level 3 dropped.
boss rush, UFO mode, secret stuff.

a week ago i shipped DASH. today i shipped the biggest update i've ever made to anything.

level 3 is live. it's a boss rush. 3 monsters, each one fires a continuous 2-second laser across the screen. you have to dodge them while the song is playing. it is, scientifically, the hardest thing i have ever asked anyone to do with one button.

what's new

• UFO mode. a new game mode that shows up in level 3. unlike ship mode where you HOLD to thrust up, in UFO mode you tap to pulse upward. each tap = one little jump in the air. then gravity pulls you down. (yes it's basically flappy bird. yes i know.)
• 3 boss monsters. they hover. they charge up (red flash). they fire. you have 0.5s of warning. each boss attacks a different part of the screen — top, bottom, middle. each laser lasts 2 full seconds.
• speed pads. orange = 1.6× speed. blue = back to normal. they make timing way harder. on purpose.
• 3 secret coins. hidden in dangerous spots. one is BELOW the laser, one is ABOVE the laser, one needs perfect timing during the final boss.
• +8 coin boss bonus. first time you beat the level you bank 8 extra coins. not repeatable. one shot.
• new skin: FRACTURE. a cube split in half, no face. unlocks for free when you beat level 3.
• new ship: BIRDSHIP. a bird-shaped ship that carries your cube inside it. costs 8 coins in the shop. shows up in ship mode and UFO mode.
• new soundtrack. minor key, descending phrygian-ish opening. 160 BPM. it's the most aggressive thing in the game.

what was hard

the lasers. specifically: scheduling them.

each boss has a fireInterval in beats. when the player gets close, the boss starts a state machine: idle → charging → firing → idle. the charging state shows a thin red warning line so you can see where the laser is about to be. then the warning becomes the laser. then it disappears.

my first version had every boss fire on a global timer. it looked cool but felt unfair — you'd take damage from a boss off-screen. now each boss only starts charging when the player is within 14 beats of it. feels way better.

what i learned

building UFO mode after already having cube and ship modes was easier than i expected. all 3 modes share the same gravity loop — they just have different impulse rules. tap = pulse. hold = thrust. land = jump. that's the whole game's controls in one sentence.

also: making something hard is harder than making something easy. i had to playtest level 3 like 40 times to get the boss timings right. my friend who beat it on the first try made me feel awful and then good.

play it

level 3 is unlocked from the start — you don't have to beat 1 and 2 first. but i recommend you do. you'll want the muscle memory.

▶ PLAY DASH NOW

what's next

v06 of the website. then maybe a level 4. or a totally different game. depends what i feel like building when i wake up tomorrow.

— glitch.v4