Note: This is a cross-post from my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/25-nov-2024-snow-116696188

Hey, folks!

The second boss fight of Meander Forth is complete! If you don't mind mild spoilers, you can watch it all play out in the video embedded in this post.

One of the funniest things about game development is that you never know for sure how long something will take. Something that seems complex and elaborate can take around an hour, while something that seems like a no-brainer can take weeks.

Case in point: the aforementioned second boss!

Every boss fight in Meander Forth is themed around the level it belongs to, as well as the mechanics used in that level. For example, the first boss resembles the snail enemy from the first stage and requires mastery of the three major mechanics introduced there: walking, jumping, and firing the gun.

The second chapter of the game introduces a new mechanic, however: the ice-dash. Though this is used in combat, it is primarily an evasive maneuver, so designing a boss around it requires a different approach.

My first concept for this boss was a race-to-the-finish a la the Metal Sonic fight from Sonic CD or the Gourmet Race minigame in Kirby Super Star. I wasn't particularly fond of this idea, however, since I felt that the ice mechanics would case the fight to become a glorified auto-runner and trivialize the dash itself.

Another idea I had was to have the boss employ attacks that would require the player to use the dash to move out of the way. This was more conducive to the style of boss I wanted to make, but I realized that theming the boss around requiring reflex-based dodges would be too difficult and alienate new players.

Loosening up the timing would have made the boss more approachable, but would disincentivize using the dash mechanics that the boss was meant to test.

Thankfully, my good friend Marcus gave me an idea: have a snowman that you defeat by dashing into it, much like how you deal with the snow piles scattered through the rest of the stage! That way, even if the player didn't use the dash to avoid the boss's attacks, they'd still have to use it in combat.

Unfortunately, this idea opened its own can of worms. This boss is the only enemy in the game that takes damage from the dash. To work around that, I had to get creative with the boss on both a coding level and on a design level.

In the Game Maker prototype, the entire boss was handled by one object that changed states between the snowman form and the "prone" form. This behavior did not translate well into Godot, so I had to refactor it to make the two separate objects that work in tandem with each other.

On top of that, Godot uses specialized collision checkers for different "types" of collision, much unlike how Game Maker's old "mask" system works. For the snowman, this meant I had to get a little crazy and make sure to have boxes that could account for landing on terrain, hurting the player, and getting dashed into by the player.

 On the design side of things, I wanted to convey that your goal would be to dash into the snowman rather than fire upon it like you would the other enemies.

 To foreshadow this, I redesigned the piles of snow that you dash into in the rest of the level to be little snowmen, instead! My hope is that once the player is used to destroying these things, they'll see the much larger, evil version and put two-and-two together. (If not, I'm not above adding a Metal-Slug-styled "DASH!" prompt right above him, haha.)

Finally, I had to implement the boss's other attacks. Since the rest of the fight is so different, I kept it simple: When the snowman lands on the ground, he creates a shockwave. He also spits icy anchors at you that you dodge by, you guessed it, dashing!

Admittedly, this was always the boss I dreaded making the most. The other mechanics in the game are pretty straightforward to design combat scenarios around. For jumping, I just made a projectile that needed to be jumped over. For shooting, I just made enemies that were damaged by bullets. For climbing walls, all I have to do is set the floor on fire. Dashing is much more evasive and technical, so it was a big challenge to come up with something that would test the player's skills without being too difficult.

I believe the fight I came up with is a good compromise, but I would appreciate feedback! The build of this game containing this fight is available to Patrons, but I would be more than willing to let anyone try it out if they ask nicely. After all, nothing in a game is ever really finished!

Thank you for reading! I'll be sure to keep you posted on further updates and developments!