Bullet Candy 2026

As of May 4th this year, it will have been 20 years since the original release of Bullet Candy, Though it's origins start much earlier than that. I Suppose that makes it officially retro now, rather than retro themed. 20 years prior to It’s release (1986) saw the release of SEGA’s Outrun, Nintendo’s first Metroid and Zelda games, Llamasoft’s incredibly difficult Iridis Alpha, early doors real time 3D shooter Starglider on the Atari ST and style over substance pioneer Defender of the Crown, all of which were pretty much digital antiques by 2006.

This version of Bullet Candy is an archive of the various versions that have been available. While I think the game has generally improved over time, I appreciate some folks express a preference for version X over version Y. Hopefully the different versions presented here will have something for everyone who has played the game in the last 20 years.

Initially released in 2006 on my personal website, selling a few copies here and there, Bullet Candy had a muted start. While the game garnered some praise from contemporary review sites and was generally well received by players in the know, it wasn’t until Valve offered the game a slot on Steam that it became known to a wider audience.

The original Steam version of Bullet Candy launched on Valentines Day 2007 and was one of the first handful of indie titles released on the store. Feedback from new players was positive, even if the game never made much money. Truthfully I was happy that people liked it, money was never the goal. This first Steam version is playable in this release as Bullet Candy 2007.

The next major release came in 2013 after the release of Bullet Candy's sequel Scoregasm. This version fixed a slew of bugs that modern PCs had brought to light, made some positive changes to the gameplay and for a short while added some new visual effects that time and graphics drivers wouldn't be kind to. An updated, visually fixed version is included in this release as Bullet Candy 2013.

Mini Bullet Candy, originally a web exclusive, was written to try out the new HTML5 graphics features intended to replace Flash. The version included in this release takes the original levels from that game and expands upon them with gameplay improvements and improved graphics and sound. This version makes that game available to play again for the first time since 2011.

In addition to these previously released versions, I've included a prototype of the game dating back to 2005. While the core of the game is present in this version, it's missing a few of the mechanics that make Bullet Candy interesting. It's also considerably harder! This prototype is playable from the Bonus Games menu.

As a final addition I've added a new mode, 2026 Remix. This is definitely Bullet Candy with the benefit of hindsight, making more of the firework-like effects of previous versions and designing the game more closely around the self-destruct mechanic so as to make it more present/obvious. I hope you enjoy it!

Bullet Candy has always been something of a puzzle to me. I'm still amazed how far it has gone, that people still buy, play it and enjoy it despite the many rookie mistakes in it's original design. This archive release is a time capsule in a way, presenting the game, warts and all, as close to the original versions as is possible on modern hardware. I've omitted the original music. I'm sorry for inflicting that on you all. Thanks to John for the excellent new tracks!

Self indulgent waffle over! Thank you for buying a copy of Bullet Candy! In a world where it's becoming increasingly difficult to sell creative works as an individual, be it games, books, music or whatever else without big tech taking their cut it’s more important than ever to support independent creators.

Thanks, Charlie (2026).

Roadmap

I'll be continuing to add to Bullet Candy in the coming months, the idea being to have everything Bullet Candy available in one place, rather than different versions dotted about variously online. Here's a general outline of what's in the pipe...

- Bullet Candy Perfect - a 2009/10 3D version of Bullet Candy, currently only available in a not especially functional state on itch.io. This was originally a spin off from Bullet Candy's pseudo-sequel, Scoregasm and in terms of gameplay is evolved from the 2007 Steam release but is lacking some of the refinements found in Bullet Candy 2013.

- Bullet Candy 2026 Level Packs - I'll be adding more levels in sets of 5 or 10 over the course of the next few months, with the aim of taking the best of them and creating a proper Bullet Candy 2026 game. Looking through some old designs for Bullet Candy I noticed a few plans for a galactic chart, with levels arranged so that you can choose your path through to a few different endings,unlock secret routes etc. I can't really remember why I didn't implement this at the time, but it seems like a fun idea.

- Interactive how to play for Bullet Candy 2026 - There's a few non-obvious mechanics at play on Bullet Candy 2026 which would benefit from being explained in game. Likewise a mission style sub-objective for the older game modes could help make the mechanics in those games more obvious.

- Improvements to the particle system - Bullet Candy throws a lot of particles around in a not particularly efficient way. While the game isn't particularly demanding on even potato PCs, it would be good to reduce the general memory footprint of the game.

- General bug fixing etc. Let me know either on the Steam forum or itch community if you find anything up.

- Video guides for achievements on Steam and youtube.

Update notes:

- New menus, allowing you to choose various different versions of the game from the past and present, plus a bonus game menu featuring some formerly lost mini games and a pre-release prototype. The about tab for each game details more about each version, and the How To Play tab explain subtle changes in the rules between older versions etc.

- Bullet Candy 2007 - The original Steam version from 2007.
- Bullet Candy 2013 - The 2013 re-make which up 'til now has been the most recent version available on Steam and itch.io.
- Mini Bullet Candy - Remake of the 2011 web mini game. Levels taken from the original game, effects enhanced.
- CG_01 prototype - A pre-release version from the end of 2005.
- Bullet Candy 2026: Level Pack 1 - The first in a series of level packs for a new spin on Bullet Candy, featuring new levels, effects and gameplay mechanics. More levels will be released in the coming months.
- Bonus Games - Survival and Asteroid modes, re-added from the original 2007 Steam version. Gauntlet mode re-added from a version for IGN (i think!) from around 2008.

### Other things
- Replaced old soundtrack with something a little more easy on the ears.
- Added Steam support for Linux and MacOS.
- Added Support for SteamDeck/SteamOS
- Added Steam Leaderboards
- Fixed achievements, added 10 more for the new/old game modes
- Steam Cloud saves
- All builds of the game are now 64bit. A 32bit version of Bullet Candy from 2015/2017 is available via the betas menu in Steam/archive download on itch.io
- online scores via CheddaBoards for non-steam versions.