The Spell Brigade

Small Belgian indie studio Bolt Blaster Games scored a hit with their survival/bullet hell game The Spell Brigade by mixing in online co-op elements - even with optional friendly fire that recalls the chaos of Magicka. It sold more than 125,000 copies in less than two months.

Following the huge success of Vampire Survivors, which impressed both critics and players despite its sparse presentation, and which recently surprised with a huge Castlevania DLC, many game developers tried their hand at a similar concept - a kind of reverse bullet-hell with rogue-lite upgrades, in which you have to survive as long as possible. Brotato by Blobfish from Switzerland and Halls of Torment by Chasing Carrots from Stuttgart were successful in this 'new genre' and brought some original ideas to the table, similar to the hugely successful Deep Rock Galactic Survivor, Soulstone Survivors or Death Must Die.

Bolt Blaster Games, a six-person indie game studio from Belgium founded in 2020, is also bringing fresh ideas to The Spell Brigade in order to stand out from the crowded genre. These include online co-op and a fantasy theme with wizards - especially as you can also turn on friendly fire to make the already effect-heavy mayhem even more chaotic, but that's just one option. The Spell Brigade has sold over 125,000 copies in less than two months. "We had high hopes for our game, but this has exceeded all our expectations, and it's only the beginning," said Game Director Hans Jacobs. They are going for Early Access because they received a lot of feedback and support from the community after the launch of their first game, the cartoonish roguelike VR shooter Gazzlers, and they want to get the community on board even earlier with The Spell Bridage. The team has also received support from the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), a public funding body that supports audiovisual and games production in Flanders and international co-productions with Flanders.

Online co-op is truly a standout feature. All players gain experience points together, and when they reach a certain level, they can choose between three enhancements that affect either all skills, the character or a specific spell. When a spell reaches a certain level, it can be enhanced with elemental magic, either fire for more damage (leaving a dot on the enemy), ice for slowing movement, or lightning that strikes nearby enemies. Later on, it is even possible to combine these elements. At certain higher levels, players gain new abilities that allow them to create quite creative split bounce effects, multi-target boomerangs or multiple continuous 'lasers'. So players are looking for overpowered spell synergies.

There are also small events or mini-quests that need to be completed to gain further, sometimes very powerful, upgrades. Right now there are three non-randomly generated maps to play on, with three levels of difficulty. Between rounds, players can spend money (reward from the missions) on permanent upgrades to attributes and stats such as damage, luck, movement speed and armour, making them a little stronger each time. Plus, different wizards with different starting options can be unlocked bit by bit.

The game has been in Early Access since September 2024, with a lot planned for the future. That's a good thing, because the game, which costs just under ten euros, could have more content and variety, not to mention the fact that the balance in the recently added endless mode is way off. In particular, it needs more varied enemies, more than just one big boss, and more maps, spells, magic elements and upgrades. The current foundation is good, but it needs more meat on the bones.

Conclusion

The Spell Brigade really shows its strengths in co-op, and the elemental magic makes it stand out from other games in this very specific genre. However, more content (cards, spells, enemies, bosses, etc.) needs to be added in Early Access.