Bullet Heaven 2 demo – first 5 levels!

Here’s the first 5 levels of Bullet Heaven 2!

What’s not finished:
The displays at the sides, the scoring system, and dialogue boxes.
The backgrounds might also change, they seem to be quite graphic intensive. The last 3 waves in each level are supposed to be bonus rounds, but right now they act the same as the normal waves.

I’m interested to hear what framerates you guys get, how you find the gamepad controls, and how you find the difficulty levels.
The game doesn’t quite fit into this blog post, so you should play full screen.
Also the middle mouse button is currently used instead of double clicking, and that might scroll your browser if you’re not in full screen.

Edit: Oh, I just realized that keyboard controls don’t work in fullscreen in a browser. Whoops. Ignore those for now.

75 thoughts on “Bullet Heaven 2 demo – first 5 levels!

  1. James Garrett

    For some reason the double click is not working for me.
    Still fun to play thought I can’t wait to play the full version. :smirk:

    Reply
  2. Phoenix wright

    😀 i love this game except i kinda suck at the 3rd stage of boss with 2 directions 😛 :yay: oh and also OBJECTION OBJECTION OBJECTION

    Reply
  3. Archieveman

    Amazingly done. I like how enemies come out, the way it fires and how they are designed. The waves aren’t too hard and not too easy, which makes it fun for everyone of us here.

    Just a few suggestions I wanted to put out here (If you don’t mind):
    1: Maybe the bullets shouldn’t vanish after each wave, just like every other bullet hell games, but that’s just a minor thing.
    2: You could reduce a little of the sizes of the arrows that indicates where the enemies are at the bottom of the screen. Just a suggestion.

    By that, keep up the amazing job and I would love this see this game being released!

    Reply
  4. Kyle

    As someone who was a fan of the first game, this one looks even better. My only real complaint is that the boss stages die too quickly(I feel that I lucked my way through a few of them). On the boss note could there be an indicator to show when the boss is able to take damage? I really liked the upgrading elements of the first game and i hope a similar system is in place. Anywho, thanks for making such great games and good luck in all life’s endeavors!

    Reply
  5. bub

    The patterns are looking nice, but the boss is too easy since it dies so quickly. It’s like I’m playing MoF with Marisa B.

    Reply
  6. Jorion Edwards

    For some reason, secondary attacks don’t work when using mouse control. Otherwise, I loved playing on heavenly mode, even if I die on the 3rd level half the time. You could have it so that grazing gives minor buffs or at least a score boost to make it slightly more useful. Good luck on making the full game! :yay:

    Reply
  7. AgiDine

    Will there be special bosses like Razor Leaf Storm, Bubble Hurricane, Radiant Maelstrom and Oblivion? And if so then will they have a special final attack pattern like some of the extra bosses in Touhou?

    Reply
    1. Matt Roszak Post author

      Every level in the game will have a few bonus waves/patterns at the end which are unlocked by getting a good rank in the level.

      Reply
  8. Slimetester

    The game ran at 59fps.

    Only if a second flashgame/flashvideo is running the frames drop often below 20fps.

    I hope the final game will allow using keybordbuttons or the right mousebutton instead of the middle mousebutton to use the subweapon.

    Reply
  9. n!

    I also get the “Context3D not available! Possible reasons: wrong wmode or missing device support.” message on Chrome and Firefox alike, but I have confirmed that hardware acceleration is enabled.

    My video card isn’t the best (AMD Radeon HD 6800) but it’s not that bad, surely…?

    Reply
  10. AnadyLi

    OMG IT’S HERE asdfghjkl;asdfghjkl;asdfghjkl; :love: :stars: :love:

    Anyway, would it be possible for a player to configure his/her own preferred controls in the game? (Example: No middle click/working middle click for a sub attack; reconfigure under “options” as something else as per player’s preference) :wut:

    I loved trying the “Heavenly” difficulty and was happy to see that bullets from a previous wave don’t carry over to the next wave. It was fun beating the boss in “Heavenly” :yay:

    Can’t wait for the full game! :yay:

    Reply
    1. Matt Roszak Post author

      There will be some degree of button customization. More so for keyboard/gamepad, probably less so for mouse.

      Reply
  11. Crow

    What I noticed while playing:

    I found the difficulty of the first 3 levels to be approximately equal from one to the next; if there’s going to be a fast player power creep during the first few stages like in the previous game, this may mean stage 3 is rendered trivial.

    I had the “Context3D not available! Possible reasons: wrong wmode or missing device support.” error, and the culprit was that my hardware acceleration was turned off. This is likely to be a common problem for your players, so it might be a good idea to have the game’s title screen check for the existence of hardware acceleration, and if it’s not present, give instructions on how to enable it.

    I had a hard time checking my HP and Bomb count; those displays are awfully far away from where the player is generally located. Perhaps move those numbers downward, closer to where your character is?

    My FPS was usually 60, but fell to 30 during most of the boss’s forms. The game was very hard to play when not at 60 fps.

    I had no idea what the collision radius was for the shots that had huge amounts of lens flare, and because they only showed up in waves which had low FPS and high projectile speed to begin with, I did not figure it out upon getting hit like I usually can with other bullet types.

    Apparently, the boss becomes invincible between waves, but the exact time of invulnerability is not made clear; some flashing (like in the previous game) would help.

    The last few boss patterns were substantially easier to deal with than the middle few, though that could be intentional.

    The boss death sound effect was hopefully a placeholder, as it was terrible.

    I have no idea what the “graze” number indicated, and if it has some impact on the gameplay, it failed to be sufficiently obvious as to teach the player by example.

    The score multiplier does not get reset between levels in this demo.

    Reply
  12. IriySoft

    ArgumentError: Error #3683: Texture too big (max is 2048×2048).
    at flash.display3D::Context3D/createTexture()
    at starling.textures::Texture$/empty()[C:\Users\User\Desktop\New Flash\BulletHeaven2\starling\textures\Texture.as:373]
    at starling.textures::Texture$/fromBitmapData()[C:\Users\User\Desktop\New Flash\BulletHeaven2\starling\textures\Texture.as:253]
    at dragonBones.factorys::StarlingFactory/generateTextureAtlas()[C:\Users\User\Desktop\New Flash\BulletHeaven2\dragonBones\factorys\StarlingFactory.as:81]
    at dragonBones.factorys::BaseFactory/loaderCompleteHandler()[C:\Users\User\Desktop\New Flash\BulletHeaven2\dragonBones\factorys\BaseFactory.as:466]

    Reply
  13. Allan

    Wow! it looks fantastic! I played mostly on Casual Love the animations and graphics!

    I have an old Core i7 CPU, with an old ATI HD 2600 XT video card – on level one I was averaging about 45 fps. By level five I was getting more like 33 fps. It may have felt a little sluggish at times, but was very playable.

    If anything, I think casual could be even slightly easier – or have a Super Easy mode, for people who just want to admire the graphics, blast the bad guys and not worry about dodging every bullet…

    Reply
  14. Necromancer10

    :ooo: My god.

    For a demo its really exciting. The background is quite good, the player animations and enemy animations are smooth, and the difficulty is balanced so newbies can get used to it and pros still have a challenge.

    P.S. I’ve noticed all the bosses you drew are pretty big and look slow, aside from the magma and ice boss. Why not make a fast small boss that can make the player have to balance dodging and aiming?

    Reply
  15. Arcterran

    For some reason it doesn’t work for me on the latest version of Firefox (version 29.0.1) yet it works flawlessly on chrome (v 35.0.1916.114 m) :/ (flash player was up to date, and I can’t really think of anything else)

    Anyway first impressions, it looked nice and feels pretty good. I noticed you decided to incorporate some animations on the characters this time, very slick ones at that! Played on difficult with mouse controls and died a little ways in on each level. Anyway bug hunting time!

    err….so far nothing I could come up with, I guess that’s a good thing ?

    Reply
  16. R

    It’s good but it feels like a :phone2: game. It has a lot of potential and it is fun. All segments are great but it feels like like you’ve spend a lot of time on a performance and not so much on art (I prefer background over particles- i know it is time consuming but it gives that polished look that your games always had).
    I know it is not finished, regardless of the notfinished factor I see a direction that you are going and I kinda don’t like it, maybe. I still love your work and support you.
    P.S.
    If I got it wrong I am sorry. It’s just my impression.

    Reply
  17. Nora

    I like it, but it would be good if the mouse control was like the first Bullet Heaven
    Exept of that I relly liked it! :smirk:

    Reply
  18. Konstantin Kots

    Found a bug.
    How to reproduce.
    1) Start the game.
    2) Press right mouse button on the flash window.
    3) Release the right mouse button outside the flash window.

    Result: You have called a context menu on the browser’s window, and also you are endlessly spamming the bomb attack.
    The same can be done with middle mouse to endlessly spam the alternative basic attack.

    To stop the endless spamming you have to press and release the middle/right mouse button inside the flash window.

    To spam the basic attack, press first the left mouse button, then press the right mouse button inside the flash window and then release both mouse buttons outside the flash window. As a result, you will call a context menu in the browser window and endlessly spam the basic attack, also you will call one bomb, however the bomb attack will not endlessly spam.

    Reply
  19. pionoplayer

    Whoa, this is cool, although may I make a request? What about an invincibility option in the demos (maybe even the real game) for those who just want to see what the bullet patterns are like.
    I decided to try for a pacifist runthrough just for that purpose, made it through perfectly in levels one and two, got owned by the bunnies in level three.
    Those things plus the little spike-balls, yeesh, not fun at all when you’re not firing.
    Anyway, THIS IS AWESOME!!!
    If the rest of the game is this good, it will be quite incredible, and it has the same thing I love about the first, its got the really cool bullet patterns we all expect from these kinds of games, but it doesn’t kill you in the first wave with a back-handed dope slap if you suck at dodging.
    I love it. I just love it.
    But still, invincibility feature please, some of us really suck at bullet hell games.

    Reply
    1. Matt Roszak Post author

      I’ll add a debug menu with cheats later, when it’s closer to the final version.

      Reply
  20. tinofspam

    i am using my X-box controller but the game doesn’t seem to respond, the mouse controls work just fine and with the keyboard only the arrow keys respond 😥
    i have between 55 and 61 fps
    i use firefox

    Reply
  21. Wroah

    Looks promising, smooth graphics and runs almost flawlessly at 60 fps in fullscreen. I love the EBF-series, but this is just not my type of game, though. It’s too “Japanese”. I’m more into old-skool shooters like R-type and Raptor, or newer adoptions such as Jets ‘n guns: http://www.rakeingrass.com/game_jetsnguns.php

    Reply
  22. SomaSam

    I used a fairly good gaming computer, went full screen, using Chrome, and I had a video streaming as well. Had 60 FPS and it played just fine. Unfortunately that did not help my horrible skills at all. I managed to get to the stage of the boss when it started shooting orange explosions on casual. It was very fun, and I loved the ocational transitions from one level to the next, it was very pretty and kept the area fresh.

    A couple of suggestions I would like to say though:
    1. I would switch around the secondary and bomb keys for the mouse controls. I find that middle mouse is a little more awkward to use for a secondary. Using Right click for secondary would make more since to me because, at least in Matt’s case, you want to be able to fire it quickly and easily. While the less used bomb attack would make sense on the less used middle mouse button. I am glad though that flash now lets us use the right button, which means no more double clicking the fire key to use a secondary. (sorry for the rant)
    2. Put a boss health at the bottom of the screen. I have no idea if there was a boss health, I was too busy dodging for my life. In BH1, you had the health at the top of the screen, but no one ever looks there because usually you are at the bottom where it is easier to dodge.
    3. Even if you haven’t impediment it yet and you plan too, I would like a focus button. Just for the extra precision during bosses.

    Over all, I thought it was very solid and I can’t wait to see more, even if I am horrible at it. Hopefully when you get a multiplayer demo, I will be able to get my friends and fight together.

    Reply
  23. Taggerung559

    Was running well at ~60 fps, but with the mouse controls I could never the secondary weapon to work with the double click. Right click worked fine for the bomb and secondary weapon worked with the keyboard controls. Could I just have a bad mouse? Also, has the pause feature not been added in yet, or could I just not find the right key?

    Reply
    1. Anthony Gatu

      In order to use the secondary attack, you need to click your middle mouse button, i found it out myself and it would be nice for a mini tutorial of sorts :3 Will you add the “going slower then normal” button? like in the first one, cause that was really useful! 😀 :stars: :love2: :love:
      Love your works mat, keep it up! 😀

      Reply
      1. Matt Roszak Post author

        The focus button only exists for keyboard and gamepad right now, but I’ll add a keyboard/mouse hybrid system later.

        Reply
  24. Krazyguy75`

    Kinda seems a bit easy. I don’t really enjoy the “bullets go away at the end of a wave” thing. Yeah, it makes transitions between waves easier. But on heavenly I was breezing through the boss waves because the bullets kept clearing as soon as they got near me.

    Reply
    1. Matt Roszak Post author

      I haven’t increased the boss’s HP yet after giving the player more attacks, so I’ll fix that.

      Reply
  25. Tsuki

    not bad, but here are some problems: the “context” error appears if you don’t have Hardware Acceleration on. I don’t think it was supposed to happen, but if it was… forget it. The second problem is regarding screen area: you have to full screen, start the game and Esc out of full screen to have the whole screen visible, or else it crops out the right-side bar. The difficult for Casual seems a bit, just a bit high.

    Reply
  26. SomePerson

    ~60 fps consistently. *happy dance*
    I personally prefer using the mouse, but keyboard controls seemed fine.

    Reply
  27. Total_Fan_816

    Nice BH2 demo Kupo!! It’s really nice that:
    >Easy is easy but hard enough that it’s not boring
    >Movement of the players are smooth and for me is easier to control
    > Foe Formation :stars:

    Totally nice, I didn’t encounter problems with playing :hurray: Expecting tons more of cool stuff for this :yay:

    Reply
  28. henke37

    I am regular lag spikes, it ruins the gameplay. Scout says that they are caused by “Event processing”. Maybe you should tone town all those timers?

    Reply
    1. Matt Roszak Post author

      Wut? What hardware are you using?
      If you’re using a debug version of Flashplayer, it’s gonna be slow.

      Reply
      1. henke37

        I am not using a debug player. Scout works even with players that aren’t content debugging players.

        As for hardware, Intel Core 2 Q8300 @ 2.5GHz with GeForce 210

        Reply
  29. Matias Goldberg

    On Ubuntu 14.04 both Chrome & Firefox make it to first screen (select difficulty etc)
    Then:

    Chrome:
    On top of the difficulty/level select, it reads on top of it “Context3D not available! Possible reasons: wrong wmode or missing device support.”
    There is a chrome update I haven’t tried yet though.
    Clicking on Play does nothing.

    Firefox:
    The context3d message doesn’t appear.
    Clicking Play sends me to a black screen where I can only read the FPS MEM and DRW; DRW is always 0

    I haven’t tried Windows yet.

    Reply
    1. Matt Roszak Post author

      Oh right, Linux. Hmmm. Haven’t tested it on that. Not sure if Flash’s hardware acceleration works on Linux at all. Worst case you’ll have to run the game in software mode! I’ll see how that works out…

      Reply
      1. Matias Goldberg

        Went to Windows, and I had the same problem.

        Both Firefox & Chrome say “Context3D not available! Possible reasons: wrong wmode or missing device support.”

        It’s very rare that both OSes (Linux & Windows) have the same problem, so I’m gonna leave you my hw specs:

        Intel Core 2 Quad QX9650 3GHz
        8 GB RAM
        AMD Radeon HD 7700 1GB VRAM
        Catalyst drivers 13.12 (Windows); 14.4 (Linux)

        Browser versions (Windows):
        Chrome version 35.0.1916.114 m
        Firefox 29.0.1
        Flash version 12.0.0.70

        Reply
        1. Matias Goldberg

          Fixed. I realized Hardware Acceleration checkbox was ticked off on Windows. After enabling it (had to go to youtube for a flash that allowed me to right click, options)
          I guess on Linux HW accel isn’t supported

          Reply
          1. Matt Roszak Post author

            Yeah, I don’t think it’ll work on Linux, which is a shame. I’ll have to set it to fallback to software mode, which will run a lot slower, but hopefully will still be playable.

    2. Arturas

      I am experiencing exactly the same problem on Google Chrome on Windows Vista. Haven’t tried another browser yet. 😐

      Reply
  30. Charlie Thorpe

    I really like the game but really don’t like the grazing concept, the increased size of the hit point really puts me off and I don’t know where to move to, to avoid the incoming attacks. I hope you reply to me through email big fan of all your work :love2:

    Reply
  31. Luchan

    pretty cool, the Boss cat in bush was kinda fun and his 2nd atack when he gets angry hard to see bullets come, the only his atack where i was almost completely on luck not skill )) but though 5th level is a BUnch of foes and after same boss like in 2nd level. I see no purpose in that and it kinda lame :wut:

    Reply
  32. DaringDestiny

    So far it’s really fun. my frames stayed around 60 fps the entire time i was playing and the difficulty seemed well balanced to me, ramping up gradually as I progressed through the levels. I can’t wait to see the full game i loved the first one

    Reply
  33. NyuuNeeChan

    After clearing a wave/part of boss hp bullets disappear too fast. They could stay for one sec longer or so, because it is just too easy on most of waves to clear whole wave before bullets even reach me.

    Reply
    1. NyuuNeeChan

      Seems like game doesnt start for me in fullscreen mode at all. Just black screen with fps count. Exiting fullscreen mode doesnt solve anything. Must reload page for it to work.

      Reply
      1. Matt Roszak Post author

        It’s possible you hit fullscreen before it finished loading, or something. I dunno.

        Reply
  34. metallica_dillon

    I like it. Its really fun and the waves of enemies are well plotted. Not too hard but also not so easy that I got bored. A great way to start off the game and get people ready for harder levels. Looking forward to the completed product.

    Reply
      1. lopop2

        Played on Heavently, epic fail at first level. Really nice game, exited for more to come! Runs very smooth so far. But how the hell does right mouse click work in flash? Ok, no time for this, gonna screw up those kitties. :love2:

        Reply
      2. Andrew Mccallum

        I think it was on level 2 but on one of the levels it was hard to see the bullets because they colour clashed with the background.

        Reply
      3. Miguel Vargas

        Matt, we spoke before in you beta for epic battle fantasy 4, I’m a huge fan from the first EBF, we spoke about getting your games onto a Xbox or PS as a arcade game, my xbox controller didn’t work when i wanted to play the beta for here but i’m sure with this being like a year ago that issue been resolved and will be good in the final version (which i will download) I’m wondering if this is your next big step to not just have it released on steam, but also for Xbox Live or PS Network? :smirk:

        Reply

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