The title of Midnight Munchies’ latest game – ONE BTN BOSSES – is effectively all you need to know about what to expect. It’s a description of the challenge, an explanation of the user experience, and a promise of accessibility.
An original ONE BTN BOSSES demo was published to Newgrounds and itch.io. Since then, the developers have partnered with Among Us creators Innersloth through their Outersloth funding initiative.
Midnight Munchies are now able to deliver us the fully realized vision of that minimalistic boss rush title. The commercial release of ONE BTN BOSSES can be found on Steam, here and is launching on August 6.
We were lucky enough to hear from the team at Midnight Munchies. Alongside some hands-on time with the game ahead of its release next month.
‘A One Dimensional Boss Fight’
If you’re not already aware of ONE BTN BOSSES’ core gameplay, then our job of describing it to you is made all the easier by the game’s title. You are a triangular spaceship, in a boss rush title, circling around a similarly polygonal boss encounter while continually firing.
Oh, and you can only do one thing – press a single button which changes your direction.
The boss fights do become incrementally more complex, with differing projectiles and planes of movement for your three-sided ship. However, while your engagement with the game stays consistent throughout – through that one, single button – the game transforms around you.
Brin Žvan is a Game Designer at Midnight Munchies. They believe that – by limiting player movement to one dimension – gamers can more readily notice their mistakes, and improve on their runs;
“It’s a lot easier for you the player to see that – to spot where the optimization can come in. I think that’s a part of the fun … that happens in a microcosm of five minutes when you’re doing the same fight over and over”
Brin Žvan, Game Designer – Midnight Munchies
The “focus of the game is the one-button gameplay,” Žvan detailed to us. Players can use their seemingly simple system of control to play through two distinct, yet equally important game modes. From the specially designed, somewhat linear, campaign to the rouguelite ‘Rifts’ mode.
A ‘Handcrafted Campaign’
The roughly four-hour campaign – of which we have only experienced an introductory section – follows you, the player, as you accompany Ace, an anthropomorphic cat. In your championing of Ace, you endeavor to unravel the corporate greed of the bosses. These bosses have seemingly cheated Ace out of their honest paycheck – and we’re here to help them get it back!
The bosses are tackled on a somewhat linear path, with some forks in the road to allow for multiple routes. While the demo we engaged with had only four mandatory boss fights, the third engagement was split in two – to tackle either ‘QU4D’ or ‘STAR’ before proceeding to ‘THE FUTURE’.
We’ve seen what can happen when you place gameplay at the forefront of your game’s mission. Nintendo has struggled more than others to craft engaging narratives for nearly forty years. As such, I didn’t expect Midnight Munchies’ gameplay focus to be levied by such a genuinely funny and engaging narrative premise.
Yet, the Midnight Munchies team has admitted that the plot of ONE BTN BOSSES’ campaign came relatively late into development. Žvan states that; “It started out as a game without a story … but the more we kept working with the game, the more we felt like it would be good if it had character to it.”
While the term ‘boss’ is ubiquitous in the industry now, the fact that the name came from our real-life counterparts has long since been lost on many gamers. However, it seems like Midnight Munchies is gearing up to use ONE BTN BOSSES’ genre to tell a tale of capitalistic corruption and worker revolt.
I’m sure nobody is expecting a Red Faction-like story when the game is released. However, the genuine attempt to weave some sort of engaging narrative is one that is much appreciated. Especially when the gameplay loop of the title could stand so proudly without one.
Roguelite R&D (‘Rifts and Developments’)
Continuing with its corporate naming conventions – the roguelite R&D (‘Rifts and Developments’) mode is the second pillar of ONE BTN BOSSES’ gameplay package.
However, it firmly establishes itself as a core facet of the title. ONE BTN BOSSES’ ‘Rifts’ are not just a last-minute addendum to capture the booming roguelike indie scene.
Players familiar with roguelike elements will be familiar with the upfront presentation of the mode. Hoever, Rifts are more than just a fun time-sink. Players can strategically challenge harder foes to earn more elaborate upgrades to their ship, limited to each run, or pick up health and upgrades on select tiles.
These power-ups – called ‘Discoveries’ – alter and optimize your playstyle. From increasing your maximum speed to altering your ship’s firing so that you can only shoot medium-sized bullets.
However, like everything in ONE BTN BOSSES, Rifts have seemingly been meticulously balanced around the player experience. Rifts exist as simultaneously an endgame arena of endless possibilities and a training ground for campaign progression.
We were only able to engage with a single floor of the R&D mode. However, it has been confirmed that the mode is five floors long as “everybody knows that, after the fifth floor, there is no R&D department.” At the end of this boss rush roguelite mode, your accumulated score will then be uploaded to a leaderboard.
Accessibility ‘Never Felt Like a Concession’
Even before speaking with Midnight Munchies, their focus on accessibility is clear before even booting up the game. ONE BTN BOSSES is a promise of accessibility. Not only through its single-input gameplay but through its presentation of the boss rush and roguelike genres to a new audience.
With only one button to press, Midnight Munchies have stripped away the complexities of boss fights. As such, they’re able to present a concentrated experience with effectively no barrier to entry. Where Pokemon could be seen as an entry-level Role Playing Game, ONE BTN BOSSES presents boss fights and roguelikes to beginners.
Accessibility has remained relatively low on the list of priorities for many developers. In contrast, Midnight Munchies has been focused on creating a title that is open to anyone interested in it;
“[Accessibility] was more seen to us as a design challenge. It’s also something, for us as a team, that we realized over the time that we were making the game how big of an impact these sorts of things can be.”
Brin Žvan, Game Designer – Midnight Munchies
However, accessibility doesn’t end with gamers’ physical engagement with the title and its genres. While they inhabit the world of ONE BTN BOSSES, gamers will interact with agendered characters, while occupying the role of a minimalistic triangle. Any player, regardless of skill level or personal identity, can engage fully with Midnight Munchies’ game systems.
It’s ‘a Little Bit of a Rhythm Game’
Music might not be something that every title needs. However, if you were to mute ONE BTN BOSSES’ synthwave soundtrack it would be dearly missed. Beyond that, it would be shown how integral it is to the gameplay experience.
Composer James Evans’ has worked prolifically with the Midnight Munchies team before, on titles such as FWD and /Tilt/. In ONE BTN BOSSES, this collaboration bore fruit through the creation of the game’s unique visual and audio spectacle.
Žvan conceded that the core identity of ONE BTN BOSSES is its tight and accessible gameplay. However, they proudly stated that the soundtrack of the title works in tandem with the visual effects and its boss-rush genre. He detailed that: “I think ONE BTN BOSSES is a little bit of a rhythm game. Partially because of the music – because it’s just a banger soundtrack – and partially because of the fact that it plays like a rhythm game in its meta loop.”
Thumping basslines accentuate the tempo of boss attacks, and ringing church-like bells create an ethereal atmosphere. All while thousands of projectiles head your way. Even the limited soundtrack of the demo is transformative. There’s no doubt it’ll most likely be greatly expanded upon in the title’s full release.
‘A Game That’s Very Easy to Add Content To’
It’s somewhat premature to be looking post-launch for ONE BTN BOSSES. However, Midnight Munchies is excited about what the future could hold for their multi-layered minimalist magnum opus.
Žvan couldn’t commit to post-launch support for the title, but was extremely optimistic about the potential for additional content. They teased that; “We would like to do a lot of things, but my mouth will stay sealed for now – it’s a game that’s very easy to think of new permutations for … it feels like a game that’s very easy to add content to.”
Midnight Munchies has also expressed its desire to extend ONE BTN BOSSES’ reach to as many players as possible. While that desire has been molded into the game’s accessibility, the team also has one eye on porting the title to as many platforms as they can. With its minimal user-input requirement and pixel-art aesthetic, ONE BTN BOSSES could be on as many devices as DOOM;
“We had our musician, at some point, run the prototype on a smart fridge … but for real, we want to put it on consoles as well … it’s still something that’s in the conversation – we want to do it, but we just have to figure out how to do it.”
Brin Žvan, Game Designer – Midnight Munchies
The amount of content we’ve had our hands on with ONE BTN BOSSES could have lasted us hours if we were keen to engage with the game’s gameplay loop of constantly improving our scores. Yet the promise of a more rounded-out experience – with seemingly more than five times the content – is an immense draw towards the full release.
With haphazard core gameplay, a team must pull off some development wizardry to move their title from a muddling mess to a masterpiece. However, Midnight Munchies has not only presented a tightly wound gameplay experience but has also expressed an earned confidence in their gameplay systems. Beyond that, ONE BTN BOSSES’ narrative campaign has – in under 15 minutes of play – enticed me more to a future release than many other titles in recent times.
ONE BTN BOSSES can be found on Steam, here – and is launching on the platform on August 6.
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