About the project

The Sunbreeze Project: Lily of Dereliction is a crossover fanart of both Dota 2 and Touhou Project. It is a playable bullet-hell game demo set in the Dota world. The audio-visual stylistics and core gameplay mechanics emulate those found in Touhou games, while the content - setting, charaters, enemies, attacks - references Dota.

Features:

  • One autoscrolling stage and a classic Touhou boss fight with multiple spellcards.
  • Dota spells, attacks and effects represented as bullet patterns.
  • Overly convoluted scoring system inspired primarily by Perfect Cherry Blossom.
  • Hand-drawn 2D graphics overlayed on a low-poly 3D scrolling background.
  • Three music tracks featuring soundfonts and low quality FM synth patches.
  • Two main difficulty levels and customizable difficulty settings.
  • (Recommended) keyboard and (rudimentary) gamepad controls.

Disclaimer:
This project is a rather elaborate fanart - but a fanart nonetheless. It should be treated as such, not as a functional piece of software. While the game itself is playable, it features a lot of cancerous spaghetti code and not a whole lot of quality control. Performance issues and/or crashes are to be expected.

Engine

2D

3D

Sound

Music

Background story

It is true that Mireska has always been known for her explosive audacities, all of which required quick wits and even quicker actions. However, it would be a massive oversight to disregard her patience and persistence.

Countless hours spent in the moot, shady tavern located right under the White Spire were by no means squandered. It was there that she learned where the most treasured relic of Enneadia might be kept - and it was there that she conceived a plan to seize it.

Still, in order to finally lay her hands on the Apotheosis Blade she would first need to harness the power of four other powerful items. One of them, the fabled Lily of Dereliction, a flower whose scent eradicates ones memories, was said to bloom right now in Quath royal gardens. Slipping in there would not be a trivial matter, especially with the Baron already wary that his prized posession is in danger. Supposedly he managed to hire a team of battle-hardened heroes to protect the Lily. Nevertheless, Mireska was determined and ready - and Jex was as hungry as ever. Mischief awaits...

 

Gameplay

The game is a vertical-scrolling bullet hell shooter - which means that the two primary goals are to (1) dodge enemy bullets and (2) to shoot down everything else that moves.

In the game you control Mireska. She has two movement modes: normal and focused. You activate focused mode by holding down the FOCUS key. While focused, Mireska moves slower, her shooting pattern becomes tighter and her hitbox becomes visible in order to facilitate dodging.

You start the game with a set amount of HP (adjustable via the menu). Being hit by an enemy bullet or the enemy itself lowers your HP by one. When you no longer have any HP left - the game is over.

By pressing the BOMB key you can temporarily release your friend Jex. This ability combines the characteristics of Bedlam and Terrorize. When released, Jex orbits Mireska for a while, spraying around a swarm his own powerful projectiles. Moreover, releasing Jex immediately clears all enemy bullets surrounding Mireska.

You can also cheat death and prevent losing HP by bombing immediately after getting hit by enemy bullet. The timeframe is quite narrow - only several frames - but it is absolutely worth a try. Entering Shadow Realm does not prevent you from releasing Jex.

The amount of times that Jex can be released is also adjustable in the menu.

During the game you collect Shadow Items and by doing so you fill your Shadow Gauge. The exact value of your Shadow Gauge is always displayed on the HUD - but there is also a less precise indicator present in the lower left corner of the game screen.

When the Shadow Gauge is full, you may enter the Shadow Realm by pressing SHADOWREALM button. In this mode Mireska shoots less rapidly, but her attacks are far more powerful. Getting hit in the Shadow Realm does not reduce your HP but instead preemptively exits the Shadow Realm mode. The duration of your Shadow Realm visit is indicated by a pink seal expanding around Mireska.

Be wary that losing HP substantially decreases your Shadow Gauge and thus significantly delays the next opportunity of entering the Shadow Realm.

Scoring

Convoluted scoring systems have always been one of the staple features of Touhou games. The Sunbreeze Project aims to emulate this quality and introduces an overly complicated scoring system that requires the player to thoroughly collect items, graze and supergraze bullets and, above all, analyze and perfect their timings.

There are several actions that can increase your overall score:

  • hitting enemies,
  • killing enemies,
  • grazing i.e. flying close to enemy bullets,
  • clearing bosses’ Spell Attacks,
  • collecting Plus Items: (generated by cleared bullets),
  • collecting Shadow Items: ,
  • collecting Point Items: .

Of these, the last method is definitely the most effective - collecting as many Point Items as possible is the main way of getting a high score. However, being a prudent collector is not enough - in order to get the highest possible score you have to increase the value of collected Point Items. The formula for calculating the value of a collected Point Item is presented below. The base value is constant throughout the game and depends only on the chosen difficulty level. You can, however, influence other variables.

First, you should notice that it is vital to collect items at the proper height. All items which are autocollected - the autocollection is triggered by moving past the Autocollect Treshold or by entering Shadow Realm - are collected at their full height value. This is indicated in game by a yellow number popping up.

The second major scoring factor to cosider is the Point Multiplier. By collecting a Shadow Item you increase your Shadow Gauge by a certain amount: the fixed base value multiplied by your Shadow Multiplier. You can increase your Shadow Multiplier by grazing bullets. The higher your Shadow Multiplier, the less Shadow Items you need to enter the Shadow Realm. In other words, you may fill your Shadow Gauge more quickly and enter the Shadow Realm more often and perhaps at more fitting times. Being able to enter Shadow Realm is crucial for increasing your score - grazing enemy bullets in Shadow Realm is the only way of increasing your Point Multiplier and therefore of increasing the maximum value of collected Point Items.

Please note that the Point Value system has been developed and theoretically balanced for implementation in a full 6-stage game. Therefore scoring possibilities in the demo are substantially limited.

Downloads

Primary mirror

WINDOWS

ZIP archive (44MB)

WINDOWS

EXE installer (46MB)

LINUX

TAR-GZ archive (46MB)

Secondary mirror

WINDOWS

ZIP archive (44MB)

WINDOWS

EXE installer (46MB)

LINUX

TAR-GZ archive (46MB)

EXE SHA256: 0ad3abdc275935396c2edf7b0fa7510d726d6e4084f11628814eaf18486026f2

ZIP SHA256: 5f6122eb3def9cf1ca891b83ae972f5f13057d127a3b7d70fa74c2edc109bc78

TGZ SHA256: aa89bf494b32d4bfca47aae22d3c816f3f73fe6d463989da4802a925b1c694f4