Isbarah for a new game.

[Cagar]

Alright, I sent you a message, dev.

[bishhenin]

You can see that a lot of work went into the graphics, but I can imagine that, having played tons of bullet hell shooters and being used to having the ability to just freely move around the screen, it will feel frustrating for me to be bound by gravity and to have to jump around.

Another thing is that barrrier mechanic where you can draw a line with your mouse. Personally, I'm not a fan of mixing joypad and mouse gameplay; also, I can imagine that having pauses in the gameplay so often will 1.) destroy the typical danmaku flow 2.) be exploited (if there's no energy bar or something along those lines).

I'll certainly try out a demo if you make one available!

In platformer games, Players are challenged on having to take care of their movement, and this could easily becomes an issue when it comes to dodge a lot of bullets.
That's why we have added to Isbarah the use of some abilities like the dash and the wall to help and improve player's movement in the platformer gameplay.

The Gravity is then not used for limitation but as a tool to help the player move to the bottom, till the dash and the wall can give you control back on your character (the dash isn't affected by gravity and the barrier stops you from falling), they can also support the players to jump higher.

For the mouse, it's the best way we had for using the dash and drawing the wall precisely and quickly.

Concerning the pauses, Players won't really have much time to breath in Isbarah as it gets real hard in the higher levels.
When a bullet is blocked by the barrier, it will start to move again when the barrier disappear since the barrier has a time limit.
Concerning the abilities, players don't have so much energy as they're limited and take time to get recharged again.

[Cagar]

But that's the thing.
It's more fast and precise to play shoot em' up on a huge touchscreen- the same way as it is more precise to draw the walls and dash with the mouse.
But do players still want to play shmups on a touchscreen? No! Fast and precise controls =/= Fun controls.

In platformer games, Players are challenged on having to take care of their movement, and this could easily becomes an issue when it comes to dodge a lot of bullets.

No, it is the whole point of platformer physics. Mastering the movement and motion that you can do. It seems to me that your game is dumbed down to a very, very slow pace to make the movement "precise" without giving time to faster gameplay. Overall I think that the game clearly shows that you lack experience from shoot em' ups. You might've tested Touhou on easy difficulty, maybe some BWR, and then gone "DUDE LET'S MIX THESE 2 GENRES!!! "PLATFORMER BULLET HELL!" " without even realizing what makes shmups good and popular in the first place.
(Hint: It is not this: dodging patterns from a boss that you can't attack)

This game makes me so mad because it's a huge waste of potential. It made me mad enough for me to dig up a few years old game design document of my own (bullet hell platformer where you can SHOOT!), and started working on it

[bishhenin]

Really loving the art!
The trailer is a little confusing to follow, as to what the gameplay is.
I found this old trailer, which isn't as pretty, but explains the controls pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckvU5NYOP2c

We took your advice and we made a new video using our current graphics explaining the game controls, We hope you like it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfuTTc6FvtA

[eebrozgi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfuTTc6FvtA

Based on this video, it looks like all bullets are moving at almost the exact same speed (a rather slow one to my tastes), which seems like it will cost the game being interestingly varying and energetic. Am I being misled by the selected clips, though?

[bishhenin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfuTTc6FvtA

Based on this video, it looks like all bullets are moving at almost the exact same speed (a rather slow one to my tastes), which seems like it will cost the game being interestingly varying and energetic. Am I being misled by the selected clips, though?

Hi, It should be only in this video as it was made for training purposes in order to show people the three main abilities in Isbarah.
There are lots of types of bullets in Isbarah with different speed and techniques - you would be surprised at what bosses can do with their bullets