SHMUP Builder / Getting Started

The SHMUP Builder can be found in the Unity menu under the Playniax tab Playniax > Dashboards > SHMUP Builder.

The UI layout

The SHMUP Builder consists of 3 tabs or pages namely Library, Players and Sequencer.



You will also notice the Package and Category menu and a collection of icons.

The icons represent the assets or prefabs available.

The package menu (or package filter) can be used to filter out the necessary products or packages.



The category menu (or category filter) is only available for the library and can be used to filter out the necessary categories.



Note that the number of assets showing depend on which of Playniax products or packages are installed.

The Library tab

The Library tab will show most available ready to use prefabs like sprites, backgrounds, UI layouts, etc. and they can be added to your scene also by clicking on it:

The Players tab

The Players tab consists of a few ready to use player prefabs that can be added to your scene by simply clicking on it.

It is important to know that this will make a copy or instance from the existing prefabs that can be found in the prefab folders so if you make changes to these prefabs it will impact further copies.



The Trigger Mode menu determines if the player fires bullets automatically (Auto), if the player controls the firing (Player) or if the bullets fire only when a an enemy is on screen (Smart).



Set the desired trigger mode before adding the player to your scene.

The Sequencer tab

The Sequencer tab allows you to create and build your own shoot'em up using the custom spawners.

Sequencer menu

The Sequencer menu (depending on which Playniax product or packages that are installed) will show the available spawners.



The icons underneath the Sequencer menu represent the assets or prefabs available and when you click on an asset or prefab icon it will create a spawner (the one selected) spawning the asset clicked.

This action will also create a (parent) sequencer in your scene if not present already.

The spawners are automatically added to the sequencer as children.

From there on you can create as many spawners as needed.

So settings the Package menu to Prototyping, the Sequencer menu to Demo Spawner and by clicking on the Enemy icon will add a sequencer to the Hierarchy like in the image below:



You can also use the SHMUP Builder to activate the spawner options like firing bullets or dropping coins and pickups with the Fire Bullets, Add Coins and Pickup menu.



The Pickup menu:



Note that not every spawner supports these options.

Tools

At the top op the sequencer tab you will find 3 icons namely Message, Wait and Delay.



These tools can be used to add a message to the sequencer, have the sequencer wait for the current spawner to be finished or to add a delay between the spawners.

For more about these tools have a look at Sequencer