• Register
Boss 101 is the story about a boy, his jetpack and MILLIONS of randomly generated bosses. We aim to bring you as much fun and entertainment as possible.

UPDATES:

2018.07.07 Boss 101 and our development future!
2018.03.14 Boss 101 on Xbox One this Friday 5/18
2018.01.08 Boss 101, Big Free Update this Week
2017.12.31 Boss 101 End of the Year Wrap Up - Part 2
2017.12.17 Boss 101 End of the Year Wrap Up!
2017.12.10 Boss 101 Updates and News!

2017.12.02 More looks at the Boss himself
2017.11.26 Boss 101 Team News and More!
2017.11.18 Reviews and more
2017.11.11 Shipping is just the beginning!
2017.11.02 Boss 101 is OUT
2017.10.29 Boss 101 Releases in FOUR days
2017.10.21 Heading to Release in 12 days!
2017.10.15 Update, Trailers, Streams, More!
2017.10.07 Release Date Announced, November 2, 2017!
2017.09.30 Preview Gameplay and More!
2017.09.23 Tuning and PS Controllers
2017.09.16 World Building and Fun
2017.09.09 Tuning the nearly 300 hats in Boss 101
2017.09.03 September Development Update
2017.08.26 Hat Contest Winners
2017.08.20 How to Make A Hat in Boss 101
2017.08.12 Wiki, Contests and Early Beta
2017.08.05 Status Displays & Hat Contest Continues!
2017.07.29 Hat Contest
2017.07.22 Steam Achievements
2017.07.15 Lore and History Part 2
2017.07.08 Lore and History
2017.07.02 Arcade Games Roundup!
2017.06.25 Updates and Upgrades
2017.06.18 Hat Store Sorting
2017.06.11 Mini Quest Achievements
2017.06.08 Video Peek at Boss 101 by RobJ
2017.06.04 June Development Update
2017.05.27 Big Boss Bombs
2017.05.20 Super Boss Warps
2017.05.13 Weapon Effects, polish & great games!
2017.05.07 The Robo Council and More!
2017.04.29 Options and Keyboard Mapping
2017.04.23 Submergible Bosses
2017.04.15 Train Boss and Updates
2017.04.09 Three Years of Progress
2017.04.02 Super Bombs!
2017.03.25 Polish and Fun pt2
2017.03.19 Polish and Fun pt1
2017.03.12 BERL Video series, Part 9 The Hat Room
2017.03.04 BERL Video series, Part 8 Make A Boss!
2017.02.25 BERL Video series, Part 7 The Map Room
2017.02.18 BERL Video series, Part 6 Endless Boss Mode
2017.02.11 Progress Update towards Shipping
2017.02.05 BERL Video series, Part 5 The Upgrade Gophers
2017.01.28 BERL Video series, Part 4 The Upgrade Room
2017.01.21 BERL Video series, Part 3 The Arcade Room
2017.01.14 BERL Video series, Part 2 The Gun Store
2017.01.07 BERL Video series, Command Center
2017.01.01 BERL as your guide in Boss 101
2016.12.24 Boss 101 Year End Wrap Up
2016.12.17 Boss 101 December 2016 Gameplay Trailer
2016.12.10 Cameras and Warnings
2016.12.03 End of Round Awards
2016.11.26 Release Notes, VFX and MUCH MORE!
2016.11.19 Arcade Games, Options and Cleanup
2016.11.12 UI Improvements across last year
2016.11.05 Breakout Games and Art Re-use
2016.10.29 Making and arcade Tank Game for Boss 101
2016.10.22 Finishing the Gopher WIKI
2016.10.15 Tutorials and BERL
2016.10.09 The editors we use
2016.09.24 Guns in the Game
2016.09.17 Equipment, UI and Animations
2016.09.17 Equipment, UI and Animations
2016.09.03 Equipping you for battle!
2016.08.28 Dialog Box Advancements
2016.08.13 Help Panels and Rob's Store
2016.08.13 Polishing the Stores
2016.08.13 Polishing the Stores
2016.08.09 Sweating the details on the UI
2016.07.31 World Building with Environments
2016.07.25 Hats, Costumes and more!
2016.07.18 The Gopher Space Station
2016.07.12 Adding Fog in 2D Levels
2016.07.04 Making a Bow Weapon
2016.06.27 Debug Rooms and Bosses
2016.06.20 Polishing a Boss
2016.06.13 The Gopher Ambulance!
2016.06.06 Phone Calls and IRX 2016
2016.05.31 The Robo Council
2016.05.22 Pet and Map Room Magic
2016.05.15 Galactic Passports
2016.05.10 ROB's Travel Plans
2016.04.30 ROB has your back
2016.04.24 Warping in the Clicks Ship
2016.04.18 Cute Pet Buddies
2016.04.11 The Gravity Gun
2016.04.05 Humble Store, Rogues Gallery and more!
2016.03.28 World Building in Boss 101
2016.03.21 The Boss 101 UI and You!
2016.03.14 Dev Update and Early Access addressed
2016.03.07 Super Boss Battle Tunes
2016.02.29 Scheduling the Magic
2016.02.22 Making A Super Boss
2016.02.15 IRX 2016 T-Shirt Design
2016.02.08 Transporter Room
2016.02.01 Making Art the Smart Way
2016.01.25 Boss 101 Robo Weapon Hands!
2016.01.17 Boss 101 Robo-Fighting Hotline
2016.01.11 Map Room and Rob's Room Development
2016.01.04 Dialog Creation and Happy New Year
2015.12.27 Boss 101 Year of Development Review
2015.12.21 The Train Boss
2015.12.14 Your Awesome Chain Gun
2015.12.07 Tuning the Bosses
2015.11.30 Gopher Clicker and more!
2015.11.23 Boss 101 Release Date News
2015.11.16 Gopher Clicker and more!
2015.11.09 Background Creation in Boss 101
2015.11.02 Finding your Gopher Friends
2015.10.26 Making Weather in Boss 101
2015.10.19 Warp travel and Fireworks
2015.10.12 Boss Warp Gates
2015.10.05 Making the Hat Store
2015.09.28 Arcade Modes
2015.09.21 Cinematic Transitions and Zagnuts
2015.09.14 Endless Boss Launch
2015.09.07 Behind the Cinematics
2015.08.31 Updating the Arcade Machine
2015.08.24 World Building
2015.08.17 Steam Store Open and UI Improvements
2015.08.10 Creating Cinematic Stories
2015.08.01 Gopher Science Team & Sun stealing
>>>Links to all other updates for Boss 101<<<

Boss 101 is a shooter at its core and we like to think it's a little more since it's got a story driving it forward. It's not JUST blasting robo baddies and rolling onto the next level. There is real human drama here folks. This whole adventure is triggered when your brother makes a simple birthday request?



Image


Image
Image
Image


Image


Image

You get to roll YOUR OWN BOSS!

Image
A COMPLETE set for the kitty boss he would look like this!
When you need fashion and stylish upgrades we have HATS!!
One of the sweet hats you can purchase and bring into battle!

A few of the guns available to you during the game.

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image


Image


Image
Image
Image
Image


Take a break and fly a kite in Boss 101. Chat it up with your buddy as you soak in the rays. Maybe you’ll learn something.

Image
Image

You might end blasting samurai swords at warp!

Image

Talk with you soon and LIVE YOUR DREAMS!!!

-Tim

  • View media
  • View media
  • View media
  • View media
  • View media
  • View media
Post article RSS Articles

Hey all, this is Tim (one of the Boss 101 devs).

Want to help support the Boss 101 team and see Boss 102? YOU CAN!

Short version
Purchase it on Xbox One: Bit.ly
Purchase it on Steam: Bit.ly
Help with the Boss 101 translation project to bring Boss 101 to more regions: Bit.ly
Already have Boss 101 or don’t have the money? Spread the word about our game!


Long version
Thanks for your purchase of Boss 101. Whether you bought the game during a sale, when we launched or somewhere in between WE THANK YOU! It's been a crazy, wild ride getting to this point and we are so grateful for your support.

As you may or may not know, Boss 101 didn't exactly set the sales world on fire and due to this we are having to take a VERY hard look at our situation for future games. There is no plan to roll up the tents and leave town just yet but we have to scale back the production on games like Boss 102 until our financial situation stabilizes a lot more. At the moment we are all either looking or have extra jobs to help pay the bills. Things like sales and giveaways, while increasing our visibility, don’t really add a lot to the bottom line.

In the end – it’s about funds. We simply cannot go forward at the rate we have been burning our capital. At this point we would need to sell many more copies of the game to stabilize. We’re sitting at well under 3000 shipped copies at the moment across all platforms. Many, many of those were sold at a low or sale price (under $15/each) so even that number is deceiving.

When Boss 101 launched in November 2017 we sold the majority of ALL SALES TO DATE in the first three launch hours. This is exactly when we were on the front page of Steam. We were off the front page in about 3 hours and sales took a nosedive. In fact. If you total up all the money made after those first three hours (including console Boss 101 sales) we still haven’t matched that dollar amount. If a person had taken a job at Starbucks last November they would have made more money by today than all Boss 101’s sales. Take our profits and split it across three people over four years and you can imagine where we stand with our savings.

Boss 101 is the game we wanted to make and it was made with NO COMPROMISES. We made it as much for you as for us and we made it with our own money. Every time we felt there was something off, we adjusted it. Every time we thought something didn’t look good enough, we made it better. More animation, levels, weapons, hats, story. Everything serves one purpose, to entertain and give you the best value.

So here we are at the end of four years. Feeling great about the game itself but a sad we didn’t get the word out to more people. I know about one million ideas might be going through your head so let’s address a few of them. We want you on the same page as us after all.

What about a publisher? They could give you money and help with localization, translation, porting, marketing, etc!
We pitched Boss 101 to nearly every publisher that would listen. Letters, videos, gameplay, you name it. We offered as much as we reasonably could in terms of deals. Most publishers did a hard pass and a few did soft passes with “well, maybe next time”. We tried this route – believe us. Sure there might be more publishers out there but we did look long and hard!



What about YouTuber (insert name) or this awesome reviewer (insert other name) or what about (insert new name)!?!?! I just know they would love Boss 101!
We sent our nearly 1000 copies of Boss 101 to reviewers, YouTubers, media outlets and as many people as we could find. If they even looked like they might like Boss 101 they got a letter and a copy. In the end we had so few bites we didn’t even register on MetaCritic (you need four ‘verified’ reviewers to get a score). We even offered to partner with people to increase visibility by doing fun hats or promo things with them to promote Boss 101. Not one single returned mail on that idea.



What about Kickstarter? Crowdfunding? Etc
We never wanted to go this route. The goal was always to bring YOU the game FIRST and not ask for money until we had a solid product to deliver. We had seen so many failed crowd funded projects with bad time estimates and vast overpromising. We wanted to work at our own speed and unleash Boss 101 when the time was right. In the end that might have bitten us in the butt. At the same time we feel we did the right thing in MAKING the product before we SOLD the product.

Can’t you just port it to Switch, PS4, Ouya, Atari Jaguar? You would sell a TON OF COPIES!
Well, that is really about time and money and we just don’t have those resources at the moment. The game was always intended to go to console and if the fine folks and Microsoft hadn’t placed us in their great Indie Development program we might never had been on any console. Porting is not a press button affair and each iteration of the game on every system takes time and bug testing. We are three people (only one of us is a programmer). Boss 101 took nearly five months of work to bring to Xbox. We got those dev kits via the ID Xbox program. If we had to lease Switch Dev kits or PS4 or any other console we couldn’t do it easily.


Can’t you just translate it to Japanese, German or (insert language)? I bet it would sell a ton in (insert country)?
Same problem as above and maybe worse. Boss 101 has a TON of idiomatic expressions. It’s way more than a Google Translate away. It would take a lot of time (there is more dialog than you might guess). To top it off all the characters speak in particular ways that would best be handled by a pro. Again – this is time and money. Of course – that would also mean the insertion of all the new language text into the game via a system we don’t really have at the moment since Boss 101 is an English based game made primarily by English speaking people.

We DO have an option to bring the game to various regions and languages though! See the Boss 101 translation project here: Bit.ly



What can I do to help!?! I want to see Boss 102!
Simply put – we need to sell many more copies.

First – if you have bought the game – THANK YOU. You have done so much already. If you have not bought the game we would ask you continue to support us with recommendations on anywhere and everywhere. It means a lot to have a good rating or “Thumbs Up”. If you really don’t like the game or feel it’s not your thing fair enough. Sadly some of the negative reviews seem to amount to little more than “Good game but not my thing – THUMBS DOWN”. Haha. We always hope we are rated for the goals we set as much as the fun you had. Still – you opinions are you own.

If you bought the game on sale or won it in a contest – THANK YOU AGAIN. We are so glad to have you here and thank you so much for playing Boss 101. If you could recommend us or point a friend our way that would be awesome. Heck, if you want to gift Boss 101 to a buddy – please do! If you want to help with some Boss 101 Store translations then please check out the translation project (Bit.ly).

Streaming, posting, blogging, V-Logging, reviews and everything in-between all help us raise awareness and ideally bring in people to see and purchase Boss 101.

We’re hoping to continue to make more games and Boss 102 is at the top of that list. To do that we will need not only your support but the support from as many friends and fans as possible. We think the game is great and we want to see it succeed. We know it’s not for everybody yet we feel there is a player base out there. If you can help us – we would greatly appreciate it. Regardless, we’re hanging in there and bringing you our best!

Thank you and always remember to LIVE YOUR DREAMS!

-Tim

Boss 101 - Out Now
Xbox One: Microsoft.com
Steam: Store.steampowered.com
Please check it out if you would be so kind!

2018.03.14 Boss 101 on Xbox One this Friday 5/18

2018.03.14 Boss 101 on Xbox One this Friday 5/18

News

Short version - Boss 101 is out on Xbox One this Friday!

2018.04.28 Zazmo Arcade Weekly Update 4/28

2018.04.28 Zazmo Arcade Weekly Update 4/28

News

We are back on Zazmo full time so look for us to be wrapping up Zazmo and getting it out of Early Access.

2018.04.23 Zazmo Arcade Weekly Update 4/23

2018.04.23 Zazmo Arcade Weekly Update 4/23

News

Not a whole lot to report. We had a busy week with game submission BUT we do want to add we are prepping for our Xbox One console release as well we our...

2018.04.15 Zazmo Arcade Weekly Update

2018.04.15 Zazmo Arcade Weekly Update

News

With the wrap-up of Boss 101 we will be doing two things. The first will be finishing up the Early Access for the Zazmo Arcade Pack 1 (ZAP1) and then...

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 37)
HungryPixel
HungryPixel

i really love this pixel art desing

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
Guest
Guest

Holy crap! This looks awesome!
I hadn't heard of it before. Wishlisting immediately :D

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
DonleyTimeFoundation Creator
DonleyTimeFoundation

Thank you so much! We appreciate it!

Reply Good karma+3 votes
Rob12772
Rob12772

Really looking forward to play this game!

Keep up the good work.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
DonleyTimeFoundation Creator
DonleyTimeFoundation

Thank so much! We have been working on this so long and the light at the end of the tunnel is visible! Appreciate the support and look forward to getting Boss 101 in your hands!

Reply Good karma+3 votes
Foxxen
Foxxen

Great looking game, keep it up! >___> ..put it on nintendoooo

Reply Good karma Bad karma+5 votes
DonleyTimeFoundation Creator
DonleyTimeFoundation

Yes!!! We would love to see this on a Nintendo console. The main goal at the moment is the PC release but immediately after that we are looking at console and as many languages as we can reasonably manage! Thank you!

Reply Good karma+3 votes
JillValentine69
JillValentine69

this game looks amazing! please keep updating it im really looking forward to trying this!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
DonleyTimeFoundation Creator
DonleyTimeFoundation

Hey thank you so much! Appreciate the kind words and support!

Reply Good karma+3 votes
BitGlitch
BitGlitch

Really cool looking game, I really like the art style!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
DonleyTimeFoundation Creator
DonleyTimeFoundation

Thank you! Appreciate the kinds words. We're working hard to make Boss 101 special.

-Tim

Reply Good karma+3 votes
Post a comment

Your comment will be anonymous unless you join the community. Or sign in with your social account:

X

Latest posts from @donleytime

Quick shout out to the team working on Freja and the False Prophecy! Their Kickstarter is almost funded. Check it o… T.co

Dec 23 2018

Hey all, hope you are having a fantastic holiday! It's been a short while since we posted but there are happenings… T.co

Dec 23 2018

RT @toborprime: SAVAGE: The Shard of Gosen is showing alongside a TON of other amazing titles -- AND among 4 games within the "BEST… T.co

Nov 10 2018

Now this made us all smile. Really, this is one of the reasons we made Zazmo and Boss 101. Check out Parker's Gamin… T.co

Sep 29 2018

RT @DeclanKenyon1: @xstaggerxleex @DonleyTime @ISgtZodiacI Just realised I have this game so just a friendly retweet

Sep 29 2018

RT @GrayGameReviews: @DonleyTime GetBoss 101 is an excellent shoot em up with so much content it’s unbelievable !! So many different way… T.co

Sep 29 2018

RT @DonleyTime: Love this game on lvl 15 now reking stuff amazing game from @DonleyTime much thanks to @IndieGamerChick for this ❤… T.co

Sep 10 2018