This has been a really slow game to make for a number of reasons - I teach, I work as an illustrator, and have a full family life. I also have been teaching myself how to program for modern PCs (As a teenager I learned BASIC and a little assembly language for the Atari 800XL but did not publish anything).

An upshot of the slow pace and nebulous release schedule is that I can give a lot of thought to each mechanic that goes into the game. Some of these are callbacks to 8-bit games I loved playing when younger but mostly they are elements that are engaging to interact with and suit the storyline of a robot cleaning up slime in underground caves where mutant creatures now live. I will test each idea with some poorly drawn art made in GameMaker's art package and, if the idea works, recreate the art using Play-Doh, edit these in Photoshop, make some sound effects using Garage Band, edit them in Adobe Audition, and put it all together. If the idea doesn't work then all I've lost is some programming and design time. It's not a fast process as a solo developer but it's a good  mental balm from the stresses of life.

So far each level is very linear. That has bothered me a little because I do wish I had made procedurally designed levels but, considering the game feels that it's held together with metaphorical duct-tape, it's probably best the player doesn't push against the edges lest the game crashes. And linear isn't all that bad - it's worked for books (I'm going to ignore choose your own adventure style books), film, and TV (I'm going to ignore Netflix's interactive programs).

Last thing until the next update, whenever it happens - here's where one of my ideas came from. Above a baby changing table we had put up a dragon kite and a string of butterflies. Staring up at it after a bad night's sleep I realized this resembled a boss creature and its flying minions. Once I figured out how to make objects spin around a larger object a new boss monster was born.