PlayShift Games is proud to announce Brave Rounds!
Release date: 2026!
Will be available on:
Nintendo Switch (Link will be added at later date!)
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WELCOME TO LOOP 2.0
Hell Blasters is going to receive a Ver 2.0 major update!
Release date: August 17th 2022
Will be available on Steam, itch.io and Nintendo Switch!
On Steam and itch.io it will be available as free update!
More info:
Heya, wltr3565 here. Shmups? Story!? LOL! Who wants that!? Er, while it’s true that those who expect shmups don’t expect dense stories, but one of Hell Blasters’ goal as a product is to have a broader audience. So somehow and also as an experiment, I made a mode with lots of reading: Story mode. Reading in a shmup. Imagine my shock. Anyway, this devlog will detail further what’s within the Story Mode!
The Story So Far…
Story mode’s story is about the gritty details of the Hell Blasters’ story, fighting the Bellasian War. Why the war goes on? What are the things will they sacrifice to achieve victory? Is it even the right thing to do…?
As shown in previous devlogs, the story is presented with many animated illustrations. The Story Mode is also in tate so there is no need to rotate back your screen to enjoy the mode!
Story Mode also contains gameplay, of course. The mode contains the same stages from the arcade mode in bite-sized stages. Each stage and in each difficulty will have their own stars to gain. The 4 of them are not getting hit, not using any bombs, gain the required score and achieving all 3 of these in a single run. The game also keeps track of the completion rate so if you’re a completionist you can expect a chunky amount of content just in this mode alone!
The mode also contains exclusive simulation stages. They’re mainly designed to prepare you for the real deals. For beginners of the genre, playing story mode first is highly suggested. Perhaps after you clear the story mode you’ll have the skill to clear the arcade mode without continues.
That’s all for now. See you soon in another devlog! The game will be released on October 7th!
More info:
Heya, wltr3565 here. As it had been revealed before, Hell Blasters has “Journalist Mode”. In the simplest terms it’s the game’s Novice Mode. How easy it is varies from title to title. It is also literally a mode to cater to the journalists. I mean, they’re busy. To properly review the game, they need to clear it at least once, right? A very easy good ending to get!
The name isn’t just for that sake, though. It’s also relevant to the game’s story. How? It will be on a later devlog, but you’ll want to remember why it’s named Journalist mode.
Further Look
The thing is making the easiest mode by reducing the amount of bullets will render the game’s title pretty moot… Without any hell to blast then this game can’t be called “Hell Blasters”! But buffing the ships will make it hard to transition to harder difficulties. So what should I do…?
There are yellow bullets, so let’s make the mode full of them!
Looks pretty exciting for a Novice Mode, isn’t it? Yellow bullets are treated as popcorn enemies, actually, so their destruction with even normal shots do add up to the Chain counter. See how high you can score in this mode!
How easy is the mode in action, though? Here’s a hint: Try keep pressing the shot button and don’t move for even a pixel. See how far can you go! Don’t worry. There is auto bomb available on Journalist Mode.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned on next Wednesday for the next devlog!
More info:
Heya, wltr3565 here. As you can see, Hell Blasters took the 8-bit look. Making the game simply with pixel arts and low resolution is one thing, but while at it, why not keep it as faithful as how the technology was at the time as humanely possible? This devlog will explain the decisions made for Hell Blasters’ visuals.
No, it doesn’t go as far as sprite flickering.
Color Decision
The target platform to emulate the visual design from, the 8-bit NES / FC, has limited color palette available, around 54 colors only or so. This is the first step and consequently, any and every design will have their colors follow the chosen 54 colors (not counting black), regardless of the smoothness of the produced artwork inside or outside the game.
This extends to the human characters! Winter and Summer, for example, their colors follow the limited 54 colors. No room for subtle colors, bold ones only!
Pixels and (lack of) Effects
The 8-bit consoles didn’t have the capability of rotation and scaling too, something we take for granted today. Hell Blasters is committed to not use any modern graphical tricks (except for the wallpapers. That’s outside the main game). No rotation or scaling that will mess up the sprites, no transparency. If you see some level of transparency, actually it’s an old trick: The “transparent” image is flickered for each 2 frames, creating the illusion of transparency. Which is rad in action.
Giving dedication to this style is indeed limiting, but one of the benefits is it’s easy to animate things, including for cutscenes! Feels like making an anime show!
That’s all for now. Stay tuned on next Wednesday for the next devlog!
More info: