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A jam submission

Touhou: Bustling Rainbow MarketeerView game page

Have a danmaku dance with (read: beat up) Chimata Tenkyuu, a marketeer bustling with pride!
Submitted by Kevin Minh (@kevinminh_alt)
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Play rainbow shoot-em-up

Touhou: Bustling Rainbow Marketeer's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Challenge#83.7863.786
Gameplay#123.6793.679
Use of LGBT Themes#123.7503.750
Audio#203.0363.036
Overall#213.5003.500
Visuals#223.5713.571
Concept#243.5003.500
Story / Writing#252.5002.500

Ranked from 28 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

Team Members
Kevinmonitor

Streaming Permission

Yes

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Comments

(+1)

Decent rainbow shoot-em-up.

  So first I'll say as a Touhou player, there were a couple scary things in there...
Like, during the stage section there were these lines of orange-haired fairies that, instead of vanishing into the bottom, slide along the bottom edge and towards my character, which made me panic. Same for these yinyang balls right at the start, they pop into existence at the bottom of screen with no heads-up, and there goes my life on my blind playthrough, it hasn't been 5 seconds. In official Touhou games the enemies don't just linger at the bottom of the screen, and if there are enemies spawning in the bottom, they can be actually seen coming - so again, I was really spooked.
  The boss too has one scary thing, it's these amulet explosions in Spell 2. I don't know what's the deal with them but uh, panicc - they don't even have a hitbox but they were still very unexpected with no prior warning. Also in this same Spell 2, the actual explosions at bottom of screen - didn't not expect them, and why do these ones have a hitbox.

  There's also the "coloured circles" that say "you're invincible"/"you died". I think you really should have a proper graphic for that. Not only does it really not look pretty, it also entirely covers your character AND enemy bullets. I don't think having an eyepatch that covers up the area of your character is any good for a player who tries to reposition themselves.

Scary surprises aside, the bullet patterns in there are a decent challenge. Maybe the stage section was too distracting with all its colours and how fast it scrolls, it makes the enemy bullets slightly hard to discern. But the game does look colourful and pretty.

Developer(+1)

Hellooo, thank you so much for playing my game! I just wanted to say beforehand that almost everything that you mentioned in the game have been addressed in a post-jam update I am working on! The update is scheduled for tomorrow so I hope you will take a look at it if you are interested and have time to spare.

The stage section is quite unbalanced and lacks proper warnings in many areas, yes. The orange fairies were originally supposed to leave the screen after reaching the bottom - the decision to have them slide along the bottom edge was for players to have additional time to take them out and obtain more point items. Both player teams have shots that fire backwards and you can utilize these to your advantage. I have no excuse for the enemies spawning at the bottom though, the lack of telegraphing for those was entirely my fault and I will get to fixing them immediately. One thing to note though: None of the enemies will hurt you if you collide with them, so please don't be too afraid.

In the post-jam update, Spell 2 now begins with telegraph lines at the bottom of the screen to warn you to get out of there before the attacks start. The amulet explosions are definitely unnecessary and are purely for visual effects when the seeds reach the bottom, so I'll get to fixing that too... 

The coloured circles were a result of jam time constraints, I wanted to make prettier graphics but ran out of time so I had to make do with those. I will lower their render priorities so they appear under your player character and bullets, if that helps!

The stage section also has had its background changed, the scenery is now nighttime and will contrast better with the bullets.

Thank you very much for playing again!!! And please look forward to the post-jam update tomorrow! It exists! I promise!

(+1)

An interesting take on remilia lol, kinda fun to play, but somewat unbalanced into the bombs power, it could be better since the gameplay fits just right, I hope you can find more music tracks for it (Chimata's theme is AWESOME ngl), and some work on the sprites could make them look even better.

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for playing!

The bombs are really strong yes and I don't really know how to balance them properly. However, in a post-jam build I'm working on each player now only has 2 bombs per life to make them less spammable.

Thank you for enjoying the music! I composed the boss theme myself and I will be adding more tracks (particularly a stage and title theme) in the future! 

i'm glad you enjoyed my game!!!

Submitted(+1)

Sweet fast-paced bullet hell. Gave me strong arcade shmup vibes, which I enjoy despite being not very good at them, ahaha. I struggled somewhat even on Gentle Mode, but you get enough lives and bombs to get through -- though I agree with Luyuu regarding the latter.

The colors and general aesthetic is very pretty. I also liked the very unique wording for all the UI text. Finally, the patterns were quite beautiful!

Developer

Thank you so much for playing!!! Do look forward to a post-jam update that rectifies many issues that were in this jam build tomorrow!!!

(+1)

This was a lot of fun! I played in Gentle Mode because im bad at Touhou and I thought it was a little bit too easy, not so much because of the bullet patterns and more because the default starting life and bomb values were too high. I would have liked to see more use of bullets from behind the player, but other than that I have no qualms with the gameplay.  I have a hard time differentiating between the background, point items, and bullets a lot of the time, and I'm not sure why P2 is so big compared to P1, but otherwise the visuals are awesome.

(+1)

Note: I'm not just saying Gentle Mode is easy (because duh, it's easy mode), I'm saying it's easier than it probably should be due to the lives and bombs.

Developer

Thank you very much for playing!

You'd be pleased to hear that an upcoming post-jam update not only changes the background to contrast with bullets better, but also includes options to reduce player shot and item opacity! You can now make your experience just a bit more enjoyable with these accessibility options.

In this update, your default lives and bombs have also been reduced to 3 starting lives and 2 bombs per life, in exchange for a system where you gain bonus lives by obtaining high scores. Hopefully this will make the game more challenging and engaging!

I hope you will look forward to it!

Submitted(+2)

I'm not a bullet hell expert, so I can't judge well how well it is in terms of Bullet Hell games. As for my personal noob experience, it did feel too fast and chaotic, with color a bit too similar. Balancing is hard, so I feel you ;_; I love the colors by itself but in a context of a skill-based game like Bullet hell, it can cause lots of confusion (especially for noobs like me xD)

UI-wise, I feel like a chunk of the left screen is blank (maybe to evoke that DoDonPachi feels)? Maybe it was intentional, but it would be cool if that space can be used for something too. Like say the gameplay screen being bigger (like Touhou?)

I really like Chimata's MGS intercom(?) screen, and the beeps too! Also like how you use the Pride theme visual-wise instead of most entries going with more Story wise!

Developer(+2)

Thank you for playing!!!

You're the first person I've seen to say the playfield should be bigger lmao... The HUD and playfield elements are positioned like they are so the playfield can be right in the middle of the screen, partly to evoke retro arcade game aesthetics like you mentioned but also for the player to position their eyes easier (they don't have to look to the side too much). The left screen is actually supposed to house the artworks of the characters you were playing at, and their expressions would change depending on how you did in the stage (get hit, bomb, capture an attack, etc.). See CosmoDreamer for a clearer example of this.

Chimata's pre-fight dialogue is indeed meant to evoke an intercom feel! I had Blue Revolver more in mind than MGS but both count, haha. Also thank you so much for appreciating my approach with the Pride theme! The entry was supposed to have more dialogue and story, but since I was running out of time I did what I could do best - and that is incorporate the beauty of Pride inside the danmaku patterns. Glad you liked it, and thanks for playing once again!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Played Arcade mode, and... yeah like what Aeon said, it's rather fast. I quite enjoy the speed, but many things (for example, the wave of bullets from the bottom of the screen at the start) feel kinda cheap. And yeah, the bullets can be a bit hard to see at times.

Awesome visuals and aesthetic. This one goes super far with the pride imagery, and I love it for that. Also, the patterns themselves are so pretty; I can see you really appreciate the beauty of danmaku.

I think the bombs are too powerful, or at least you get too many of them. Even in Arcade mode, they turn a huge challenge into something that's mostly skippable. Rinnousuke & Remilio's huge deathbomb window don't help matters. I ended up setting the lives to 999 and playing it bombless just to appreciate the patterns. Speaking of, I quite liked those patterns, especially Chimata's 2nd and 4th. Those were visually interesting and forced you to move in different ways and keep track of several different things. That said, I feel more could've been done to spice up the final pattern, as it's mostly just moving left and right in rhythm.

In short, 'twas beautifully extravagant... but extravagance is a double-edged sword.

Developer

Thank you for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it despite its imperfections.

The stage was supposed to have much more telegraphing - in particular the enemies coming from bottom at the start would have had warning signs beforehand to get you to move upwards asap. I did incorporate a bit of warning in the form of big delay lasers later on in the stage, but I'll have to come back and make sure everything is telegraphed to the player. Bullet visibility is something that I'll take a look at too, but in the meantime the background opacity setting may help you with your troubles.

I was definitely going for a subtler expression of pride than other story-focused jam games this time around and I'm glad you could appreciate it! And I'm happy to see you enjoyed how my patterns look and play out, I try my best to focus on patterns that are both creative but not sleepy at the same time, and it seems my efforts are paying off!

The bombs were quite literally last-minute additions to the game which is why they're rushed/unbalanced. Rinno/Remi's bombs in particular are significantly stronger than Byak/Miko's bombs (only losing to Miko's bomb when used close to an enemy). In the future I'll be doing some heavy player balancing!!!

Extravagance is indeed a double-edged sword, but I'll just have to try and make the best out of it... Thank you very much!

Submitted (2 edits) (+1)

i picked byakuren+miko and wowza what a shot. very bold. their own pride is shown in full force in the way the screen lights up the moment you press z. it uh. almost lights up to the point of it being hard to see where bullets are

i like the patterns and colouring of everything, but it feels fairly cramped and a bit fast. i'm no seihou  or traditional shmup player but i play unreal len'en and hard touhou so i am fairly confident in my ability to sightread, but i just had no hope here. stage was bam bam zoom shwoop and chimata was pew pew boingoingoingoing. these sound effects indicate danger to my lives so i ate like most of the patterns with bombs

i do like the continuity from the last game though with rinnosuke, and i liked what i saw of the boss patterns

i also notice sakura petals drop when you shoot chimata. it doesn't seem like we have pcb border here, so i'm not sure what's going on. are there bonus mechanics?

Developer

Thank you very much for playing!!! Always looking for ur comments since u a game jam gigachad reviewer yo

I think most of the difficulty you had with the game was a combination of a very big playfield and very big bullets. I hateeeee bullets being so small that I have to stick my face into the screen to see them so my shmup design philosophy goes against that as much as possible... in turn causing other problems. I'll take a look at what I can do to improve the experience a bit more!

I'm glad the sound effects are having their intended effects, the bam bam zoom shwoop and pew pew boingoingoingoing are meant to have a very strong retro shmup feel lmao. Don't feel bad about using bombs either, I made my game very accessible (with an easy difficulty and adjustable life counts) for a reason!!!!!

The sakura petals that Chimata drops add 250 points to your Sexiness meter! Sexiness acts as the Point Item Value meter of the game - so if you have 50000 Sexiness, each blue point item will give you 50000 points (and each rainbow item, which only Chimata drops, gives 100000 - double the PIV amount). Normal enemies in the stage section also drop green petals which add 100 points to PIV/Sexiness. I highly recommend reading the Manual & Credits.txt in the game directory to understand better how scoring works!

Once again, thank you very much!

Submitted(+1)

First off, game crashes when I press the restart option after a death. Other than that, it's difficult to see bullets and where you are with the various colors without turning background to 0%, problem exists more so on the stage leading up to the boss that the boss itself. Some of the bullet hell sections on arcade are a bit hard for me but that may just be my personal inexperience rather than anything about the game. The options provided with the customizeable extra lives and the background visibility are appreciated. Nice to see remilio returns.

Developer

Thank you for playing!

The crash bug has been reported and detailed on the game page description. I’ve located it and will be pushing a postjam fix alongside some optimizations and visual effects.

I did foresee that bullet visibility may be an issue which is why background opacity setting exists, it’s good to see it was a necessary option after all - and accessibility is an important concern of mine so I’m happy to see you liked it!

Arcade Mode is definitely meant to emit a faster pace and stage progression than Touhou which is reminiscent of older and less forgiving retro shoot-em-ups. However, I’m balancing it and also Gentle to appeal to bigger audiences.

The original concept had longer dialogue which details the characters’ relationships and dynamic a bit more, but time constraints scrapped that. I’ll probably implement it in the future.

Once again, thank you very much!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Extremely gay, and I love the pan theming! No music though, and the replays don't work. The challenge was exactly on par with what I could handle.

Developer (1 edit) (+1)

Thank you for playing! I'm glad I could express LGBTQ+ themes via danmaku color palettes, even if that's more subtle than your usual fare. With 2 difficulties and 2 player teams I tried to appeal to both beginners and intermediate players this time and I'm glad you enjoyed the challenge it offered!

I believe I already pushed a post-jam patch with working replays and the boss theme playing! Try redownloading, and if that also doesn't work feel free to contact me via Discord DMs to share your bugs.

(+1)

Overall  4.5
Fun game (not biased because bullet hell lol).

Gameplay  4.5
Some patterns have some hiccups but overall solid. 
Stage is kinda nothing as it currently is.  
Minor gripe with how your character can fully hug the screen borders, I'm used to how official games have some margin so that your sprite is always mostly visible, just messes with muscle memory with bottomhugs.

Concept  4
It's a bullet hell, works perfectly fine but nothing revolutionary.

Visuals  5
Looks pretty.

Audio  3.75
Lack of music on stages, mixing and instrumentation on the boss theme could use some work.
The item pickup sound effect kinda got annoying for me.

Story / Writing  3
Not really much story (which yeah it was rushed at the end during crunch so it is understandable).

Challenge  4
It's enjoyably challenging, I do wish there was a harder difficulty than Arcade but it'll do.
The second attack sometimes is mega hard and sometimes mega easy which is a bit annoying.
Final attack rage phase kinda feels bullshit but that's kinda fun in it's own way.
Full attack review in appendix.

Theme Relevance  3
Same as the Story / Writing category, lack of any dialogue kinda makes it not have much of that.  Not completely lacking in the theming though.

Appendix:  Attack Reviews
Attacks were seen on Arcade

Attack 1
It uh sure is an attack.  Its either really hard if you're on the left and really easy if you're on the right.

Attack 2
The attack I had the most issue with.  The butterfly walls are pretty funky, sometimes you get really easy RNG and barely have to dodge them and other times they overlap in crazy ways.  If it was just consistently crazy I'd have been fine with it tbh.  Also it seems that the wave variation is dependent on the previous wave so if the first wave was crazy then so will the second wave most of the time.

Attack 3
This one is very fun, the RNG can be funky here too but in an exiting way, the funny walls make you do some macro dodges which are very fun to pull off.

Attack 4
Kinda similar to Attack 3 and Attack 5 but this one I feel is a bit weaker.  Overall being asked to move around a lot is fun.

Attack 5
Kinda very easy until the rage phase.  First 2 stages are just tapping left-right over and over again.
Phase 1 -> Phase 2 transition has a bit of a hitch that can catch you off guard if you're asleep, not sure if that's a good or a bad thing.
Phase 3 is nice, sort of reminds me of Hourai Jewel.
Phase 4 is lol, but I sort of like it being a bit bullshit.  Looks like hell to do as Rinnosuke/Remilia team.

Developer

Thank you for playing my game!!!! Gotta have more shmup representation in games for real

This is a really detailed review, I'll try to cover what I can here:

+ Yeah uh the stage is completely unfinished, it's supposed to be three times as long at least and there's supposed to be a score extend system coming in as well. I'm working on it, I promise...!

+ The player clip being bigger than usual is a problem that has been mentioned a few times before, I've never really noticed it much but I will take a look at it during the update.

+ There was a lot of dialogue and story planned but yes jam time constraints made me cut them all out. Would love to patch it in as a separate/toggleable option in the Story/Cutscenes section (so people can select between "Full Story" or "Simple Story" like this current jam build).

+ Attack 2 is probably the weakest one and the one I want to replace the most. Dunno what to replace it with though yet, I'm just focusing on adding a new attack so the boss theme can loop twice! And I'm glad you enjoyed Attack 3, it's definitely meant to be a hectic "push up through the lanes" kind of attack. Attacks 4 and 5 are all arcade game references, but I had to tone them both down from their original iterations to make them more approachable to less skilled players (they're Ketsui and Blue Revolver references respectively).

Thanks again for playing and sorry for the late reply!!!