itch.io

Unfortunately that's the highest it can go. Likewise for sale targets. £100,000,000 was deemed unrealistic by the billionaire owners of Itch. This is the true face of trickledown economics. Merry Christmas Maggie. Happy New year Liz Truss. Anyway, I wouldn't pay six quid for this and neither should you.

Thank you! Yes, that scoring bug has been noted before and I'll be fixing it once the ratings are over.  Appreciate the positive  comments otherwise, cheers.

NEONBeat is a Cave-inspired side-scroller where enemies shoot to the beat.

NEONBeat

Yes, the restarting music bug is noted on the store page, it was spotted within ten minutes after the deadline. Typical! Thanks for playing.

Yeah, ran out of time for sfx unfortunately, and some vfx I had to leave out. Appreciate the comments tho, thanks. And yes, it's difficult, but I thought this was bullet hell ;)

A really slick game, nice big bright graphics and tricky gameplay that keeps you rushing around. So much faster than a lot of other entries I've played, and it pays off. Certain upgrades can maybe make the game too easy after a few waves, perhaps needs to be toned down if you made it into a longer experience. But it's a blast, liked it a lot.

Thank you! Yes, unfortunately ran out of time to do sound effects, and s few other vfx things that would have just polished it off. Typical jam game!

Glad you enjoyed it, thank you!

A couple of minor issues aside (floaty controls and massive hitboxes being the main things) this is a great entry. Looks great and is fun to play, with some challenging rooms towards the end. This one though? This isn't possible is it?!

You know you can stream mine Al. :) Happy to get any exposure! If anyone else sees it and fancies rating a beat-powered neon nightmare, here you go. https://itch.io/jam/bullet-hell-jam-2022/rate/1501984

Super polished game, congrats! Reminiscent of Nuclear Throne, or Alien Breed (showing my age!) Great soundtrack too. I found the camera  a bit jerky maybe, the way it's tied to the target rather than the player, but that's very much nitpicking - great job!

Surprising just how frantic and fun this got after a couple of minutes, you managed to find a really nice little game in something so minimalist. Good design, good pacing. Good job!

Love this entry, great pacing and rising difficulty, and can't argue with the use of the theme. Gamepad control would have been nice, but not a big deal. High score 3129 - is that good? Felt good! Visuals are right up my street too (you'll probably like my entry if this is your style!)

Totally understand - still a great entry, stay proud of it!

Nicely done and great presentation, if a little slow-paced. A lot of the enemies feel like bullet-sponges and your fire rate doesn't quite feel up to the job. Could have used a power-up or laser, something like that maybe. Definitely feels confined though, as the enemies are all large and seem to fill up the space, boxing you in! Good job.

Really creative idea, and a good tie-in with the theme. As tricky as it is unique. I found it hard to hit the switches accurately, maybe need a more forgiving hit-box on them cos I don't think that's the intended point of the challenge. But a great concept done well.

Interesting entry, first I've seen with a storyline! Would have been more fun I think if it had twin-stick like controls, or some way to lock the facing direction and strafe. But pretty cool nonetheless.

Nice creative design to include the team management idea, but I think it's too chaotic and hard to read what's going on. Bigger and clearer enemy bullets would make a big difference, and slow the game down a bit, especially early on as it's really hard to keep track of where your teammates are. Well done on the submission though.

Good fun and lovely looking game. The dynamic islands are a great use of the theme. I didn't understand the orb thing at first, I kept shooting at it at the end of a stage, wondering if it would ever die! Could have done with another enemy type or two, or some variant bullet patterns to mix things up and make it even more hellish, but it's still a polished and punchy game. Well done.

Thanks! Pretty much all the missing things you mentioned - sfx, hit effects - was down to lack of time, as you'd expect.

And yeah, the only nods to the theme I managed to get in were a couple of the bullet patterns that are designed to hem you in. The boss in particular does a very typical space-constraint type of attack.

Appreciate the comments though, and glad the music went down well.

Despite the obviously simple graphics there's a pretty fun and challenging game. I didn't realise what was going on with the slowdown on my first go, but it made sense and added a creative dimension. Could stand to make the player's bullets bigger maybe, or more rapid-firing, as it seems really strict about hitboxes right now. Cool though, well done.

This is a really nicely made game! Difficulty level is about right for a short experience like this, definitely a challenge for the final boss. Graphics and sound are great.

My only complaint is I found the mouse pointing to be unusual and difficult to keep track of because I was mostly looking at the bottom third of the screen micro-dodging bullets. I kept having to catch a break in the bullets just so I could look elsewhere to find my pointer. Maybe having a bigger pointer graphic, like a big red crosshair or something, would have made it easier to spot.

But hey, a minor gripe, I still played the whole thing and enjoyed it a great deal. Good job!

Heap of fun, simple but effective. Would have liked some more variation in bullet pattern design, but still a fun quick blast. I got the "fast" ending, so it must have been quick? Anyway I could murder a sandwich now.

I think the minimum distance the alien moves is too great, makes it impossible to micro-dodge out of the way of incoming bullets without ending up somewhere probably worse. Maybe that's just me being a bit crap at it, need more practice! I guess the trick is in planning larger well-timed movements, but sometimes you don't want to really move, just sidestep a bullet, and it's very hard to keep in control of that. Don't be disheartened though, it's a really nice entry.

Really engaging concept for the theme, and the visuals are great. Control is a bit floaty, feels like there's slightly too much lag starting moving and then a bit of inertia when you stop too, makes it a bit frustrating trying to make precise dodges. But that doesn't take much away from the fun of the game, and the challenge. A test of patience and planning as much as clutch-dodges and reaction times. Lovely game, well done.

Brilliant use of the theme, very creative and fun. I'd have liked twin-stick controls rather than keys and mouse, but a minor quibble, the design is great.

Really interesting concept for a game. Liked the enemy designs where you have to manipulate the bullet paths to bypass schields or deflect their attacks. Felt like the controls were more difficult than they should be, too hard to make precise movements, but can be easily improved. And yes, I saw in another comment that you want to get rid of the friendly fire, which would be a big improvement. Looks and sounds great though, well done!

Nicely creative take on bullet hell. Haven't used a sword since Nex Machina! Could have done with some texture on the ground, as it's difficult to tell how you're moving on a totally green screen. But a fun concept, and well implemented.

Thank you! Yes, I ran out of time to do sound effects, and a lot of other juiciness I'd have liked to cram in, but I think it was the right decision to concentrate on patterns and music. Thanks for playing!

NEONBeat would love feedback and a (five-star...) rating if you have time.  Some great entries for this jam, love it. https://itch.io/jam/bullet-hell-jam-2022/rate/1501984

Closest I've ever got to a Cave 1cc is Futari, where I can get to the final boss but not kill it. Lousy at DDP, a little better at DOJ, but Mushi is where my heart lies (hence the purple bullets in my jam entry!)

I got killed just after the 1 minute remaining mark. Always a problem with bullet-hells - how hard is too hard? :)

Thank you kindly!

Thanks for the feedback. I've added a note about the button mapping on the game page, since I can't change the build right now.

He he, thanks - Bred's on the list ;)

Yeah, I figured it's probably just the default axis setting in Unity that's making it sort of partially work.

Nicely challenging game, and confining the gameplay in time rather than space is a good twist on the theme. Well done.

Lovely implementation of a simple idea. Plays really nicely and is a great use of the theme. If I were to criticise I'd just say it gets repetitive (though I still finished all 50 levels!). Could do with ramping up the challenge in the second half - faster bullets, and a boss stage at the end would have been great. But what's there is cracking, very polished and playable. Good job!

Simple and effective. Could do with a wider field of view, I felt ambushed by things coming on screen right in front of me, but enough fun to have a few goes. I think I scored about 60 kills.

Would be nice to get full gamepad support - I couldn't rotate when using the pad. Is that just a bug?

Nice visual style - the enemies and pickups could use a little more detail but the colours are vibrant and readable. Gameplay a little too floaty to be really engaging, but the core idea is cool and creative. Reminds me of Roadblasters from way back in the day. Well done!