Sodaman Revolutionizes Bullet Heaven Gameplay

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Sodaman is a game that combines roguelike elements with bullet heaven style gameplay, much like games such as Vampire Survivors. During each playthrough, players collect different upgrades they’ve selected, which work together and become exponentially more powerful. The ultimate goal is to achieve the “god run,” where a nearly invincible player overpowers waves upon waves of approaching enemies. Unlike many games in this genre that are set in fantasy worlds, Sodaman distinguishes itself with its vibrant, futuristic cyberpunk theme, complete with guns, cybernetics, and sci-fi settings. While visually striking, it’s the gameplay innovations where Sodaman truly sets itself apart.

Game Rant recently had an interview with the creators of Sodaman, where Arif Can Üçer (game designer), Utku Karan Saat (concept artist), and Asrın Sıla Şimşek (pixel artist) shared their innovative strategies for developing a ‘bullet heaven’ game. Notably, they emphasized one standout feature of Sodaman: players have the ability to manually control aiming, reloading, and dodging during combat, which results in a more immersive gaming experience compared to similar games.

Sodaman Gives Players More Control

Sodaman embarked on development during the peak popularity of the genre, with Vampire Survivors captivating a large audience and popularizing the concept. The team soon identified an issue with the traditional ‘bullet heaven’ approach – players mainly controlled where their character walked but had limited influence over actions. To address this, Sodaman creatively introduced mechanics that allowed players to aim, reload, and dodge attacks more like in a top-down action game. As Üçer states:

Approximately two years ago, we embarked on creating Sodaman, coinciding with the rise of “bullet heaven” games similar to Vampire Survivors. At that time, Sodaman was relatively new, with only a handful of other games in its genre already available.

In these games, there’s not much action like walking around, no aiming, shooting, using skills, or dashing required. However, for Sodaman, we aimed to revitalize the “bullet hell” or “bullet heaven” genre by giving the player more active involvement, similar to Enter the Gungeon but with a less challenging difficulty level compared to Enter the Gungeon or Hades. The player will still have more control over the game, though they can choose to play with auto-aim and auto-shoot enabled, focusing primarily on moving and dashing. I believe many players prefer playing the game with these features activated.

In certain character setups, it can be more effective to turn off auto-aim and auto-fire features. For instance, when using sniper rifles, precision is key so you’ll want to manually aim at your enemies to maximize penetrating shots. Ultimately, the choice depends on the type of build you’re aiming for and the strategy you prefer to employ.

In essence, Sodaman offers an impressive auto-aim function that takes care of shooting for the player. Many users might prefer to keep this feature active more often than not. However, specific gameplay styles can profit from manual control. For instance, when using a sniper rifle, players may choose to manually adjust aim for precise penetrating shots aimed at taking out enemy lines. This is an uncommon strategic factor in games heavily focused on bullets.

Sodaman’s Enemy Design Benefits From Player Agency

This proactive approach influenced the game’s more interactive enemy creation as well. Unlike many high-flying shooter games, damage in “Sodaman” is primarily inflicted by enemies telegraphing their attacks, allowing players to show off their dodging skills. Speaking about the enemy design of “Sodaman”, Saat mentioned:

In contrast to numerous Vampire Survivors-inspired games, our design for enemies is distinct. Typically, in those games, enemies simply harm the player upon contact. However, we aimed to deviate from that formula. We desired the enemies to have attack animations, allowing players to actively dodge them and thereby having a more hands-on experience. This shift in gameplay results in enemy designs, including their attack patterns and behaviors, being carefully crafted with this objective in mind. While we wanted the enemies to remain challenging, we also aimed to give players a sense of control over their actions, rather than relying solely on auto-aim and auto-shoot.

Featuring a conveniently adjustable automatic targeting mechanism, agile evasion capabilities, and smart adversary layouts, Sodaman is evolving into a thrilling roguelike shoot ’em up game that challenges conventional genre norms in a positive way. It’s exciting to anticipate that player control during battles will become more prevalent in the ever-favorite genre.

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2025-03-23 18:04