Set for release in 2016 on PlayStation 4 and PC, Seraph from Dreadbit is an acrobatic platforming shooter where all of the weapons are automatically aimed by main character Seraph.
An angel fighting to restore her lost power and escape a prison infested with demons, Seraph aims at the enemies while you backflip from walls, jump through the air, and fire controlled bursts.
Lead Designer Daniel Leaver talked about creating a skill-based shooter without aiming:
Well, having grown up with mind-blowing action films such as The Matrix, Christian Bale’s Equilibrium and, of course, anything directed by John Woo, I’ve always dreamt of playing a video game that could truly deliver on the promise of the player becoming a dual-handgun-wielding-badass! There have been some games that came close, but it always felt to me that the slick acrobatic choreography often came second to the player having to aim at the same time. A task made even more tricky if aiming two weapons at different enemies!
So, I thought, why not ditch the requirement for the player to aim altogether and instead let them focus 100% of their attention on acrobatic evasion and, of course, accurately landing Seraph’s divine special powers? Seraph effortlessly aims her dual pistols at the oncoming demon hordes while the player shoots, flips, and dodges the rapidly moving unholy spells and attacks. The thought turned into a playable prototype within a few days… and we were utterly convinced.
To stop Seraph from becoming too easy, Dreadbit added challenging gameplay to go along with the shooting that sees you dodging exploding pillars of flame, cartwheeling over a boss, and sliding down a wall while firing an SMG. There’s also an on-screen, dynamically scaling difficulty rating, so the better you play the harder the game becomes. If you end up playing on a higher difficulty level, the rewards dropped by demons for the crafting and upgrade systems will be greater.
You’ll also find lots of unlocks, procedurally generated levels, daily challenge modes, special Twitch streamer features where viewers vote between levels on whether or not you should receive a positive or negative modifier, and, if you die, you revive with less maximum health.
