Dreamers Tower
Overview
This was my submission to the 2021 Boss Rush Game Jam and while it ran for over a month, I only had about a week to develop it due to personal time constraints.
Try it yourself:
Technologies
Game Jam
Game Maker Studio
Platformer
Case Study
Objectives
The topic of the game jam was to make a “Boss Rush” – a kind of game or game mode that requires beating a series of bosses in a row, often with a perma-death setting. I ended up going for a 2D platformer with similar game mechanics to games like Cuphead.
The game was made in Game Maker Studio, using their custom GameMaker language.
The result
The gameplay was fairly simple: a minimalistic 2D platformer with movement left and right, jumping and shooting. This was perfect as it allowed me to really explore the design of the bosses – which was the main focus of the jam.
In the end I made 5 bosses, each with custom movement, attacks, and soundtracks. They were all balanced to be difficult but not impossible: the goal was to make each boss take 1 – 2 attempts so that the player did not get discouraged, but not be so easy that it was boring. And I feel like in general this was achieved.
The feedback I got most was that they should have health bars and that they were too “tanky” – which is to say they had too much health. So if I was to improve it I would likely readjust this balance to make each boss slightly quicker – however it would have also been interesting to see others play the game in order to get an idea of what else might have been an issue.
In the end, it turned out well. It came 3rd for graphics and gameplay and 6th overall. I was happy with what I was able to achieve in the limited time and even though there are a few bugs and unpolished bits, the ratings were very positive and constructive.