Shoot ’em ups meet horde survival in the latest announcement from Apogee, which relaunched as an indie publisher a few years back. Rising Heat is a bullet hell roguelite that’s in the works at developer Fuzzy Sock Studios (Toy Tanks), and a reveal trailer arrived along with plans for a Steam release sometime in Q1 2025.
The trailer shows off what looks to be a real frantic screen-filler. In bullet hell fashion, players will have to weave between shots and take on increasingly abundant hordes of enemies in an effort to survive the Rising Heat tournament. The reward awaiting them? Fame and riches, of course! Check out some footage for a look at the single-player and co-op action.
According to the announcement, there will be over 60 upgrades to complement your specific ship build. Optimization items can tweak stats ranging from armor and mobility to rate of fire, the damage you deal, and how long it takes to reload. There are also firepower buffs, like some shots that temporarily freeze enemies and others that inflict bleed. All the while your ship will level up through combat, which should hopefully come in handy during some of the larger boss fights.
Apogee and Fuzzy Sock cite inspirations like Atari’s 1982 Space Duel and Apogee and Sand Castles Studio’s multiplayer game Bread & Fred, which also has a big focus on cooperative play. This is one of those games that’s tough to pin down with a trailer and screenshots, though. You gotta feel the fires of bullet hell before you can make a call. Rising Heat looks like it fits what it’s being sold as well enough, so we’ll have to see how smoothly it all comes together when it launches early next year.
