Recently I completed a “Year of Shmups,” where I greatly increased my skill at shooting games. My method was simple in practice, but a bit lengthy to explain. I’m creating this shortened version so you can get the highlights and start practicing. This method was made for shmups, but can be adapted to most/all genres with a bit of tinkering.
1. Play 25-60 minutes, six days a week
The most important thing is consistent playtime. No hot tips can get around this. When you play, focus on what’s happening. Pay attention to the game. Set a timer for an hour, and play as long as you want in that time. Or, play in blocks of 20 or 30 minutes. Pick a break day where you won’t play any shmups. Honor that day off and use it for something else. Why take breaks, and why limit your playtime? Because burnout is the number one enemy of mastery.
2. Main game versus alternate games
You’ll want to pick a main game. Pick a game of excellence, something fun and appealing with a lot of depth to its systems. Likely you already have an idea of such a game. Play your main game every other week. On weeks where you’re not playing your main shmup, you’ll pick an alternate shmup. This can be any other shmup you’ve wanted to play—think of it like a cheat week away from your main game. Play this game for the entire alternate week. No hopping around between games! Pick an alternate game for that week and stick with it.
So your schedule will look like this:
Week 1: Main shmup
Week 2: Alt shmup
Week 3: Main shmup
Week 4: Alt shmup
Rinse and repeat. You can switch alternate games each alternate week, or you can stick with one alternate game until you clear it.
3. Pre-test, training, full runs
a. Pretest
When you start a new mode of your main game or when you begin a new alternate game, give yourself a pre-test by playing 1-3 full runs. This lets you assess the game’s difficulty and prepare for any challenges.
b. Training
Start training on the levels and sections that challenged you. For me, this is usually stages 3, 4, and 5. I will often devote extra practice to the bosses as well. I make a practice sheet to keep me honest and on-task. This is easy and takes minimal time compared to all the use you will get out of it! I take my sheet and write down how many times I will play each level.
Stage 3 (10x)
Stage 4 (10x)
Stage 5 (10x)
3Boss (5x)
4Boss (5x)
5Boss (10x)
I draw checkboxes, but you can use hashmarks or whatever is easiest for you. Then I play the levels in training mode, playing no level or boss more than twice in a row. Each time I beat a level or boss, I put a mark next to it. I alternate between levels until I have played them all the number of times specified on the training sheet.
c. Full runs
After I’ve finished training each specified level or boss to completion, I’m ready to do full runs to test my progress. Usually I will do 3 full, credit-feed runs to check where I’m at. If I one credit clear the game during testing, great. Otherwise I will go back into training and add checkboxes. It can be tempting to keep doing full runs if you’re close to getting the one credit clear. But if you do 5 full runs and haven’t cleared, you’re usually fooling yourself. You’d be better off spending some more time in training mode.
4. Varied practice vs blocked practice
Research (as in scientific, not my own personal research) indicates that varied practice leads to faster improvement than blocked practice. What this means is that you’ll want to alternate between levels/bosses/savestates instead of repeatedly grinding the same segment. Don’t play the same thing more than twice in a row, basically! Depending on your game’s training tools, this may or may not be viable. So be as varied as you can be with the tools you have.
5. Re-centering
During practice sessions, try to take a mini break every three stages, or after every handful of practice segments. Meditate for a few breaths in and out, or do some light physical exercise, like 10x body weight squats, 10×2 arm windmills forward and back, and 10 forward bows. During full runs, I like to use the score tally between stages to re-center my breath. I take a full exhale in, hold the breath at its peak for a few seconds, then slowly exhale as if I’m blowing out a candle. This reduces some of my jitters and allows me to focus more fully on the stage ahead. I won’t try to tell you how to live your life, but just remember that if you don’t get proper sleep, you won’t get proper practice, either.
6. Just Right Challenge
Try to aim for clears that are just a baby bit harder than your last clear. Each successive clear is a ladder that builds up to bigger and better things. Don’t aim for the hardest games right away! If your main game is pretty tough, that’s fine as long as it’s a game you love. If there are novice modes, clear those first. And try to pick alternate games that will give you steady successes, rather than getting yourself sandwiched between a very tough main game and an equally tough alternate game.
7. Mindset
The most important thing about mindset is to not get in your own way. When you make a mistake in training mode, don’t beat yourself up about it. That’s why you’re training. You’re there to make mistakes. Sometimes mistakes in full runs can be painful, but just recognize that you’re playing games in a very difficult genre. You’re playing this genre because you don’t want to win every time. Recognize that by spending a little time practicing every day, you’re building up to bigger successes. Track your clears. It’s easy to forget them, but if you can look back at a list of clears, you’ll be able to see how far you’ve come.
I know from talking to others that this can be a bit overwhelming and confusing. It’s easy for me to follow this method because I created it and thought very deeply about its every aspect. Putting it into practice was easier than writing about it. If you’re confused about this or that, comment here or message me @bunnygirlbutts on Twitter. I’m always happy to talk.
If you’d like an expanded version, check out my interview with Dace at Shmuptopia: https://youtu.be/QxRRPsUKnaQ . I think the only major change I’ve made is to implement varied practice over blocked practice. And give Dace a follow as well on youtube and twitter—he’s a super nice guy, and a looker to boot.
Much love and patience while practicing,
Sterny ❤
Catstronaut Loves Games 