SPACEFIGHTER - The Bullet Hell is a top-down auto-shooter survival game launching June 8, 2026, on Steam — directly inside Steam Bullet Fest 2026. The game blends bullet-heaven structure (Vampire Survivors, Brotato) with shooter craft (real boss mechanics, weapon synergies, pilot identity). Players pilot a 2D starship and build their arsenal across three branching weapon trees — ballistic, explosive, and energy — fusing them into cross-tree combinations that produce wild emergent builds. Bosses arrive mid-wave with real patterns: telegraphed wind-ups, weak points, integrated into the wave flow rather than gating it. Meta progression sits on a "mothership" hub (6+ unlockable upgrades between runs) plus rescuable crew that gives permanent ship perks across deaths. The game is built solo by Michał JARO Jarosiński (Wrocław, Poland) using a modern AI-assisted development workflow — Claude Code for the codebase, AI image tools for a portion of visual assets, with creative direction, balancing, and integration owned by the developer. Full AI disclosure is on the Steam page. Launch coincides with Steam Bullet Fest 2026 (June 8–15) and the Steam Summer Sale (June 25–July 9). Official launch price: $2.99 USD.

When Vampire Survivors showed up in 2022, one dev with a tiny engine kicked off a whole genre. Three years later, "bullet heaven" is one of the most copied formats on Steam — and most copies miss what made the original click: the meta-loop, the build identity, the feeling that you found the synergy. SPACEFIGHTER - The Bullet Hell is one solo dev's answer to "what should a bullet heaven feel like in 2026?" Pilot a 2D starship, choose from a roster of ships with distinct kits, and grow your arsenal across three weapon trees — ballistic, explosive, and energy. Each tree has its own scaling identity: ballistic rewards precision and consecutive hits, explosive cranks chain detonations and area control, energy is the synergy-builder with beams, lock-on, and regen tools. The fun is in the cross-tree combinations that produce wild emergent builds. By minute 12 of a good run, the screen is busy and the build is doing the work. Where many survivors-likes stumble is the boss design. SPACEFIGHTER answers with bosses that have real patterns: telegraphed wind-ups, weak points, integrated into the wave flow rather than gating it. The first kill feels earned. The first wipe teaches something. Death is data — and meta progression sits on a "mothership" hub (6+ unlockable upgrades between runs) plus rescuable crew that gives permanent ship perks across deaths. The game is built by Michał JARO Jarosiński, a solo developer from Wrocław, Poland, using a modern AI-assisted workflow. Claude Code (Anthropic) handles the codebase under his direction. AI image tools cover a portion of visual assets, with the developer doing direction, editing, balancing, audio, and final integration. The Steam page has full AI disclosure. It's part of an emerging movement of solo developers shipping at content scale that would have required full studios five years ago — and Jarosiński is openly documenting the workflow because, as he puts it, "transparency is the only way this works long-term." SPACEFIGHTER launches June 8, 2026 — squarely inside Steam Bullet Fest 2026 (June 8–15), Valve's first dedicated showcase for the bullet hell / bullet heaven genre. A second push lands during Steam Summer Sale (June 25 – July 9). Official launch price: $2.99 USD. For fans of Vampire Survivors, Brotato, Halls of Torment, and 20 Minutes Till Dawn — but with bosses that actually fight back.