Demo Boss Designs

[Nodding]

Dear all. Attached is a work in progress design document for the three bosses that will be present in the demo. I would love to hear feedback on their proposed behaviors, and any other thoughts on them. Happy reading!

El Capitan Man-o-in-Charge-o (aka Captain PP McGee)

Description:
A skeleton about two players tall and one and a half players wide. A clear captain of the ship, being puppeted by vines from the floor. Has a sword in one hand, and an empty one near a bag of bombs strapped to his side. Wears that signature pirate captain hat. He is somewhat quick, with his sword circle dealing a small amount of damage (0.5). His bombs deal 1 whole heart.

Scene Structure:
He would have the typical setup (Root node is KinematicBody2D. AnimationPlayer, Sprite, CollisionShape, NetworkObject.)
In addition he would have a detection area like the bat, skeleton etc. If a player stands in the small detection area for too long, the boss uses his sword attack.

Pseudo”””CODE””” behavior:
Ready process, set his health attack etc. We discussed health scaling a while back based on the number of players fighting, should not be too hard.

Physics process, the skeleton should have priority if there are players inside the detection circle. When one enters it, a countdown starts. Once a second or two is reached, he begins the animation for his melee attack.

This attack should be a simple large circle attack like the player does, only scaled to reach around his body. There should be a clear indicator before he attacks to show something is coming, but not too long to trivialize the boss. After his melee attack he should distance himself from players so he has a chance to perform his other attack, where he drops bombs.

If a player is outside the detection circle, he should be able to calculate where the closest player is. After a short wait, he should rush at the player while dropping a few bombs behind himself. These bombs should be bigger than normal bombs in terms of sprite size and explosion radius. Yea I know its kinda dumb to have the bigger bombs do less actual damage but hear me out: it’ll look cool.

The Head of the Tail Chasers

Description:
The head thief of a notorious gang that stole the main character’s items is a sly feline. Imagine the Nyakuza Empress from A Hat in Time. She is a little bit taller than a regular player. She is met at the beginning of the bow shrine, covered in unassuming rags speaking of how in the next room scary, ruthless thugs have taken over and that we should just give up hope and turn back.

Once at the end of the bow shrine, standing in the middle is the raggy figure we saw at the beginning of the shrine. She quickly reveals herself, throwing off the rags and could maybe say something like “You will not be getting this back!” (This does not need to be intractable dialogue, just text that appears above her head briefly before the fight starts.)

I’m unsure exactly how she will look, definitely in clear thief attire and she should be quick, and her clothes should allow her to “be fast.”

Scene Structure:
She would have the typical setup (Root node is KinematicBody2D. AnimationPlayer, Sprite, CollisionShape, NetworkObject.)

In addition she would have a detection area like the bat, skeleton etc. This would be a rather large detection area, for the sole purpose of being able to see the nearest couple of players to shoot at with the bow.

Pseudo”””CODE””” behavior:
Ready process, set her health attack etc. We discussed health scaling a while back based on the number of players fighting, should not be too hard.

Physics process, the miniboss should be pretty basic for now (i think this could be a cool recurring boss that gets harder and harder.) She would rotate between different attacks. The first would depend on her health. If she is over half her health, she shoots 2 arrows in the four cardinal directions. If not, she would shoot arrows and rotate around to force the players to move. Then she would move to the top right of the screen and shoot volleys of 2 arrows quickly in straight lines down the room. Then she will run up to a close by player and then go back to the first attack.

Plant Monster

Description:
A large plant, mainly purple and green entangling the entire ship. The players would be warped to a room that appears to be outside the ship, with the plant entrapping them so they can not run off. It has a large head with a huge underbite, and large spines running around the back of its head. It juts out of the ship, clearly covering a hole with purple vines that the players want to get into. Large sword-like thorns guard this hole as well.

Inside the hole, its beating heart, encased in vines, beats ominously.

Scene Structure:
This is going to be very abnormal. Mainly because the way the players interact with the boss is by first bombing the plants that pop up that are colored purple, to open the hole in the ship to the heart. Then, they slash at that heart.

The boss’s head may not need a collision2d. It definitely needs a sprite.

That said, the vines do, to hurt the player if they touch it.

The popping up plant enemies need to do the same as well, while also being able to lunge at the player.

Lastly the sword-thorns need one so they can hit the players that get too close to them. They should swing only when one gets close, so a detection area is needed.

Pseudo”””CODE””” behavior:
This will be a challenge to explain clearly but I will do my best. There are going to be about 4 parts to this boss.

The head + vines around the arena - the easiest to put in. There to decorate and set the tone. The head should move around and react to being hurt. The vines should have a collision box that simply hurts the players.

The popping up plants (green) - these guys spawn in randomly around the arena in a set area (area2d maybe?) and behave like the ones in the dungeon itself. For a recap, they can be killed slowly by sword (REAL SLOW) or if you place a bomb and make the plant lunge towards it, itll swallow and explode and die.

The popping up plants (purple) - these guys will spawn in after a set time, and when killed, open up the purple vines covering the hole to the ship.

The sword thorns (throwns?) - near the hole to the ship. When the purple vines move away, they do too. When someone gets close, they swipe at them and damage them. They can not be killed or look like they are getting hurt when swung at.

The heart room + heart - when the players enter the hole guarded by purple, they are faced with a short walk to the heart. This heart is slashed at, there is some screenshake, and this is repeated two more times for a total of three. Each time the players revisit the room, there are more obstacles in the way. Once defeated, the boss is killed.