introduction
Hi there! I am Laura Brugel, the head of Kami Games. I am an all-round designer with a broad spectrum of different skills, which I put to good use here at Kami!
Check out my portfolio by clicking on the button below.
The team
Our team currently consists of four members, including myself. I currently work five days a week on the project, doing tasks ranging from soundtrack composing to programming and game design.
We currently have a part-time programmer, artist and SFX designer working on the project besides me. The programmer and artist in the same country, and all are passionate about the project the same way I am.
Due to the small budget I am working with, I am currently unable to offer them full-time positions.
Check out the team by clicking on the button below.
the game
Bullet Runner is a linear single-player shooter, which could best be described as a ‘Power Fantasy’. Taking inspiration from old-school shooters, the game takes players back to an era of hardcore and unforgiving gameplay.
With a unique blend of 2D and 3D visuals, and pure skill-based gameplay, Bullet Runner is a treat to any boomer-shooter fan.
We have seen quite a lot of great indie-games come out through the years, with a bunch of them offering unique, polished and tight gameplay mechanics. With comparable games such as: ‘Enter the Gungeon’, ‘Hotline Miami’, ‘Nuclear Throne’ and ‘Hades’.
Despite the fact that we all love and enjoy these games as much as we do, we felt like something was missing. We miss the good old days of to-the-point linear adventures, with a strong focus on gameplay and skill. A handcrafted experience that deliberately confronts players with interesting and level-unique challenges to conquer.
One thing led to another, and Bullet Runner as we know it today came to be. Bullet Runner will feature a 10+ hour campaign (if played on a somewhat challenging difficulty, relative to the players skill-level) of fully hand-crafted levels.
Within these levels, the player will come across different ‘combat-challenges’ which they will have to beat by making creative use of the tight toolkit of mechanics we offer to them. In a sense, Bullet Runner is a puzzle and strategy game, just at a very high pace.
The lore
We are aiming to give a very specific vibe to our game’s lore. Because it’s a game with a strong focus on gameplay, blasting your way through hordes of enemies comes first and foremost.
We have looked at other games with a similar focus, most notably ‘Doom (2016)’ and ‘Doom Eternal’ to get a better understanding of how they handle their lore integration, and how the community responds to it.
Because a large part of the target audience plays these kinds of games purely for the gameplay, it is essential to keep the narrative somewhat in the background of the game.
Players will be able to easily ignore the narrative if they feel the need to, while lore-invested players will be rewarded for exploration and time investment in the world the game takes place in.
As the lore takes time and energy to unfold for the players, we are aiming for an intricate and complicated story-line for them to piece together like a puzzle.
Bullet Runner is about a modern day Heracles, fighting against the corruption taking over the dimension he is in. The rage fueling the main character caused by the loss of his brother in the past, by the hand of the enemy.
On a surface level, this narrative seems very straight forward. But for lore-loving fans, there will be much more to uncover. From dimension jumps to multiverse time travel, the game will tell a unique, extremely over the top, action hero story.
Our goal with a narrative like this, is to get the potential fan-base of the game to work together to stitch all the pieces of the game’s complicated timelines together. We hope to start discussions about what happens in the game, when, and how everything is connected. This will give us a great opportunity to expand on the lore with future content (DLC’s, sequels), to fill in certain intentional gaps and keep the players hungry for more.
The basics of the narrative have been set up, we are now working on fleshing out the details and getting it on to paper.
market potential
The design of Bullet Runner takes inspiration from many different sources, with Doom being on the forefront of it all. Although inspiration is taken from existing designs, Bullet Runner presents them in a new and refreshing way to the players.
We see our target audience as being the playerbases of the games we take our inspiration from. Bullet Runner will offer them a new take on the genre of games they enjoy, and give them new skills to master, and refreshing challenges to beat.
We believe that, especially now with the release of Doom Eternal (and doing exceptionally well), players are hungry for more content in the same league.
This is where Bullet Runner will fill in the gap, as the game has the potential to profit from the current hype of the genre. With plenty of difficulty modes to choose from, the game will appeal to both new and veteran players of the genre.
With familiar, yet new and refreshing mechanics, tied together with a unique artstyle and kick-ass soundtrack, we believe Bullet Runner will fit right in to the current market of fast-paced skill-based shooters, and offer players something new to master and enjoy.
replay value
In order to increase the games marketability, I have thought about different ways to increase the game’s replay value.
Launch
At launch, the game is planned to come with a variety of content to keep the player base invested. At launch the game will feature:
- A fully fledged 10+ hour linear single player campaign
The campaign can be played on multiple difficulties, ranging from easy all the way to nightmare. This will offer players of any skill-level to be able to enjoy the single player, and to offer them a greater challenge once they’ve completed it all.
- A multiplayer 1 versus 1 deathmatch mode
In multiplayer deathmatch, two players will try to take each other down in a matchup of pure skill. This mode is where both beginners and veterans can go to practice and show off their skills.
- A fully fledged level editor
The level editor will allow players to easily create their own levels, and share them with the rest of the playerbase. This allows for a near infinite amount of playable content, with an ever increasing difficulty for veteran players, offering new challenges every time.
Post launch
Post launch, we plan to release multiple content updates for the game to increase the game’s replay value. This content includes:
- Paid DLC campaign expansions
These expansions will expand on the main game’s lore and difficulty, and will offer the players new challenges, enemy types and weapons to master.
- Free master levels
We plan on releasing free master level content on a set interval post launch. These master levels are remixes of existing campaign levels, with an insane difficulty, challenging even the best of the best.
localization
To be able to reach as many players as possible, localization is very important to the games development and release. At this point in time it is difficult to make an accurate estimation of the game’s wordcount at release. But as the game does not feature too many cutscenes or dialogue, we estimate it to be quite low. We currently estimate the game to have a total word-count of 5.000 words.
development
The current state of the game exists of a playable demo that showcases the core gameplay-loop and art-style of the concept. Currently we are hard at work to polish the games design for the best player experience.
The game is planned to release with a 10+ hour linear single player campaign, a fully fledged level-editor, and a multiplayer versus deathmatch mode.
In perfect conditions, we are aiming for a release at around December 2022.
Get in touch with us by clicking the button below!
what are we looking for?
With this project, we are currently looking for support in three different areas from a potential publisher.
Marketing and PR
As we currently possess most of the skills required to shape the game into a releasable product, we are mainly looking for skills outside of the development department. We do not have the skills and time to properly market our game while we work on it, thus we are looking for a compatible publisher to help us market the game, build a community for it, and shape it into something that is compatible with the current game market.
Multi-platform support
As we strongly carry the vision that games are for everyone, we see great opportunity in releasing the game on as many modern gaming platforms as possible. It would be a great plus if a publisher would be able to help us gain access to said platforms, and possibly even support us with the porting process.
Project funding
In order to really make the game shine, and release it at the targeted release date around December 2022, we need funding.
Most notably, the funding will be used to hire full-time team members to work on the project until said release date. In order to get the game in the state I want it to be I would ultimately need to hire a full-time programmer and a full-time artist.
Besides hiring, the budget will be used on situational freelancers (e.g. voice-acting, SFX), software licenses, hardware, and a potential office space (if the covid situation allows).
The budget plan we came up with covers all of these costs. This budget would help us to get the most out of this project, and make it truly shine. However, the budget is not set in stone, and deviating investment proposals are always welcome! We are also completely open to potential crowd-funding campaigns.
play it now!
What are you waiting for!? Check out the free demo for yourself by clicking the button below!