S.P.I.N Bot: Boss Rush Game Jam 2025

To play the game yourself or to check out other entries in the jam head over to: https://conningemu.itch.io/spin-bot

In January I participated in the Boss Rush game jam with a few other people to create a boss-rush game within a month. The theme for the jam was SPIN. So in addition to creating a boss rush game with multiple bosses, we also needed to create a game that would fit best with that theme.

I was Lead Design as well as Lead artist. We also had a progammer, a level designer and UI artist, and a musician on the project.

We placed in the top 8% of all submissions overall. Our highest scores were in fun and visuals

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the design of the game, is how much it shaped the other parts of the game.

Levels needs to have specific shapes in order to not leave the player frustrated while chasing after the top. We needed to remove all normal corners and small confined spaces in order to guarantee that the top never gets stuck anywhere disadvantageous for the player.

Similarly bosses needed to be designed in such a way that if the player gets an opportunity to hit the top they should always be able to deal damage to the boss because otherwise the player makes very little progress.

For more information or to see what other people had to say about the game, check out the submission page here: https://itch.io/jam/boss-rush-jam-2025/rate/3286057

We started our design with the goal to create a 2d top-down action game while still fitting the theme of spin. We bounced around a couple of ideas that would fit well in a top-down game including: rotating floors, using a revolver as a weapon, or making the player the top.

Ultimately we decide that having the player interact with a top could be a interesting spin on the prompt while staying relatively familiar for the players.

This worked well, once players understood how to deal damage to bosses, the loop was fun while being relatively unique

Reviews

“Fun, creative and consistent, I really liked it”

“Once I realized the weakness of my flesh, I turned into a machine that chases after my beyblade and strikes it.”

“This game is sick, the boss designs go pretty hard”