My Danmaku Boss Rush! (1.0 Alpha) [Game Maker]

[dragonsamurai77]

About a month ago, I resumed working on an old GM bullet hell game I had abandoned for a few years, deciding for brevity to get rid of the levels all together and just have a boss rush. Now, I finally have the game in a releasable state! Though the game is very unpolished and probably needs many balance changes, it does have all of the major planned content available, and I'd be very grateful if any Playgrounders would be willing to give feedback.

You can download the game (Windows only) as well as a readme here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xa2frdz9ixwzdnc/danmaku.zip?dl=0

[Grinner]

You've got the basic bullet-hell gameplay nailed down.

If you want to improve this, I would recommend making four changes:

First, give the player some visual feedback as to what's going on. Once, gameplay gets underway, I'm not really sure if I'm accomplishing anything. This could be as simple as tinting the enemy sprite red when a bullet comes in contact with them. If you want to get fancier, create explosion animations at the point of impact and have the enemy sprite use different, increasingly-damaged looking sprites as their health decreases. You could also have the player and/or the enemies explode after destruction.
Training mode ought to have some kind of introduction which informs the players of the controls. Actually, you might consider scrapping it altogether, since it's really not all that different from the actual game.
Some kind of background, even just a looping starfield, would improve the look of the game immensely. I can give you one if necessary.
Last, try to have the boss enter the field of play rather than just dropping the player straight into gameplay. It's a little disorienting otherwise.

[dragonsamurai77]

You've got the basic bullet-hell gameplay nailed down.
Glad that that's solid, at least. Were there any specific patterns you had trouble with.


If you want to improve this, I would recommend making four changes:

First, give the player some visual feedback as to what's going on. Once, gameplay gets underway, I'm not really sure if I'm accomplishing anything. This could be as simple as tinting the enemy sprite red when a bullet comes in contact with them. If you want to get fancier, create explosion animations at the point of impact and have the enemy sprite use different, increasingly-damaged looking sprites as their health decreases. You could also have the player and/or the enemies explode after destruction.
A good idea, but I'll need to think exactly what to do for some of these.



Training mode ought to have some kind of introduction which informs the players of the controls. Actually, you might consider scrapping it altogether, since it's really not all that different from the actual game.

The purpose of training mode is to help players practice specific bosses without playing through the entire game, as well as letting less skilled players fight the secret bosses. Adding a tutorial could be a good addition, though.



Some kind of background, even just a looping starfield, would improve the look of the game immensely. I can give you one if necessary.

I wasn't sure if the free version of GameMaker I use allowed animated backgrounds, but luckily it at least allows me to scroll the background, so this shouldn't be too hard.



Last, try to have the boss enter the field of play rather than just dropping the player straight into gameplay. It's a little disorienting otherwise.

Something I have been meaning to do.

[Maryring]

Let there be a pause between the bullet patterns. Once you've beaten one pattern, let the player have a moment to register and revel in their victory before you unleash the next pattern on them. Three seconds should be plenty.

When designing bullet patterns, keep in mind that in a bullet hell game, the bullet and bullet patterns tell you a ton about the enemy you're fighting. If you want there to be some sort of story or setting to the game, you need to let the patterns reflect the enemy. As is, they're all personalityless spaceships, which is fair enough. But if you were to try to attach these patterns to a specific individual, it wouldn't stick that well, and you'd be hard pressed to be engaged in the characters. There are some cool patterns you've made though, so I'd suggest focusing on those patterns when you build up the characters other patterns. That sense of coherency is invaluable.

The difficulty is also a bit outta whack. 2nd boss is harder than the 3rd. The fifth boss is really easy, and I'll argue that the last pattern for boss nr 7 is by far the easiest pattern in the whole game.

I assume that your hitbox is that tiny yellow dot on the back of the dragon? You'd do well to make the hitbox of the player sprite clear to the gamer, because when you have to do pixel perfect dodging, you need to know what pixels you've got to work with.

Beyond that, it's mostly nitpicky details on specific pattens. I mean, sure it lacks polish. But as has been mentioned, you've got the core gameplay down.

[dragonsamurai77]

Let there be a pause between the bullet patterns. Once you've beaten one pattern, let the player have a moment to register and revel in their victory before you unleash the next pattern on them. Three seconds should be plenty.

True, and that's something that's very hard to notice as the designer because I'm expecting all the patterns.



When designing bullet patterns, keep in mind that in a bullet hell game, the bullet and bullet patterns tell you a ton about the enemy you're fighting. If you want there to be some sort of story or setting to the game, you need to let the patterns reflect the enemy. As is, they're all personalityless spaceships, which is fair enough. But if you were to try to attach these patterns to a specific individual, it wouldn't stick that well, and you'd be hard pressed to be engaged in the characters. There are some cool patterns you've made though, so I'd suggest focusing on those patterns when you build up the characters other patterns. That sense of coherency is invaluable.
I never thought of it that way, since the bosses were never meant, as you observed, to have any real personality. Still, if I'm going to rework some things for balance anyway, I might as well use this approach.



The difficulty is also a bit outta whack. 2nd boss is harder than the 3rd. The fifth boss is really easy, and I'll argue that the last pattern for boss nr 7 is by far the easiest pattern in the whole game.
For the final attack, at least, that's an issue that came up very late in design; originally, bullets didn't disappear when you died or bombed, but once I added that feature, the slow speed of the bullets means that they don't have time to catch back up to the player. I'll probably just make it so that specifically those bullets linger.



I assume that your hitbox is that tiny yellow dot on the back of the dragon? You'd do well to make the hitbox of the player sprite clear to the gamer, because when you have to do pixel perfect dodging, you need to know what pixels you've got to work with.
Your assumption is correct. That is mentioned, but only in the readme. As mentioned in my above post, I may add a tutorial, in which case that would certainly be mentioned.


Beyond that, it's mostly nitpicky details on specific pattens. I mean, sure it lacks polish. But as has been mentioned, you've got the core gameplay down.
Thank you so much for all your feedback! I don't want to demand anything else from you, but I don't mind nitpicking; if you have any thoughts on specific attacks, I'd love to hear them!

[Grinner]

Glad that that's solid, at least. Were there any specific patterns you had trouble with.

All of them. I'm not really a hand-eye coordination sort of person.

[Maryring]

The readme mentions an orange dot on a ship, not a yellow dot on a dragon. :smalltongue: ut yeah, mostly just confirming. You want a good visual cue on hitboxes in this kind of game.

Difficulty-wise this is a hard bullet-hell. Which is fair enough, people may want to play hard bullet hells, but you're not gonna get anyone who doesn't already enjoy Danmaku to enjoy the game at its current difficulty. But let's talk specific patterns.

One thing to consider is layering difficulty. Don't put the pattern on full heat from the beginning. Instead, start it slow and build up the difficulty, at least for some patterns. Just like you've done in pattern 1-3.

Pattern 2-1. Consider having the streamed purple bullets shoot a bit slower. The gap between them for going through is really narrow and really hard to gauge correctly.

Pattern 2-2. Here you need to think of adding difficulty correctly. You've already pushed the player down with the huge green rings from the previous pattern. Give them a chance to realise that now the bullets will be coming from behind them. Let a few scattered bullets begin bouncing up from behind, and then rapidly increase up to the max amount. It gives the player a chance to understand where the bullets are coming from, and react accordingly. Only after this should you start firing yellow bullets from the UFO.

Pattern 2-3. A good introduction to requiring unfocused dodging, but again consider layering things. Begin with either the yellow scattershot, or the blue circle.

Pattern 2-4. Slow the yellow bullet down. Either that or make it less agile. When it can turn on a dime, weaving past it becomes almost impossible with the red walls coming down on you.

Pattern 3-3. I'm pretty sure this one is broken. It scatters a few random pellets towards the corners, but otherwise the bullets remain circling at the boss. You can't lose this if you just stand still beneath the boss.

Pattern 4-2. Consider making the red bullet walls just a bit thinner. It's still really difficult to read where the openings are. You can keep the density for when the ship has climbed back up, but there you should consider increasing the pause between bullet walls just a bit because, again, opening hard to read.

Pattern 4-4(?). Consider using only one colour for the bullets, to make it easier to read them and the openings they offer. Also, the hit boxes for the bullets seem to be larger than the actual bullets.

Pattern 5-3. Make the bullets that are shot from the other bullets either spawn closer to the centre, or move slower.

Pattern 6-1. I don't like it. The blue rings come too rapidly after one another, and you have to move too close to the enemy ship to be able to dodge through the rings. It's probably the hardest pattern in the whole game.

Pattern 6-2. Shrink the green rings. The gap with the blue spinner is much too small to properly dodge the green ring.

Pattern 7-2. This... really isn't fitting as the extra super hard most difficult awesome hyperboss final attack. Reduce the amount of bullets on this pattern, add in some impressive streamers aimed away from the player but still close enough to compact movement after a while, and finish off with a few slow but large bomb shots, and you may have a winner.

Lastly, general advice. Stage 5 is the best when it comes to flavour, because it uses black and white bullets in several of its patterns. Make the stage 5 boss only use greyscale and it'll make the fight more memorable.

Consider sound effects for shots. Especially for the patterns where you use aimed streams.

Can't think of anything else beyond that.

[dragonsamurai77]

All of them. I'm not really a hand-eye coordination sort of person.

Ha, fair enough.


The readme mentions an orange dot on a ship, not a yellow dot on a dragon. :smalltongue: ut yeah, mostly just confirming. You want a good visual cue on hitboxes in this kind of game.

Difficulty-wise this is a hard bullet-hell. Which is fair enough, people may want to play hard bullet hells, but you're not gonna get anyone who doesn't already enjoy Danmaku to enjoy the game at its current difficulty. But let's talk specific patterns.

One thing to consider is layering difficulty. Don't put the pattern on full heat from the beginning. Instead, start it slow and build up the difficulty, at least for some patterns. Just like you've done in pattern 1-3.

Pattern 2-1. Consider having the streamed purple bullets shoot a bit slower. The gap between them for going through is really narrow and really hard to gauge correctly.

Pattern 2-2. Here you need to think of adding difficulty correctly. You've already pushed the player down with the huge green rings from the previous pattern. Give them a chance to realise that now the bullets will be coming from behind them. Let a few scattered bullets begin bouncing up from behind, and then rapidly increase up to the max amount. It gives the player a chance to understand where the bullets are coming from, and react accordingly. Only after this should you start firing yellow bullets from the UFO.

Pattern 2-3. A good introduction to requiring unfocused dodging, but again consider layering things. Begin with either the yellow scattershot, or the blue circle.

Pattern 2-4. Slow the yellow bullet down. Either that or make it less agile. When it can turn on a dime, weaving past it becomes almost impossible with the red walls coming down on you.

Pattern 3-3. I'm pretty sure this one is broken. It scatters a few random pellets towards the corners, but otherwise the bullets remain circling at the boss. You can't lose this if you just stand still beneath the boss.

Pattern 4-2. Consider making the red bullet walls just a bit thinner. It's still really difficult to read where the openings are. You can keep the density for when the ship has climbed back up, but there you should consider increasing the pause between bullet walls just a bit because, again, opening hard to read.

Pattern 4-4(?). Consider using only one colour for the bullets, to make it easier to read them and the openings they offer. Also, the hit boxes for the bullets seem to be larger than the actual bullets.

Pattern 5-3. Make the bullets that are shot from the other bullets either spawn closer to the centre, or move slower.

Pattern 6-1. I don't like it. The blue rings come too rapidly after one another, and you have to move too close to the enemy ship to be able to dodge through the rings. It's probably the hardest pattern in the whole game.

Pattern 6-2. Shrink the green rings. The gap with the blue spinner is much too small to properly dodge the green ring.

Pattern 7-2. This... really isn't fitting as the extra super hard most difficult awesome hyperboss final attack. Reduce the amount of bullets on this pattern, add in some impressive streamers aimed away from the player but still close enough to compact movement after a while, and finish off with a few slow but large bomb shots, and you may have a winner.

Lastly, general advice. Stage 5 is the best when it comes to flavour, because it uses black and white bullets in several of its patterns. Make the stage 5 boss only use greyscale and it'll make the fight more memorable.

Consider sound effects for shots. Especially for the patterns where you use aimed streams.

Can't think of anything else beyond that.

Wow, that's a lot of feedback, thank you so much! I found the problem with 3-3, by the way; it only glitches in training mode and is related to my weird implementation of a few things.

[dragonsamurai77]

New version is out, featuring updated patterns, a new background, a tutorial, a few sound effects, and boss entrances.

Download here. (https://www.dropbox.com/s/mwl7mv4m8r530rr/danmaku.exe?dl=0)