with bright, contemporary and regular coverage of current-day shmups. Ultimately we are trying to attract more interest in the genre. The idea is supported by Degica (at least by whoever runs their Twitter account!)

Content would come from across the life cycle of each game:

- Announcement of project
- Development news
- Teasers and trailers
- Launch coverage and game review
- Coverage of user-generated content e.g. streams and hi-score runs
- DLC coverage
- Sequel/next game speculation

And of course there would be scope for

- Event coverage e.g. Stunfest
- Interviews
- Player profiles
- Anything else people want to pitch. If it’s STG related then it will probably get published!


Some recent games (in no particular order) that would have been covered by the blog:


- Space Invaders Extreme
- Senko No Ronde 2
- Cuphead
- Aka To Blue
- Nex Machina
- Super Hydora
- Game Tengoku Cruisin Mix
- Castle of Shikigami
- Etc. you know the list, and you get the picture…

It’s hopefully obvious that you could make a lot of cool content from modern shooting games like these.


If you want to be part of something like this, then get in touch below. No previous experience required.

The blog exists already, it just needs writers...

[qmish]

Should that fill the void left when triggerzone.de died

[Special World]

I wouldn't be opposed to occasionally reviewing a game.

[Inglorious_B]

I wouldn't be opposed to occasionally reviewing a game.

Nice one Special World, I will be in touch to let you know more details soon.

You are the third person (including me) to volunteer. There must be more out there who would like to create a valuable blog for the scene...

[LordHypnos]

I'd be down to write an article, but I haven't really played any new games, apart from Vastynex, I suppose, but that's freeware and probably still a demo, plus I only probably played like 5 credits of it or so (really easy game, btw). I am playing Blue Revolver, but that's already like 2 years old. IDK if I would be able to contribute any of the sort of things you're looking for, but feel free to PM me if you think I could.

[donluca]

Unfortunately I can't contribute as I'm lacking experience in shmups and, sadly, I'm one of the worst shmupper ever existed.

But I'm really looking forward this website, I'd definitely check once a day, especially if you could put some hardware articles in it, like low lag monitors, sticks/pads, etc...

[Voxbox]

Hoping this gets traction!

[chum]

I wouldn't mind contributing reviews. I have written a bunch of reviews for shooters and still write one every once in a while. I have a pretty good understanding of shmups in a design (gameplay) sense, but I struggle with reviewing from a more technical (graphics, sound, etc) standpoint :/

I'm sure I could improve my reviews significantly if I took it more seriously, but I already have a bunch written and if I like this project you are free to use them if you are interested, just send a message if so. If there's anything else I can contribute I'll be open about it.

[doom_]

I would read it. I always try to find out about new releases on the boards here but its really hard to find them between all the other threads here.

[Special World]

I don't really see the shmup scene as bumpin enough to need a hard limit of "you can't review this 2 year old game! That's ancient history!" I also don't think it behooves the scene to say "only hardcore and pro players can review this shmup." I mean, it's nice to have a really detailed opinion, but at the same time I think that would really limit the scope of your audience. I think there are a lot of people who take this genre very seriously and know what makes these games good, without actually being terribly great at any number of shooting games. I think you can be a shooting games enthusiast, know generally what you're talking about, and not be a throwaway reviewer who only likes euroshmups with good graphics.

I could write a well-considered review of Eschatos or Futari without especially great at either game. And obviously with newer games you won't have some kind of legacy player to write detailed reviews. I wrote a fairly detailed Ginga Force review only a few days or weeks (?) after the game came out: https://catstronaut.wordpress.com/2013/ ... nga-force/ I think a fundamental appreciation of the genre and the ability to lay out your thoughts takes you pretty far.

Those are just my 2 cents though, feel free to disagree.

[qmish]

I don't really see the shmup scene as bumpin enough to need a hard limit of "you can't review this 2 year old game! That's ancient history!"

Quite the opposite considering that many folks here play 20 or 30 year old games all the time

[Shepardus]

I also don't think it behooves the scene to say "only hardcore and pro players can review this shmup."

Not to mention that being better at a game doesn't make your opinion about it more valid. Sure, it helps if you've gotten past the first stage, but if only the best players of each game are writing reviews, whether through the blog's requirements or through self-selection, you're left with a very limited perspective.

[LordHypnos]

I completely agree that you don't need to be an 3|_337 player to review stuff. The number of people who are good enough writers + good enough players + actually willing to write a review would be likely 0 if there were to be excessive requirements like that. I think the most important aim would be: Try to do better than mainstream game reviews of shmups. It shouldn't take much. Even just understanding the 1cc mentality would probably do that. Ideally, make sure to get the gist of the scoring system and mechanics; compare to other shmups, if there's a comparison to be made; maybe try to explain the historical context of the game if it's a port of an older game.

@Chum: I'm not the OP, but I certainly wouldn't mind reading mostly gameplay focused reviews. Probably would be more actually interesting to me, in fact. I bet most people would welcome a variety of reviews some that include presentation and some that go more in depth on gameplay, and gloss over presentation a bit.

@qmish: I think most shmuppers probably do end up playing a lot of older games. I mean, you'd be cheating yourself if you didn't, tbh. I'm kind of (possibly over-) interpreting the goal of reviews here to be to help people decide if they're going to buy something that just came out (and let them know that it did just come out) rather than a retrospective type thing. Probably most people have already heard about Blue Revolver and have either bought it or decided they won't buy it at this point. Then again maybe I'm focusing too much on certain details of the OP.

On the other hand, once Double Action comes out (though it's fate is uncertain, atm), there will be a great opportunity to hype the game again and talk about the new mode.

I guess one way you could get around that is by speculating that an older game might get ported (That was one of the OP suggestions), and explain why it's such a great game that deserves a port. IDK. just a thought.

In any case, I'm sure it would be better to not fill up the blog with all retrospectives and no new releases. Maybe there's room for retrospectives if it's successful at adequately covering current stuff.

just my 2¢

[Special World]

^^^ There aren't many new new releases of note (that I know about anyways), but there's definitely a steady stream of re-releases for reviewers to dive into. And potential for highlighting other shmups forum content developers, like oh hey, a strategy vid for X game just dropped on STGWeekly. I think that's a viable source of news, especially if it ties into a recent release in some way.

I also could be underestimating the volume of new shmup releases. I see a bunch of games on here that I'm like "oh that looks awesome" but then I never play because I'm not much of a PC gamer and it's Steam exclusive, or whatever. But I think even within a niche genre like shmups, there are things happening that you can hone in on if you're not just creating new content, but also highlighting other really good content that's being put out and form a sort of hive where that becomes visible.

[LordHypnos]

^^^ There aren't many new new releases of note (that I know about anyways), but there's definitely a steady stream of re-releases for reviewers to dive into. And potential for highlighting other shmups forum content developers, like oh hey, a strategy vid for X game just dropped on STGWeekly. I think that's a viable source of news, especially if it ties into a recent release in some way.

I also could be underestimating the volume of new shmup releases. I see a bunch of games on here that I'm like "oh that looks awesome" but then I never play because I'm not much of a PC gamer and it's Steam exclusive, or whatever. But I think even within a niche genre like shmups, there are things happening that you can hone in on if you're not just creating new content, but also highlighting other really good content that's being put out and form a sort of hive where that becomes visible.

Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of other stuff apart from the ideas in the OP that would be worth doing, it's just hard for me to think of anything.

As for new releases I probably am not all that well versed in them, either, as I don't have new consoles and am not really looking for new games to buy on steam or wtv, generally, but it does seem like there's a good number. I was including rereleases though. But there's also like Zero Ranger (actually finished version of Final Boss, if I understood correctly), and some others that I don't remember that have been announced in recent threads (looks like a lot of them are also console).

All hypothetical, though, for now.

[Shepardus]

Steam makes it easy to search for new releases with the "Shoot 'Em Up" or "Bullet Hell" tags and there's a pretty good rate of them. A lot of them appear to be shovelware, low-effort mobile ports, or stuff that aren't really shmups, but there are definitely some there released within the past couple months that didn't get much attention on this forum and would be worth covering.

[Despatche]

Kinda wouldn't mind keeping all those touhoulikes on tap. I don't think I can do it effectively, but I seem to be the only foreigner who cares about these games... we'll see.

[LordHypnos]

Kinda wouldn't mind keeping all those touhoulikes on tap. I don't think I can do it effectively, but I seem to be the only foreigner who cares about these games... we'll see.

I will say that it would be nice to get some perspectives on them, see which ones are worth playing and whatnot