MurderBoss by TylerJones

[raw]
made by TylerJones for LD25 (JAM)
You play the unfairly overpowered final boss of a brutally difficult arena combat game. Arrow keys and ZXC controls.

Programming - Tyler Jones
Art - Chris Kennedy, Jarrel Lanchester
Music - Jarrel Lanchester

Ratings

Coolness 45% 776
Overall(Jam) 3.24 117
Audio(Jam) 3.62 37
Fun(Jam) 3.00 126
Graphics(Jam) 3.50 113
Humor(Jam) 2.07 242
Innovation(Jam) 3.18 100
Mood(Jam) 3.00 122
Theme(Jam) 4.36 4

Feedback

Shugor
18. Dec 2012 路 23:55 UTC
This is a really neat concept! It is nice to be the annoying boss and jump all around the screen! The graphics are beautiful, especially the boss's, even a flowing robe wow! However, mowing down the player characters felt a bit tedious, and it would be nice if they had some more variation to their movement and attacks.
MvT
19. Dec 2012 路 17:50 UTC
Controls are hard on french keyboard, but i loved that game, i think if you improve him, i'll play again. :)
Pixelbear
19. Dec 2012 路 18:12 UTC
Pretty fun game. :) I liked the graphics, and the reversal of a typical boss fight. I found it a little too easy though. You can just mash "Z" on the players and win. :)
shaneshanekavanagh
19. Dec 2012 路 18:44 UTC
I earned the arcade a load of money from some poor saps pocket money. I used to be one of those poor saps!
馃帳 TylerJones
19. Dec 2012 路 20:41 UTC
Sorry about the European keyboard issue. I had no idea about that until after the game released! It's a mistake I won't repeat in the future. If you have a controller and JoyToKey or XPadder then I recommend playing that way.
someone
20. Dec 2012 路 01:46 UTC
That was awesome. I really love the boss character design.
Got stuck on the edges of the platforms a few times.
Could do with a little variation on the players part, perhaps more characterisation.
Note for those with European keyboards, AutoHotkey is a fantastic utility for windows.
Alex Rose
20. Dec 2012 路 02:01 UTC
I won.

It was the intended result.

The boss was cool looking, and I'm really fond of the idea in general of playing an OP boss. At first I thought it was too easy, but then I liked the idea of that. It should be easy for an endboss. You should feel unstoppable. Most bosses only lose because they have a really obvious weakness and they don't cover it, but a logical endboss shouldn't be able to die.

Either way, cool entry, nice music. Well done.
Jeremias
20. Dec 2012 路 19:07 UTC
I like the idea to play the boss. Here is my feedback:

- The player graphics differ from the background respective the style. The background looks nice anyway.
- You can spam the range attack without getting hit. The close combat attack is a bit too strong. The gameplay gets really quick to a button smashing while following the players.
- If you continue on this game, you should animate the GUI like the player's health so the numbers pop if something changes (or give them health bars). Changes of game relevant values should have a higher visual contrast as just changing numbers.
- Use key bindings which are shared across countries. Here in Germany e.g., the keys "Z" and "Y" are swapped.
- I hope you continue on this :)
DaviDeMo
20. Dec 2012 路 23:32 UTC
It was pretty cool =)
I liked the different types of attack. I really feeled to be like the boss on a 4 player game. cool cool
Rex Peppers
20. Dec 2012 路 23:43 UTC
Can't play windows games.
mokujin
21. Dec 2012 路 15:17 UTC
I like music in this game)
Bullseye8841
23. Dec 2012 路 01:34 UTC
It's always fun to play as a boss character :)
SonnyBone
23. Dec 2012 路 16:20 UTC
Great music, animation, and boss design and a great concept overall... but it falls short in a few ways. For one, there is no strategy required at all. Just run back and forth along the bottom and spam/alternate both attacks and you will win before your health even hits the halfway mark. Two, the soldier AI is very limited. Most bosses in games like this have a pattern that repeats and the players have to learn the pattern. The boss attacks are highly powerful and the boss can take tons of damage. This is the trade. Once the player can learn the pattern, then it doesn't matter how much damage the boss attacks do. A great way to handle the gameplay would be to limit the movement of the boss to commands instead of free control. For example, you'd have a selection of 5 or 6 movement types and maybe 3 to 4 attack types. Instead of moving freely, you choose a movement type (like jumping from block 1 to block 3 with a midair spin) and attack type (attack before jumping, while jumping, or after landing) and then repeat this process to try and confuse the AI. The AI would have to be able to 'learn' certain parts of the attack process making certain combinations nearly useless at some point, forcing the boss to mix it up. But that's just a quick suggestion. Whether or not something like that is possible during this short compo is another thing entirely. :p