|
SunWuKong
|
 |
« Reply #100 on: September 26, 2015, 07:19:48 PM » |
|
Welcome back folks for another Boss 101 update! Thank you so much for stopping by and we appreciate your support. From Boss 101 the web game to Boss 101 the PC/Console gameWe’d like to think we’ve come a long way since the web version of Boss 101 but we have not forgotten about what got us here. Boss 101 started as a web browser games and we know there are a few of you out there who might remember it. To that end we are putting several nods to the OG game inside this one. One you might have heard about is the Endless Boss mode. Let’s be clear, we are talking about modes outside the main game and story. They are connected to the main game and certain equipment can be brought into the Endless Boss mode from your main game but the intent is to give players another option if they are enjoying blasting bosses. Setup for the Warp Room Stats Screen Closeup of the Stats Readout scale panel (WIP) Extra Game Play Mode: the Endless Boss modeWe mentioned this before but it is the closest thing to the arcade experience of Boss 101’s web version we have in the new game. Don’t get us wrong, we jazzed it up quite a bit but the overall pacing and intent is to just let you the player blast away against bosses and see how awesome your piloting skills are. Check this out… We have two main modes for Endless boss – Classic and Iron Man. Classic is all about an arcade like experience. You start with your base abilities and machine gun. You can collect health and powerups during the battles. Like the original version powerups give you a random gun you use for a limited time and health replenishes your health bar. Sounds pretty straightforward and it is. A boss is rolled, you attack and defeat it, you get an assessment of your progress and then repeat. Iron Man mode – This is a variation of the Endless Boss theme where you get to bring your machine gun and also select ONE ALT GUN from your gun collection. You get no powerups and no health buff (other than what your base gear might give you). In this mode it’s you against the bosses with your skillage as the only barrier. Some shots of the Endless Warp Assessment Screen (this shows up when you finish any boss round in the Endless Mode) Did we mention you can FLY AROUND THE CLICKS SHIP WHILE IN WARP?!?!ROB pilots the Clicks Ship too! OH YEAH! Working on the engine Sprites – YES! Kite Room workWe added extra looks for the Kite Room to match the times of day you visit. Here the guys are checking out the morning sun!  Thank you again for stopping by and we do appreciate your time and support. As always – live your dreams! -Tim |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #101 on: October 03, 2015, 01:59:46 PM » |
|
Boss 101 Weekly update – setting up the storesWelcome back to another weekly update and this week we are looking at the Boss 101 Store fronts, specifically the Hat Store. The hat store, as you may guess, is where you buy all the sweet lids for the game. These can give you various powers and increase your ability to do battle. The OG Store! Let’s start with we have come a LONG way since the first version of the game store. Back in the day we were integrating everything together including the room for the guys. Back then the store was a pretty straightforward thing with not a lot of zazz. That was OK but we knew we wanted to evolve it to have more features and be able to display more information. Also – the hats this time around could do a lot more so we wanted to feature more of what you get for your money.  The first step was to arrange to store as both a selling and storage unit for purchased hats. We have over 200 hats in the game currently. As tends to happen in games with lots of inventory the design is based around the player buying a steady progression of hats as they move through the levels. Hats get more powerful and more expensive and in an ideal situation there is something for the player to buy at all times (or at least look forward to purchasing). Some hats get locked out due to level or money requirements. In an earlier version of the hat store we had a ‘closet theme’ going but it didn’t seem to match up well in terms of art and look for the rest of the command center. We modified it up to look more like something the gophers would have made and it is a LOT more in line with the game now. Check it!  Also – here is an example of some of the buff icons you will see attached to the various hats as well as a rating for each. Using this you can see what a hat is good for an how powerful it is. Helpful when picking the best hat to battle with. Store Buff Icon Examples Examples used in the Store! Sneak Peak Weapons of destruction – the Ultra Gun. Lay the serious smack down! Thanks again for stopping by and we hope you enjoyed this look behind the scenes. Remember to always - LIVE YOUR DREAMS! -Tim
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
marcgfx
|
|
« Reply #102 on: October 03, 2015, 05:32:49 PM » |
|
love your conversations  not so sure about the hats though. I think the hats themselves look good, but it's really weird with the different resolutions. It nearly feels like you should be going for the higher resolution for everything. I can imagine that would be a crazy amount of work? |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #103 on: October 03, 2015, 09:49:32 PM » |
|
hats themselves look good, but it's really weird with the different resolutions.
Thanks! Appreciate the look. If you are referring to the hat resolution in the hat store then you are looking at the game asset being scaled up just for that screen. In the most all other situations throughout the game it's displayed at it's normal resolution inline with everything else. Example of the store in action Yeah, up res'ing the entire game is no small feat as we aren't in a position to just flip a resolution switch and make everything more detailed. Maybe something to look at for Boss 102. Still - we are working to make the game as good looking as we can! Thanks again for the comment! -Tim |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: October 03, 2015, 10:16:01 PM by SunWuKong »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
nicked
|
|
« Reply #104 on: October 03, 2015, 11:23:59 PM » |
|
Everything about this game looks excellent!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #105 on: October 04, 2015, 02:11:53 AM » |
|
Everything about this game looks excellent!
Thank you very much. The team on this game is a passionate group working to bring you their very best. Also, the community here has been so nice and supportive about our progress. It does mean a lot to hear your kinds words and thank you. I hope you are also out there living your dreams! Best, -Tim |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
thefoolishbrave
|
|
« Reply #106 on: October 05, 2015, 04:26:12 PM » |
|
I just want to raid endless bosses with a friend on this :O An endless boss mode with leaderboards would spark a helluva lot of competition with a game like this me thinks  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #107 on: October 05, 2015, 05:08:12 PM » |
|
I just want to raid endless bosses with a friend on this :O An endless boss mode with leaderboards would spark a helluva lot of competition with a game like this me thinks YES! We think it would be a pretty fun option. It does seem like a really logical extension of the base game and we have a couple modes planned for Endless Boss that should be fun for people. It is designed around showing off your skills and of course Steam Leaderboards and bragging rights. So glad you commented and thank you. We'll keep the updates coming and you can bet we will be talking more about Endless Boss and how it will play. Thank you again! -Tim |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #108 on: October 10, 2015, 11:33:20 AM » |
|
Boss 101 Warp GatesDid you know warp gates are how the bosses (and you) get around in Boss 101? Well, it’s true! One of your missions is to shut down all the warp gates leading to Earth. I guess we should clarify, you’re not shutting them down exactly, you’re taking control of them. Active Boss Warp Gate in the background That is correct! Once you defeat a level boss you and your team of scientists come in and reprogram the gate for YOUR OWN USE! This means you can now use it as often as you like. Come back to the same world and look for things the bosses left behind. Sure, you can continue on with the battle against the bosses but maybe if you spend a little time cleaning up the mess they left you can learn more about what happened and perhaps get a little bonus reward for your troubles.  Gameplay ideasWe wanted to bring you as much story and gameplay as possible. One of the things we are doing is giving you rewards and reasons for replaying levels. One of them is the visual sight of seeing some of the before/after boss life but another is certain surprises will only arrive AFTER the main boss is gone. Ideally you come on back when you want and at whatever power level you prefer. We are encouraging it sure but you can always play as you like. Either way – the basic story stays intact. Giving you fun things to find and discover is one of the most fun things we do. There is a lot of discussion about what things will make the most impact and sense as well as give you the player the biggest bang for your buck. Our goal is always to keep you entertained! Check out some sweet shots of the boss gate active and the transformed gate you control. Care to guess which is which? HAAAAAAAAAAAA!! Before  After  Cosmic Clicks Endless Boss modeWe mentioned this before but the Cosmic Clicks ships makes and appearance in Boss 101 with ROB in command no less. In between boss battles you will jump to warp to meet up with ROB for a score assessment and some breathing room. While you are there you are free to fly around next to the ship and set off some fireworks to celebrate your victory. You heard me correct. Check out that screenshot! You can trigger fireworks! YES!  Thank you again for stopping by and remember to live your dreams! Best, -Tim
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #109 on: October 17, 2015, 04:48:16 PM » |
|
Welcome back to the weekly Boss 101 Update! Thank you for your support and your time! We have a whole bunch of things to talk about so let’s get rolling. As we mentioned previously, we are getting deep into the polish phase. By this we mean many, many of the systems are in place but need a tweak here and there to get them up to the quality we think you deserve. As always – Boss 101 is about bringing you the best entertainment and fun we can. Every single thing we do always starts with a reason involving fun. In today’s update we are looking at the various little touches we are adding to spruce up otherwise straightforward end of round statistic screens. Check this out! Fireworks, Warp Levels and Flying with the Clicks RocketshipWe have the in-between round setup for the Endless Boss mode. Last week we spoke about fireworks and we dropped in the first pass of the controls and effects this week. In the series of photos below you can see Max and STEVE flying around in the warp space (just like you will too!). During this time you can check your stats, contemplate the next round or, best of all, set of fireworks to celebrate your win! YEAH BABY! Basic Firework Test in Warp Flying around the front of the Cosmic Clicks ship Flying around the engines of the Clicks ship – look at those things flaming up! End of Round LossSo when you lose the round the robots kindly sweep your unconscious body off the street for later recovery. Isn’t that nice!? Haha  Screenshots of gameplay tests and tunesTrying out a mid-level superMax bomb on the Boss. You get these bombs over the course of the game and they can deal some serious damage when fully upgraded. Here you can a first run test of the art and effects. Things are only looking up from this point forward.  Dodging a flaming pterodactyl head!  Another sky high Boss battle in the clouds  Gopher Wiki WIP. Working on the latest offering from Boss 101. The Professor and ROB bringing you the best info for getting the job done. The Boss 101 built in gopher WIKI is your one stop to find out about the Bosses and the tech you deal with. Use it!  Thank you again for check us out and thank you for all the positive notes and emails. It’s very appreciated. Remember to always live your dreams, -Tim |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #110 on: October 24, 2015, 12:05:09 PM » |
|
Welcome to the latest Boss 101 update!Today we are on the polish bandwagon and talking about weather. OK, so weather in Boss 101 is mostly about adding atmosphere and a nice look to a level. We have talked of course about lightning storms affecting the player and other interactable moments but for today we are going to focus on weather as it accentuates the look of our levels. How we make types of weatherNot surprisingly the weather I am talking about is all done inside our particle system. Our main man on the tech side of things - Joshua - came up with a brilliantly simple way to create effective and low cost weather systems with a setup even I can understand! We start with the particle itself (snow, rain or perhaps a bit of newspaper blowing down the street). This is created in Photoshop or some pixel program and then animated if need be for color variance or rotation (more on this later). For things like a newspaper bit we animated it in place and spinning in various cool ways. Three simple animations named idle0, idle1, idle2, idle3, idle4, idle5. Those are all saved off and stored for use in the particle system. Animation setup When the setup for the particle happens we create an object (in this case a newspaper bit object) and then have it play one of its three animations. When that animation is finished it selects a new one randomly from the same list. OK, still with me? GOOD! The particle system grabs that object and moves it across the screen in whatever direction we specify. Left, right, up or down. For newspapers we move them right to left to simulate the effect of blowing down a street. Easy huh? When you add in the effect of the random spinning animations it really helps sell it. We also drop in fade in and fade outs to help further the illusion. Particle weather called from a level script Now you may be asking yourself “Self, why don’t they just do all that spinning and stuff from inside the particle system?” That is a great question and it is entirely possible to do this but it would have meant more coding. Joshua’s time could be put elsewhere since adding those little spinning animations is easy AND the ability to grab from random idles adds a new dimension to the possibilities of the weather system. We could have added wind streaks for instance and used the random animations to have swirls and gusts at a small cost. So there are the basics of the system and check out examples below for more shots of how we do it! Newspapers blowing at the beginning of a round Rain in the forest - same system as above with different configuration Snow effects Ash falling in the post apocalyptic worlds Pause Menu ScreenshotBoss 101 - an in-game break while working on exit menu in the pause UI. Even when we pause we don't pause!  Thank you again for your time and remember to live your dreams! -Tim
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: October 24, 2015, 12:13:14 PM by SunWuKong »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
marcgfx
|
|
« Reply #111 on: October 26, 2015, 03:17:39 PM » |
|
the weather simulations are really cool!
while looking at the snow-gif I spotted something odd. when the character moves, the clouds move a lot faster than the buildings in the foreground. maybe its just my mind playing tricks on me, but it looks a bit wrong?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #112 on: October 26, 2015, 05:31:37 PM » |
|
the weather simulations are really cool!
while looking at the snow-gif I spotted something odd. when the character moves, the clouds move a lot faster than the buildings in the foreground. maybe its just my mind playing tricks on me, but it looks a bit wrong?
Thanks so much and glad you are liking the updates. I see what you are saying about the clouds. There's a big tuning pass incoming and we have a check on the city and environment code going as part of it. We'll mos-def run some tests to see if it's behaving as intended. Appreciate the comment! -Tim |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Forstride
|
|
« Reply #113 on: October 26, 2015, 07:12:07 PM » |
|
The heavily differing pixel ratios combined with the very busy backgrounds make it look kind of jarring honestly. It's really hard to distinguish actual gameplay things from the background in most of the GIFs you posted, and the differing pixel ratios make the game look "busier" than it already is.
The concept for the game is really neat though, and I love the little additions like the kite flying thing.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #114 on: October 26, 2015, 07:42:14 PM » |
|
The heavily differing pixel ratios combined with the very busy backgrounds make it look kind of jarring honestly. It's really hard to distinguish actual gameplay things from the background in most of the GIFs you posted, and the differing pixel ratios make the game look "busier" than it already is.
The concept for the game is really neat though, and I love the little additions like the kite flying thing.
Thanks for the reply. You bring up something we are looking at all the time and that is the clarity of action against the backgrounds. We're actually doing a pass on all the backgrounds to clean that up and re-check things. Long story short - the first directive of the game was to get in all the major systems and gameplay with an art pass. The next phase (which we are entering) is to clean up things and unify the whole game, gameplay, graphics, sounds, etc. Appreciate the feedback! -Tim |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #115 on: October 27, 2015, 11:17:14 AM » |
|
Keep meaning to follow this! Very cool I love the random bosses and the crazy gameplay and the art is really cool and interesting. I haven't read the whole devlog yet so forgive me if this was mentioned somwhere already but is this somewhat inspired by the game Air Zonk? I mean I haven't played many of these kinds of games so maybe Air Zonk is just one of many of these types of games but a lot of stuff reminded me of that game in an awesome way.
OK - first of all we need to establish I am old as hell and I STILL have never heard of the game you are talking about. BUT, I went and looked up a long play video and nearly fell out of my chair! HOLY MOLEY! I can totally see where you would get that idea! Did you play that game? In fact, I'm watching the video now and laughing at how much I like it and think "hey, that could be a Boss 101 level!" Good call man and thanks for bringing that to my attention! -Tim |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #116 on: October 28, 2015, 01:05:19 PM » |
|
Glad you're enjoying it! They have a power up that launches big fists too!
There was a super air zonk game as well but I didn't think it was nearly as good as the original air zonk. Anyways yeah I played through both games. Yeah the crazy bosses were the first thing that caught my eye, You might get some cool ideas and inspiration from those. You should definitely find a way to play the game someday! Now I just gotta find a way to play yours when it comes out... my laptop is messed up and won't let me download things for some reason so I've just kind of gotten used to never playing any games around here... but someday!
Well thanks for stopping by and keep checking back. We do regular weekly dev logs and post as often as we can. Appreciate you taking a moment to write too! -Tim |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #117 on: October 28, 2015, 01:07:57 PM » |
|
Screenshot of pre-Halloween festivities. Getting ready for Halloween 2015 with the guys. Decorations up and costumes being made! Remember to live your dreams! -Tim 
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #118 on: October 31, 2015, 01:39:03 PM » |
|
Happy Halloween and welcome to the weekly Boss 101 update!Over a Year of Weekly updates!Did you know we have been doing the weekly updates for over a year now!? Just for you, each week we put together our progress reports and share with you what we hope you find interesting and useful about not just Boss 101 but gamemaking. THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY! Gopher BuddiesThis week we are talking about GOPHERS! Gophers and their magical ability to build things and help you out. One of your gopher buddies is the Professor and he is there to help you build up the Command Center and upgrade your weapons but you know what?!? YOU CAN HAVE MORE GOPHER FRIENDS! Yep, once you have cleared a round once the gophers feel safe to emerge and leave their hiding spot. All you need to do is go collect them and bring ‘em back to the Command Center. In the game there are 25 gopher buddies scattered across the game. Among those 25 are 5 main types of gophers who handle different chores back at your base. Let’s meet the types:  Those are the five types of gophers you collect and when you bring them back to the Command Center they get to upgrading the machinery inside the Upgrade room. Here’s a look at the base setup for the upgrades.  The machinery goes here and improves as you bring in more buddies to improve the place.  While you’re collecting things the game will helpfully guide you to the levels your buddies are still waiting on. And when you collect a gopher you get a SWEET achievement medal in the map room! Look at that little guy – sitting on top of the world!  I think the big question is what exactly are your buddies working on? Well, you will have to collect them all to find out. Whatever it is– they sure think it’s important. So get on it and bring them all together. Boss 101 folks, it’s got drama, adventure and gopher saving. What more could you ask for. Destructoid Column Started!Fresh from my series on How to Make a Game come a new series starting up at Destructoid. Check out the latest blog here: Destruction Column Link - Making Games and More Thanks for stopping by and remember to keep checking back for more updates and always LIVE YOUR DREAMS! -Tim
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
SunWuKong
|
|
« Reply #119 on: November 08, 2015, 12:56:46 AM » |
|
Boss 101 What’s up back there?! - BackgroundsLet’s talk about some of the things you will see happening in the backgrounds in Boss 101. Each level represents a section of a city and many are on different planets. During the course of the game you fly from planet to planet and see a lot of the Boss 101 galaxy. So, how do we make things interesting? GOOD QUESTION! We started with the story, which has you cross the universe through a series of warp gates looking for Boss 101 and his home planet. Once we knew that bit of lore we had a reason and a design for a lot of the planets in the game. The idea is they progressively get more strange as you go along. For instance, you will see moons with holes punched out of them and strange Dyson Sphere like systems. Below are some of the creations to give the player a sense of the alien places he is visiting. Make no mistake a LOT of this is a tongue and cheek takes on alien life. Of course, we have a ton of fun creating the look of the worlds to texture to the planets. Check it out and see what you think! Cratered Moon Dyson Sphere? Sunshine Day Bad Moon Rising "That, is not a Moon" How much is enough?When we sat down to make Boss 101 a lot of the impetus was to have fun flying around in a jetpack. As the game development progressed we began to add in things we felt created value for people playing. It is an organic process we believe is making Boss 101 more ‘real’ than just a collection of backgrounds and sprites. The best part is we are giving you that story as part of the experience. You get to fly around exploring with Steve and Max and discover places right along with them. You also will find out why there are warp gates and how YOU can control them. We originally planned to make this a souped up remake of the web version of Boss 101 but it has grown into something a lot bigger and more fun. If you look at the prior updates you will see we have been adding in things like the Endless Boss mode and a huge Command Center. This is all part of the total world experience we are making for you. You will have tons to do and ideally you will find many little things to do between battles. Shop, upgrade your weapons and yourself, fly kites, consult the gophers, plan your next moves and more! You can play arcade games too! It’s all there for you to do and part of the giant universe of Boss 101.  Ctrl500.com latest Dev Article is up! Our latest article on the hats in Boss 101 is up at Ctrl500 here: What a Difference a Hat Makes in Boss 101As always, remember to live your dreams. No one else will. Talk with you soon! -Tim
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Community
