Welcome to the weekly Boss 101 update!

Today we are talking about one of the main modes of transportation in the Boss 101 galaxy. No, no the jump gates, I’m talking about good old rockets. Yep, before there were hyperspace jump gates there were rocket ships that carried people all over.

During the time Boss 101 takes place the robo’s are constructing a warp gate network across the galaxy. As you can imagine this gives them a lot of quick shortcuts to various planets.

The Cosmic Clicks Ship

The backstory
As you might know – STEVE and Max shared an adventure with ROB a little while back. In it they traveled about the galaxy in their ship – the Cosmic Clicks. Here’s a shot from that go around:

That was then, this is now

Well, ROB upgraded the ship and outfitted it for new adventures. Now it’s the main transportation for ROB and the professor when they are scouting areas or making repairs in the local solar system. Of course, they only head out when they know the coast is clear since the Clicks ship isn’t really a warship, it’s more like a science vessel. Check out some of the sweet work done!

Here’s the Click Ship all ready for animation tweaks. For scale comparison that green rectangle represents an average game screen. The Clicks ship is big, it needs to be since the engines are equipped with hyperspace jump boosters.

Full ship – green rectangle is playing fiend in standard game

Engines with boosters

Once everything is in the game we can actually send the guys on an adventure. In this case we have some snaps from them shooting around the local star system. Here’s a series of shots of the ship showing some scale and detail.

Warp Gates

As you might notice in some of the screenshots most world have working warp gates, those giant green or purple objects in the background sky. Even with that knowledge ROB and the professor keep the Clicks ship in top form in case they get the call to action.

Warp Gate on a world

Another warp gate sample

The Boss 101 old school way of travel, use your jetpack

When all else fails, there’s always the old fashioned way

Thanks for stopping by for another update and thank you again for the letters and comments. We appreciate your time.

Look forward to hearing from you and remember to live your dreams.

-Tim

What we have here is gameplay using a special Boss 101 hat. This lid design comes from an awesome character designed by Ryan Carag for one of his games. ‪

Also – watch out for those eyeball bombs! HA!

Boss 101 now you can bring your pet safely along for the ride! Here’s Mister Kitty with his own jetpack!

Boss 101 Steam Store

Welcome back to the weekly development update for Boss 101. Thanks for stopping by and we hope things are going awesomely for you!

Creating a Unique gun for Boss 101 and tuning it

You know Boss 101 is about battling the robot bosses and their minions but did you know we’re giving you some of the galaxy’s most awesome weapons in your fight? Well we are!

We’ve got machine guns, shotguns, pistols. We have bazookas. We even have flame throwers! Did you know we have a few special guns straight from the mind of Professor Gopher in your Command Center? Check this out!

The Gravity Gun

This one is awesome and uses the latest and greatest tech you find in the game. Once assembled it can put the big hurt on the bosses by turning their own power against them. First though – let’s walk through the process of making the gun for the game.

Art and animation prep

Before it gets into the game, we design and create the base art. This is after discussing the basic powers and leveling of the gun. In this case the art below is a Level 1 Gravity Gun which is the weakest Gravity Gun you can get in the game. It’s limited to smaller boss and minion bullets but can still pack a punch.

Here is the art ready for an animation pass…

Once we have everything in we look at making an idle and firing animation for the guns. In this case we setup the basic idles and prepared to import things into the game.

We also created two more versions of the Gravity Gun as upgrades to the base gun. Here is a Level 3 Gravity Gun. A little more powerful looking and a stronger sense of the ‘magnet’ theme.

Once things are in the game we get them functional before we do any serious tuning. Here’s a pass on what to expect from the gun. It can grab enemy bullets and then release them back at the offending party.

For instance, this minion didn’t know what was coming…

Of course, if you get a little creative you can hold the bullet and have a little fun ramming enemies.

There’s more to come as we continue down the path of polish. Keep checking back for more looks at the weapons and the world of Boss 101. We enjoy showing you a little of the time and care we’re putting into everything.

Boss 101 means a lot to us and thanks again for all the letter and the feedback. We appreciate all your support.

Remember to live your dreams!

-Tim

Boss 101, how does the story start? Check this screenshot out. Where does it go from here? That’s up to you.

Hello and Welcome back to the weekly Boss 101 update! Hope all is going well with you and we are doing AWESOME thank you very much!

Rogues Gallery

In Boss 101 you receive visitors during the game. They stop by the Command Center for a short bit and MAYBE they’ll drop some knowledge on you. One thing about the world of Boss 101, it is big and you will be an important part of it. One of the ways we are helping realize that idea is showing you some of the people in the galaxy. These are other races and cultures affected by the robos. As they say – “an enemy of my enemy is my friend”.

Check out these cats below. They’re called ‘bounty hunters’ at the moment but you might end up knowing them on a first name basis.

The Rogues themselves

Command Center Area (for reference)

Dialog Machinery

So now that we are here in the Command Center let’s talk a little about that dialog panel at the top of the screen. You see the guys chattering away? Looks FUN right? Well we think so but we also know you might need a little break from the constant fun and a way to know when news is really important versus just regular normal important! HAAAAAAAAAAAA!

As part of the polish phase we’re adding in a nice little set of flaps that open and close when a new speaker comes on or you the player activate some important info switch. Check it out!

The animation layout and work

Sample of the panel in operation

Endless Boss Instructions

As part of the polish pass we’re adding in tutorials and instructions where they make sense. In doing that we are looking to keep the spirit of Boss 101. For the most part this means we have the gophers and their buddies helping you out with instructions. Let’s check out the Endless Boss area for an example shall we?

Here’s the Endless Boss area work in progress screen. It has all the things you can expect to see and do including equipping your guns. We used this a reference page when we were designing the gopher instruction panel.

Check out this animation pass setup for the panels working. This is in Spine and has a rough set of instructions for reference.

The same setup in the game

Check out that sweet panel action. A couple of tweaks to the panels and the actual instruction sheet and we should be in business

YES!

There you are folks – another look at the behind the scenes magic we’re working on every single day. It’s all about making Boss 101 something special and we hope you enjoy the process as much as we do.

Thanks and remember to LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

-Tim

First off – screenshot Wednesday!

We put some developer balloons in Boss 101 – these are really only for the Credits Movie but we are testing them out in the main game just for fun.

Second – Boss 101 has a Humble Store Front. More news to come but you can put Boss 101 on your Humble wish list!

Boss 101 Store on Humble Bundle

Talk with you soon!

-Tim

Welcome back and hope you are doing well! We’re here to talk about the ongoing touchups and polish going into Boss 101.

Show don’t tell

A lot of what we are doing is making sure there is something interesting happening for you on EVERY screen in the game. We look at Boss 101 as a world and you are living in that world with S.T.E.V.E. and Max while you are playing the game. For that to feel as awesome as possible we want to put in the details that bring the game screens to life. We want to show the world as we see it, in cool details and interesting action.

Most of the time we are taking the ‘show don’t tell’ approach and putting the action up on the screen for you to see and make your own conclusions from. We often talk about creating enough detail on the game screen for you to get a sense of the world’s story without us having to outright spell everything out. There are a LOT of great movies and games out there which do this so well. I think one easy example is an old movie called Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the first 13 minutes we learn just about everything we need to know about Indiana Jones. That sequence involves him stealing the idol by sneaking around all the traps, then escaping in spectacular fashion. He then LOSES the idol and escapes another near crazy situation by leaping into a river and climbing into a plane as it is taking off. Of course, in the plane’s seat is a snake and he hates snakes. Ok, seriously, by the end of that sequence we know exactly how cool this guy is, we’ve seen him do his thing and he’s been through a variety of situations. It’s a brilliant intro to a character. I would also argue that Pirates of the Caribbean intro of Captain Jack Sparrow is pretty compelling in terms of ‘show don’t tell’.

The point of mentioning all this is to talk about the kinds of things we are looking to do with Boss 101. We want you to come back to each screen and maybe see something new or some detail you might have missed the first time. We have lots of animations and details we are putting in to help round out the story of the world and the people in it.

Endless Boss Launch Center

Of course, if you are reading this devlog you have a huge heads up over people playing the game since you are seeing the work first. Here we have the Endless Boss launch room. It was coming along really well but we still had a pass to do with your friends and mine – the gopher crew. This is the instruction panel were you will see how the various modes for Endless Boss actually work. It wasn’t enough to just have some words written on the panel. We wanted to actually have some cool gopher tech happening. You know those guys are ESSENTIAL to the success of your mission. They run a lot of the main base along with R.O.B.

Here we have the panel in progress with a call out to the art we want for the gopher tech.

Base art in before animation and a sample of the text layout

Base animations ready

Making programming notes

First pass in game

YES!! That is how the magic is brought to you. We’re doing this all over the game. Check out this one on the options screen…

What are those guys doing? What do you think they are up to? That is part of the Boss 101 magic. You get to join in the story too!

Talk with you soon and remember to always – LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

-Tim