Bullet Hell Fighting Game Concept - Bullet Slayer

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Basically like it sounds, the game concept is a combination of Smash Bros. mobility, Street Fighter 1v1 combat, and bullet hell mechanics. The game works as such:

  • Controls are on a 6 button system: Absorb, Shield, Skill, Primary, Secondary, and Special.

  • Absorb will soak certain types of bullets to build Caliber Gauge, but will draw ALL types toward your Weak Point

  • Shield can deflect certain bullet types, but limits mobility while in use

  • Skill uses a supplementary skill unique to each fighter, like Kit’s Grenades or Inari’s Hex Trigger

  • Primary uses the primary fire pattern

  • Secondary uses a secondary fire pattern or skill, like Kit’s Firing Mode

  • Special is used for activating super moves at the cost of Caliber Gauge

  • Each character has 3 super moves available:

  • A ‘Bullet Time’ standard - 1 stock of Caliber

  • A unique skill like Tsubaki’s Full-Auto Form - 1 stock of Caliber

  • A Danmaku Attack ultimate - 3 stocks of Caliber

  • Each character will have unique mobility options, shot patterns, and use one of the 4 types of projectiles on top of various skills:

  • Inari, for instance, is slow, but is the only playable character that can fly freely, allowing her to control the match through patient use of tricks, traps, and Beams.

  • Continuing with the Inari example, most of her projectiles require her to use her Hex Trigger to collect ammunition, or to charge up her attack for the most projectiles.

  • As for the types of projectiles, they are:

  • Shot: Standard projectiles with no unique properties. Most common, as in fact very few characters will NOT have this as the type for their pattern

  • Wave: Penetrates Shield but is easily absorbed for extra meter

  • Homing: Typically slow moving but cannot be absorbed. Must be blocked with Shield.

  • Beam: Powerful space controller, but can be blocked AND absorbed with practice in most cases.

  • Gameplay consists of using mobility and defensive options to protect your Weak Point, while using shot patterns to pin the opponent and force damage by connecting shots with their Weak Point.

  • The Weak Point, a particular spot in the chest area which will be explained in Story Mode, is the only part of a character that can take damage.

  • (Still unsure which to go with on this one) Characters will have:

  • A health meter

  • A limited number of hits

  • Games can go of a best of 3, 5, or 7 rounds (possibly up to 11 depending on how fast the rounds of the game end up being.

  • Each character has particular weaknesses in their ability to move and act in particular situations around the screen. Use that to create traps and predict responses.

  • Example: Kit has very limited upwards mobility, but can control his descent extremely well, in addition to using different Grenades to create pressure and cover his downward movement. You can use a warning shot of a Beam or wave to cut off his ascent, or catch him on the rise, and then hit him while he’s down, literally.

  • Current roster of playable characters:

  • Kit

  • Playstyle: Mix-up artist. Uses his two firing modes mixed with grenades to keep the opponent confused on how to protect themselves.

  • Mobility: Controlled falls. Can use a standard jump or super jump to get into the air, but cannot controll himself much going upwards. Has a jetpack used by holding ‘up’ in the air that lets him float, or dash in five directions while floating.

  • Primary: Limited ammo 3- shot burst Waves or unlimited slow firing Homing

  • Secondary: Firing Mode. Switch to reload the Wave shot

  • Skill: Grenades. Hold the button down to change the grenade type. Limited number per round

  • Grenade Types:

  • Flash: Does almost nothing.

  • Smoke: Creates a smoke cloud mid-screen, disrupting projectile visibility for both sides.

  • Frag: Creates several Shot projectiles that expand from the blast point.

  • Specials

  • RPG - Unique special

  • Shoots a rocket with high durability that homes in on the opponent after 2 seconds. Cannot be blocked with Shield or Absorbed and must be shot down.

  • DA - Lethal Force

  • Opens with a Flash grenade with slightly expanded radius which, if it connects, will stun the opponent, after which Kit will use a heavy machine gun that starts low and ends high, and then end with a rocket launch that will hit the location of the flash grenade. Very scary if you don’t defend the flash grenade as it’s free damage, but otherwise not too hard to avoid.

  • Inari

  • Playstyle: Trap master. Can lay down various spells to affect shots and use her own when she gathers enough energy. Fox Fire is paired with Negate, and Magic Mirror with Familiars. Use the defensive spells to protect yourself, lure the opponent into firing at the Hex Trigger, and then charge up massive counter attacks.

  • Mobility: Limited flight. Can freely fly around the map, however she moves slowly requiring players to make calculated adjustments according to enemy shot patterns to avoid damage instead of quick escapes.

  • Primary: Fox Fire, a Beam that uses a unit of energy for each level of charge to gain damage and size, or Magic Mirror, a wall that when placed reflects any projectiles that hit it back at the person who fired them (can only have one at a time, and uses one unit of energy each time). Switch with Hex Trigger.

  • Secondary: Negate, which can kill any projectile or spell (except Beams) directly in front of Inari for one unit of energy for each use, or Familiars, a spell that creates Homing shots based on the number of units of energy used. Switch with Hex Trigger.

  • Skill: Hex Trigger. Lays a magic circle that can absorb projectiles to give Inari energy for other spells, and switches her current spell loadout. Free, but only one can be placed at a time. Does not give Caliber Gauge.

  • Specials

  • Hell hath no Fury - Unique special

  • Gives temporary unlimited energy, allowing her to freely cast all her magic without relying on the Hex Trigger

  • DA - A Vixen Scorned

  • Fires a chain of Beam pillars across the bottom of the screen from Inari’s side to the other. Cannot be absorbed, but can be blocked. Inari is also free to fire magic while this super is active. Deadly when combined with Fox Fire to catch the opponent Absorbing your attack or not remembering their Shield.

  • Tsubaki

  • Playstyle: Rapid fire pressure. Can switch between Beams and rapid fire Shot to control the match.

  • Mobility: Vertical. Uses her various upward tools to get into the air and her multi-directional Shift to get out of dangerous situations.

  • Primary: Rapid fire Shot. Fairly fast, and good at filling screen space. Rate is cut in half while charging Beams.

  • Secondary: Laser fire. Can be charged while using primary, but reduces fire rate significantly. Can be blocked and absorbed, but requires strict timing to do so (to prevent her getting camped out). Easy to dodge though.

  • Skill: Shift. Short range teleport that can be used only once in the air. Best use is to cover her weak downwards mobility.

  • Specials

  • Full Auto Form - Unique special

  • Doubles her firing rate for both projectile types but increases the damage she can take for a limited time.

  • DA - Camellia Break

  • Massive barrage that uses all 4 projectile types, but can only hit within a limited area on the screen. Best used after a beam to pin the opponent to one part of the screen, then right into Camellia.

  • Plot

  • The game plot is as such:

  • A powerful figure created a ‘Tournament of Assassination’, luring a select group of powerful hitmen across the world to one spot.

  • This tournament was a trap created by a powerful being called Djinn to fuel forbidden time magic through blood offerings, allowing him to preserve magical races in the modern world through time manipulation, making the tournament last forever.

  • Tsubaki is a homunculus created by Djinn to be his daughter so that he could repopulate the magical world.

  • Inari is a kitsune maiden who followed Djinn into the future

  • Kit is an ex-military man who was cursed with Lycanthropy for insolence against Djinn, giving him the bloodlust to help kill and fuel his magics.

I probably posted this somewhere wrong…I for some reason have trouble picking the right spot…but this is the game concept.

It’s obviously very, very raw, especially since I have no other information apart from what is on here, but here you go. I would love to hear thought about it or how I might implement this in Unity.

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Although this game would not appeal to me - I think the concept sounds solid. And it seems like youve put in a lot of thought into the design, enough to think that these specifics wont change drastically during development.
A prototype of 2 characters would go a long way in showing/telling if this concept is actually fun.

With that said - since I do not follow this kind of genre - one screen shoot fest type game - I cant remember specifically a game with these exact mechanics, BUT Ive seen games that are similar in concept - fast paced particle bullet-gasim multiplayer with multiple weapons and defensive shields/effects.

Have you researched extensively for other games (especially indie) that are similar?

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I have looked into this and…well…surprisingly nothing really comes too close to the concept.

Most if not all the games that do something similar allow full mobility control across all characters, and most of those are not set up like a Street Fighter style game. Typically it focuses more on the bullet hell aspect of it.

Rather, the idea with this is to focus on the opposite end, the fighting game aspect. It’s not exactly ‘bullet-gasm’ as you so eloquently put it. Each attack is meant to behave much like how attacks in fighting games do, setting up opponents or continuing chains of hits.

However, most fighting games use things like frame data to control how damage works and the properties of each move. Instead this game replaces the use of frame data with that of patterns, bullet types, and mobility options.

If I had to pick a more appropriate game, I’d have to go with MVC3. Every character has different options for how they are allowed to move around the screen, and each attack uses different properties to control, not necessarily cover, the screen in different ways.

Bullet spam isn’t the key to victory. WHEN you shoot and WHAT is as important as how often and where. Remember the absorb button? That’s meant to punish spamming by rewarding the other player with meter.

That said this is far from the final design because in order for this to be a properly competitive game I’d need to do some testing with a physical version. In fact this was the first version of the concept, which I came up with in a day.

In any case I do feel really glad you brought up what you did. However how I want this game to be different is to try and capture the competitive light-speed chess match nature of fighting games in the form of shot usage, rather than making it feel like Touhou versus edition.

I still feel that Inari is rather overpowered with the way she is designed but it’s difficult to find a way to tweak her that won’t destroy her individuality and/or strength. I could try switching her unique and DA moves, and maybe buff Hell Hath no Fury to give her a charge speed boost on top of that…buuuut that might be broken as all hell.

I also don’t have the original document and was doing this all from memory. The original is on my laptop which I don’t actually have powered up.

Also this seems like an insanely ambitious project now that I think about it. I do think I’ll be using Inari and Kit for the demonstration since currently their design concepts are the most original (Tsubaki basically is the character from Soul Eater with pistols and an alternate origin, I need a properly unique design for her before I can move forward with that character) and, thinking about it, the way they behave is the best way to test the design limits and exhibit the features of how the game is supposed to work at the same time.

I may only have literary talents ATM, but I’ll be damned if I haven’t tried to put them to work with the design of this game.

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Cool - thanks for clearing my misconceptions up. I got more of a bullet-hell, single screen, multiplayer vibe from your first post, but with a more focused point on the fighting-game aspect I’d be a lot more interested in seeing this progress.
I enjoy fighting games - though I’m not a ultra hardcore player like those elite KI and SF competitive players.

Will await something to look at, mechanics and balancing are key to this being entertaining.
Good luck.

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Thanks.

Yeah I can see why you’d have thought that too. I tend to have trouble getting my ideas or points across clearly. Not your fault.

I’m probably going to use some placeholder sprites and create a general animation very few of the graphics will be in the final product (if only because they’d be copyrighted and I’m just trying to show how it’s supposed to work.)

Oh yes, those will be very much key. I’ll probably need to tweak the Absorb mechanic heavily to ensure it’s balanced across all characters.

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