Changed all the numbers for the health and the light resource. Made sure they had a ratio of 1:2 when going back and forth. Had to adjust the costs of some skills as well so it would match it properly. And it feels a lot better, more balanced and easier to manage. The only ones that I’ll have to manage more are the boss’ numbers and that’s good, so I don’t have to go back and forth between the character and the enemies.
Once I got that down I worked on making the pillar and it’s rings more interesting and dynamic. Added a new type that did more damage but didn’t slow the player. And changed the material so it was easier to discern the position of the rings. It create an exciting fight of dodging and weaving. Plus I figured a way around my problem of the golem having attacks, I instead gave it “attacks” where it summoned extra pillars. That way it doesn’t necessary have to aim for the player. With the new attacks in place, which I still have to add to, I added the extra boss puzzle as well.
I want most if not all the fights to have a puzzle within the combat. There is still a choice to ignore the puzzle altogether but it would make the fight easier to solve it. I created a shield that the player has to try and figure out how to break. So I had to create objects that the player would need to figure out how to use. It wasn’t too hard to get it to work, just had to figure out the best way I wanted it to work. The puzzles are very similar to the ones inside the house, so the player will have some idea of what to do.
I also wanted the pillars to appear in a certain radius from the boss, I didn’t know how to do it elegantly so I merely placed a ring, with a point on it, and made the ring rotate every time a new pillar was summoned.
Once the shield was broken I had to come up with a way that the shield would come back. I didn’t want it to be on a timer, or to come back when the health of the boss was at a certain level. I came up with a simple and easy method where a variable tracks the damage from the time the shield breaks. Then when the threshold is hit the shield returns. And the player has to figure out the next way to break the shield. I don’t want to spoil too much but I think it is quite serendipitous that there is a formation on the back of the golem that looks like a clock. So I had to use it, I don’t want to spoil too much since it’s part of the puzzle.
I hadn’t done any logic so far that required something to be executed N number of times, so I had to learn how it worked in Unreal. It was quite confusing at first to get it to do what I wanted, but eventually I figured out how to loop it properly. This is very important for how the fight will play out. I am very happy with the flow of the stage and the fight. I still have to add more attacks, and one or two more pillars. And effects as well are missing. The sound is such an integral part of the game. Thankfully I found a source on Reddit recently who has been releasing free sounds for years. So I’m downloading some of them and it should be well worth it.
GoldenGratus Games 