My goal when designing Heldritch Rush was to evoke a sense of nostalgia in the player. I was inspired by classic railshooter titles such as Time Crisis and House of the Dead and wanted to mix the static position railshooter mechanics of those games with the fixed isometric camera angle seen in titles such as Resident Evil on the Playstation. This resulted in the player looking down at the main character as they progressed along a rail through each level, stopping at certain points to blast away enemies.

The player’s objective is to survive to the end of the level and earn as high a score as possible. They can aim, fire and vent their weapon, and have to balance all three with their gun’s heat gauge to avoid overheating the weapon and becoming overwhelmed. Removing the player’s ability to move the character led to a minimalist input system, which in turn allowed the game to be more inclusive, and this eventually led to getting the game fully playable with a one-handed controller. As well as this, Heldritch Rush also features various other accessibility features such as text-to-speech menu narration and relaxed game speed options.