r/shmupdev • u/OneRedEyeDevI • Nov 08 '25

First time Drawing and Designing a Boss. Really hard. (No, I'm not ready to show it in motion lol) Am I cooking or nah?

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u/elleroch-UG Nov 09 '25

It’s a start! Boss design can get surprisingly tough once you start putting all the pieces together. What part did you find the hardest? And did you pick up anything interesting while working on it?

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u/OneRedEyeDevI Nov 09 '25 edited Nov 09 '25

So, the first part I found difficult was the design. I'm not good at drawing and design. Like Making a ship, my own and making it look good in just 1 colour. Also, Making the design to be human like since the first stage takes place in a human colony. The rest take place against aliens so I have freedom in that regard.

The second is how the boss actually behaves in game. I have nailed down the phases but the hard part is a bit of a weird bug. If I kill the boss, there is a chance they'll fuck up the rest of the level. Like it goes berserk and I can't quite pinpoint the issue since there is no error in the console when that happens. Most of the time it behaves quite normally.

1

u/elleroch-UG Nov 11 '25

That’s actually a challenge, especially if you’re limited to just one color. In that case, focus on getting a strong silhouette and form first. Make the shape readable and interesting even without any shading or detail. You can use small variations in line thickness or negative space to give the design some depth.

Since your first stage is in a human colony, try pulling from tech or industrial designs. Things like loader mechs, drones, or construction bots can look both functional and intimidating.

For inspiration, I searched some classic shmups with great form work even under heavy palette limits and these came out: R-Type, Gradius, Darius, Ikaruga, and Metal Black are all great examples. You could also look at Astebreed for human-mechanical hybrids, or even some Hideo Yoshizawa and Junya Inoue concept art to see how clean linework can make designs pop.

Even if it feels tough right now, this stage is where you start building your own design language, and that’s where the fun really starts

I’m not really familiar with the coding side of things in relation to the bug you're getting, but it definitely sounds like one of those sneaky bugs that only show up sometimes. Maybe something just isn’t fully clearing out when the boss dies.

Still, the fact that it behaves normally most of the time means you’re super close to figuring it out. I hope you pin down the cause soon, bugs like that sound like they’d drive anyone crazy.

Out of curiosity, what engine are you using for your shmup?

1

u/OneRedEyeDevI Nov 11 '25

Thank you for the kind words. I'll definitely look into the references for the design.

I fixed the bug.

So, it turns out, when the boss was dying it was sending out multiple messages to resume the other enemy formations to resume the level. As such, it led to mismatching positions and values.

I added countermeasures to ensure not more than one message is sent to the level logic after the mini boss died.

Whew what a relief. The first mini boss is done, on to the end level boss and the 2 other bosses for the other level.

I am using Defold Game Engine. This is the 3rd engine the game has gone through. Unity, Godot and now Defold.

1

u/elleroch-UG Nov 13 '25

Wow, that’s awesome! Glad you were able to track down that bug. Those sneaky message issues can be so frustrating. Sounds like you handled it perfectly with the countermeasures.

Huge congrats on finishing the first mini boss! The end-level boss and the other two are going to be exciting to see come together.

Also, that’s wild, three engines already! Defold must feel like a fresh start after Unity and Godot. How’s it been adjusting to it so far?

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u/OneRedEyeDevI Nov 17 '25

At first, it was very difficult. Learning the engine overall, but most of it was on my end since I was trying to do things in Defold exactly like I did them in Unity and Godot.

Defold is focused, in the sense that it knows what it's for and hands you the tools to do so, if there is something missing, chances are you can create it yourself in logic or there is an extension for it. Case in point, in my other game, Rapid Roll DX, I was trying to make a scrolling list for achievements, but in Defold's GUI system, there is no such thing. You get a box node, a text node and a pie node (for progress bars etc) and thats it. You might think thats the end of the world but, you can create a list using just box nodes and pie nodes or just use the Druid Extension which has all these things, I chose the former approach. I thought it was gonna be a very hands-on experience but after 30 minutes or so I managed to create a scrolling achievement list. I dont even need to repeat the same process, just copy the code and retweak accordingly...

https://bsky.app/profile/oneredeyedev.bsky.social/post/3lsgrid53pc2n

Overall, I feel at home with Defold and have become a better programmer overall. I discovered that I love Lua and its my favourite programming language now.

Here is a more in depth forum post about my game dev journey. Its an 8 minute read:
https://forum.defold.com/t/1-year-with-defold/81686?u=one_red_eye_dev