Gunlocked 2 launches in Early Access on Steam in August 2025. Wishlist on Steam today! First, let’s take a moment to define some terms in the context of this feature. “Bullet Hell” is a type of shoot ‘em up (shmup) where the focus is primarily on dodging large amounts of screen-filling projectiles. “Bullet Heaven” is a genre that flips this paradigm and has the player creating all of the bullets, while hordes of mostly harmless enemies become their fodder. So what if Heaven meets Hell?
You might think that would mean a moderate amount of bullets coming from the enemies and the player simultaneously, which just sounds a lot like a traditional shmup. Hardly revolutionary. Beyond the rudimentary definitions laid out before you, each genre also has a number of other key elements that define their experiences, in ways that can’t be measured in bullets (or bananas, giraffes, football fields, and/or any other imperial system). In fact, there are many more differences from camera movement to controls, but for this article, I’m focusing on difficulty and power curves.
Bullet Hells focus on dexterity and pattern recognition. Your power level remains relatively consistent, so you improve (hopefully) through practice and muscle memory. Bullet Heavens focus on combining abilities synergistically. Your reflexes are (largely) irrelevant to success, but your power increases exponentially with smart (again, hopefully) decision making, and a little luck. The power fantasy of Hell is in navigating the impossible, and the power fantasy of Heaven is in not needing to. So how much skill could I introduce to Heavens without making them too hard, and how much synergy building could I introduce to Hells without rendering them too easy?
Gunlocked 1 was my answer. Unfortunately, everyone else had their own answer. I won’t pretend Gunlocked is the only game to try to balance these two extremes of the shmup genre, but each game that has attempted this has its own unique proprietary blend. Gunlocked’s blend was successful in entertaining many fans of both genres, but each group also had unique grievances. Players had differing ideas of where the game was too easy or hard, and often in contradictory ways. In combining genres that targeted gamers of vastly different skill-sets and interests, I created a difficulty paradox.
I received countless messages about how players didn’t “get it” or “click with it” at first, but once they did, they fell in love. These messages came from fans of both genres, so I knew there was a universally appealing core to the game. But I also knew that for every message like this, there were probably 10 people that never stuck around long enough for it to click. When so many games are competing for gamers’ attention, I can’t blame them. Games need to click fast because it’s easier to pick another game and try it for 15 minutes than play one game for 3 hours and hope. I needed to deliver Gunlocked’s unique mix of skill and synergies sooner, without overwhelming the player later.
I believe Gary Gygax said a good dungeon master makes his players feel like they have a 70% chance of failure, and 30% chance of success, when the reality is just the opposite. The solution to Gunlocked’s difficulty paradox then was as much about balance as it was about perception. The goal is to deliver the intensity and thrills of a Bullet Hell to give the perception of difficulty, but ensure that players of many skill levels have a high chance of early success without eliminating long-term challenge.
I've previously discussed changes coming to weapons and early game challenge, so today I'll focus on Bosses and their improved role in the balance of Heaven and Hell. When Gunlocked 1 first came out, bosses weren’t really a feature of the Bullet Heaven genre except as larger units with larger health pools. So simply having them at all was a novelty. “Simply” being the key word. Their abilities were rudimentary and limited by the player’s lack of a reliable dodge and/or defensive options. In fact, the proprietary blend of genres skewed so heavily in favor of heaven over hell that many might suggest it has no hell at all (but believe me, I got plenty of angry messages about it being a bullet hell). So in Gunlocked 2, bosses have been expanded and refined, as have the player’s abilities.
(Pictured: The player practices against the new and improved Sting King in the brand new Simulator game mode of Gunlocked 2. Still a few bugs to work out ːsteammockingː)
The arenas in which you fight Bosses are far more tightly controlled and choreographed, with less randomized elements, unrelated to the boss, causing visual clutter. This allows me to focus on making the combat look more spectacular (the perception part). While most of the game is about cutting a swath through helpless swarms, I get to flip the script and let bosses shine a bit more and throw more outrageous attacks at you in place of these enemies (though some bosses do still call for reinforcements).
On the other hand, the new timed “phase shift” dodge ability every pilot has allows boss attacks to be more aggressive, and not just look more impressive. Where previously I had to leave the player safe openings they could always reach, now I can do all sorts of unimaginably devious things, with the knowledge that if players manage their dodge well (the balance part), they can always make their own way out.
And “making your own way” is really the core of Gunlocked 2. Every system in the game has been adjusted to give the player more choice and freedom to manage the more varied and intense combat. This in turn has freed me up to tackle this unique combination of Heaven and Hell in ways I never could have in the original.