How Cuphead's Bosses (Try to) Kill You | Game Maker's Toolkit

Great video! I like the visual clarity on the highlights for the different boss attack shapes -- they look good in the video but would also be extremely readable as screenshots. I did see an uncommonly high number of errors in description, though, other than the waffle/chocolate thing you mentioned -- the "sea urchins" are actually porcupinefish, the "treasure chest" is a barrel, and the "rock candy" which "bounce" are peppermint swirls that roll.

Scezumin

Nothing this game does interests me in any way. Sure it looks amazing, and it's visually creative, but everything about the gameplay is retro. All these verbs like dodging attacks, memorizing patterns, and reacting quickly to surprises by, well, dodging more attacks and memorizing more patterns... I just don't see the appeal. I wonder how much of the enjoyment people get out of it is sheer nostalgia towards the old games that had similar gameplay. But maybe this is just the kind of game that's not for me.

Parachuting Turtle

This reminded me a lot of Bullet Hell Shoot'em Ups by Cave. I mostly played Mushihimesama Futari, so i'll go from that one, but from what i'v seen, the other games by this developer work the same way. The attack patterns become so intricate and dense, that a LOT of skill is required to survive them, even though you have the panic button called "bomb" that destroys all projectiles on the screen. The reaction part you mention in this video, is not achieved by randomness (in fact, Mushihimesama Futari has no random element whatsoever in the whole game), but by the fact that the bullets are slow enough so you can react to them, with the exception of some phase changes, but these are telegraphed (other attacks are not, but you are so occupied with bullets that you can hardly look at the boss anyway). And there is so much going on on the screen, that you will have to rely on the reaction at least to some part, even though it isn't random, unless you played the game hundreds of times. The bosses also work in the same way as in cuphead, that its more about outlasting them, and not killing them. They fill a big part of the screen and your attacks will almost always hit them. What's more is that the levels leading up to the stage bosses (and mid-stage-bosses) work on the same principles, just that the enemies die faster, and each shoots less bullets, but because there can be many of them on screen, you still have almost always a lot of bullets on the screen. On top of that, the game has a mechanic to make the game more difficult the better you are doing, depending on some scoring mechanics, it has mostly to do with your current score multiplier, which gets reset if you die or use bombs, or grows faster when you kill the enemies with the right attacks. This is a video of the 3rd (of 5) stages in the highest difficulty: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX37wAD9dQM" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX37wAD9dQM</a> And here on the lowest: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KgUzsRTP6w" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KgUzsRTP6w</a> The game is brutally hard, but it never feels unfair or frustrating. I really should play it again sometime.

Naryoril

Maybe! If I can’t do the later bosses i’ll enlist a friend to help out!

Game Maker's Toolkit

Very cheeky at the end!

Marceline Leiman

Great video dude

To be fair, the stages of the bosses themselves help the player know they are making progress. It's a more broad progress marker, but it does say something. At a micro level, the boss will flash white so that the player knows that they are damaging the boss (though not how much)

Daphoa

Mate, really nice editing this time! I've gotta up MY game! Also, do you think you'll try it 2-player?

Dan Root

Nice video as always! Are you going to include FURI in your next video about boss fights? The game is literally made for it :D I've just finished it and I believe there s plenty of nice design and ideas to share regarding telegraphing, mechanics and boss phases.

Jakub Pander

So, do you find Cuphead's boss approach a good design? Because for the most part you explain "how" they did, no "if what they did was right".

Fascinating, I think the reason Bosses dont have Health bars is so that the player can keep their focus on dodging the boss's attacks instead. But I think it would have been nice to find a way to tell the player that they are making progress. Also I find the "memorizing of Boss patterns through repetition " very similar to Hitman's approach to making players learn the level.

Aadit Doshi

I recently did a video on the game's pattern variance. I like how you took it further and a bit deeper. Nicely done, Mark!

Alex Van Aken

Oh wow, that's got to be the fastest a game has gotten a video from you

Vitor Gomes