Designing bosses (and almost every fight in Whisper is a boss or mini-boss) is one of my favorite things. That's not to say that I think I'm the greatest at it, but it's the sort of dynamic challenge that makes game design so appealing. Every player will experience the fight differently--different party members, gear and skills create a staggering variety of outcomes. My job is to corral those outcomes into firmly satisfying territory.

One method to accomplish this is by reviewing the tools available to the player and then crafting battles that allow certain groups of tools to shine. Of course, if the group is too narrow, players may miss it altogether and experience a much harder boss than intended. And, if the group doesn't allow for much choice, this method amounts to fancy Whack-A-Mole. It can be used well in puzzle-RPGs like the Legend of Zelda, but must be handled with caution elsewhere.

A second method is to give the boss a recognizable pattern in its attacks. This helps battles become more interactive as players can reasonably predict what's going to happen and respond to it more effectively. It's also easier to create precise levels of difficulty since the boss can't randomly use its strongest attack every round. That allows bosses to have a greater variety of strength in attacks which means players now may consider switching from defense to offense and vice versa depending on what's coming. If overdone, however, this can make a boss too repetitive--especially if the pattern is quickly discovered and enables the player to dominate the fight...but the boss has mountains of hp. Bullet sponges are always a drag.

The chapter two fights mix these methods with a third; by having multiple bosses at once, the overlapped patterns approximate enough complexity to be entertaining. Meanwhile, burst damage is strongly hinted to be ideal, but a survival strategy can work since regeneration is weakened over time. As a safeguard, the player is given an especially effective skill mid-battle to encourage them to make use of it.

For chapter three, I'm adding a few new methods. First among these are Flow battles. The concept is similar to the Olympian Mountain Bandits, but concretely finite. Rather than a never-ending stream of enemies, they will be fought in sets. After a certain number of sets, the battle ends. The goal is to allow longer battles without having to set up formations and buffs each time. Players will also have to adjust to battles that routinely last longer than buffs. This should prompt existing strategies to adapt in new ways. It will also mean that bosses don't have to account for the massive power shifts that can happen from turn one to turn two.

One particular type of Flow battle is a Maze (as seen in the above video). In this mode, players choose a direction after each set. Some mazes will have set locations with enemies and treasure rooms while others will generate these randomly. All will have a boss battle that must be cleared to exit, though partial exp/loot will be awarded if the party wipes. Several maze battles will be accessible early on. Others will open up after certain quest of narrative triggers. In addition to using them as a way to create more varied combat situations, I plan to take full advantage of their narrative potential. They'll also be dropping themed equipment sets to further expand the possibilities available to each character...but more on that later...