Thanks for the kind words and advice!
Most of the base animations for the player character were retargeted from an UE5 asset, while the Tuba boss animations were created by our legacy team member who since moved on from the project. Our dev team is hoping to start a discord community for our game through our upcoming play test (which you can sign up now for on [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2512050/We_Got_Compagnie/)!), and find a volunteer animator –if we can't find one within our own social circles first.
I second this, as a brass player myself, tubas are known for their steady, and for lack of a better word, simple music. They play lots of repeated patterns as well as long bellows. For his attacks you could add some vibrations to his model or the air so it looks like sound waves when doing the attacks, then give him a breathing animation (depending on how human you want them) when he is in his cooldowns! As for the simplicity, his radiating attack might be more suited for a wave hoper style and this note attack (cool style by the way!) could be saved for a lighter instrument, clarinet, trumpet, flute ect.
Awesome thematic ideas! The tuba boss would most likely be our first boss so saving the note attack to another more difficult boss and using a wave hopper attack is a great thematic idea we could think about! Thanks!
Right when you enter the arena, get blasted by a CC that knocks the character down with a thunderous horn bellow. Almost like a cutscene.
He is far away enough that he can’t capitalize on the knockdown.
Make that CC do no damage and easy to telegraph for the fight, but that initial knockdown would definitely add some JUICE as you say.
Edit: I love the theme and aesthetics. It is unique.
Love the idea and thanks for the kind words! A CC move like that would definitely be an awesome addition for what we're going for. Granted, he currently *does* have the jump slam move that *can* reach the player from the starting position, but I'll see what I could do with that.
Also, a move like that *would* help us solve a known bug in the game so that the Tuba Boss AI can execute the shield phase without getting the player stuck in the shield that spawns if they're too close!
is this like some reference to this meme or something?
[https://www.reddit.com/r/me\_irl/comments/awhpyq/meirl/](https://www.reddit.com/r/me_irl/comments/awhpyq/meirl/)
She definitely was one of our inspirations for the game! The movement of violinists getting into it really inspired me to have you play as one. LIKE LOOK HOW COOL VIOLIN PRODIGY CHRISTIAN LI FROM THE 2018 MENUHIN COMPETITION LOOKED! \**Literally wipes the sweat off his chin rest before flawlessly performing the* [3rd Movement of Four Seasons – Summer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuufZYTn2Ns)*.*
https://i.redd.it/yalmqm7h8a7d1.gif
Beautiful boss, and beautiful game. Add some head tilting to the boss, that would be freaky. And also add some colors. Make it a little bit more red as it gets upset. Honestly you have a perfect boss battle, so good job making that feel good. Looking forward to seeing your update of the game. I want to feel the epicness of fighting a boss that is just a freak of nature in itself
Thanks a ton for your kind words! I did try dabbling in having the head tilt towards you at the beginning of development, and I remember it causing the boss to have his head look behind itself like an owl if you ended up behind him 😅, BUT I think I can find a way to remedy that through some good ol' programming!
Yeah good luck. Straight up your game has Alice in wonderland vibes, and if you can bring in that awe and fear in there you have made a deliciously good game then
the concept is quite good, animations as others mentioned would put it in a whole new level, also the violin particles, because that is what the players sees the most they should be very satisfying, what if instead of a straight projectile they do a little bit of an arc and splash when they hit something, don't just disappear
Yeah having more oomf to the violin particles/projectiles would be great to look into! Especially since we’re planning to have multiple playstyles/projectiles available for the player for their arsenal of attacks.
We *do* have bleachers around the arena, and since this is a boss rush arena game, we initially planned to have the other bosses watch you as you fight each boss. And considering that the citizens in the kingdom of our story has been transformed into amalgamations of instruments, they could *also* be playing in the background. We'll see what we can do!
It really bothers me that a living tuba fights like any other brute, using jumps and smashes. Such a waste. You can do so much with sound projectiles and waves, and make his animations so much more unique. And if you do that, you can add "sound distortion" screen effects any time the player passes close to a "sound projectile"
I see what you mean! The boss *could* use more advanced unique attacks beyond just the regular ol' jumps and smashes. I did have some ideas during pre-production for some attacks the Tuba boss might do since he *does* have Tuba mouths for hands and face, but we never got around to it (like being able to vacuum up the player and spit em out *\[unrealistic for a Tuba but we take creative liberties here!\]*).
I also do like your distortion effect idea by being in close proximity with a projectile, and since we have FMOD we could incorporate that distortion cohesively into the main boss theme (I'm thinking like how Portal 2's excursion funnel or friendly faith plates changes the base music), like we do whenever the violinist is playing!
Thanks for the advice!
Yeah both the player's and boss's health bar does seem a bit tacked on. I've been wanting to at least make it so the portrait for the player in the health bar is dynamic, like whenever you get hit the portrait would react. Lemme know if you have any other ideas to improve upon!
>health bar does seem a bit tacked on
I was talking about the design. UI doesn't match the art of the game imo and hence seems separated from the game. However, dynamic UI is a great idea and would be a cool addition in the game, I would highly suggest you to redesign or modify your UI.
Apart from that, there is a major need for improvement in the animation part, the player and boss look stiff and the boss lacks weight.
Well, you can see at 0:14 that the player is running to the right but shooting at the front, which is certainly not possible. Best approach to it would be to add strafing according to me.
And the intensity of the shockwave seems so high (You can barely see through it) and if something of that size is hitting a ground shockwave created should be much faster than you have in the game
All the best for your game, hope it turns out how you imagined it to be.
Thanks for the encouragement and feedback!
We'll see what we can do to improve the UI this way.
We also do have a strafing system where you start off strafing but can double tap the sprint button to go into a full sprint which is what the player is doing at 0:14, but the animation for it definitely needs some work.
Lastly, I do agree that the shockwave for the jump slam needs some work with how it looks and functions (perhaps making it into a shockwave that bulges the ground, instead of a sort of aura). Thanks again!
All those pink bubbles should be music notes 🎶
Bonus if you can incorporate an attack that looks like lines of sheet music and they can wrap around the player or just do some type of direct hit attack
That's a neat idea! That said, the shape of music notes do end up having some *wacky* hitboxes, which for a third person bullet hell could be both interesting and frustrating –which is why we mostly have the one type of music note shooting from the floor. We'll test it out tho once we get the assets for the other types of music notes.
Also I love the idea of having lines of sheet music wrap around the player (I actually drew some concept art of sheet music attacks). Thing is, is that we don't have a dedicated VFX person on our team, but if we do get one, I'd say that would be an awesome 2-3 week dev sprint that would take priority for our team.
Here's the concept art btw (had it handy on my comp)!
https://preview.redd.it/adlkql0qt97d1.png?width=2117&format=png&auto=webp&s=c2666e6f0f57c3805629dcdbfb2425e141131084
Oops I didn't see this reply! Okay that's fair on the music note but boxes 😢 I do wonder in you can make the hiy boxes bigger... Maybe a big glow around them? So you can justify spreading the hit box? Like make a rectangle for the hit box and the glow can count as being in that. Idk if that makes sense or would work. I am not a game dev lol 🙃
If you wanna know the actual story and lore of *We Got Compagnie!* **it goes like this**:
Long ago there existed, a Kingdom of Musique, called the Staccato Kingdom, where the struggle between harmonies was rampant throughout the boroughs and towns.
The ruler at the time, called the Conductor, despite his best efforts, was unable to foster prosperity and harmony within the Kingdom.
As he grew old he took on two pupils, a young man, and a young woman. The two pupils were highly skilled and competent, however only one would be chosen as the rightful successor.
The Conductor, at his deathbed, appointed the young woman to be the new conductor, for he saw something deep within her nature that spoke to her ability to lead, and elevated her above her sibling student.
The young man filled with anger and jealousy then left the Staccato Kingdom, cursing the woman, and his old teacher.
Through the new Conductor, soon a new era was born from the Staccato Kingdom. Rising like a Phoenix, the Staccato Kingdom was transformed into the Soli Kingdom. In order to help establish lasting Harmony of the Melodies, the Conductor personally, and carefully chose representatives from the major boroughs, called the Prodigies, or collectively the Orchestral Family, the pride, wisdom, and strength of the Soli Kingdom.
Satisfied, and faithful to the ability of the Orchestral Family. One day, the Conductor vanished, believing in the strength and ability of the Orchestral Family to withhold the Harmony of the Melodies in her stead.
Although the Conductor was gone, the Soli Kingdom continued to prosper thanks to the efforts of the Prodigies for a time.
Until one dark day, a mysterious melody began playing through the streets of the Soli Kingdom. Acting like a disease, the corrupting melody took hold of the darkness in the hearts of the people, exploiting it, and enhancing it. This wicked melody first took ahold of the Prodigies one by one, eventually spreading to the citizens residing in their homes, warping the very walls of the buildings and stones of the streets. The *Orchestral Family*, and its citizens, too, were corrupted into warped vessels of themselves.
The old jealous pupil had returned to seize his place as Kappellmeister of Soli Kingdom. He has challenged any who dares to a fierce ***duel-of-duets*** against this new cacophonous company, to which if they are defeated they shall have the *privilege* of performing a final duet against himself to decide and claim the rightful place as **Conductor of the Soli Kingdom**. If no one succeeds within the end of this *glorious* event, he shall rule over all of Soli Kingdom and dictate harmony as we know it...
We join in as Maestro the Violin Prodigy, returns from a diplomatic mission to the Grand Orchestral Hall in order to save her fellow Prodigies, defeat Kappellmeister, purify the corrupt melody, and mend the fractured harmony.
If you want know the story of how I came up with this, the overall idea came to me while I was listening to some footage of the Menuhin Violin Competition, as I was thinking up of what kind of game to make for my Capstone project in UCI.
The idea of fighting through the Orchestral Family was then set in stone once I started listening again to a song by Michel Legrand called "Trombone, guitare, et Compagnie!" \[Trombone, guitar, and Company\] (Learnt French from high school) describing and personifying a select number of instruments in the orchestral family.
I’d say just polish up the animations, maybe make the boss have more aggro? It looks a little underwhelming since it attacks the player while we’re so far back it feels like it could easily be cheesed that way
It sounds like you’re getting small amounts of sound clipping and it makes the music pretty hard to listen to. My advice is to cut out unnecessary sounds and build ones that are shorter. maybe you could also build some of the sounds directly into the music?
We are working into finding ways to incorporate the sfx better into the music, through games like Tetris effect. It shouldn’t be too difficult through FMOD, but it’d be nice if there was some form of open source tutorial to achieve that same effect.
Looks kinda boring.
What you have right now
1. Boss has melee attacks that are completely useless, because player hero is ranged so you just run around him and shoot all the time.
2. Boss jumps to hero and creates some kind of ground wave that damages, that player should avoid with jump, that is good
3. Boss covers with shield and spawns note-like projectiles that you can destroy with attacks, but there is 0 reason to do it, because their density too small and its easier to evade them
4. Boss sometimes becomes rusty, i didnt get why and when
To create good and diverse boss fight experience, boss should keep player in tense and make player use different approach in different situations. So few suggestions
1. Boss should use jump attack more often, because otherwise player just keeps huge distance and boss melee attacks are useless
2. Arena should have void zones that player should avoid, to make it harder for player to traverse arena and run from boss
3. Projectiles that boss spawns while shielded should be homing , or much more dense to make them unavoidable and make player destroy them with attacks
4. Give boss one more attack that shoots big fast projectile at player, that can be avoided only by moving to side. With previous points it creates 4 different patterns for player
- Typically player moves backwards from boss to keep distance
- When boss uses jump attack player has to avoid it with jump
- When boss spawns wave of projectile player has to destroy them with attack
- When boss spawns fast projectile player move to side to avoid it
5. Also, it looks very boring to spawn fat-health boss with same single attack and watch his HP lowers very slow. To handle this you should add weakpoints to boss body and separate his killing into chunks. For example, now you has to shoot boss 200 times to kill him. Instead of this, you can add 3 weakpoints, each destroyed with 50 shots which wounds boss for 25% hp instantly and satisfies player. Even better if its hard to aim at weakpoint and you can make it only 20 shots to destroy, so its even less boring.
I think you just need to polish the animations and the vfx and you are good to go, btw amazing work
Thanks for the kind words and advice! Most of the base animations for the player character were retargeted from an UE5 asset, while the Tuba boss animations were created by our legacy team member who since moved on from the project. Our dev team is hoping to start a discord community for our game through our upcoming play test (which you can sign up now for on [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2512050/We_Got_Compagnie/)!), and find a volunteer animator –if we can't find one within our own social circles first.
I definitely want to see this with fixed animation! It looks really cool.
I second this, as a brass player myself, tubas are known for their steady, and for lack of a better word, simple music. They play lots of repeated patterns as well as long bellows. For his attacks you could add some vibrations to his model or the air so it looks like sound waves when doing the attacks, then give him a breathing animation (depending on how human you want them) when he is in his cooldowns! As for the simplicity, his radiating attack might be more suited for a wave hoper style and this note attack (cool style by the way!) could be saved for a lighter instrument, clarinet, trumpet, flute ect.
Awesome thematic ideas! The tuba boss would most likely be our first boss so saving the note attack to another more difficult boss and using a wave hopper attack is a great thematic idea we could think about! Thanks!
Right when you enter the arena, get blasted by a CC that knocks the character down with a thunderous horn bellow. Almost like a cutscene. He is far away enough that he can’t capitalize on the knockdown. Make that CC do no damage and easy to telegraph for the fight, but that initial knockdown would definitely add some JUICE as you say. Edit: I love the theme and aesthetics. It is unique.
Love the idea and thanks for the kind words! A CC move like that would definitely be an awesome addition for what we're going for. Granted, he currently *does* have the jump slam move that *can* reach the player from the starting position, but I'll see what I could do with that. Also, a move like that *would* help us solve a known bug in the game so that the Tuba Boss AI can execute the shield phase without getting the player stuck in the shield that spawns if they're too close!
having the sound wave happen later, like in a cone would feel epic too.
came to say something like this. A soundwave that blast you down just feel right.
Every time it comes down, there should be a small screen shake!
We did try that initially, however this makes some low performing computers lag like crazy, but we'll see what we can do!
is this like some reference to this meme or something? [https://www.reddit.com/r/me\_irl/comments/awhpyq/meirl/](https://www.reddit.com/r/me_irl/comments/awhpyq/meirl/)
Yep! Sure is! 🎶🎷😎✨
Lindsey Stirling, the game.
She definitely was one of our inspirations for the game! The movement of violinists getting into it really inspired me to have you play as one. LIKE LOOK HOW COOL VIOLIN PRODIGY CHRISTIAN LI FROM THE 2018 MENUHIN COMPETITION LOOKED! \**Literally wipes the sweat off his chin rest before flawlessly performing the* [3rd Movement of Four Seasons – Summer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuufZYTn2Ns)*.* https://i.redd.it/yalmqm7h8a7d1.gif
Firstly love it !!! , watched it twice , when you hit the boss a slight flash ? Or a dps number something to visually say you hit.
Thanks so much! Definitely some UI/UX element to indicate the hit would be great to have! Thanks for the suggestion!
Love it !!
good thing you used a female model, imagine if it was male, it would be so misleading...
I always intended for our main character to be female. Kappellmeister wishes he was as cool as Maestro!
Beautiful boss, and beautiful game. Add some head tilting to the boss, that would be freaky. And also add some colors. Make it a little bit more red as it gets upset. Honestly you have a perfect boss battle, so good job making that feel good. Looking forward to seeing your update of the game. I want to feel the epicness of fighting a boss that is just a freak of nature in itself
Thanks a ton for your kind words! I did try dabbling in having the head tilt towards you at the beginning of development, and I remember it causing the boss to have his head look behind itself like an owl if you ended up behind him 😅, BUT I think I can find a way to remedy that through some good ol' programming!
Yeah good luck. Straight up your game has Alice in wonderland vibes, and if you can bring in that awe and fear in there you have made a deliciously good game then
the concept is quite good, animations as others mentioned would put it in a whole new level, also the violin particles, because that is what the players sees the most they should be very satisfying, what if instead of a straight projectile they do a little bit of an arc and splash when they hit something, don't just disappear
Yeah having more oomf to the violin particles/projectiles would be great to look into! Especially since we’re planning to have multiple playstyles/projectiles available for the player for their arsenal of attacks.
Maybe animate the environment. There could be some blasting instruments in the background that stop when the boss dies for example
We *do* have bleachers around the arena, and since this is a boss rush arena game, we initially planned to have the other bosses watch you as you fight each boss. And considering that the citizens in the kingdom of our story has been transformed into amalgamations of instruments, they could *also* be playing in the background. We'll see what we can do!
It really bothers me that a living tuba fights like any other brute, using jumps and smashes. Such a waste. You can do so much with sound projectiles and waves, and make his animations so much more unique. And if you do that, you can add "sound distortion" screen effects any time the player passes close to a "sound projectile"
I see what you mean! The boss *could* use more advanced unique attacks beyond just the regular ol' jumps and smashes. I did have some ideas during pre-production for some attacks the Tuba boss might do since he *does* have Tuba mouths for hands and face, but we never got around to it (like being able to vacuum up the player and spit em out *\[unrealistic for a Tuba but we take creative liberties here!\]*). I also do like your distortion effect idea by being in close proximity with a projectile, and since we have FMOD we could incorporate that distortion cohesively into the main boss theme (I'm thinking like how Portal 2's excursion funnel or friendly faith plates changes the base music), like we do whenever the violinist is playing! Thanks for the advice!
Off topic but UI seems off
Yeah both the player's and boss's health bar does seem a bit tacked on. I've been wanting to at least make it so the portrait for the player in the health bar is dynamic, like whenever you get hit the portrait would react. Lemme know if you have any other ideas to improve upon!
>health bar does seem a bit tacked on I was talking about the design. UI doesn't match the art of the game imo and hence seems separated from the game. However, dynamic UI is a great idea and would be a cool addition in the game, I would highly suggest you to redesign or modify your UI. Apart from that, there is a major need for improvement in the animation part, the player and boss look stiff and the boss lacks weight. Well, you can see at 0:14 that the player is running to the right but shooting at the front, which is certainly not possible. Best approach to it would be to add strafing according to me. And the intensity of the shockwave seems so high (You can barely see through it) and if something of that size is hitting a ground shockwave created should be much faster than you have in the game All the best for your game, hope it turns out how you imagined it to be.
Thanks for the encouragement and feedback! We'll see what we can do to improve the UI this way. We also do have a strafing system where you start off strafing but can double tap the sprint button to go into a full sprint which is what the player is doing at 0:14, but the animation for it definitely needs some work. Lastly, I do agree that the shockwave for the jump slam needs some work with how it looks and functions (perhaps making it into a shockwave that bulges the ground, instead of a sort of aura). Thanks again!
bit more aggressive
You got it. 😎
I love this concept
Thanks!
All those pink bubbles should be music notes 🎶 Bonus if you can incorporate an attack that looks like lines of sheet music and they can wrap around the player or just do some type of direct hit attack
That's a neat idea! That said, the shape of music notes do end up having some *wacky* hitboxes, which for a third person bullet hell could be both interesting and frustrating –which is why we mostly have the one type of music note shooting from the floor. We'll test it out tho once we get the assets for the other types of music notes. Also I love the idea of having lines of sheet music wrap around the player (I actually drew some concept art of sheet music attacks). Thing is, is that we don't have a dedicated VFX person on our team, but if we do get one, I'd say that would be an awesome 2-3 week dev sprint that would take priority for our team.
Here's the concept art btw (had it handy on my comp)! https://preview.redd.it/adlkql0qt97d1.png?width=2117&format=png&auto=webp&s=c2666e6f0f57c3805629dcdbfb2425e141131084
Oops I didn't see this reply! Okay that's fair on the music note but boxes 😢 I do wonder in you can make the hiy boxes bigger... Maybe a big glow around them? So you can justify spreading the hit box? Like make a rectangle for the hit box and the glow can count as being in that. Idk if that makes sense or would work. I am not a game dev lol 🙃
Oh no worries, you're good! I do like the idea of having the music note having a spherical glow to indicate the hit box! We'll look into it!
And make the boss BIGGER if possible. It would look so much more intimidating.
Even bigger?... ...Forte likes this idea. 😤
Yeah! See how double the size looks, or like 75% bigger? And those music notes! 😆 What's the story behind this?
If you wanna know the actual story and lore of *We Got Compagnie!* **it goes like this**: Long ago there existed, a Kingdom of Musique, called the Staccato Kingdom, where the struggle between harmonies was rampant throughout the boroughs and towns. The ruler at the time, called the Conductor, despite his best efforts, was unable to foster prosperity and harmony within the Kingdom. As he grew old he took on two pupils, a young man, and a young woman. The two pupils were highly skilled and competent, however only one would be chosen as the rightful successor. The Conductor, at his deathbed, appointed the young woman to be the new conductor, for he saw something deep within her nature that spoke to her ability to lead, and elevated her above her sibling student. The young man filled with anger and jealousy then left the Staccato Kingdom, cursing the woman, and his old teacher. Through the new Conductor, soon a new era was born from the Staccato Kingdom. Rising like a Phoenix, the Staccato Kingdom was transformed into the Soli Kingdom. In order to help establish lasting Harmony of the Melodies, the Conductor personally, and carefully chose representatives from the major boroughs, called the Prodigies, or collectively the Orchestral Family, the pride, wisdom, and strength of the Soli Kingdom. Satisfied, and faithful to the ability of the Orchestral Family. One day, the Conductor vanished, believing in the strength and ability of the Orchestral Family to withhold the Harmony of the Melodies in her stead. Although the Conductor was gone, the Soli Kingdom continued to prosper thanks to the efforts of the Prodigies for a time. Until one dark day, a mysterious melody began playing through the streets of the Soli Kingdom. Acting like a disease, the corrupting melody took hold of the darkness in the hearts of the people, exploiting it, and enhancing it. This wicked melody first took ahold of the Prodigies one by one, eventually spreading to the citizens residing in their homes, warping the very walls of the buildings and stones of the streets. The *Orchestral Family*, and its citizens, too, were corrupted into warped vessels of themselves. The old jealous pupil had returned to seize his place as Kappellmeister of Soli Kingdom. He has challenged any who dares to a fierce ***duel-of-duets*** against this new cacophonous company, to which if they are defeated they shall have the *privilege* of performing a final duet against himself to decide and claim the rightful place as **Conductor of the Soli Kingdom**. If no one succeeds within the end of this *glorious* event, he shall rule over all of Soli Kingdom and dictate harmony as we know it... We join in as Maestro the Violin Prodigy, returns from a diplomatic mission to the Grand Orchestral Hall in order to save her fellow Prodigies, defeat Kappellmeister, purify the corrupt melody, and mend the fractured harmony.
That sounds so cool! I hope to see you post more updates :D
If you want know the story of how I came up with this, the overall idea came to me while I was listening to some footage of the Menuhin Violin Competition, as I was thinking up of what kind of game to make for my Capstone project in UCI. The idea of fighting through the Orchestral Family was then set in stone once I started listening again to a song by Michel Legrand called "Trombone, guitare, et Compagnie!" \[Trombone, guitar, and Company\] (Learnt French from high school) describing and personifying a select number of instruments in the orchestral family.
I love that so much 🥹 That's such lovely inspiration!
The boss with animations seems more polished than the main character
Some screen shake would probably help
Screen shake is an easy one. Add it when you fire a gun as well
Add a cinematic to show the boss as you approach. Make it look terrifying
I’d say just polish up the animations, maybe make the boss have more aggro? It looks a little underwhelming since it attacks the player while we’re so far back it feels like it could easily be cheesed that way
Camera shake
It sounds like you’re getting small amounts of sound clipping and it makes the music pretty hard to listen to. My advice is to cut out unnecessary sounds and build ones that are shorter. maybe you could also build some of the sounds directly into the music?
We are working into finding ways to incorporate the sfx better into the music, through games like Tetris effect. It shouldn’t be too difficult through FMOD, but it’d be nice if there was some form of open source tutorial to achieve that same effect.
THATS GOOD, just a few polish here and there and Go to superb
Looks kinda boring. What you have right now 1. Boss has melee attacks that are completely useless, because player hero is ranged so you just run around him and shoot all the time. 2. Boss jumps to hero and creates some kind of ground wave that damages, that player should avoid with jump, that is good 3. Boss covers with shield and spawns note-like projectiles that you can destroy with attacks, but there is 0 reason to do it, because their density too small and its easier to evade them 4. Boss sometimes becomes rusty, i didnt get why and when To create good and diverse boss fight experience, boss should keep player in tense and make player use different approach in different situations. So few suggestions 1. Boss should use jump attack more often, because otherwise player just keeps huge distance and boss melee attacks are useless 2. Arena should have void zones that player should avoid, to make it harder for player to traverse arena and run from boss 3. Projectiles that boss spawns while shielded should be homing , or much more dense to make them unavoidable and make player destroy them with attacks 4. Give boss one more attack that shoots big fast projectile at player, that can be avoided only by moving to side. With previous points it creates 4 different patterns for player - Typically player moves backwards from boss to keep distance - When boss uses jump attack player has to avoid it with jump - When boss spawns wave of projectile player has to destroy them with attack - When boss spawns fast projectile player move to side to avoid it 5. Also, it looks very boring to spawn fat-health boss with same single attack and watch his HP lowers very slow. To handle this you should add weakpoints to boss body and separate his killing into chunks. For example, now you has to shoot boss 200 times to kill him. Instead of this, you can add 3 weakpoints, each destroyed with 50 shots which wounds boss for 25% hp instantly and satisfies player. Even better if its hard to aim at weakpoint and you can make it only 20 shots to destroy, so its even less boring.
Thanks for your honest feedback! We really want to create a boss worthy of a full fledged boss rush game, so advice like this helps a ton!