Shoot 'Em Up Kit

i ended up getting a refund and suggest you look for another program. look up tutorial / information first. the only real tutorial video's are 1 or 2 minutes long, and date from 2013. these are the official released video's on the company named youtube channel. the program looks exactly the same as it did 2.5 years ago in the videos... nothing new has been added in the ways of features as far as i can tell. as far as i can tell maybe a few bug fixes? no information on file formats or codecs in the manual. very sparse information. the only tutorials that exist show you how to essentially drag and drop items from the examples into a project. this is stuff you probably could figure out on your own, and nobody not even a 4 year old would play the game examples they give you. maybe once for 30 seconds? i was not impressed. but hey, you can try it out with minimal risk now. so go for it.

I really, really wish I could recommend this software, but I can't. Why? * It's very buggy * Far too many random lockups and crashes * Awkward UI * Despite being 'coding free', it's still complex to learn until you know exactly what you're looking for * You CANNOT use the assets if you decide to sell your game I wanted to make a Space Shoot 'Em Up. I could have done this with the other, more complex, engines I already know; But as this was on sale, I thought I'd pick it up and give it a go. I tried to love it, I tried to like it, but everything is just so clunky. After following some tutorials I managed to get a basic game going but the camera setups are just too... weird, especially for an engine utilising a 3D environment (Give us top and side views, show us the X, Y and Z axis using a marker). I've no doubt some others will have more success with this package than I have had - the devs claim to still be working on it (which is good! I hope some great improvements come with the ne...

The thing that put me off is they don't allow you to use their assets in commercial games. So what's the point unless you are a great artist and modeller? OK. Let me edit the above. They have announced that we can now use all assets in our commercial games. Also, there is a new feature which allows you to create your own 3D models by combining meshes. The problem is they don't seem to have added extra parts specifically for this feature so you just merge the default spaceships etc., which is not ideal. The app is also rather complicated. Presumably, it's quite powerful but few people could confirm that because of the dearth of learning resources. Until they come, I reluctantly have to leave my thumbs-down. [h1]Also, there are very few decent tutorials so I still can't figure out how to use it.

Steam claims I have run this for more than the time allowed, though I barely got an hours use. It's one of the many problems with this software. It doesn't shut down. It doesn't save. It doesn't respond to clicks or buttons or let you place objects. It freezes and it crashes. It is completely unusable on my AMD FX 8350 Machine running RX 480 on 16 gb of Tritan X ram. I've had several problems with Steam not supporting the purchasers right to working software. I reported it within hours of buying it, only to get a message back later saying I have used it more than the 2 hrs they allow, which is untrue. I researched the issue thoroughly to try and fix the matter myself. Still it doesn't work. I am going to get a refund through my bank and will not buy anymore software from steam outside of specific titles I know of on the game's end where these issues are no prevailant. Steam does not care about their customers, if they did, they would make sure to protect their purchasers and to reinfor...

Buyer Beware: Expensive Abandonware Ahead! Well, well, well... what do you know? It's been two years so I thought I'd check in and Shoot 'Em Up Kit is STILL in 'Early Access'! So that's about an entire DECADE spent in early access. How does steam even allow this?!?! -=-=-= I purchased this 4 or 5 years ago and, while I have seen progress, it has been glacial. It's very disappointing to lay out $40 and then find documentation is limited to a handful of ten year old youtube videos. The developers have not even bothered to update their store page which reads: “We expect the Shoot 'Em Up Kit to be in Early Access for 4 weeks.” 4 weeks? It's been over four years. Situations like this is why I never pay for 'early access' software anymore. Nevertheless, this concept is awesome and the niche it fills is basically empty. I would love to see you guys refund everybody, open source this, and throw it on Github. Update: Hoping to see some progress, I installed this packag...

This kit is marvelous for everyone who wants to achieve great result in a short time. The promise is kept as you will never need to code anything. The drag and drop layout is intuitive and the menus are clear so you can get great simple game to work fast. To go deeper and complex, you will still need to read the manual and experiment with the kit. It takes time to get a feel of the possibilities and limits of each features, that's expected. To keep the kit clean, many of it's power is hidden. Trial and error is the way to go. With a bit of practice you can achieve great and impressive games in a short time. But keep in mind that the more perfect you want your game to be, the more time it will take. Also the kit is still in developpement and going on it's own pace. Therefore, some key features are not yet perfectly in shape. In due time, everything will be allright. There is already plenty to do and learn ! One of the main positive point is the Developpers behavior and dedication....

UPDATE: Looks like it is abandoned. Too bad. Could have been really fun... [b]This is an Early Access review. I will update the review in typical BPR format when this leaves EA.[/b] Shoot 'Em Up Kit is a ShMUp design kit fueled by a drag-and-drop interface, that aims to provide the user with tools and options normally reserved for those wielders of the esoteric knowledge known as 'scripting'. Thus far the tools are much more powerful than my design skills appear to be. I know. Shocking. Still, i have been able to make a functional game and generally get the kit to do the things I want it to do. In skilled hands i would imagine that much better results could be had. This level of customization is critical to the success of development engines of this type; ones that aim to provide robust tools for both the professional and the hobbyist. Still, as much as everything can be controlled by sliders and buttons, there IS a logic and a vernacular that you need to learn to become proficient. ...

Was really excited, hoping I could use my own assets! I'm sure it said I could use my own 3D models or even hand-drawn images scanned in. Seems like you can only use the models which come with the game - a few ships, a couple of trees and a couple of tiles for grass etc. I had made loads of 3D terrain and 3D ships which I wanted to use in the game but I just can't import them into the game. Will keep trying but disappointed so far :'( *I just read that 3D models need to be saved in directX format and placed in the steam/install folder (with their textures), then they can be imported as an asset.

I made an arcade game using this kit, google "JPO In SLC" to see what I was able to do with the program. It is a traditional 2D side-scrolling shmup, which I don't think the kit was specifically designed for, but it worked great, and as far as I know, this is the only program that can pull this off (for a lay-person like me). Over the last year and a half, I've seen the program flesh itself out and fill in it's own gaps (It was very early access when I bought it, Tall Studios had already been developing it for a long time even then). I did not think it was the easiest program to use when I bought it, but now that I've figured much of it out, I am in love with it and think it is just amazing. But mostly, Tall Studios support system is on point. If I was stuck, they would respond, often within a day- whether with advice, or with changes to the program itself. I can't wait to see where this kit goes, and I STRONGLY recomend getting into it immediately, early access or not. And if you have...

DO NOT BUY!! unless you have a talent to hunt and pick to see how things work. The documentation is outdated, online website and the You-tube videos even the wiki. The devs do not care about documenting the updates. It is nothing like you see on the videos.