How to Create the World’s Greatest Boss Battle
Video game BOSS (n): a large and/or challenging enemy that blocks a player’s progression and acts as the climax/ending to the game’s environment, level, or world.
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 separate working parts that should be thoughtfully designed.
Just as 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. When that’s set, you can design a boss fight in three different ways:
- Learned moves—The boss encounter is designed around the players’ existing set of moves. You don’t have to teach the players anything new, and they feel as though they’ve mastered those skills when they defeat...