Balancing a two-hero battle system with Bossgame: The Final Boss Is My Heart
Bossgame: The Final Boss Is My Heart is all about a pair of girlfriends who hunt devils, battling through a barrage of boss battles whenever they’re not gently teasing each other through texts. Players will have to control both girlfriends at the same time if they’re going to overcome these nasty bosses. Teamwork is vital to a good couple, though!
Game Developer spoke with Lily Valeen, the developer, designer, and artist behind Bossgame, to chat about how controlling two characters both limited and opened up the design of the combat, how learning its systems can feel a bit like learning to play the drums and the thoughts that went into making the heroines feel genuine.
Game Developer: Bossgame is all about girlfriends beating up on horrible boss monsters. What inspired the concept for this game?
Lily Valeen: Going into Bossgame, I had three main goals:
"I want to make an action game that feels good to play on phones."
"I want to create the feeling of a classic RPG, but smaller and denser, so that people with full-time jobs can actually play it and I can actually finish it as a (mostly) solo gamedev."
"I want to tell a romantic story that explores an existing relationship, not a will-they-won't-they."
These were all challenges I set for myself, and they shaped the game! Bossgame is 100% bosses because I wanted to keep it dense and respect players' time while still reaching those emotional highs, and bosses are often the most interesting parts of RPGs. I wanted to write about girlfriends because love is so much more than the first kiss! And really, who doesn't feel like they've had to hunt devils just to make the rent?
What thoughts went into having the player control two characters at once? How did controlling two characters
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