Enter The Gungeon – Art & Gameplay Analysis
Enter the Gungeon (EtG) is a bullet-hell roguelike developed by Dodge Roll and was released in 2016. I had played it before in the past but decided to replay it for this project as Lament was going to be relatively similar to it due to the fact that it was both a roguelite (which is similar to a roguelike) and that it was a top-down 2D game with a pixel art style like EtG.
Art Analysis
EtG has a pixel art aesthetic and leans into a cartoony art style, while still being highly detailed. Though we wanted to aim for a more “realistic” art style there are many things to consider from this title. One aspect we debated for our game was the perspective, would it be perfectly top-down, isometric, etc. EtG has a common perspective type a lot of top-down games have, where it’s every so slightly at an angle. Here is a visual example of what I mean with a comparison:
On the left is EtG and on the right is The Binding of Isaac, another well known roguelike game. Though both their perspectives are top-down, Binding of Isaac has it so that all the walls are equally visible, and so it is “perfectly” top-down. In contrast, in EtG the back and side walls are only visible from the tops of each wall, with the front wall being the only completely visible one from this perspective. EtG’s perspective makes more sense from a “logical” point of view as that way it justifies seeing the full bodies of the enemies and player, yet Binding of Isaac’s perspective reinforces the gameplay with how the visuals depict the confined space you’re in. These differing perspective types were considered when making the sprites for the game’s environment.
Another aspect of EtG’s art is the general method of pixel art and usage of lighting. Each chamber (level) feels very distinct due to the colour palettes and lighting used.
These are just a few examples of how lighting and colours are used to set the atmosphere and distinguish the chambers from each other.
This is an aspect that was worth taking inspiration from and I would often look to when designing tiles and figuring out how to implement lighting in our game.
Gameplay Analysis
EtG is a bullet hell roguelike, whereas Lament is a more methodical game with melee weapons and (with how we’ve developed it) a less complex world. In this way, they are pretty different from one another, yet I still think there is value in analyzing EtG’s gameplay. One of the central aspects of EtG are the items you pick up throughout any given playthrough. There are hundreds of different weapons, charms, and consumables that can be found throughout the dungeons. This makes no two playthroughs (or attempts) the same, combined with the procedurally generated dungeons, the game feels as though it has infinite different possibilities on how each playthrough will turn out. Each weapon is unique, some can be as simple as a spread-fire shotgun, others can be as wacky as a gun that shoots guns that shoot bullets. The amount of different gameplay options is central to the gameplay loop of EtG.
Another important aspect of EtG are the bosses. On each level there are four different bosses, with one being randomly selected to be the boss of the level. This may incentivise the player to be as careful as possible before the boss fight in order to get the best chance of beating it. The game rewards the careful and methodical player. Different bosses have different strategies that may be employed against them making all of them feel distinct. This, combined with the fact that the player is given no hint about what the boss will be, makes the game very difficult yet it also makes it very memorable and fun.
Conculsion
Overall the gameplay of EtG relies heavily on the amount of variation there is, as well as the fact that all the different variations are more or less, equally fun. Given that we are only developing a vertical slice, it would be impossible to have this type of variation in our game, combined with the fact that there is a progression system, makes it so that Lament is very different. However, EtG still has great ideas worth considering such as different possible items spawning randomly on any given playthrough as well as the varied bosses. For our vertical slice, I hope that we can achieve implementing items to be able to have at least a fraction of the variation that EtG has.