Danmaken

This is our entry for the 2021 bullet hell JAM! Try to get close to your enemies and hit them while avoiding the bullet barrage. If you hesitate for too long, the Danmaken will punish you!

The game is still a very early prototype. We wish that we could have added more enemies, better patterns, and a more intricate boss fight, however time really snuck up on us. We hope you can enjoy what we managed to make, have fun!

About the theme

With this game we wanted to explore the melee danmaku concept. The idea is to have an incentive to move around and proactively take risks by forcing the need to get close to the enemies. We integrated the "10 seconds" JAM theme right into this very idea: if you stay still in a safe spot for too long and don't actively try to chase the enemies, you get punished. You have to take risks!

A bit of lore

The name "Danmaken" is referring to the sword. It's a cursed sword that has a will of its own, and will form a demonic contract with anyone who dares wield it. In the game, the main character is but one of the many wielders it has had, and they're trying to use the sword's power to defeat the Overlord of the Dankai: the Amalgademon.

"Danmaken" is a word play on the japanese word "danmaku" (弾幕), which translates to “bullet curtain”. The 弾 “dan” part is the same, but the 幕 “maku” part has been replaced by 魔剣 “maken”, which sounds similar but means “cursed sword”.

Future of the game

We didn't have nearly enough time to expand on the idea or fine-tune any of the different aspects. We plan on continuing with this project and eventually release a more polished beta with a full stage, more enemy variety, better designed bullet patterns, and more interesting implementations of the melee mechanic. Stay tuned!