How many shmups do you own on Steam?

[mandarin]

I'm conducting some market research for our game Terror Squid, and am wondering how many unique shmup games you have in your Steam library?

To give some context, I'm doing this to try to estimate the size of the market for Terror Squid. By looking at Terror Squids gameplay, and comparing it to what players value in a good shmup and a good bullet hell, I found that those two categories are the closest to our game. I have access to all the data at SteamSpy and have used that to catalogue about 280 games that most closely fits the kind of gameplay our target group seeks. There are about 200 games more within those categories that I haven't looked at, so I added a calculated estimate for the number of sales they have contributed with. Games that have sold less than 5000 copies are not included, as that data is unreliable.

In total these games have sold about 44.9 million copies. That does not take into account that one player can own multiple games. According to global Steam stats, the median number of owned games per user is 2. I suspect that for genres like Shoot'em ups and bullet hells, the number might be higher.

So, that's why I'm asking here.

[Shogun]

I counted 24. A lot of the stuff isn't my style like your game for example (no offense it looks fun). I like the more traditional vertical and horizontal shmups. Theres a lot of retro stuff thats coming out that I'm not too keen on. I would buy the shit out of more cave ports or more classic console/arcade ports for example. Many end up being really poor cash grabs. Publishers need to at least equal the experience I can get in an emulator when making a release.

[Loom1es]

I have 28 games in Steam. Typically i only buy traditional style vertical/ horizontal shooters with my favourites being Zero Ranger, Blue Revolver and Supercharged Robot Vulkaiser (a guilty pleasure along with Witch-bot Meglilo). Your game is a style of game i dont really go for but it does look cool, it may interest those who are into alternative titles like velocity Ultra and Resogun.

[FRO]

I think I have between 15 & 20 in my Steam library. The games with the most time clocked would probably be Steel Empire, and Crimzon Clover, followed by the ALLTYNEX trilogy, and then REVOLVER 360: REACTOR.

[pegboy]

Only 4: Deathsmiles, Mushi, DDP DFK, and Crimzon Clover.

[MathU]

Zero. If a developer doesn't sell their game somewhere else, or they do but the game requires Steam DRM, I don't buy it.

[reckon luck]

~30, though many are ones I got for dirt cheap and have never really dug into.

[Shepardus]

I counted 20-25 depending on what you count as a shmup. Some of these I got with free keys or as part of bundles that I got for something else, so the number I "intentionally" bought is around 15-20. I got a lot of these from pay-what-you-want bundles and other ludicrous sales; not counting these, I'm left with 5-10 that I bought at a non-trivial price.

There are some shmups on the Steam store that I do not have on Steam but do have from other stores, such as Astebreed and Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo; I did not count these in my estimate. Also some that I bought on other stores and registered on Steam but play with DRM-free downloads (resulting in no time clocked on Steam), such as Xmas Shooting - Scramble!! (which I really bought for the 100% Orange Juice character but it turned out to be a fun game too); I did include these.

[RawlingGunnar]

A whole slew. Over 30 for sure. I'd say close to 50 maybe.

[clippa]

I'd have to spend longer to work out what the gold:trash ratio is, but 118 so far.

[BobbyNewmarkiii]

I'm c.30. Try to avoid paying full price.

[OmegaFlareX]

20 games (well, purchases). Not what you asked for, but I gave them all rankings - N/A (not played), Poor, Meh, Good, Very Good, Excellence

Astro Tripper - I think this is a twin-stick-type game? Not really my thing so "Poor"
Battle Crust -N/A, looks cool though
Beat Hazard - More asteroids/twin-stick stuff, love Audiosurf so I wanted something more arcade-y but it's pretty "Meh"
The Binding Of Issac - Meh
Crimzon Clover World Ignition - Excellence
Deathsmiles - Excellence, port has some issues though
DDP DFK - Excellence, port has some minor issues though
eXceed 1st/2nd/3rd - (bought as bundle) says I played 1st for 4 minutes but I don't remember anything about it (so N/A to all 3); screenshots indicate 2hu-like
GundeadliGne/Gundemonium Recollection/Hitogata Happa - (another bundle) N/A/Good/Poor
Jamestown - Very Good
Legacy of the Elder Star - wanted something with mouse controls but N/A
Mushihimesama - Excellence, best shmup on Steam, imo
Raiden III Digital Edition - Good
Raiden IV Overkill - Very Good
Razor2: Hidden Skies - Poor
SATAZIUS - Good
Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics (only shmup is Bio Hazard Battle) - Meh
Sine Mora/EX - Poor, but kudos for trying on the presentation
Symphony - better than Beat Hazard (so "Good"?) but still prefer Audiosurf
WOLFLAME - Very Good, the most Toaplan-y thing on Steam

I'm not interested in more Asteroids-style stuff, but good luck with your game OP!

[Vexorg]

Currently 9 I can think of offhand:

Astro Tripper
Gundemoneum/Gundeadligne/Hitogata Happa
Mushihimesama Futari
Jamestown
Eschatos / Judgment Silversword / Cardinal Sins

Out of those, I think Eschatos is the only one I play at least semi-regularly.

[Dochartaigh]

Zero. To me gaming is about effortless fun (well, as effortless as possible). To me that means pressing the power button on my Xbox One and starting to play (with an occasional auto-update I have to wait for sometimes, but that's about it).

I don't game on a PC because I don't want to have to deal with installing everything, fine-tuning, upgrading the PC to the newest specs, programming the keyboard/mouse/controller/joystick etc. etc. etc. ...plus my PC isn't in my living room with the comfy couch and 65" 4K TV...so for me personally it's just more comfortable and easy all around to game on a console.

[Austin]

Pretty sure I'm sitting somewhere over 40, more if you count twin stick shooters, but honestly I mainly play Cave's releases, Raiden 4 and 5, Darius Burst and that's about it. I do try to pick up as many traditional looking vertical or horizontal shmups on Steam just to support the genre but the fact is I don't actually play many of the games I own.

What is Terror Squid anyway? I looked at the gameplay trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aFCtVmQyzg) but could barely make out what it's supposed to be. The object in the center of the screen is always dropping projectiles while moving in the opposite direction. Is it a twin stick shooter? Are you just laying mines? What's the deal? Is it even a shmup? Or is it all strictly about dodging rather than shooting? More information would be great to try and see how it even pertains to the market for shmups, if even at all.

"Terrorise your senses as you weave through your own bullets and trigger monstrous chain reactions in this intense and strategic arcade shooter."

Getting Every Extend Extra vibes now that I think of it.

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

Pretty much only Crimzon Clover thanks to a fancy sale. Most other shmups I got without annoying DRM.

edit: might get the updated helsinki though

[Winane]

Using a fairly broad definition of what qualifies as a shmup (including top-down run & guns), my PC games collection currently includes:

29 itch.io
28 Humble Bundle (+Tower of Guns)
27 CD/DVD (+Koumajou Densetsu I & II, +Nitroid)
13 DLsite
12 Playism
11 GOG (+Downwell)
3 BMT Micro
2 FastSpring
1 Rice Digital
0 Steam

[gray117]

First of all congrats on the game - looks pretty darnn good.

But

Oh I think you'll find doing this on this forum is an exercise in futility. We're far too esoteric to be a benchmark... Defining a shmup is a bit like asking what is art. Opinions on steam vary to love it, hate it... And besides price is probably still the most important contributing factor in number terms.

Which is why I presume you're doing this wrong?... You really wanted to ask and answer such questions at the outset, not the end of a project, unless you're just arguing the toss on price point vs wider appeal?

To answer your question approximately 12.

And now to continue with my unsolicited opinions like the entitled arse I am:

I think the name is a mistake; terror / terrorism is not a good phrase to relate to. And I don't know one person who likes 'squid' as a conceit - it's a good aesthetic quality as something alien, but miserable to include in title as an appeal to your audience. At a glance reads 'terror squad'... I think you should drop it even though you've got some indie cred behind the project - play it right and you could generate some attention off the name change to replace whatever exposure you might loose - but let's face it, any fans at this stage should follow you.

Title name change or not you need a better logo/title. Work this up a bit - looks awkward. A shorter title helps, font is pretty dire... Ironically the scoreboards etc in game are a lot better presented than the title...Think of the kind of thing a fan might actually want on a shelf/t-shirt/hoodie... I think you either need to double down on the rez kind of vibe (seems to be where to dev is coming from), or play up the goof ball theme of space invaders in reverse...

I wouldn't look at the wider genre for stats, I'd try looking at individual titles; polybius, tempest 4000, rez, nex machina, geometry wars, geometry wars....Those kind of games. (side note; tetris effect is an epic exclusive, never realised). Try and learn from them - what worked what didn't.

Pushing the soundtrack side of things will attract genre fans, and turn heads.

I think pushing the puzzle aspect of this game is by far the way to go rather than the shooter aspect, and would probably explore tweaking the compulsive nature of score/success/combo/level up a little more positively - even if subject wise it's a little dark/subversive.

Good luck!

[Elixir]

I was going to say something similar to the above regarding the futility of gauging anything by posting here (minus the name - do what you want, I don't care). When I first read the OP I was confused as to what "categories" you were going on about, "bullet hell" is one but I wouldn't even think this game falls under that umbrella. "Good shmup" really isn't a category. I think people will see this game and go "hey, this looks like something from the 80's!" or "ah, yeah, I remember Geometry Wars, I love arena shooters".

Steamspy's inaccurate, the lifetime sales of a shmup are too low to gauge anything with such a large error of margin - and that's only covering one platform. Many non-enthusiast sales come from only buying 2D games/shmups during sales. I also think assuming everyone on PC uses/wants to use Steam is a mistake (most of the shmups I have on Steam are free from industry/PR, I don't especially care for the platform. And no, I don't care about DRM).

Asking people on a shmups forum how many shmups they own on a specific platform is redundant, of course they'll have more on average. So what exactly can you take from this thread in the end?