ABOUT STG Shmups

Curator for Shoot 'em ups on Steam

This group acts as a curator for Steam STGs.
Please look at pinned discussions for more information.
Credits for the group picture goes to Hauser: https://twitter.com/hausxr
Follow or stream on the Twitch category "STG Shmups", so shmup streams are easier to find! https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/STG%20Shmups

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RECENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Regarding the Curator's lens and the topic of "Euroshmups"

24 April - 4[v4[/V5!5 | 0 Comments

Recently, we've been asked why one of our curations of a game was "not recommended", despite the fact that the game itself had very good reviews, both in rating and amount. While this question did not change our curation of the game, it did prompt us to realize that the curator page itself had so far not clarified on what basis it recommends for or against games. This post is meant to remedy that. It does not signify any changes.

We do not per se intend to express that the games that we do not recommend are bad. Instead, this curator is meant to curate STGs and STG-adjacent games based more on sensibilities of the traditional arcade or arcade-style STG-oriented community, as the curator was founded from within and for that community. This does not mean that games that do not adhere to traditional conventions are automatically recommended against. However, it is not rare for such games to focus less on the qualities that traditional arcade(-style) STGs may provide (e.g. creative and meticulous stage, pattern or boss design and balancing), and instead focus on qualities that traditional STG players are commonly less interested in (e.g. ship/character upgrades, shop systems). While we do not use this term in the context of curation due to its connotations and ambiguity, we recommend the "Euroshmups" article on the shmups wiki [shmups.wiki] to read up on this divide within the STG genre.

We hope that you understand our decision. Should this curator's lens not be to your liking, here is a list of other STG-oriented curators we're aware of.

Regarding Curator Connect keys

16 October, 2021 - 4[v4[/V5!5 | 0 Comments

The Curator Connect feature allows devs to send keys of their games to Steam Curators of their choice.
This post is meant to clarify the usual proceedings regarding those keys that became conventional over the past year ever since the Curator was created.

Curator Connect keys are most likely to go to me (Alva) as I'm the most likely person to play them.
However, keys may be declined if we deem them not relevant enough for the curator or if it is overwhelmingly apparent from the store page that they're not good.

As of the middle of October 2021, we've accepted keys for 22 games but only 10 of those games have been curated.
There's a variety of possible reasons why I may not have curated a game yet despite having accepted a key for a longer amount of time:

The game is in Early Access

If I find a game to not be worth recommending while it's in Early Access and I can't gauge how far off it is from getting a full release, I might just not curate it yet.
The reason for that is that I do not want the curator to recommend against a game based on how it was before its release as there's a chance I may not return to it for a while even after release.

The price is unknown

If I'm not certain whether a game we got before its official release is worth recommending, the price may end up becoming a deciding factor. If it's unknown, I'll wait until the game is out.

I haven't played the game enough

I like playing a game for 10 hours at least before curating it. The only reason I'd recommend against a game I've played less than that for now is if the game is simply not functional. Unfortunately, this means that some games can and have ended up in limbo, especially since there may be games I simply don't feel like playing.

I couldn't decide

Curators can recommend or recommend against a game but there's also an option to write an informative curation. So far, it was my plan to avoid using those, though we have done a few informative curations already. However, since there are just too many games that aren't necessarily bad but also not good enough for me to recommend, I've recently decided I'll be doing more informative curations from now on, especially if I can't decide on a game for too long. This may allow me to catch up eventually.

-Alva