I made sure the boss had three distinct attacks. It can send out a normal projectile, a pillar that spawns on the player, and a ring. The ring started off as the same one from the first boss, but it became far too large in the big field. Eventually, I changed the scaling of the ring so it only scaled on Y instead of both X and Y. Since it only scales on one value it became a long and narrow obstacle that spins and the player will have to dodge like a jump-rope. It doesn’t have the issue of becoming impossible to avoid.
The boss is still lacking in some sound effects, but I added some already to its attack such as when it spawns the rings and flies into the air. When the boss moved it was janky and I didn’t like the flow of the fight especially with all its ranged attacks. I removed its moving functionality and decided to keep it stationary. I had the idea of making the boss shift positions every time it gets hit. It is a bit annoying to fight against, but I also want it to be a rather annoying fight. To balance it out a bit I gave this boss less life than usual.
There were a lot more attacks from the animation asset I hadn’t used. So I found all the ones that I really liked and worked well with the boss’ moves. On the animations, I added the specific attack it did and also gave it trails for cool effects. As I created new montages I added them to the attack function of the boss. I tested each one to make sure it looked good and it did what it was meant to do.
I change the values of the projectile, ring, and pillar several times. Their lifespan, speed, and damage are something that I will probably keep changing until I feel happy with their values. It makes sense to me that if an attack is easy to dodge it should do more damage. On the other hand, anything fast and difficult to dodge shouldn’t be unfairly punishing. The boss has been fun to fight so far, and it has great combos. Since it stays still the player is essentially just trying to stay alive long enough to get close. Since the boss moves every time it gets hurt the fight is always moving.
The ring went through a lot of improvements. I update its material so it looked more threatening. I slowed down its rotation speed so it would actually be possible to dodge it. So far the boss is progressing well and it is an enjoyable fight. The way the rings are shaped was unintentional but it ended up working out. It really works for me when I do random stuff sometimes.
I will keep tuning the boss and probably give the fight one or two more interesting twists. I also want to update the boss’ model to give it more interesting features. Probably cloth. Cloth is always awesome-looking.
GoldenGratus Games 