Orbit Postmortem

I just finished my prototype for a flash game I have been working over the past week. Originally designed for the iPhone, Orbit is a shoot-em-up, or otherwise known as a bullet hell game. As the name implies, bullets are flying everywhere. The game is top down and you control a spaceship, which constantly fires.

Your enemy is a giant HAL like eye in the center of the screen and by pressing left or right your ship moves in a circle around it. That’s it. Just dodge the bullets. You can play the full game HERE.

So why did I make it?

For the past few months I have been creating mostly puzzle games or turn based. These are all very methodical, logic/strategy oriented and I wanted to try to break away from that. So I created what is known as a twitch based game; something that players need to react too immediately, on almost a gut instinct in order to survive.

What is new about it?

Bullet Hell games have been around for a while, Ikaruga and Geometry Wars are fantastic examples of the genre. However, when you look at all of them, most of them all play in a similar fashion. The game is vertical, with enemies streaming down towards the players ship, raining bullets.

On the iPhone specifically that control set is extraordinarily difficult, as it almost requires the use of four way directional movement.

I order to create a game designed at this target platform, I chose to go with a defined circular method of movement. First, as far as I am aware it is unique, no other bullet hell game has done something like that before.

Secondly, by binding the player to the circumference of a circle they are only given two options, Go left, or Go right. Which fits perfectly with the iPhone, by pressing the left hand side of the screen, the ship rotates counterclockwise, and by pressing the right the ship rotates clockwise.

Designing the Game

Bullet Hell games are all about creating patterns and directing the player where they can go. Depending on the rate of fire, the number of rounds, and the reload time of the bullet spawners an infinite number of patterns are available, which becomes the fun part of the design process.

Over the course of the game the player is challenged by five different stages of bullet patterns that get progressively harder.

The bullet patterns are the meat of the game, but to add flavor there is a powerup system, which gives added bonus’s to the player. Double shot, rapid fire, creating a shield, are all genre standards. However, I wanted to add a bit of Galaga to the game. One of the powerups allows for a second ship to be created that is 180 degrees opposite from the player. And the way all of the bullet patterns are designed there is consistently a safe spot 180 degrees away from the player’s ship. So in theory as long as the player next makes a mistake, their firepower is doubled.

Choice has always been something I strive to give the player and at the beginning of the game they are face with 1 of three. More aggressive players can get a permanent increase to their damage, defensive players can get an increase to the number of lives at the beginning of the game, and the last option doubles the amount of powerups that drop from the eye.

The game is still a prototype, bug probably still happen (I’m not the best coder in the world), but it should be playable and beatable. If you enjoy it, or have suggestions let me know at zach@birnamwoodgames or on facebook.