The designers of the MediEvil Remake wanted to keep the feel of the classic title while looking back at modern PS4 features and gaming trends, so many aspects had to be improved in the process. And not only the visual component, but also the gameplay mechanics.
How the Pumpkin King boss from the original MediEvil was improved - a story from one of the game's game designers. Translation under the cut.
As a first step, we wanted to implement this fight exclusively in its original form, but quickly found that with modern graphics, many of the components of this boss fight were lost.
We have identified the main problems:
Problem 1: The boss is easily spammed. Pumpkin King's health can be weakened by spamming the attack button, regardless of his behavior.
Problem 2: Too much empty space. During the battle, the player can freely move around a huge open area, but only a small part of it is used for combat.
Problem 3: No sense of escalation. The behavior of the Pumpkin King remains essentially the same throughout the fight, regardless of the player's progress.
We decided to improve the bossfight to give fans the experience they remember, not the way it really was.
How it looked in the original MediEvil
Problem 1: Boss is easy to spam
In the original MediEvil, the Pumpkin King has the following abilities:
- Tentacle glide. The Pumpkin King surrounds himself with tentacles that will pull the player in if they get too close.
- Pumpkin spit. The Pumpkin King spits out explosive gourds that damage the player on impact.
We've revamped his ability set to reflect the new philosophy: Break the Pumpkin King's defenses. The battle cycle became like this:
Defense Break > Boss becomes vulnerable > Attack > Boss becomes invulnerable
To enhance this cycle, we have made some modifications:
- Tentacle glide. To open the Pumpkin King's weak point, you must destroy the tentacles surrounding him. In doing so, they can hit the player and knock him down if approached directly. To effectively get rid of the tentacles, you need to either shoot from a distance or attack from the side.
- Headbutt. A new attack has been added - if you approach the pumpkin king from the front, he attacks with his head, deals damage and knocks the player down. The Pumpkin King's head slowly rotates in the player's direction, signaling an impact.
Thanks to the combination of these abilities, the player sees the main task before him - to figure out how to safely break through the defenses of the Pumpkin King.
I also had to significantly increase the attack range of the pumpkin spit. Because of this, the Pumpkin King remains dangerous regardless of the player's location.
- After breaking through the defense, the Pumpkin King becomes briefly stunned and misses the player's attacks.
- When the boss is vulnerable, we will spawn Pumpkin Plants that make the player act faster.
In the game, this situation is more frightening.
Problem 2: Too much free space
How to use the entire level throughout the battle became another challenge.
In the original MediEvil, the player is not limited by the arena - he has freedom of movement throughout the location. There is a lot of space where you can come, but which is not related to the battle.
We could have just made the arena smaller, but the challenge was not to shrink or compromise. Our solution? Add a completely new stage to this battle - the Recovery Phase.
Now that the Pumpkin King's health is low, he will go into the ground and heal slowly. During this time, the player must find the Pumpkin Pods scattered throughout the arena and destroy them.
- If the player does not make it in time, the defense phase will begin again and the boss's health will be fully restored.
- If the player succeeds, then the defense phase will also begin, but the boss's health will not be fully restored.
The player must deplete the boss' health three times. And each time the fight becomes more difficult and intense.
Full cycle bosfight
Healing enemies in PvE gameplay can be a dangerous undertaking - designers run the risk of making it easy to kill by removing hard-earned progress from the player, or dragging out combat. We have taken this into account. It was necessary to ensure that the restoration of the boss would motivate the player.
How did we do it? We set everything up.
Full health bar looks intimidating
The reality is:
- The player has enough time to deplete the boss's entire health bar, even with a weak weapon.
- The player needs to repeat the defense phase 3 times during the entire fight - regardless of how much the boss restored HP.
This creates the desired emotional effect without unwanted frustration.
Problem 3: No sense of escalation
Finally, how to create a sense of growing danger. Every time the pumpkin king recovers his defenses, we break up the battle in the following ways:
- Head rotation speed: How fast does the Pumpkin King's head follow the player?
- Pumpkin Spit Frequency: How many seconds elapsed between shots?
- Pumpkin Plants: How many will we spawn when the boss becomes vulnerable?
- Number of Tentacles: How many tentacles surround the boss?
The numbers we used in the game
A few interesting points:
- Pumpkin spit. One projectile per second seems like too low a frequency, but it flies for a while, and as long as the player continues to move, the projectile will not hit him.
- Pumpkin plants. The 6 seems high, but again, that's mostly for emotional effect. The reality is that the player will kill the Pumpkin King before these enemies become a real threat. When the boss dies, the plants die with him.
- We will not spawn pumpkin plants at the beginning of the fight so that the player is more easily involved in the fight cycle.
- Tentacles should not be many. If there are more than four of them, then it becomes almost impossible to find a gap.
More than four tentacles look like this
With the help of all these variables, we were able to create the right increase in intensity, which makes the battle exciting until the very end.
We aimed to create the emotions that fans want and want to remember, while enhancing the epic feel of the game anywhere in the game. The updated battle with the Pumpkin King is an example of a combination of modern technology and beloved classics.
Source: habr.com