Assault Android Cactus: Bullet Hell on PS4 and Vita

[Elandyll]

By: Witch Beam

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/...n-ps4-ps-vita/

How many bullets You Ask?

ALL OF THEM!!

This really looks super fun.

Assault Android Cactus trailer - YouTube

Posted by Tim Dawson // Artist/Programmer, Witch Beam

Hello PlayStation gamers! I’m thrilled to announce that our action-packed shoot ‘em up, Assault Android Cactus, is coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita!
For those of you who have never heard of Assault Android Cactus, it’s about a team of androids trying to rescue a spaceship by fighting back against a robot uprising. Over a 25-level campaign, the androids will face screens of enemies, brave bullet hell style bosses and environments that switch, shift and transform around them.

These androids are pretty tough, getting knocked down clears their powerups but they can get right back up again. The catch is they run on battery, and when that runs out it’s game over! Putting the onus for action on the player turns typical twin stick pacing on its head – it’s not a game you can beat by playing cautiously, the only way to make it out alive is to careen recklessly through the stages and to tame the chaos from within it.

We wanted to create something that captured the spirit of what arcade games meant to us when we were growing up, being tough but fair and the kind of game you could come back to again and again and express yourself through skill. In Cactus, at first it’s a buzz just to survive, but the heart of the game is finding ways to master stages, and to do that you have to manage your score multipliers by keeping chains alive and shave precious seconds off your clear times.

We thought letting characters grow more powerful over the course of the game would undermine what we were trying to achieve so instead we went broad. There are eight playable characters and we treat them a bit like ships in a shoot ‘em up – each has a different primary and secondary weapon to give them a unique playstyle.
Cactus, our heroine, is an all rounder with a Machine Gun and Flamethrower, while reluctant combatant Holly is great for beginners with a slightly weaker Homing Shot, but she is packing a Cannonball Launcher that will decimate a line of enemies with a well aimed shot.

Visually, I wanted to combine sci-fi with colorful characters and bright appealing environments. As small indie developers we set our sights on PC but we’ve always known the game had a console heart. Thankfully we weren’t the only ones that thought this way and with Sony’s support we’re on track to bring Assault Android Cactus to PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4. We’re aiming to release on both platforms near the start of next year as a Cross Buy title.

Our official page is also our development blog and you can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook! Thanks for reading and I hope you’re looking forward to the bullet ballet!

[Shin-Ra]

The character art is Jet Force Gemini levels of offputting.

[madlost1]

Love Bullet Hell games!!! Will definitely be getting this one.

[Icemage]

This game needs to be seen in motion to be appreciated.



Game reminds me a lot of SmashTV, and that's a very good thing.

[Nerdkiller likes BD]

You have a very odd definition of the term "bullet hell". But I might give this game a chance. I just don't expect the entire screen to be flooded by bullets.

[Elandyll]

Originally Posted by Nerdkiller likes BD

You have a very odd definition of the term "bullet hell". But I might give this game a chance. I just don't expect the entire screen to be flooded by bullets.

Depends what you mean by "entire screen flooded by bullets", but indeed the game is called a Bullet Hell type.



Now, there's enjoyable bullet hell (like AAC looks to be),



and there's masochistic stupid Bullet Hell, like the Exceed type games

[Nerdkiller likes BD]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

Depends what you mean by "entire screen flooded by bullets", but indeed the game is called a Bullet Hell type.



Now, there's enjoyable bullet hell (like AAC looks to be),



and there's masochistic stupid Bullet Hell, like the Exceed type games

...I withdraw my question...to an extent.

[Nerdkiller likes BD]

Yes, this is still coming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzSuLRlzT5I

[Elandyll]

Looks amazing

[Elandyll]

Found out something that will make me want the game (if reviews are good).
In spite of having up to 4 player MP Coop, the game is designed at its core for a single player experience akin to a shoot em' up of yore.

From one of the devs on GAF:

Oh it definitely scales in multiplayer, though as you go up to 3 and 4 player it's more of a party game style experience.

What we did was design the core of the game as a single player shmup and refine the levels to a polished sheen in that mode, then layer on algorithms to scale enemy counts and timings based on the number of players, then play test the hell out of it and manually adjust those spawns and level behaviors to try and introduce as much of a human element to the difficulty tuning as possible (Because pure algorithmic balancing is bad at edge case balancing).

Then we made additional gameplay specific changes to any boss behavior that was particularly 1 player focused, like when Embryo fired his rockets that track the player - in multiplayer he fires 2/3/4 x as many rockets and they track each player individually.

The net result is that co-op, particularly 3 and 4 player, is not as razor sharp as single player due to us using the same stage sizes and layouts across all player counts, but it's still a hand crafted experience designed to be fun in its own right albeit a little bit more chaotic and uncontrolled.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

From one of the devs on GAF:

Sorry for such the OT questions but I have 2.

Is GAF pronounced Jaaf?
Why are there so many banned members there?

This game looks like a top down Resogun & I have no problem with that.

[Elandyll]

Originally Posted by Derb

Sorry for such the OT questions but I have 2.

Is GAF pronounced Jaaf?
Why are there so many banned members there?

This game looks like a top down Resogun & I have no problem with that.

About the GAF thing, good question.
Given that it really is a contraction of Gaming Age Forums, I would expect like you would say G.A.F., so probably with a hard G? (gu)

About the number of banned users, the mod team has pretty much a 0 tolerance for:

- outright fanboyism (if it implies being detrimental to a discussion)
- falsely conveying a "feeling" or "rumor" as fact
- letting people think you have insider information (needs a vetting process)
- doing Drive-By posting that derail threads and contribute nothing
- personal attacks

and in general anything that is deemed detrimental to a good thought out conversation.

As an anecdote, thinking that I consider myself generally rather calm and trying to be as objective as possible, I got myself a 4 day ban for rejoicing that Elite Dangerous might be coming in the future at some point to PS4 -> Because I rejoiced in the "Phil Spencer announcing a XB1 temp exclusive deal".

It pretty much meant exactly that when the devs said that the deal was temp and the game would be coming to "other platforms" after that, but I guess I rejoiced (and it was non obnoxious, something like "Yes! Means it'll probably be coming to PS4 and Morpheus after that!") in the wrong place

PS: Also, juniors (you need about 300 posts and around a 3 month period to become member and post new threads) have 0 tolerance.
1 ban = life ban (IP blocked).

Thing is, GAF due to its popularity also has to deal a lot with marketers and Astro Turfers, so they are super harsh on Juniors.

[Elandyll]

EX Options (Mega Weapons) trailer

Assault Android Cactus - Mega Weapons - YouTube

The game is still planned for later this year it seems.