Level Up.pdf

Who’s the Boss? 319
At first glance, a boss battle may appear to be an encounter with a very,
very, very large enemy with too much health. But this is an underestimation.
Bosses are very complex creatures with many unique and separate working
parts that should be thoughtfully designed.
Just like with enemies, boss characters are fun to create. But before you
start designing your boss, you must first make sure that you have
completely defined the player ’ s move and attack set. Once that ’ s set, there
are three different ways to design a boss fight:
• Learned moves. The boss encounter is designed around the player ’ s
existing set of moves. You don ’ t have to teach the player anything new
and they feel like they ’ ve mastered those skills when they defeat the
boss. The Mario titles design their bosses this way.
• New abilities. The boss encounter is designed around the player
gaining a new weapon or new move. The player ’ s learning curve is part
of the boss round ’ s difficulty. You find this in many of the bosses in the
Legend of Zelda series.
• Combination. No one is saying these two design styles are mutually
exclusive. Make sure to stage your encounter with emphasis placed on
one style or the other — don ’ t try to do both at once.
Who ’ s the Boss?
Boss design is just like enemy design, where form should follow function.
Knowing the boss ’ movement and attacks will determine the boss ’
appearance: if he can shoot, give your boss a gun (or a magic spell or a
rocket launcher or a large nose to sneeze out nose goblins), and if he can
defend himself, give him a shield (or a force field or protective cowling or a
missile - deflecting karate move). In a nutshell, if they can do it, they should
have it.
Next, consider how does the boss relate to the hero? No, I don ’ t mean in a
“ Darth Vader is your father ” way, but rather what does the boss represent?
The James Bond movies of the 1960s and 1970s had a really good formula
for bad guys. There were technically three “ boss types ” that Bond had to
defeat.