In one of my last
articles we talked about the Making of a
Hero, now it's
time to turn the table and address The Making of a
Monster or Villain.
Have you ever seen a hit
movie with a really great and dynamic hero character
paired with really weak looking and acting bad guys?
Probably not. For a great Hero vs Bad Guy system to
work well, you must have a balance between good, evil, and
their abilities. In this article, I will take you through
some of the design processes involved in creating such
characters.
As we go through what
makes or breaks the design for bad guys, we'll also sort
through the laundry list of classic bad guy
classifications. Note: depending on the type
of product you are working on, the name classifications
may
differ. For example, in games like Quake or Unreal you
have bad guy characters called Bots while in Action-Adventure you might have Bad
Guys, Monsters, Boss, and
Sub-Boss characters.
For purposes of this article, I will
focus primarily on Action-Adventure characters, mainly
because they are more widely known and, in some ways,
are more
universal to game play design.
Basic
Character Classes
NPC - Non-Player
Characters
These are any characters
that are not controlled in anyway by the player.
You see these terms used
a lot within RPG game design. They are generic enough to
use in just about
any type of product design, although you might want to use one of these
other descriptions just to
make things a little
clearer to your readers and team. The design for such
characters is identical to Bad Guys and Monsters,
below.
Bad Guys and Monsters
These come in 2 different
basic categories: Global and Venue or World-Specific.
Global characters are
what I like to call "filler" characters that can be
used to help tie a common theme through a game. This
becomes more important in Adventure games where it
might be harder to string the game story along with
just background art.
Remember, that because
these characters are global the look, combat and
abilities must feel natural in all worlds
or they will feel out of place.
Venue or World-Specific characters are dedicated to one specific level
or world of the game. The game play design for
these characters can vary greatly depending on the type
of level or world
they are placed in, and their placement in the game.
How do you pace the
combat and difficulty for such characters? Simply ramp their
abilities based on what the player should know how to do
at that point in the game and what
weapons and defense he or she has. If you follow this
rule it should naturally pace itself out.
Boss/ Sub-Boss Characters
Boss character are usually
found at the very end of a game play section, level or
world and are used primarily for setting up
a milestone event that the play must overcome before
continuing on to the next level of the game.
There are many ways to
approach the game play design for these types of
characters. Here I list some of the
most common ones used:
Character Centered
Design
These type of characters
rely totally on the abilities of the character itself.
No outside dangers
come into play. Although limited because it is just
focused on the character, character centered design can have
a wide range of combat abilities limited only by the
creative nature of the Boss character and
the imagination of the designer. Note that these
characters tends to be more common in game designs today
mainly because the choreograph is
much simpler and, sometimes, the coding time less.
Character and Environment Centered Design
Character and Environment
Boss characters are found when the Boss character works
in tandem with
background or level dangers. This is what I see
emerging as the Next Generation Boss
design for these newer game systems. With the ever increasing
complexity of game systems, and their ability to handle
more things moving on the screen
we are seeing more designers turning to mixing Boss
Character Combat with
choreographed background dangers for greater variety
of combat systems.
Although this style of
Boss character may cost more in development time, it's a
great way to balance a weaker, but
needed, Boss character in a game. For example, let's
say you have a Spy game with a really
physically weak Boss character that's needed because it
fits a licensed story line. The
downside from your standpoint as the designer is
that you might need a strong combat situation at
this point in the game. How do you resolve
this situation? Simply ramp up
the level dangers around that Boss character,
while making sure the player can't
defeat him until you feel that your pacing
objectives have been reached.
Environment Centered
Design
Environment Bosses are
comprised of just background dangers. While the
characters do not directly attack the player's characters,
the player may or may not
attack the Boss character directly to
complete this stage of the game.
These type of Boss
situations are rare in game design, not because they are
not fun, rather, it's just human nature to
directly confront what attacks you regardless of
whether it is attacking directly or
indirectly.
Some key things to focus
on while designing Boss Characters…
Ramp the difficulty of
Bosses through the game
Ramping Bosses through
a game can be done in a number of different ways
depending on the
product. The key is that these characters should be paced
throughout the game
based on what
experience the player should have at that point in
playing.
Don't ASS-U-ME that
the player has played some other game like yours
before and, therefore,
on't be afraid of
that.
The second way to
pace out Boss characters through a game is to ramp
the number of different attacks and moves the boss
character can do at each stage of the game. For example, level or
world #1 Boss might have only 1 attack, while #2
might have 2 attacks and the
#3 Boss might have 3 different attacks.
Show Damage
One of the biggest
mistakes still being made in game design today is not
showing any sign of damage being
inflicted on the Boss Character when attacked by the
player. Nothing drives
players crazier than to attack and attack and not
see any visual sign of damage.
There are a number of
mechanisms that can help you tell the player the
state of the Boss: screen
damage gauge; change in the Boss character's art or
animations; changes
in combat system;
Boss sound effect changes; and, finally, the music. Personally, I like a
combination of animations to show each successful hit,
as well as changing the combat system at
different points during the fight just to keep the
player thinking.
Watch your Playtime
Make sure that you don't
over do it with how long a player is locked into combat
with a Boss character. Make sure
that it fits within the context of your concept.
through out the
battle.
Sub-Boss Characters
Sub-Boss characters are
really just watered down Boss characters that make guest
appearances somewhere in
the level or world, but not at a point where the
player would expect a final Boss combat to
take place. The combat system for
these characters can be anything you like, but less than
what the player would expect from a full Boss
character.
One good use of a
Sub-Boss character is to make a guest appearance of the
Boss to help train the player in some of the
attacks or abilities the player will have to deal with
in the final battle.
Key things to Avoid in
Boss Design
One of the wrong
approaches used today in Boss character design is when
the designer focuses on making the Boss
combat system totally different from anything the
player has been All of us can accept failing if we have been given the prior opportunity to
learn.
The Payoff
With regard to
creating good bad guys for your product, a
good rule to keep
in mind at all times is "the Payoff to the
player must be worth the player's effort to defeat
it!"
This can be done in
so many ways, such as dramatic death, vast treasure
or power-up gain, destruction or creation of
something within the combat area. But it must be
clearly tied to death of the Boss, and it must be immediate
as any delayed rewards will lessen the payoff to
the player. Players are on an emotional ride with
your game and you want to keep them there!
Clearly, I could expand on
many more points covered in this article based on
different types of games but these are the most basic
concepts. If you would like me to expand on some of
these ideas, contact GIGnews or email me directly.
Thanks and good hunting!
William Anderson is currently President
of Eagle Claw, Inc. a Game Development and Consulting Company. He has
been designing Interactive Entertainment products for over 20
years. Just a few of his notable accomplishments include Senior
Designer on Maximo for the Sony Playstation 2, Senior Designer on
the multiple award winning game Aladdin for the Sega Genesis,
Designer of Cool Spot and Global Gladiators. He was also
responsible for the original gameplay design for Abe's Oddysee for the
Sony Playstation. You can contact Mr. Anderson at
MagicByDzn@Hotmail.com.
