Who's The Boss (2024)

Roles-reversed dungeoncrawler roguelike.

Play as a dungeon boss who is protecting his lair from invading goblins who are stealing his magic crystals.

Process & Design

This game was born from the 2023 GMTK Game Jam, the theme was "roles-reversed", and inspired by dungeoncrawlers like Pixel Dungeon, I imagined what a game would be like where the player controls the Boss while the Hero farms improvements until reaching the final confrontation. Fitting into the roguelike genre, the main loop of the game revolves around the exponential growth of the difficulty of this confrontation, where the player can make strategic decisions when choosing their improvements at the end of each confrontation won.

Mechanics

Inconvenient Rats

Rats have erratic and unpredictable movements, and besides being noisy, they are capable of breaking your vessels that may contain a heart used to recover your HP, so burn them as soon as possible! Oh, and one more thing: the more goblins in your dungeon, the more rats will be born!

Minion Usage

At least you're not alone in this! You have the power to summon small skeletons that will go to the end of the dungeon after the invading Goblins. The strategy of using them during the Loot or the Duel is up to you!

Procedural Dungeon

Your cozy dungeon is undergoing a transformation with these invaders! Each generation offers a different path, and each time you defeat the Goblins it gets bigger and more dangerous.

Treasure Chests

As if the invasion wasn't enough, the Goblins are going through every room they can and stealing from you! Each chest grants a random buff to the Goblin, this buff is permanent and is applied to all reinforcements the Goblin calls in.

Getting Powerful

Congratulations, you won! But it's not over, you're stuck in a time loop and your enemies will come back stronger, it's time to prepare yourself! At the end of each level 3 random improvements will be available for you to choose one, think carefully about your choice!

Collecting Souls

You're getting stronger, and with every Goblin you destroy you collect its soul, I hope this comes in handy one day.