We’re a team of long time gamer and we wanted to create a game. But not just a game, the game has to be unique and can penetrate through competitive market. Our passion for games fuels our desire to create something truly unique and profitable. As long-time gamers ourselves, we understand the intricacies and nuances that make a game truly engaging and addictive. This deep understanding allows us to tap into the desires and motivations of players, crafting experiences that resonate with them on a personal level.
Beyond just understanding players, our own passion for games drives us to push boundaries and explore innovative concepts. We're not content with simply replicating existing formulas; we're driven to create something new and exciting that challenges the status quo. This dedication to innovation is crucial in today's competitive gaming market, where players are constantly seeking out fresh and engaging experiences.
The Mechanics-Dynamics-Aesthetics (MDA) framework is a tool used to analyze games. It formalizes the consumption of games by breaking them down into three components: Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. These three words have been used informally for many years to describe various aspects of games, but the MDA framework provides precise definitions for these terms and seeks to explain how they relate to each other and influence the player's experience.
Types of core aesthetics, including but not limited to the following eight stated:
We try to analyze some of the game in the market that’s really successfull and try to make decision based on that. The feasiblity scoring are rated from Profitability, Uniqueness, Design Difficulties, and Technical Difficulties. Since we also have limited human resources, we have to keep in mind of especially Design Difficulties, and Technical Difficulties. Here are the summaries of our analysis:
Reverse bullet hell, also known as "reverse shoot-'em-up" or "bullet heaven," flips the script on the traditional bullet hell genre. Instead of dodging a relentless onslaught of enemy projectiles, the player controls a character who fires those projectiles at enemies. The goal is to strategically weave through enemy formations and unleash devastating attacks while avoiding their counterattacks. Here are some key characteristics of reverse bullet hell:
Focus on offense
Unlike traditional bullet hell where dodging takes center stage, reverse bullet hell puts the emphasis on attacking strategically. Players actively control the flow of projectiles, requiring precise aiming and timing to maximize damage and defeat enemies.
Dynamic enemy formations
Enemies often move in complex patterns, creating intricate bullet formations that require careful maneuvering to navigate. Players need to adapt their attack patterns on the fly to exploit enemy weaknesses and avoid getting overwhelmed.
Unique power-ups and abilities
Reverse bullet hell games often feature power-ups and abilities that enhance the player's offensive capabilities. These can range from widening the spread of your shots to creating temporary bullet shields, offering players strategic choices to tackle different challenges.
Overall, reverse bullet hell offers a unique and exhilarating gaming experience by flipping the traditional bullet hell formula on its head. It's a genre that rewards strategic thinking, quick reflexes, and an aggressive playstyle.
Vampire Survivors is a gothic horror casual game with roguelike elements, developed and published by indie developer poncle. Released in late 2022, the game quickly gained popularity for its simple yet addictive gameplay and minimalistic graphics. Vampire survivors can be classified as bullet-heaven genre. We drew our main inspiration from this game.
The base-building genre, also known as "construction and management simulation" or "city-building games," refers to video games where the primary focus is on designing, constructing, and managing a base or settlement. Players typically start with limited resources and gradually expand their base, gathering resources, managing production chains, and fending off threats. In addition to Vampire Survivors, we also have several inspirations such as:
After a lot of discussions, we decided to try to combine Vampire Survivor’s Bulllet Heaven aspect with Forager’s and/or Cult of the lamb Base-building aspect. Here are our core game design:
Core Aesthetics
The Game Aesthetics of our game are Challenge, because the player will need to be challenged to survive the unrelenting hordes of enemies and get better at recognizing each gameplay mechanics to progress through the game.
Core Dynamics
Game Pillars
A core game loop is a series of actions that players repeat throughout a game. It's the central gameplay mechanic that players engage in to progress. Our game loop featured 2 cycle, bullet-heaven and base-building
In game development, a vertical slice is a fully playable portion of a game that demonstrates the developer's intended player experience. It's a small but complete representation of what the game will be like. A vertical slice is meant to look and play as close to the final game as possible. Check our short demo here (only on TestFlight MacOS for now)
