boss101

2016.10.09 Boss 101, the Editors we use

Welcome to this week’s Boss 101 update and thank you to the new and returning people who read our updates. We aim to bring you interesting info about the ongoing development of Boss 101 as we head into the final phase of development.

Editors

You might already know we use GameMaker for the development as well as Esoteric’s Spine software but did you know we make our own editors also? Yes folks – WE ROLL OUR OWN! Joshua cooked up a swift editor so we can access some of the more useful items in the game and edit them with ease.

The thing we were looking for in our editor (at least during its initial creation) was the ability to edit some of the many description & item abilities in the game. We have hats and guns! We have passports, bosses and Wiki pages in the game. All these need some sort of description and detail for you the player of our game to enjoy. In comes the editor.

Prior to this we edited everything with a combination of Excel and XML sheets. That is fine for a small amount of stuff but when you have nearly 300 hats you have to think a little different in terms of scale and scope.

Wiki Pages

So here is a screenshot of the Professor’s Wiki editor. You can see we have a little line of text ready to go.

Moving into the actual game you can see we are able to NOT ONLY edit the text of the Wiki and the various pages but do so IN REAL TIME! How are those apples!?!?!?

Hat Editor

Look at some of the other things we can do with the Editor when it comes to Hats. Below we can see the ability to select and look at any of the hats in the game. From there we can edit the powers, name and abilities bestowed. Crazy huh?

Check out this snap of some of the various things we can edit and the result in the game. We can change power levels, names and the like all pretty easily. Makes things much quicker to debug and correct. Also means a better game for you!

Here are the results happening real time in the game

Some of the other tabs we have going…

OK there you go. That is this week’s peek at the latest and greatest. Everything we do we are doing to make the best game we can and make sure YOU are entertained when you play Boss 101.

Thanks again for checking in and thank you for the letters and comments across all the places we post Boss 101 info. We all appreciate you taking a moment to look at the game and we aim to bring you our very best.

Talk with you soon and remember….. LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

-Tim

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

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

Thank you!

2016.10.01 Boss 101 Update, Picnics with Unicorns!

Welcome to the Boss 101 Update and thank you so much for joining us today! Lots to talk about so let’s get rolling.

The Attitude of Gratitude

You know it is really easy to talk about working on Boss 101 because it’s so fun. I mentioned this before but I have to give credit where it’s due. The team is what makes Boss 101 such a blast to work on. Manon (pixel artist), Joshua (lead programmer) and myself hammering away for the love of the game and for YOU!

If you ever wondered what it would be like to have an amazing life by doing what you love then WONDER NO LONGER! I can tell you it’s the best thing. There is only success in following your dreams. The rewards outweigh the cons by such an amount as to make the journey an easy choice. I know from the outside you might say “But Tim, I have a lot of responsibilities and can’t just go draw sneakers on T-Rex’s all day like you guys do on Boss 101” Ah, but you CAN!

Each day you can take a step towards your goal. Soon enough, you will see progress and sooner than you think you will be well on your way.

It’s that determination and the great fortune of finding two people like Manon and Joshua which make Boss 101 the easiest job I have ever had in my life. The actual work is there but it’s fun and I like doing it. A LOT!

So do it… FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS and by all means, bring as many people along as you can.

Adding Pets to the Cinematics

Did a pass on the cinematics to make sure the pets were showing up in all of them. We added a small blanket for all the pets in the appropriate cinemas. This allows them to sit or fly along with you during the course of the game. Check out these SWEET images….

Kitty in the vending room. Why does kitty have its back to us? Because it’s a kitty!

You can have Mister Whale fly around whilst you dine outside

Also – what would a picnic on a hill be without a UNICORN!!!

Cinematic Room Adds

Working on some adds to the cinematic rooms. Here are setup shots in Spine (by Esoteric Software) we input into GameMaker. Apparently there are some more Spine integrations coming for GameMaker so that might help swing it over to more people using it.

Setup the room and layout art and animation

Closeup of STEVE art and animation

Make A Boss Save Function

We added a save for the most recent boss you rolled. The idea here is you can roll a boss – see his stats and then if you need to go get a gun, take a break or otherwise step away from the boss generator you will still keep your most recent roll. We think it will allow more strategy and most of all MORE FUN FOR YOU!

Ok – that’s all for this update. Check back again for the regular look at Boss 101. YES WE ARE FINISHING IT! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

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

2016.09.24 Boss 101 Update Guns in the Game

Welcome back to the Boss 101 Update

Today we are giving you a tour of a few of the weapons you can use in Boss 101. If you’re a longtime viewer you might have seen a few of these but for those that haven’t here is the general idea; during the course of the game you will have access to the most MIGHTY weapons in the Boss 101 universe. Some will be accessible from the start and some will be unlocked as you progress. The various means of unlocking guns is for another update and you might guess they involve things like completion of rounds, general progression or even hitting specific goals.

When we designed the various guns we aimed for variety and designs we felt were ‘fun’ in the Boss 101 sense. Sure we have pistols and bazookas but did you know we have friendship guns and knives? We do!

Here we have one of the more straightforward guns. The pistol set. Three levels ranging from pretty much a pea shooter to a more solid firearm guaranteed to dent most robot armor. The pistol is one of your starting guns and though it is a weaker weapon some may find they like it.

Moving into some of the more hard hitting firearms we have the bazooka series. These pack a serious punch but have limited firing speed. They will do the trick for a lot of minions and put a crimp in most boss armor. The 976-BOOM is a fan favorite.

Bows! Everyone loves a good bow and arrow fight against a giant armored metal opponent. Check out this sweet progression of string weapons. That crossbow can get right in there on those tough bosses.

Throwing Knives Series! You might have thought the game was mostly about bullets and bombs and you would be partially correct. We have LOTS of those but we also have some NEW weapon types you will enjoy. The throwing knife series is all about quick firing and piercing damage. There are a few robo’s weak to this so packing one in your arsenal is a good idea.

Wrenches. You knew these were coming so here they are! This is a nice assortment of old reliable beaters. Get ‘em! They work, you just need to be up close to deliver the blow.

Interview with Indie Hangover

Quick re-post about the interview I (Tim) did with Jacob at Indie Hangover about Boss 101. Check it out!

http://www.indiehangover.com/interview-tim-donley-of-the-donley-time-foundation/

Jacob was very nice to allow us some airtime and it was a blast to talk with him.

Thank you!

That’s all for this week’s weapon looks but stay tuned for more peeks in the coming updates.

As always – remember to LIVE YOUR DREAMS!!!

-Tim

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