ITTA will take you to the developer’s own personal hell armed with a revolver and a dead cat.

There’s no shortage of bullet hell games on Switch or Steam, so if you want to make it in this crowded genre, you gotta stand out. ITTA does things a little differently than most bullet hell games, to say the least - starting with your dead cat.

Itta is actually the name of the main character. She wakes up to find her family dead, including the cat. Then, the spirit of the cat pops out and serves as your ghostly guide through the strange, crumbling world Itta finds herself in. She wants answers, and the only way to get them is from the mouths of the world’s cryptic inhabitants.

The second thing that sets ITTA apart is her father’s revolver, which she’ll use to threaten the various characters she meets in order to get those answers. This turns ITTA into one part adventure game, one part boss-rush bullet hell game.

“From hulking ancient golems to toothy horrors, Itta’s journey will push both you and her past their limits,” reads the game’s description.

And like many great indie titles, ITTA is made by one dude: Jacob Williams, owner, operator, and the grand poobah of Glass Revolver studios. He actually started making ITTA back in 2016 when he was staying at a hospital psychiatric ward.

“I was at the lowest point of my life,” writes Jacob. “‘Itta’ is Japanese for ‘gone’. It was to be a bleak, depressing game, with no hint of levity or hope.

“Then, near the end of my stay, an older woman around 60 who had been there for the better part of a year approached me and gave me a goodbye present - a papercraft she had made earlier that day. As a reminder to myself I made her papercraft a prominent symbol in the game, dotted around the world. And as my outlook on life slowly began to change, so too did the game: I didn’t want ITTA to be devoid of light anymore.”

The game will have 18 different bosses, an arsenal of powerful “spirit weapons,” and a haunting musical score. Oh, and best of all, if you hate the bullet hell genre and just want to experience the cool story, then you can toggle on invincibility whenever you want.

ITTA arrives on Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam later in 2020.

Source: Armor Games Studios, Steam