2016.09.17 Boss 101 Update, Equipment and Animations

Welcome to the Boss 101 Update!

As you know we are dedicated to bringing you our best effort. At this stage the news is really about polish and cleanup. Let’s talk about that, shall we?

Equip Panel in the Make A Boss

This one has come up a few times in recent updates and there’s a reason. It’s an important area for the player and has a lot of moving parts to understand. For us that means testing and retesting things that will make YOUR game a lot more fun in the end.

So here we have an example of the panel being iterated on. This is a nice little idea here and improved from version 1.0 (see prior updates). Upon closer inspection we thought it could stand a little more cleanup and brought the whole she-bang into the Boss 101 lab to work on it.

We looked at what was working and how we could make things even clearer. We lightened up the panel to make the guns and hats pop out as well as added a few labels to clear things up for you the player. I’m not a huge fan of tons of small text but I believe there can be a place for information and decals when used correctly. In this case there is so much information happening in this room it seemed to warrant a little more text information.

You can see we also have nice nods to the hat room way of equipping your hat as a costume or an ability hat. This is one of those design moments when we asked ourselves “What have we been teaching the player up to now?” When we did that we felt it was necessary to put in this function since a player might rightfully expect it here. Originally we did not want to do that and ONLY wanted to deal with the ability hats since they are all that matter on this screen. Of course the issue with that sort of thinking is we are making choices for the player instead of giving them the decision.

It was easy enough to add the hat equipping idea from before anyway – SO WE DID! YOU SEE HOW WE ARE!

Little touchups to the Command Center

Endless Boss and the Trophy Room get some shine on their selected animations. Just nice adds to make it clear you have selected these items. We already have a nice green outline and placard but the shine effect puts a cherry on the whole thing.

Movie Room Animated Icons done

You can see here the movie room animated icons are in place. There are only two movies in the queue at the moment but the way they work and the neat new icons for the spooling tape and movies look marvy!

Sound and Music Updates coming!
Ok – more to come soon including updates about the Boss 101 sound and music! Thanks for checking in. Boss 101 is well on track and we are excited to bring it to you soon.

Remember to LIVE YOUR DREAMS!!

-Tim

Please put Boss 101 on your Steam Wishlist us if you would be so kind – Thank you!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/380920

2016.09.10 Boss 101 Update, Elevator Action and Little Pets

Welcome back to the Boss 101 update!

This week we are looking more at the little touches we think make Boss 101 special. Let’s start with the Command Center proper shall we?

So, the command center is your main base of operations and your home.  We have often spoke of the elevator nature of the floors. You use a small control panel to travel up and down. Well, we always thought it was pretty straightforward but after some consideration we added a new touch that solidifies what is happening – the Command Center Door!

Check out these screens of the new door which closes when you are in ‘elevator mode’. The idea here is you will clearly get a sense you are ‘outside’ the room. You will still be able to see what is going on though and you will get a better idea of the floor you are on relative to the others. It’s a small touch but we think it adds a bit to the feel of being in a place.

Going into the Command Center from the Start Screen

Moving Between Floors

Moving to the top floor


Pets join you on Kite Hill

Hey, you know your little buddies like to be around you so we are letting them out onto Kite Hill with you. Of course, they just want to fly around and enjoy the day (or night) so you might see them off in the distance bopping around. Check these snaps out.

Look at Mister Mouse flying around! He’s so tiny!


Here a cute giraffe with a jet pack hanging around

Same little guy during the day

Those are just a few of the little touches we continue to add into Boss 101 as we head towards completion. It’s important we give you the very best experience we can and that means pulling out the stops to make the Boss 101 universe as complete as possible.

Comment on the new hat store

Check out this great post from a friend on Newgrounds. We think this pretty much embodies WHY we are doing what we are doing!

Keep checking back for more release news, images and even new videos!

Remember to always LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

-Tim

Boss 101 on Steam Wishlist us if you would be so kind. Thank you!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/380920

2016.09.03 Boss 101, Equipping you for battle!

Welcome to the Boss 101 weekly update!

Today we’re going to talk a more about the UI tuning we’re doing to make YOUR experience smooth and fun.

Make A Boss Equip Panel

In the game you have a few places to outfit your character. The basic ones are the gun and hat shops. This is where you purchase and store all the equipment you use on your adventure.

Hat Store

Gun Store

Beyond this, we added couple more places to kit out your character. These are intended to help with game flow by letting you see the boss you’re currently fighting and adjust your strategy on the fly. Let’s say there is a boss with a fire weapon and you want to wear your fire protective hat. The Equip Panel in the Make A Boss room is where you can do that.

Let’s talk about the Equip Panel for a moment shall we?

When we first built the MaB Equip Panel the design was inspired by the need to see the boss abilities AND see your hat & gun abilities. We had a first version in the game and while it was nice visually it didn’t quite do the trick when it came to functionality. One of the main problems we ran into was with abilities added to the hats (like being able to equip a costume and ability version) as well as general space and layout concerns. Due to this we felt a small redesign was needed.

The Old Version of the Make A Boss Equip

As you may already know, one thing about creating games is not getting too attached to an idea and being open to feedback. When we looked at the old equip panel a bunch of problems became apparent (I won’t bother to list them all here). We ended up doing a slight redesign and wouldn’t you know it? We found a way to show MORE guns and hats in the same area. Check out the hat and gun slots we have going in these work in progress shots.

Work In Progress – New Equip Panel Hats

Work In Progress – New Equip Panel Guns

To be clear – what you are looking at is the current version we are working on. It’s not a final product yet but getting there. As we said before, it is SUPER important to bring you a polished game you can dive into and enjoy. For THAT to happen we are bringing our best efforts by testing and retesting levels and UI panels.

Going Forward with Boss 101

It’s been a busy week and a lot of our work was little cleanups all across the game. Every time we sit down for a play through I’m impressed by what our team has managed to do. It’s inspiring and the people on this team inspire me to keep me going through the day and on into the night. It’s energizing and the most fun I’ve had in a LONG, long time. Great people and great teamwork are driving Boss 101 forward. Of course – we also have some amazing friends and supporters like YOU. So thank you for stopping by and we appreciate the comments and letters we’ve been getting.

Remember to always LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

-Tim

Boss 101 on Steam Wishlist us if you would be so kind. Thank you!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/380920

2016.08.28 Boss 101 Dialog Box Advancements

Welcome to the Boss 101 Weekly update!

Let’s talk about dialog, specifically about the way we interact with YOU in Boss 101 through the dialog box.

If you recall the dialog boxes from recent updates, they were pretty practical affairs. Got the job done. Readable and overall pretty straightforward. Well, as you know in Boss 101 land “good enough” ISN’T! No it is NOT!

Improved Dialog Box

Look at some of the new features we added to make your reading engagement easier, better and more entertaining. We have things like font style changing, pausing, more interesting text draw-in and allowing you to interactively speed up and slow reading down to YOUR pace.

Name Tags

We added the ability to put a small animated name tag above the current speaker. Previously we had it above Max and Steve on special occasions but now EVERYONE gets a tag!

Below are some examples of colored text for highlighting those super important (or funny) phrases. We also added triggers for text effects to add a little oomph to the reading experience.

Check out Rob giving us one of his deep though moments here with some of the new effects in place.

A small set of samples of effects

OK – the whole idea is to make the game and the enjoyment as awesome as we can. This is just a small example of the things we are making daily. Everything we are putting in is about YOUR entertainment. Boss 101 is more than just an action adventure game and as we edge every closer to shipping we will be bringing you more looks at the game making magic we employ.

As we have said before, it’s very important to bring you the best game and value possible. We want you to be right there with Steve and Max while they battle the bad guys and discover things about the universe AND THEMSELVES!

How do we do that you might wonder? Well, we are keeping you in mind as we work and most importantly – WE LIVE OUR DREAMS!

Remember to live your dreams too and we’ll see you soon!

-Tim

Boss 101 on Steam Wishlist us if you would be so kind. Thank you!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/380920

2016.08.20 Boss 101 Update, Help Panels and Rob’s Store

Welcome to the Boss 101 Update

Polish and cleanup. That has been an ongoing theme for the last few weeks and will continue to be one for the foreseeable future. You see, Boss 101 could be done and wrapped up in a few weeks. It COULD be in your hands sooner than later. The only problem we have with that is the game would not be our best effort and that is not acceptable.

UI touchups

Something important we are working at the moment is making certain the UI is understandable and readable. The way we are doing this is, well, playing the game and having others play the game. You might image how easy is it to make a game and get used to the controls you install. After working on a game for over two years it is easy to think “Oh, this little control makes enough sense! Sure, it’s a little odd and I have NEVER seen anything like it before but PLAYERS WILL GET IT!”

Well, I have news, they probably won’t get it. It’s actually very likely they will not understand any scheme which deviates to far from logic of the norm of game controls. In those situations it requires a dedicated team to address the issues and correct the little weird things. I can’t say everything we ever did will be perfect but I can assure you we thought of YOU at all times. We looked at our game and asked “will someone who has never seen the game understand this in context?” We put ourselves in your place as much as we possibly can. It’s really the only way.

Let’s look at some of the things happening this week…

Rob’s Store

Here we have an update to Rob’s special store. In it you can find all sorts of odd guns and hats. We’ll talk more about how you access it but in the meantime let’s look at the design of the place.

First we have the current store. Pretty nice and there is a neat look happening. In a lot of ways there is nothing wrong with it on a purely aesthetic level.

Here is the remodel work in progress. We added space for UI elements that clearly explain what you are doing and show the controls a lot better. We also lightened up the area so you can see the products better. This is a great example of taking something that was working and simply making it better for the player. We could have shipped with the old one and players would have figured things out (we hope) but when we played the game it was pretty obvious clarity would help.

Something to remember is a lot of times you can get caught up in what looks good versus what works well. UI needs to work well first and foremost. The looking good will mostly be a function of the efficiency and thematic clarity you create (ie – form follows function)

Help Panels

We added little help panel overlays to all of the main Command Center pages. The idea is to give you an easy assist if you are still learning the ropes or need a refresher. Also – we didn’t want to intrude on your game so we made the overlay and activates as innocuous as possible.

Command Center

With help on and off

Upgrade Room

Help on and off


Gun Shop

Help on and off

There you go! A quick snapshot of this week’s work and much more to come. The goal of our development at this point is the same as always – give YOU the best game we can. You deserve it and we aim to deliver.

Thanks again and always remember to LIVE YOUR DREAMS!!!

-Tim

Please put Boss 101 on your Steam Wishlist us if you would be so kind – Thank you!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/380920

2016.08.13 Boss 101, Polishing the Stores

Welcome to another Boss 101 Development Update and thank you so much for stopping by to see what’s up!

The Team Makes the Difference

I want to start this week with something I have mentioned before but it bears repeating. The team bringing you Boss 101 is one of the finest teams I have ever had the privilege of working with. It may be boring to hear that but I can assure you the work is anything but. These are dedicated people who are going the extra mile at every single turn to bring you the very best game we can make.

Manon (pixel artist) and Joshua (lead programmer) along with myself are the core of the Boss 101 experience. The game would not be this awesome without their help. There is an old saying I heard a long time ago that you can judge a leader by what his team does when he is NOT in the room. Well, I think it is better to say when you give the right people good direction and let them run free they will deliver the goods whether you mapped things out perfectly or not.

What I am getting at is there is a TON of stuff in Boss 101 that was not plotted out perfectly at the beginning. The thing is, when it came time to make an A or B decision – both Joshua and Manon have consistently picked the highest quality outcome. This in turn is being passed directly back to you in the form of value and gameplay.

I really am a fortunate person to get to work with these fine people and I think you will agree when you see the final game.

Gun Store Touchups

Moving into the polish stuff for this week. First up is the gun store. As you have seen before, the gun store has had a couple upgrades over the time we’ve been working on Boss 101. All the upgrades have been about making the user interface clearer and easier to use.

Something you might already suspect is good looking does not always equal easy to use. We have adjusted a lot of little interface items due to this. When things first go in we tend to be pretty proud they are in and working. From there on out it is pretty easy to get used to a functionality and forget the end user will likely see the interface in an entirely different light. (probably a much less forgiving one too!).

We have gone through several of the panels in the Command Center and the idea is we touch them up to provide the information needed quickly and without any fuss. Where things were unclear we worked to make them MORE clear. Check out the gun panels below being lightened up so you can see the gun hardware you are getting.

Old Version

New Version

Now we understand there is nothing technically wrong with the old version. The thing sticking out for us was that it was a) very old in terms of implementation and design and b) a bit dark compared to other store panels. The corrected one is much more in-line with all the other stores and the Command Center in general.

Hat Store touchups

We have a bigger update planned for the hat store but check out the jazzed up hat room. Again – these are some other items we are excited to talk with you about but the deal here was to add some space for UI elements and also clean up the background. Of course you can have tech in the Command Center without Professor Gopher and Friends!

Old Version

New Version WIP

Screenshot of the Day

Adding in a hat inspired by the great J Hause! (check out his page here https://www.facebook.com/Ghosthause)

Thank you again for stopping by and hope you enjoyed this look at the game. We appreciate your support and emails!

Remember to always LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

-Tim