Adventure Game: Boss Battle Research

I decided to look to Final Fantasy XII's final boss battle for inspiration (coincidentally also one of my first boss battles as a kid.) The thing about this battle that intrigued me is the use of stages in combat-- every time you think he's beat, the boss character transforms into an ever more powerful form with new abilities that you must strategize to counter. It made the ending battle very long and arduous when I played it, but in my opinion, so much more worth it when I finally beat it at the end.

The structure of my adventure game lends itself to a boss with stages, as each of my four levels has a different elemental theme. I want the boss fight to be a culmination of everything the player has learned in the game up to that point, to really call back to earlier experiences and test the skills the player has accumulated over the course of the game. Games that do this instead of just presenting you with an enemy with a slightly deeper health pool and calling it a boss seem to be much more satisfying to the player.

Here are the skills that the player has learned in each level and some ideas on how I will apply them as mechanics in the boss fight:
EARTH
Skill: Using ice spells to structurally weaken rock.
Mechanic: Weakening the structures underneath the boss character to cause them fall damage/possibly a stun condition.
Boss Tactic: Launching rock "bombs" that injure the player and possibly make them "stick" for a short time. Boss is somewhat mobile during this stage.

ICE
Skill: Using fire spells to melt ice obstacles.
Mechanic: Using fire spells to melt the contact point between icicles and the ceiling, to be used as falling weapons against the boss.
Boss Tactic: Shooting icicles at player, possible chance of "freezing" player, slowing/stopping mana regeneration. Boss is relatively still during this stage.

FIRE
Skill: Using wind spells to put out fires and prevent their spread.
Mechanic: Using wind spells to counter fires which could threaten to burn down the area the player is standing in (allowing them to fall to their death.)
Boss Tactic: Setting fire to the player's area, which then spreads and threatens to consume them. Boss is mobile during this stage.

WIND
Skill: Using earth spells to block and redirect strong winds.
Mechanic: Using earth spells to prevent strong winds from pushing and keeping the player against the bottom edge of the screen, allowing them to move around freely again behind the shelter of rocks, AND/OR using earth spells to redirect winds in a way that triggers an advantageous event.
Boss Tactic: Whisking player up in an attempt to drop them and cause fall damage? Boss is very mobile during this stage, harder to hit.

My idea is to have the boss transform into the next elemental stage when it is about to be beaten, changing its tactics each time (its Earth form would use Earth attacks, etc.) I like the idea of bringing the environment into play which feels like a more clever and interesting way to gain an upper hand in combat than just being able to button mash spells quickly. At the end of the last stage, the boss will admit defeat at last and hopefully the player will walk away from the experience feeling a sense of victory and accomplishment.

Adventure Game: Achieving a "Retro" Look

Workshop scene with no post-processing.

Workshop scene with post-processing.

I'm working on a little wizard-themed game for Programming class and since we're limited to kitbashing in terms of art, I thought I'd put some effort into making the game look simple as a style and not as a limitation. I mostly looked back toward old adventure games of the Gameboy era and took inspiration from their pixelized graphics and signature olive green palette. Although I did want to incorporate other colors for better readability and visual interest, I tried to stick with a very unified, retro-looking color scheme.

Instead of modeling all my assets in a low-poly/pixel style and coloring them accordingly, I achieved the look I was going for by making use of some simple materials hooked up to a Post-Process Volume as blendables. The first step was to pixelate the scene, and the second was to achieve a sort of cell-shaded effect by splitting the value data into 5 distinct categories or "bands" on a value mapping image as opposed to the more natural value gradient of realistic lighting. Inside my custom value mapping texture, I was also able to apply the olive green tint, which helps any color present in the scene harmonize well with the rest. My value map does not include pure white, so any white material is mapped to a light green. Because of this, the more saturated a color is, the more "pure" the hue-- but all colored materials are essentially a blend between olive green and the input color.

I am planning to deviate from the olive green in later levels (switching to a primarily blue palette for the ice-themed level, for example,) but I'm really pleased with the look I was able to get for the intro level. This unique usage of post-process volumes allows me as an artist to achieve an almost 2D sprite look, but leverage the full 3D capabilities that Unreal offers.