Top-down shooter development week 5

My recent work on my next top-down shooter has been divided between music, cutscenes, and boss tweaks, similar to what I mentioned in my last post.

The boss tweaks are fairly minor, but have made the fight feel a lot more satisfying. In playtesting I found that the boss used its abilities too randomly, which led to the fight sometimes being too hard, or very often being much too easy. I changed the boss behavior so it's now more regular, but still with a bit of randomness. I have a little more to do in this regard, but I'm happy with how it's going.

The music has been more challenging to compose than I expected. When I made the music for my last game, Mutiny in Fish Space, I had a clear idea of what I wanted it to be: a water level with some action. This made it easier for me as a first-time composer to make something I was happy with. My next game mostly takes place in a more abstract world, and I'm finding it harder to land on something I'm happy with. In fact, I had hoped to publish this devlog days ago with the finished music track.

Moving forward, I plan on setting perfectionism aside and whipping up a track so it stops stalling development. After launch I may replace the music with a more refined or completely new version, but time will tell. If anyone has advice on composing around writer's block, I'd love to hear!