A Small BulletML Demo

To demonstrate the use of the new BulletML plugin we have created this one-level shoot'em up in which you fight three bosses and numerous smaller enemies. Collecting powerups can give you more firepower or firing patterns that range from useful to slightly weird.

BulletML, in short, is a XML-based way of controlling bullet patterns in shooting games. Read the full introduction and get the plugin in this thread

Since it's a tech-ish demo, BML was used for more than just enemy firing patterns: enemy movements and player fire modes also use the same system.

Download the demo (contains exe and .cap) (11 MB)

<img src="http://paahdin.com/projects/bulletml/images/relprom01.jpg">

I must say that making even this bite-sized snack game took unbelievably long

Feel free to re-use any parts of this demo.

Bullet Heaven! (I'm tired of "bullet hell" )

I haven't looked through the .cap yet so what was the most time-consuming part of making your demo? Was it getting the bullet patterns *just right* or was it the general stuff related to making most games?

My only (small) complaint for the demo is that I was expecting a smaller hitbox for your fighter.

Anyway, great work!

Wow, I like how you have a storage frame. Very good video ram optimisation technique. Anyway, this is pretty cool

Bullet Heaven! (I'm tired of "bullet hell" )

I haven't looked through the .cap yet so what was the most time-consuming part of making your demo? Was it getting the bullet patterns *just right* or was it the general stuff related to making most games?

For the patterns I had a separate simple .cap that made developing them easier. I think testing the level flow was the most time consuming. Add a couple of enemy waves, test, tweak, test. Much respect for actual arcade shoot'em up devs who have to balance everything. Something like fire power-ups went through numerous changes - at first they just increased damage 2x and 3x but combined with a three-way fire it made bosses go down in seconds.

I think after this point it would be fairly easy to add more length. I would also like more variety in boss movements, or some nice background effects.