Welcome to Bullet Hell Artistry!

We - your jam hosts - are Bullet Hell Engines - a Discord server for all things bullet hell game development! We offer social spaces for sharing your works (including non-gamedev ones), as well as engine-specific forums for gamedev help and discussion (mostly bullet hell STGs, but not always).

Bullet Hell Artistry (BHA) is a bi-annual game jam that we have been organizing for the past seven years (since August 2019)! The goal is to make a shoot-em-up game following a specific theme/ruleset, with gameplay quality being the main focus. 

Even though "bullet hell" is in the contest name, we're pretty lax on its inclusion in your game. How many bullets is too little or too much? That's up to you.

If you're interested in checking out the entries and results for previous BHAs, check out community member Sparen's contest database here!

The Theme is... Unified Universes!

BHA themes are decided by the community. This time, the winning theme, suggested by VanIsBadAtNames, is Interdimensional Showdown. According to the original description:

Make a danmaku fight for a video game character who's NOT from Touhou (or Touhou-likes like Len'en). Can include games with bullet hell elements like UTDR. Show us what itd look like if these iconic (or not-so-iconic) characters have to abide by Gensokyo's spell card rules!

Contest Rules

1. Engine: You are free to pick any engine of your choice. However, it is essential that your project is easily accessible for others to play. Please provide a launcher or executable file to avoid requiring users to download additional tools, software, or perform online logins to access your project.

2. Entry Size: You are not limited to pattern count or time limit. But refrain from making the game too long or short without a good reason, otherwise you risk to yield less points.

3. Character Selection: To adhere to the Contest Theme, you MUST follow these rules when designing your danmaku game. 

• The game must predominantly feature a bullet hell/shoot-em-up/"danmaku" battle against a character who originates from an existing non-Touhou (non-Touhoulike) video game (or multiple). 
  
  
  • Emphasis is on the verb "originates". Characters from non-video game IPs who appear in video games are not allowed - for example, despite having licensed appearances in Project Diva (a rhythm game), Hatsune Miku and other Crypton VOCALOIDs are not allowed for this contest.
    
    
  • Including Touhou and Touhou-like characters in the entry is not prohibited - however, they must not be characters that you can fight. For example: including Reimu Hakurei as a playable character is allowed, having her as a boss is not (even if it is a duel boss with the other non-Touhou character.
  • A game can be considered Touhou-like if it contains gameplay elements that are very similar/identical to an official Touhou shoot-em-up game. Examples of these gameplay elements include: UI and playfield placements, the iconic Spell Card system (in which boss patterns are divided into simpler "nonspells" and more complex "spell cards"), enemy designs (fairies, yin-yang orbs), and more. Generally, if it can be mistaken for a Touhou game, it's a Touhou-like.
  • Examples of Touhou-like games are Len'en Project and Taikan Project (Incarnations Erased from History).
  
  
  • Regarding fanmade characters in Touhou fangames (e.g. The Last Comer, Book of Star Mythology) - these characters may be allowed if they do not officially have a danmaku battle in the game they originate from. 
  • Feel free to ask in the Bullet Hell Engines server for specific cases.

4. Voting Rubrics: Each judge of this contest has their own way of ranking entries. Here's a list of each judge's sheet:

• thatonefrogxd/Gren: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PUsW9Zxp_SIlpboIVm2TX2I_AxkBrDZDyemxrEBol2c/edit?usp=sharing
• Rül Hölos: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_ga2pzTpRPBAS-L5cYh01QCRmuPY1PxKN82tyYzJTh8/...
• Syoudre: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16ZsP5A_24HNeLDOBpLVAKjR-LRt55bbBxOvNu8UX0IY/edit?usp=sharing

5. Copyright & Usage Rules: 

• You can use any video game characters in your game, so long as they fit Rule 3's requirements.
• It is recommended to either gain (written) permission from developers or use characters from sources with clear fanwork creation guidelines (that include fangames). If you do not have either of these, use characters at your own risk - you yourself are fully liable for any copyright infringement issues your entry may encounter.

• The audiovisual assets in your project follow the same "use at your own risk" guideline. If you don't know where to look for those, our Resource category can get you started!

6. Teamwork: Working as a group or with other people is allowed, but have in mind that only one prize will be given.

7. Submissions: Please submit your finished entry to the jam page in itch.io before the due date.

8. Communication: For questions, discussions, and WIP-sharing related to the jam, join the BHE server (linked at the beginning) and mingle with the community! Note that you can only get prizes by joining the server (see below).

9. Be Fabulous.

Discord Prizes

Alongside bragging rights on the itch.io results page, we also provide prizes to the winners in our Discord server! 

For the top 3 prizes (Gold-Silver-Bronze), the Overall category will be used. Prize distributions will be:

TOP 3

 GRAND PRIZE!

"BHA#12 Golden Prize-Winner" Role + 1-month Discord Nitro (or Steam Gift Card)

 "BHA#12 Silver Prize-Winner" Role.  "BHA#12 Bronze Prize-Winner" Role.