Warden Boss Fight
Goals:
Create a boss fight for the Warden character; Emotional moment of Quill overcoming a seemingly impossible challenge and gaining the self-assurance that they can complete their Uncle’s plan. Test players mastery of the new weapon.
Inspiration:
The warden boss fight was created using inspiration from the LOTR Balrog fight, a few techniques from scary movies, a building sense of dread, a dramatic size difference and some ways to express mastery of the mechanics.
Outcome:
The boss fight is intended to work more as a puzzle instead of a pure test of player skill.
By clearly marking danger zones and giving the player multiple time to heal we give them plenty of time and information to find the solution to overcoming the challenge.
The Warden’s behavior and waves of enemies are used to give the player clear feedback that they are progressing through the fight.
Each time Quill damages the Warden his reactions become angrier and his attacks change their size and pacing to signal that the player has progressed in the fight.
Early in playtesting with the team, some team members worried that the mechanic of waiting for the Warden to attack would become boring or tedious. In response, I added the ability to damage the Warden during his quick attacks as a form of skill expression for expert players. After some playtesting with fresh players the reported that they appreciated the time to get used to the mechanic and felt like the Warden’s escalating reactions were a fun and clear indicator that they were winning.
The Warden was featured heavily in our marketing and the boss fight received positive reviews by players and critics.
