Lioncode Games announced a public alpha playtest for Wildkeepers Rising, an upcoming “bullet heaven” game set to debut in the spring of 2025.
We’ve seen how well bullet hell games (where you have to dodge bullets) like Enter the Gungeon and Nuclear Throne have done over time, but a bullet heaven game is where the player moves and sprays out bullets at enemies at a rapid clip.
Combining the ever-growing power curve of a survivor-like with the compulsive fun of a creature collector, Wildkeepers sees players battling frenetic hordes alongside a cast of powerful monsters. Players can join the playtest now to tame a whimsical group of Guardians with hand-drawn art inspired by the imagery of Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame.
The team includes Sergio Garces (founder and lead developer; his previous game is Mech Armada), and Lyle Moore as the lead artist. Garces is based in Vancouver, Canada, and Lyle is based in Moncton, New Brunswick, in Canada.
The studio said the gameplay inspiration behind collecting creatures in a bullet heaven/survivor-like game is to take the weapons/power ups of a bullet heaven like Vampire Survivors or Death Must Die and make them more interesting by making them creature companions. The various creatures, called Guardians, also take on different roles in your party inspired by traditional RPG roles, like Tank, Damage, and Support. You collect up to four of them per run to create synergies and power them up with items and levels.
Wildkeepers Rising innovates on the survivor formula by turning the player’s arsenal into a party of fierce and adorable monsters. You can catch your creatures, build up your village hub, and experience the high-stakes tale of betrayal and vengeance that threatens your Wildkeeper and their team. Your job is to tame outlandish Guardians and savage dastardly hordes of monsters infesting the land.
The aim is to shred thousands of enemies by creating synergies with different tameable Guardians. Other inspirations include Jim Henson (The Dark Crystal), and Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli). As a creature collector, you can discover, tame, and train magical beasts, and trigger their devastating special attacks in battle. The game has roguelite progression where you unlock and acquire upgrades in your village between runs. And it has RPG elements, where you can discover a rich world of fantasy heroes and magical monsters and a tale of vengeance.
The game’s Steam page is live now; players can wishlist Wildkeepers Rising to receive news on its upcoming release.
Lioncode Games is the Canadian indie studio behind turn-based tactics Mech Armada. Lioncode’s mission is to create innovative experiences by combining interesting design mechanics into emergent gameplay interactions.
It’s a crowded space, but the studio believes the title will stand out as a bullet heaven with strong character design, and as the first entry in the genre to include a story and RPG elements. There is a fantasy story to discover with heroes called Wildkeepers protecting settlements from a villain driving this upheaval with the help of these magical Guardian creatures.
The post Lioncode launches test for ‘bullet heaven’ game Wildkeepers Rising appeared first on Venture Beat.
