Introduction:

Galactic Bride: Bullet Ballet is a video game I created in July 2023 for the Open Source AI Game Jam hosted by Hugging Face. This game jam was unique in its purpose: to encourage the use of open-source AI tools, and permit proprietary AI so long as open-source tools were also incorporated in the game’s development.

Galactic Bride is, at its heart, a bullet hell game. It boasts a story that’s deeply inspired by Ikuhara’s work on Utena, encompassing both the anime series and movie. My initial vision was to create a game where two girls race and engage in a shooting competition using high-tech alien motorcycles, with the aim to disable the opponent’s vehicle and win the race.

What Went Right:

• Coding - GPT-4, specifically ChatGPT, was incredibly helpful and significantly reduced coding time. Art - The stunning art created using Midjourney played a major role in attracting players. The recent zoom-out feature update made it particularly useful in creating game sprites.
• Style - Drawing inspiration from Ikuhara’s work expedited the development process, as it gave a clear direction for the themes and narratives.
• Publishing - Having prior experience with publishing on itch.io and with the help of ChatGPT for verbiage, I was able to set up a game page quickly.
• Godot - As my first game in Godot, I found it extremely versatile. It allowed me to blend elements of a visual novel with 2D/3D gameplay.

What Went Wrong:

• Assets - I discovered far superior bullet sprites after the voting phase had started. For future projects, I’ll need to research what assets are available beforehand.
• Distribution - Making the game playable in-browser could have increased player engagement and ratings. This is something I’ll consider for future projects.
• Scope - As the actual dueling mechanic was missing from the demo due to time constraints, I needed to adjust the game’s scope to meet the deadline.
• Time Management - I spent more time than necessary on a few features that turned out to be less impactful than others.

Lessons Learned:

• Prioritize - The game’s main allure was its style, so I made sure to spend time enhancing the story, delivery, visuals, voice, and narrative after setting up the bare minimum bullet hell elements. Do Your Homework - More planning ahead could have helped me find better assets and decide on an in-browser format.
• Team Up with AI - AI proved to be an invaluable companion during this process, allowing me to extend my ideas and enhance my skills.

Conclusion:

The game jam was an extraordinary learning experience and growth opportunity. I was thrilled to place 10th out of 88 submissions and grateful for Hugging Face, the organizers, and my fellow jammers. I plan to continue working on this project and have a multitude of ideas for future games. I found game development to be an incredibly rewarding experience and I encourage anyone who’s curious about it to give it a try.