Ballet of Steel
News:
- Thank you all for the kind words on the game and we've heard you voices. We we currently working on remaking this game to a fully fledged roguelike game. Expanding this little prototype with more content, polish and quality of life fixes. More details on that soon.
- Our musician has uploaded the soundtrack to bandcamp, go check them out! https://lapspider45.bandcamp.com/album/ballet-of-steel
Overview:
Play as a ballet dancer with incredible reflex, who can see bullets coming and swiftly swat them back, using the enemies weapons against them. With an unknown motive, she dives deep into the ruins of what was once a bustling metropolis, to find answers...
This is an atmospheric turn-based bullet hell game prototype inspired by games such as Enter The Chronosphere, Ultrakill, Radio the Universe and TWWWR. Fight your way through 9 floors full of mechanical foes in a dying world.
The current build of the game is considered to be a prototype of the core mechanics we wanted to make for our take on mixing the bullet dodging action from bullet hell games and the strategy thinking from turned based rougelikes. This was made as a submission for the Bullet Hell Game Jam 5. We will be continuing to expand this concept into a full fledged game in the future (not very soon tho).
Controls:
| Move | Left click on highlighted tiles |
| Throw knife | Right click on enemy |
| Skip turn | Spacebar / Shift / Left click on middle tile |
| Restart game (WARNING) | R |
| Exit game | Alt+F4, ESC |
How to Play:
- Defeat all the enemies in the room in order to progress.
- On your turn, move into bullets to parry them. On the enemy turn, bullets that move into you will hurt you.
- You will lose 1 health from taking damage during a turn. If you lose all your health then it's game over. Keep in mind that there is no way to recover health in the game.
- Your hitbox is slightly smaller than the tile you are standing on.
- Parry enough bullets, and you will gain a knife. It is a powerful weapon that can be thrown using right click to inflict heavy damage and stagger. It also clears all bullets in its path. Knowing when to use your knives is key to mastering the game.
Current Know Issues
- If you press Alt+TAB or change to a different browser tab, the music will permanently stop as punishment for your lack of focus. The reasons for which are detailed here.
Credits:
Iced_Lemon - Programming, Game Design
Lapspider45 - Music Composition, Sound Design
Zahran - Sprite Art, Graphic Design
KingW - Illustration
sorasu - Sound Design
Get the Soundtrack here:
https://lapspider45.bandcamp.com/album/ballet-of-steel
Download
Install instructions
Unzip before running
Comments
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Music actually came back for me on return? The link to the bugreport just takes me to unity dot com. I hadn't actually started the game yet though, I think.
Also, yes I loved the game and yes I'm looking forward to a bigger version. I beat it hitless, so treating hitpoints more like lives is a reasonable difficulty modifier I expect?
Played this game, looked at your account, saw the art style and realized we just submitted to the same fanzine XD anyway this is such a cool idea and I'd love to see it more fleshed out!
I had this downloaded in my computer for the longest time (june 2024), and yesterday (october 2025) I was bored and decided to play it. Man, this is good!!
Hope to see more someday, thank you creator!
same!! it was a really fun replay since i last played in 2024 and just got bored and replayed. hopefully they add more content lol
fun as hell thanks
short game but very fun wish there were more levels but enjoyed alot thanks
What an interesting way to implement turn based bullet hell. Rather than fearing the oncoming wave of bullets, it feels good anticipating them and rushing headlong at them. The player is so powerful in this context, and that makes it quite fun. Given the player's infinite time to react and their abilities, the challenge is not quite there in this version. The game was just starting to play with enemy variety and density towards the final floors, but so much more could be done. The music set a great atmosphere, and worked well for something turn based and more cerebral in gameplay.
Also, it sure felt like stopping time every turn. Combined with throwing knives, the similarity to a particular maid cannot be denied.
You can't convince me this is not Sakuya Izayoi.
I will be playing this live tomorrow about 12-1230 PM EST.
An incredible concept that could become the basis of a deeper game with a lot of strategic depth if polished. I really, really like this one!^^
Gameplay and Critique ;)
lmao i played the whole game without throwing knives xD
I volunteer to translate this game from english to russian, please reply if interested
Really fun concept. Art is vey beatiful too. Goodluck working on this :D
Cool concept! But I think you can try to make a limited time per move, to increase tension and dynamics. In the current form of this mechanic, you don't have to think long about moves. Also, sometimes it is not clear on which cell the bullet is located that can be reflected
I did not realize the throwing knife even existed. But still quite beatable without it. Difficulty is basically non-existent until the last room. But even then you're allowed to take so many hits, its pretty simple. Fun concept though.
I don't know how I managed to miss this before. It's awesome! Love the tunes <3
This was a lovely little game, I'm excited to see it continued!
I've played a few different games that tried to turn bullet hell into turn based, but this is the first that's actually nailed it! Great job!
To be continued... when!?
This game is amazing!
nice
nice game, i hope to play more
Cool game
Really solid demo, I can't wait to see what you do with this fun mechanic in a full game!
Very fun. Love the art style, hoping to see more. Perhaps a longer move range and bigger arenas with more enemies could be fun? Hard to tell but it's worth fiddling with.
天才般的设计
Awesome gamee love the music , beat it first try
Quite a pleasant time, and the world needs more turn-based games... We all get old, eventually. Your game has been unexpectedly, and perhaps oddly even, entertaining.
Keep it up! Good job Game Developer Iced_Lemon!
this is so awesome! it would be really cool if you could make it a rougelike with random items every floor
I absolutely adore this take on a bullet-hell, the concept is great and id love to see more, especially if we get some lore/story ^^
this is something I need in life
Balls of Steel
linux approved using wine
---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☑ Kids
☑ Teens
☐ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☑ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☑ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☑ It's free!
☐ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☑ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10
---{ Author }---
☑ https://vojtastruhar.github.io/steam-review-template
Why the heck does your review list MS-DOS as the worst aesthetic grade? I haven't played terribly many DOS games, but the ones I've seen have often had genuinely beautiful graphics.
The last picture you get after completing(?) the game almost felt like a jumpscare with how focused on the game I was. Also great art! Altough I couldn't really tell if the game ended on that picture, mb some kind of "The End" thing around there somewhere would be helpful.
love it!
nice co-.... I mean nice game
Great mechanics! Also great for a quick pickup if you have 30 mins (until it gets further expanded of course).
awesome game!