Archive: 18 posts

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This has got to be one of my most favourite things in LBP - boss battles. And bosses are actually quite tricky to make - for me, at least. How do you show the player how to kill the boss? Will the player be able to get into places they shouldn't? Are there any blind spots? You get the picture - but the point is, boss battles are rather tricky to get right. Hopefully, this'll be of some help to you, whether you're making a simple spitting snake or a multi-armed machine with multiple weapons. So, what is a Boss? The boss is the big, bad, meanie guy at the end of your level. He's much harder to kill than the general enemy, and he'll generally have many more devastating attacks up his sleeve. Normally, a level cannot be completed until the boss has been killed, so the boss is the last thing your level players see - which means he should make an impact. Getting Started with a Boss My style of creating is to experiment in my level - not separately. Most of my ideas are born right where they end up. But the one area this really doesn't work is boss battles. Why? Because boss battles take planning. It's no use saying halfway through "I want my boss to have an extra arm with three plasma guns and a laser" because chances are, trying to put one in is going to spoil your boss completely. From the start you need to know: Who the boss is. This will be heavily influenced by your story and the level setting. Make sure the character fits the theme of the rest of the level Exactly what you want the boss to do. Knowing this at the start will save you headaches later. How the boss is going to die. Will the player shoot it? Throw bombs at it? Push it into a volcano? Alright, I know what you're thinking. All this stuff is OBVIOUS! But the point I'm trying to make is boss battles need PLANNING. If you do not plan your boss you are in for hours of headaches (maybe even so many hours that you run into the 160 hour bug, like I did). If you've invested some time to get your boss's attack set, behaviour, maybe even a sketch, down in your notepad - you will know what you're doing. NB: When you're thinking about what the boss is, try to think outside of the box. People are going to like your boss better if it has original attack sets/damage system, not if it has umpteen sections of plasmas and paintballs. I'm a Boss - It's My Job to Kill You Here we'll discuss what your boss should do (as I'm leaving who the boss is up to you). Your boss is there to kill the player - that is without doubt. How is up to you, and may depend on the setting, but let's just take a look at some of the do's and don'ts of your baddie's behaviour. DO Give the player a safe place to spawn. They will not be happy if they spawn right into the path of a plasma ball with no chance of dodging it. Vary attacks (if you can, or if suitable). A boss that just sits spitting isn't very interesting. If you can't vary the attack, vary the timing of the attack. Have it turn off for a few seconds to expose a weakness, as Mm did with Terrible Oni and the fireballs. Give the player a pattern to follow, or prior warning. What I mean by this is that if the boss isn't looping its attacks with a predefined pattern, the player doesn't know what's coming next, which gives them less chance of surviving. Have a warning light or sound occur to give them a prod in the right direction. DON'T Fill the place with crazy attacks that you know the player has little hope of dodging. Give the player more than two things to think about at once (eg, avoiding dropping bombs and moving lasers, but not also while negotiating bottomless pits) Expose weaknesses unless you have planned to. There is nothing worse than gearing up for a boss fight only to find you can stand in a spot that isn't attacked and shoot a paintswitch through a 1mm gap in the bodywork. Sure, I'm Hard to Kill, but I'm Not Invincible ... So - you have the attacks up to scratch. So - how to kill your boss? Perhaps the easiest way is to have him fall into a giant hole where he can't hurt the player, or have him crushed by something or other. The player has to do a series of actions to collapse the floor/ceiling, for which you could use normal logic. The boss has seversl "weakspots" in the form of creature brains - once all the creature brains are gone, the boss disintegrates (if you're using this technique, make sure your boss is not attached to the rest of the level). Creature brains can also be destroyed by one-shot inputs - see my tutorial for more information. The player must use paintinator switches to defeat the boss in some way. You've got plenty of option as to how you can punish your bad guy - you could even use a combination of techniques - but the key point here is to make any weakspots and/or switches blatantly obvious to the player. OK, so we're just about bossed out at the moment. Do play my online tutorial, where you can learn how to make your boss behave dynamically and play an exemple boss for yourselves. You can see how to turn attacks on and off, how to trigger events when brains are destroyed etc. The exemple contains some good bits and bad bits about bosses - as a general rule, if something is annoying for you, it is twice as annoying for the player. Anyway, hope you found this useful, hope I haven't rambled on for too long. Give us a shout if you want to do something I haven't mentioned in the thread or the level, and I'll get back to you ASAP. Happy gadding! Note: If you've seen any mention of a level tutorial in this post, ignore it! I believe I have deleted it accidentally.

2010-03-05 11:49:00 Author: Holguin86 Posts: 875

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Update 1 - "Respawn Zones" I'm posting this in response to someone asking how I made the checkpoint barriers in my online tutorial. This is a technique I like to use often in my bosses - where the checkpoint is in the layer behind all the action and moves away or is blocked off once the player has spawned and cleared the middle plane (if you've no idea what I'm talking about, go play my level). By using this method, the player can respawn but cannot use the checkpoint area as a "safe place" throughout the battle - in my opinion it makes for a more exciting boss knowing there is nowhere to run and hide. The technique is also very easy to implement. Simply place a searchlight from the MGS pack in the middle layer so it is pointing at your respawn point, connect it up with a directional input to the piston or winch that moves your blocker, and the player will be able to leave the checkpoint area but not re-enter it until they die once again.

2010-03-07 20:45:00 Author: Holguin86 Posts: 875

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I still have yet to make a boss but I want to. This did help me out/give inspiration for how to make the boss I want. Thanks again!

2010-03-07 21:07:00 Author: shebhnt Posts: 414

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Update 1 - "Respawn Zones" I'm posting this in response to someone asking how I made the checkpoint barriers in my online tutorial. This is a technique I like to use often in my bosses - where the checkpoint is in the layer behind all the action and moves away or is blocked off once the player has spawned and cleared the middle plane (if you've no idea what I'm talking about, go play my level). By using this method, the player can respawn but cannot use the checkpoint area as a "safe place" throughout the battle - in my opinion it makes for a more exciting boss knowing there is nowhere to run and hide. Hey dude, after searching for a while I found your reply along internet. I'm sorry, but still don't understand you. I have the spanish version of the game, and I'm not very sure about what a "searchlight" is? Is it a positon sensor? That doesn't work, so I guess it is another thing, but I don't know which...

2010-03-09 16:57:00 Author: onturenio Posts: 138

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a searchlight is a switch you get from the MGS pack. it can work like a sensor switch but only on one layer.

2010-03-09 17:09:00 Author: trip090 Posts: 1562

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Well, this is embrrassing... I can't find it :blush:. I have the MGS pack, but don't know where to searh. Is it in the tools menu, near the switches section? is it in the objects, with regular lights? I can't find anywhere

2010-03-11 17:58:00 Author: onturenio Posts: 138

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I enjoy making bosses so much, I usually put 2 or 3 of them in my every level. Even more I like playing them though Anyway, a cool guide. I didn't know the 160 hr bug was still here

2010-03-11 18:29:00 Author: Arradi Posts: 183

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I made a lot of good bosses that use paint gun but wish we had a sword powerup .

2010-03-11 18:57:00 Author: Delirium Posts: 349

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...is it in the objects, with regular lights? That's where it should be. Is is possible that you haven't picked up the prize bubble which contains it?

2010-03-12 02:44:00 Author: Aya042 Posts: 2870

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That was exactly my problem. Thank you so much!

2010-03-12 07:40:00 Author: onturenio Posts: 138

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Update 2 - "Invisible Brains" If you have a protected brain on your creature that is triggered to destroy by a switch, you may wish to place it out of sight. To do this and still have it kill your boss when it is destroyed, you can place it on a block offscreen and connect this block with a loose piece of string. The brain will not be on your boss, yet it will still trigger your boss's death. Notes: If the brain is placed on a block made of dark matter or attached to dark matter, the block (and therefore your boss) will not disappear. Ensure there is no dark matter in the system to prevent your boss's death sequence. Just because a brain is protected doesn't mean it will automatically trigger your boss's death. Whether protected or unprotected, all attached brains must be destroyed for the boss to die. Make sure the string is loose enough to allow your boss free movement, and if you wish set it to invisible.

2010-03-12 17:01:00 Author: Holguin86 Posts: 875

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If you have a protected brain on your creature that is triggered to destroy by a switch, you may wish to place it out of sight. To do this and still have it kill your boss when it is destroyed, you can place it on a block offscreen and connect this block with a loose piece of string. The brain will not be on your boss, yet it will still trigger your boss's death. Or you can use the demission technique, which tends to be less fussy than using creature brains. Check out this thread (https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=11861-Demitters-New-demitter-switch-added!!!-2010-03-10) for details.

2010-03-12 17:16:00 Author: Aya042 Posts: 2870

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Or you can use the demission technique, which tends to be less fussy than using creature brains. Check out this thread (https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=11861-Demitters-New-demitter-switch-added!!!-2010-03-10) for details. But, then the boss just dissolves, disappears. If you use the brain, the creature falls apart nicely. Of course you can have some explosives inside the boss itself but using brains does look really cool sometimes.

2010-03-12 18:06:00 Author: napero7 Posts: 1653

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Yes, and once the boss has died it saves on thermo, demitting it means you have to emit it elsewhere offscreen, and any attached camera zones/keys can interfere with the rest of your level. As long as the techniques relating to creature brains are followed, they are far much easier to use and implement than demitters, and the death effect is much better than simple dissolvement.

2010-03-14 22:21:00 Author: Holguin86 Posts: 875

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although rather than having multiple creature brains, why not just use the life flower technique? attached is a really badly drawn paint but you get the idea:

2010-03-14 22:35:00 Author: flamingemu Posts: 1872

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The life flower technique is a very good one to use with a boss, as I like to minimize the number of brains on a boss as much as possible. The only times I use multiple brains is when they are unprotected. I tend not to use the life flower technique much, as I prefer AND gates. However, when there are multiple paintinator switches you wish to have the player target, the life flower is a highly legitimate technique. It allows the paintinator switches to be set to on/off functionality, which (instead of one-shot) means they do not refill once activated and thus are less likely to confuse players. Once all are activated, the inverted switch (one-shot if connected to a brain) at the centre of the life flower will activate the destruction of that brain and thus the whole enemy. I could add this section to my level tutorial, if anyone would like further information

2010-03-14 23:52:00 Author: Holguin86 Posts: 875

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All this information I already knew, as I'm a pretty experienced boss-maker. I have already made 3 bosses for my Dragon Slayer level and will make a 4th one. My first boss is killed by grabbing it's head several times (when it lovers it's head), 2nd boss is crushed by rocks from the ceiling (grab to make them fall) 3rd boss is killed by shooting at it with the paintinator and 4th boss (not yet made) is probably going to be ended with a missile. I tend to have attack patterns for my bosses. The pattern is made out of 10 pieces, each activating one of 2-4 different attacks, so it looks random to the player. Sounds as a warning is my favourite. For example, my black dragon from the Dragon Slayer level growls before executing it's most fierce attack. I also use other kinds of warning: (the black dragon again as an example) when it opens it's mouth, you can except a flamethrover, when it extends it's front legs and flies up, you can except it to slam it's legs to the platform you are standing on and when it spits out an airstrike marker, you can except a bomber hitting the marker soon enough. Even thought one of my bosses is defeated by the paintinator, I try to avoid the paintinator the best I can.

2010-03-28 10:12:00 Author: Chamion B Posts: 124

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Great, i always find it hard to make a boss. But this will help me to make a good boss. Mucho Gracias, man...

2010-03-29 15:40:00 Author: snaker Posts: 68

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