Adding 2 New Mini-Boss Fights To My Roguelike - Devlog 5

[@HelperWesley]

Check out the whole series: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZLJppKKgLeNas0&ab_channel=HelperWesley Wishlist the game on steam: store.steampowered.com/app/2653670/Spent_Shells/

[@the_hollow_gamer_of_the_knight]

yes yes yes yes more enemies

[@RockyMulletGamedev]

Definitely agree that more enemies and/or with more health is more fun than the unexpected one shot.

[@HelperWesley]

Yeah.... Kind of ashamed at how long it took me to consider changing it. People have been pointing it out as an issue for a while. 😅

[@TOPHATGAM5]

Art is that person that takes something simple into madness

[@artmanoil]

i take great pride in my lack of sanity

[@HelperWesley]

Yup. 😅

[@seanbondelid7207]

Every time I look art man’s art it inspires me to draw and try to color like art does

[@HelperWesley]

Wanna hear something funny? Seeing Art's art inspires Art too. 😅 Every time their art gets added to the game and they see it actually move in game, their mind is blown by how good it looks. 🤯

[@Winstreak1]

The game is looking awesome! 100% Agree with making a mass of enemies/bullets rather than 1 shotting.

[@HelperWesley]

Thanks! ArtManOil is doing great work with the art. And glad you think so, I don't know why it took so long for us to think of this change, so many people have expressed being really sad about being 1 shot. 😅

[@Spooky90097]

You been working a whole bunch have you. I appreciate your work as a game dev myself. I’m working on a game similar to “rainworld” and you really inspire me.

[@HelperWesley]

I slacked off a bit over the Holidays, but I should be back on track now. 🤞 Good luck with your game. 👍

[@pokepoke1889]

Oohh I wanna hear about your Rainworld inspired game

[@Spooky90097]

@@pokepoke1889 secret

[@n0_one-mc5to]

8:04 it's better to have like 5 mini bosses that one shot you than 10 enemies shooting you.its not a big change but really effective

[@FlibblyPibbles]

Damn those animations and enemy desigsn are amazing!

[@HelperWesley]

ArtManOil is an awesome artist! 💪

[@thatsaltypeashooter]

Definitely add more enemies per room (and enemy types). This makes the game feel more like a bullet-hell and harder and less like its just a game where 1 really strong bullet one-shots you.

[@SmellyRio]

You got the Rock Crab, The Linen, Now All You Need Is The Scissors To Complete it!

[@HelperWesley]

What an oversight! We definitely need to add scissors somewhere. If not an enemy, maybe an NPC that talks about how it was good against some enemies but bad against others. 😅

[@NuggetOrBowtie]

The idea of more and more enemies seems a bit better than the damage multiplier difficulty ramping, maybe each enemy could have a set value, and each room would have a bigger value for enemies to appear, example: Ghosts are 1, and Slimes are 2, then a room with a total value of 3 can either have 3 Ghosts, or 1 Ghost and 1 Slime

[@dragonracers51732]

I think the damage should scale but only to 50% of your max health and should scale slowly so you can outpace the damage scaling. This is so that you never feel like you can get one shot but you still can lose a lot of health. And keep the whole more enemies thing

[@Lupg13_BS]

🤞the big boss for the ghost enemies is some sort of quilt. That would be hilarious 😂 😂

[@HelperWesley]

We've been thinking about that actually! A little worried that all of the individual patches will make that really hard to draw and animation, but maybe we'll come up with something simple enough to make it work. 🤞

[@Lupg13_BS]

@@HelperWesley that would be awesome, best of luck to the two of you! 💪

[@onebrickatatime9097]

Personally, I think you just shouldn't change the base stats of the enemy's and just increase the amount and introduce more difficult types, but I understand that this may not be feasible, so I think the idea you suggested is a good middle ground. (Also I'm not a game designer so take this with a grain of salt lol)

[@Rudywes]

You could maybe add screenshake at some places to make the game feel more alive. For example when the minion-boss is jumping/stomping would be a great place to add it.

[@NoahTheRobinson]

I think that a good way to increase difficulty between rooms is to have a "budget" for enemies, where each enemy has a value and the total value of all the enemies cannot exceed the budget which would increase over time. Weaker enemies would have a lower value and vice versa meaning that there's a nice balance of adding more difficult enemies and more enemies overall, without just randomly adding more enemies until there's too many to be able to do anything about it.

[@HelperWesley]

That is exactly what I was thinking of doing! I want to value Mini-bosses so that most "average" players can get far enough to see 2 of them spawn in a single room in the late game, dying to 2 enraged mini-bosses would be hilarious.

[@PixelTrainer.]

Why is no one talking about how insane the Linen boss transition animation is? As a novice pixelartist it left me stunned at how good it looked

[@Dooby_Gooby]

Dude, this is freakin' awesome. I've been binge watching development on your game (partly to avoid working on my own 🤣). I am a huge fan of your game, and most definitely love Art's art. It is so inspiring to see another developer be so awesome. Hope you do well, man. Good Luck!

[@herb2110]

more enemies is definitely better than more damage, but I think it would be better if the difficulty got harder by introducing more difficult enemy types (new enemy varieties/old enemies with more difficult attack patterns)

[@kingofgameing0]

for the difficulty it would be cool if you increased things other then the amount of enemies. for example at like a certain level or whatever your gonna use certain enemies would have faster projectiles. but adding more and more enemies is also fine

[@EmmanO12345]

the progress is crazy, this game is so much more polished than when you first released it, not only in terms of art but just generally, nice work!

[@hamzahgamedev]

Art, Video production, memes, everything about this devlog is on-point! Game looks super fun, instantly Wishlisted and all the best with the Launch! ❤ btw, you are super talented (i am jealouse ngl)

[@HelperWesley]

Thanks! I really appreciate that! (And if you want to have a laugh, check out my earliest videos. It took a while to get my videos to the point where I'm happy with them. 😅)

[@ozonegamedev]

The game looks better and better with every video! Definitely shows the possibilities of GDevelop as a game engine. I totally agree with the change of spawning more enemies instead of increasing their damage.

[@JuhoSprite]

4:43 Big props to the art guy, the pixelart looks amazing. It could he straight from calamity.

[@flameshadow8]

for favor section in think your should do a mix of increasing damage and health, and the amount of enemies but also the difficulty of the enemies

[@flameshadow8]

like maybe add a enmey thats tricky to deal with in the later levels

[@Skeffles]

These bosses are looking great. It would be cool to see the player jump into the portal for the final bosses instead of just a camera zoom. Also I think the idea of introducing more mobs for difficulty is good since the player will need to dodge a lot more.

[@JuhoSprite]

Goddamn the game looks so much more appealing compared to what it used to be. The work pays off💪

[@HelperWesley]

All credit to the artist. Without ArtManOil, I'd still be using Kenney assets. 😅

[@AvectaInteractive]

More enemies makes sense yeah, will also help with feeling powerful smashing through a bunch of baddies

[@droidblasta6130]

So happy to see more progress. You’ve actually inspired me to get started on some tinkering with g develop myself

[@HelperWesley]

Glad to hear it. Gamedev is really challenging, but also really rewarding. Hope you enjoy it. 👍

[@DustyTrailsDev]

You are making fantastic progress and I absolutely love all of the art, but the imp boss has a uh.. Very suggestive look to his arm in the attack animation. Keep up all the great work!

[@HelperWesley]

🙊

[@codered_dev2]

art is the over achieving chad

[@HelperWesley]

Pretty much! 🤣

[@10Gpixels]

Loving the idea of more enemies spawning the further along the run. It would be an the definition of "bullet hell" in late-stage runs, making longer and longer runs a more rewarding experience imo.

[@alexandrajones4518]

Definitely agree with the dificulty change.

[@Sulfur-Cretin]

Please oh please add an angry whistle sound effect whenever the first mini boss gets angry 🙏 Also I think doing more enemies would be better than them eventually one shot you. But having something like a pop up warning you about the enemies gaining more health would be nice because it can be sometimes annoying if you start feeling weaker unprompted in a game

[@HelperWesley]

Just added it to my to do list, angry whistle ahoy! 😎 There is a "level" counter to show the game is getting harder, but I'll think on that. 🤔

[@aarondcmedia9585]

New death strategy is reminiscent of the Doom final scene yeah? Go for it, I reckon!

[@TheSentientcheese72]

That’s some real awesome progress you’re doing. Keep it up 👍

[@DeadPlant_]

I think the more enemies method is better because you can visualize the amount of enemies over time easily, compared to a damage increase over time especially if you only have 5 health.

[@onedude1389]

I think that adding more enemies to the room it's something that the game truly needed,just don't make it spawn TOO MUCH enemies

[@NickRick-rc3to]

Yes do that

[@rogueabyss]

I can't wait to see this game release! (love the ideas so far) also, for feedback: maybe also have more bullets for the difficulty up

[@dan2562]

I suppose changeing the amount of enemies instead of the enemy damage is a good change. One thing I would think make the game feel better using that approach would to still have a chance for less enemies to spawn

[@SentientMicrowave-dd7zq]

I think the old door animation is cooler because because it implies the entire dungeon is moving and chaneging wenn you go through a door.

[@HelperWesley]

I did like the old transition, but if people are getting confused and frustrated.... it had to change. 😅

[@bonbon5000]

It's nice to see a devlog again, nice As for the favor, I'm gonna throw a bit of a curveball here In Isaac, rooms are manually made, then selected at random. Maybe there can be external scenes that spawn different enemies in different patterns? Or even obstacles set up around the room? Maybe an object that spawns a random enemy when the room loads? As for difficulty scaling, in Gungeon, the enemies gain a 1.1x health multiplier as you progress past major milestones, maybe something like this can apply after each boss? Additionally, on harder difficulties of Isaac, enemies have a chance to be replaced with a stronger version of a variant instead to shake things up. Additionally, enemies also have a chance to be "champions," which add extra quirks to them like more health, faster speed, explode on death etc. Gungeon does this by "jamming" each enemy depending on how high your curse is, which triples their health and doubles their damage, but also makes them drop a lot more money, adding a risk-reward system. In terms of difficulty scaling, these are just some suggestions I thought of. Good luck on finishing the game

[@CreeperGamingAZ]

Yes it will not make the game feel unfair definitely agree

[@cattymations]

With the tint you could've just tinted it a very, very light grey.

[@MarkieMark-vy7hg]

I like the idea with the more enemies

[@PixelZone77]

it looks amazing and the idea of a lot of enemies is great

[@PaahtimoGames]

New enemies look great! Keep up the good work!

[@coprophagichobo2377]

I think the horde idea is much better than the damage scaling in enemies.

[@ShoTro]

Instead of increasing damage you can do several things. Each level increase health, increase attack frequency, increase damage, increase enemy count, increase enemy projectile speed... etc. You can cap some of these off, like damage and speed buffs or make them less common after a point. IDK, just an idea, but slowly will require the players to adjust their playstyle instead of just shooting the same enemies in greater quantities.

[@JustAGameDeveloper]

I think the rooms having more and more enemies is a funny idea!

[@PixelPicklez]

i like not getting one shotted! good idea! just dont make it toooo overwhelming

[@eboatwright_]

Whoaaa the ghost mini-boss' animations are awesome!

[@HelperWesley]

It's really flashy!

[@NickRick-rc3to]

Cool I like it and I just subscribed

[@RakerMil.4]

You deserve more than you get. ¿Only 785 likes and 145 coments??? This should be way more! this game looks incredible and the work you and the art guy (idk how to write his name) put into this is just amazing to watch. Keep up the good work! (Im learning english and im sure i made multiple errors in that sentense, please tell me if i did!)

[@janapavlikova4553]

the difficulty change is good :D

[@rml1064]

First, this video was really good, so glad you are back and fine. Second, I do think more enemies is better then stronger enemies. Although the player can get health pickups, it can get really unfair if half your health bar just poofed in one hit. Your game is already a pretty competent bullet hell, so you should lean your difficulty more on it. Third, YOU FINALLY CHANGED THAT DAMN GHOST SPRITE. THANK GOD, BUDA AND SPONGEBOB.

[@HelperWesley]

We ran over like, 8 completely different designs, trying to make it something other than a ghost. But in the end we realized that we could just leave it as a ghost, with a slight twist. 😅

[@jerinjeeva9051]

This game is so cool you and art man oil made a really cool game

[@asimplethievingbat5978]

I think the enemy spam difficulty curve would be more fun, especially if you keep adding enemy types for variety

[@HelperWesley]

Definitely more enemy types and variety. We'll also be increasing the speed that the bosses attack/move, so really good players will be dealing with bosses who've had too much redbull. lol

[@asimplethievingbat5978]

@@HelperWesley ah shit they can fly

[@-8bitsOfAwesome-]

YOOOOOO!!!! NEW VIDEOO!!! You... You kept your promise after all! 😭

[@HelperWesley]

I'm a lot of things, but I'm definitely a person that sometimes keeps his promises. 😅

[@-8bitsOfAwesome-]

Same here...😅 @@HelperWesley

[@dean_allan]

Maybe add the crab as a normal tanky enemy that simply tries to walk into you. Then you don't have to let the beautiful art go to waste.

[@HelperWesley]

It's a bit too big for that. It's really too big to be anything other than a boss in the full sized boss room. 😅

[@Lostintheprogram]

For the flashing of the enemy i believe there is an extension just for that so that might make the code simpler

[@Noamiki]

Good idea

[@RKIOrbMage]

The idea of mini bosses being enemies that only transform when they are alone is so cool! The art looks ridiculously good. I agree with more enemies per room to make the game harder. Are you planning to change the table sprites to something else?

[@artmanoil]

oh yea we're planning on doing the rooms last

[@amoguscool0812]

Keep up the good work!

[@HelperWesley]

Thanks!

[@n0_one-mc5to]

I was waiting for this moment

[@Beardash123]

Impossible mode - every room is filled with bosses

[@GilbertTheCow]

I have a cool enemy idea it could be whatever but for the attack it would charge up and dash at you

[@HelperWesley]

For now we've got all of the enemies we'd like in the game, but if the game does well on steam, then we might come back and add more to it. 👍

[@deaths488]

I think with the high enemy spawning it slowly becoming a bigger room but it would still be chaotic because of the ranged enemies

[@tulenvakiproductions]

Definitely go with increasing number of enemies instead of one shotting ones.

[@KrismondStudios]

More enemies per room pleaseeeee

[@mistergfinal2277]

Finally he made another video thanks god

[@HelperWesley]

A few people were asking about it, and then I realized how long it had been. 😅 My productivity got completely derailed over the holidays. lol

[@-8bitsOfAwesome-]

Was one of those "few people" perhaps me by chance?😉@@HelperWesley

[@paperKlipStudios]

Really cool game, i had a random idea about making the floor checkerpaterned instead of flat colors?

[@Zoom-2000]

I think the first mini boss should throw giant nails or something else that matches the color of hammer or whatever it's holding 😅😅

[@HelperWesley]

They're supposed to be spiked maces in place of its hands.

[@OttoSjachrani]

Your probably not going to do this but ultrakill has a very good difficulty system where they add mechanics to enemies like being enraged and stuff

[@mybalsitch]

imo itd be more fun if the enemy stats dont change at all but you get higher chances of meeting harder enemies as the rooms get harder, kind of like ultrakill's cybergrind mode

[@vladimirkirillovskiy8056]

Pretty nice! I like it :)

[@uncolorr]

nice layer names lol

[@HelperWesley]

😅

[@drakelover1702]

u should add levels do the dungeon where there are different enemies and bosses. those can have more health and damage adding an goal to get through floors and kill new enemies

[@calicothecappuccinogurl9874]

I think the more enemy route works better but there should be a limit to the amount of enemies spawning from the level scaling because overly cluttered rooms just look bad and too many "waves" of enemies in this type of game where you run and gun quickly can easily make the game progression slow to a crawl which doesn't feel good if its overdone. So the mix of the two can probably work out well like adding an extra enemy or two after a bit then if the initial room already gets like idk max of 8 enemies there could be a second wave with whatever would have been added, 3 waves is probably too much but also I don't really know what your plan is to the amount of bosses and such for the runs so it might be good. +The damage being higher somewhere in the mix of level of the rooms getting higher

[@HelperWesley]

The trouble is that the game doesn't have an "end", it's an endless high score game. So something needs to eventually kill you, the way we're thinking of doing scaling is to increase the number of enemies per room and increase the speed of bosses. I agree that I don't really like overly cluttered rooms, and maybe the increased speed of the bosses will be enough to kill the players off. We'll have to see when it comes time for playtesting. 🤔

[@calicothecappuccinogurl9874]

@@HelperWesley idk tho one thing to consider is that you probably should "win" a run somehow. Its hard for me to imagine feeling good after the run is done if the only way to end it is to not win it, a game without a "victory screen" feels off in my opinion.

[@coffinupastorm]

Unsure if this was considered but binding of isaac champion enemies- it would need to be implemented as a game thing; it could be an idea for late game scaling

[@RohanDaDev]

I'm a big fan of hand-crafted rooms, but I understand your resource constraints. Will this game be on PS5? I have to say, the art in this game is amazing. It really has its own vibe to it. I also looked at the release date. Q2 2024? The steam page doesn't seem to have more areas nor a trailer you sure you can make that?

[@HelperWesley]

We were on track to have it released then, but we ended up accidentally taking a longer break over the holidays than intended. 😅So we'll see, I might have to push the launch date back, but I'll think more on that date as we get closer and the amount of work left is more clear. 🤔 As of now I'm just planning to release through steam, but if the game does well enough, maybe a console will happen in the future.

[@jabin8153]

i agree with your idea

[@FaizanPhoenix]

Nice progress by the way what is that sprite player/editor that you are using?

[@HelperWesley]

I use aseprite for my pixel art. 👍

[@reguret2976]

The first enemies projectile attack doesn't match with its aesthetics. Maybe after smashing the grounds, rocks falling would be a better look. :)

[@Goofy_Geek]

Can you make the ghost boss say SHAA when it uses its needles lol

[@gokusupersaiyan6]

I am all for making the room filled with enemies, instead of having their damage too high to the point of one-shotting you.

[@HelperWesley]

Definitely agree. People have been saying the one shot feels terrible. 😅

[@maxmiltenburg6548]

Looks insane dude! One question what kinda Game engine doe you use?

[@dagan4602]

He uses GDevelop

[@HelperWesley]

I'm using GDevelop. 👍

[@nodalino862]

Will you add a parameter to play on AZERTY ?

[@HelperWesley]

I have a note about that + figuring out other control schemes. I had people play the game who were left handed and they had a very hard time. 😅

[@mewvern]

I like more enemies instead of 1 shot

[@PixelZone77]

Hey Wesley I just wanted to give you a very little idea and it’s why don’t you change the cursor’s “Sprite”, like in Revita or Bullet Bunny where the cursor changes style. But it’s just my opinion soooo… 😅

[@shadowau7674]

So its doesnt matters which portal you choose while making tour way through the dungeon?

[@onenikki5937]

Everything looks amazing butt I feel like the portal still needs MORE PARTICLES because it looks like you clip through the portal instead of actually coming out of the portal. So basically: Frame 1: No character Frame 2: Full Character

[@ImNotNightmare_]

ive been trying to make a rouglike but i can barley figure out how to get things to work so i would appreciate it if you would make tutorials on how to add (example) dashing in top down and other stuff within this project

[@HelperWesley]

There's an example in the GDevelop engine called "conviction of gun dude" with the bare bones mechanics from my game. That might be worth picking through. 👍

[@emi2010r]

How can I add multiple weapons with stat changes?

[@brandonjacksoon]

I'm new here) liked and subscribed!

[@Noxxi33]

Could you change the damage numbers design they dont really fit anymore

[@billy6427]

This is looking good , but u need to finish this game and start on the Sequel. Or maybe the Sequel can be in 3-d😮

[@JHG_1]

More enemies yes

[@Negreb25]

YES, THE DAMAGE INCREASE IS SOMETHING I DIDN'T LIKE FROM THE VERY START wait why did I caps lock

[@HelperWesley]

A LOT OF PEOPLE DIDNT LIKE IT, BUT I WENT AHEAD WITH IT ANYWAY. IT WAS A BAD CHOICE. oops, all caps. 😅