Jean-François Bourbeau – Boss fight document – The General's ship 1

The General's ship

Boss fight design documentJean-François Bourbeau

Set-up

Table of contents

Set-up.........................................................................................................................................3

Boss summary..........................................................................................................................4

Attack 1: homing missiles........................................................................................................5

Attack 2: gun turrets.................................................................................................................6

Attack 3: laser cannon..............................................................................................................7

Attack 4: Vultures......................................................................................................................8

Defeating the general’s ship....................................................................................................9

Pacing.......................................................................................................................................10

Boss-specific skillshots.........................................................................................................11

Visuals......................................................................................................................................11

Conclusion...............................................................................................................................11

Jean-François Bourbeau – Boss fight document – The General's ship 2

Set-up

% of game's progression : 50%

Grayson is finally on the verge of getting to General Sarrano’s headquarters and exacting his revenge. However, as soon as he gets there, his enemy escapes using a flying ship. Grayson has just enough time to climb on its back, but Ishi does not. At five kilometers into the air, the General realizes that Grayson is on the ship and, after shaking him off the vehicule, tries to end it all for good…

Weapons acquired so far by the player :

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Peacemaker carbine Flailgun Screamer

Energy leash Boneduster

Boss summary

Length : 4 to 6 minutesDifficulty : hardGameplay focus : Shooting / Leash / Inability to move

The boss consists in a gunship controlled by General Sarrano. The player is in a tight spot : he falling towards the ground at great speed and has his main enemy right in front of him, trying to shoot him to make sure he does not find a way out of this situation.

The boss has three attacks (homing missiles, gun turrets and laser cannon) that he will use throughout the fight.

The player's objective is to destroy the ship by attacking its cooling systems. In order to do so, he'll have to make it spin in every direction using the Leash.

Metrics

Ship size : 12M X 4M X 6MDistance between the player and the ship : 8M

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Front (player's view) Side

The General's ship

Back

Attack 1: homing missiles

The first attack consists in up to three homing missiles whose targets are...the player. They spawn after their hatch doors located at the top of the ship have opened. Then, they head towards the player.

Each missile has a possibility to come from four different zones of the screen, as shown on the left. The zone from which a missile comes from is determined randomly.

The difficulty cranks up as the player goes through the three phases.

Homing missiles metrics

Phase 1 : Two missiles, the second being launched 2 seconds after the first onePhase 2 : Two missiles at the same timePhase 3 : Three missiles at the same timeDamage : 35% of the regenerating barHP : 25Hitbox : 0.6M X 0.3M X 0.2MTime to get to the player after launch : 8 seconds (this does not include door opening time)Hatch door opening time : 2 seconds

Counter attack

The player can shoot at the missiles to destroy them.

He can also use the Leash on them to either let them fall or kick them on the enemy.

Prototype : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkvZ-cusKtQ

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Attack 2: gun turrets

This attack comes from the two gun turrets located at the bottom of the ship, aiming straight at the player. They both activate at the same time after a short warm-up.

They start shooting towards the left and right edges of the screen and slowly close in on the player position.

At each phase, their speed gets faster (this does not include the gun turret activation time).

Gun turrets metrics

Phase 1 speed : 10 secondsPhase 2 speed : 8 secondsPhase 3 speed : 5 secondsDamage : 35% of the regenerating bar eachHP : 100Hitbox : 1M X 0.4M X 0.4MGun turret warm up time : 1 second

Counter attack

The player can shoot the turrets to break them temporarily.

He can also destroy the Vultures located at their sides to break them, thus hitting two birds with one stone.

Prototype : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qvLhfnr46o

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Attack 3: laser cannon

The laser cannon takes some time to charge up, but when it gets to its full power, it unleashes a dangerous laser that will most likely get the player in trouble.

As the laser cannon powers up, the light being emitted from its front end gets brighter and the charging sound gets louder. This indicates to the player how much time he has left before the cannon is ready to shoot.

The cannon cannot miss, but can only shoot once per charge.

Its charge time is reduced at each phase. (This does not include door opening time.)

Laser cannon’s metrics

Phase 1 charge time : 8 seconds Phase 2 charge time : 6 seconds Phase 3 charge time : 4 seconds Damage : 70%HP : 250Hitbox : 1M X 0.4M X 0.4MLaser door opening time : 2 seconds

Counter attack

The player can shoot directly at the cannon to put it out of order temporarily.

He can also redirect a missile towards it to shut it down instantly.

He can as well use the Leash to put a Vulture pilot or a missile between him and the laser beam.

Prototype : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdfggsqK4Ss

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Attack 4: Vultures

The gunship is not the player’s sole concern. He is also pursued by a bunch of Vultures that followed him from the ground.

They appear near the gun turrets from the bottom of the screen. They can spawn at any time, but a maximum of 2 Vultures can be on screen at any moment. However, they spawn more frequently as the player gets further into the fight.

Vultures’ metrics

Phase 1 : one Vulture appears every 15 secondsPhase 2 : one Vulture appears every 10 secondsPhase 3 : one Vulture appears every 5 secondsDamage : 5% per shotHP : 40

Counter attack

The player can shoot at the Vultures to destroy them.

He can use the Leash on their pilots, as seen before in the game.

He can kick homing missiles towards them.

He can wait for the ship to open his wings, which will make the Vultures fly away.

Prototype : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKRpSXTKJT4

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Defeating the general’s ship

The ship has one and only weakness : its cooling cylinders, located on its sides and on its back. To make sure Grayson doesn't get a chance to shoot at those, General Sarrano keeps facing him with the wings closed to hide the cylinders.

However, after getting hit a few times, he needs to stabilize his ship, who keeps shaking. Therefore, he opens the wing, thus making his cylinders vulnerable to bullets and making the Vultures get out of the way. However, the player still need to get a good shooting angle.

Using the Leash, the player can pull the blue-glowing tips of the wing to make it spin. It starts turning fast, but slows down in a bullet-time fashion (just like everything that is leashed in the game). This leaves enough time to the player to shoot the cooling cylinders.

After that, the ship keeps turning and comes back to its original position. The ship's wings go back down, advancing the fight to the next phase.

However, if the player does not destroy all the cylinders on the side of the ship he's attacking, the boss fight stays in the same phase.

If the player does not use the Leash on one of the wings, they simply close again, bringing the fight into the previous phase again.

Metrics

Wings opening and closing time : 3 secondsStabilization time : 4 secondsTotal rotation time : 7,5 secondsRotation time before slowdown : 1 secondSlowdown time : 5 secondsRotation time after slowdown : 1,5 second

Prototype : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7277aTwmkio

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Pulling the left wing Pulling the top wingPulling the right wing

Pacing

The fight consists in three phases. Each phase comes after a set of cooling cylinders has been completely destroyed.

Each phase contains one of each attack coming one after another, after which there is an attack mixing two of the previous attacks. Each attack comes immediately after the last one. Whether it was successful or counter-attacked by the player.

There are also Vultures spawning at their own pace.

Due to their damage range, the three main attacks cannot kill the player by themselves, which means the player always gets a second chance. However, if he fails to prevent a second attack in a row, his health bar won't have regenerated fast enough for him to survive. The presence of Vultures only worsens this situation.

Phase Attack Vulture spawn rateBeginning cinematic

Phase 1

Homing missiles 1

One every 15 secondsGun turrets 1

Laser cannon 1Gun turrets 1 / laser cannon 1

Wings deployment / player attack

Phase 2

Gun turrets 2

One every 10 secondsLaser cannon 2

Homing missiles 2Homing missiles 1 / gun

turrets 2Wings deployment / player attack

Phase 3

Laser cannon 3

One every 5 secondsHoming missiles 3

Gun turrets 3Homing missiles 2 / laser

cannon 2Wings deployment / player attack

End cinematic

Phase 1 prototype : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amKZP3w0cDw

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Boss-specific skillshots

Name Condition Points

I already have one Shoot a missile back at the general's ship 250

Happy birthdayUsing the flailgun, send a

soon-to-explode Vulture pilot on the ship

500

Between you and me Use a missile or a Vulture pilot to block the laser beam 250

Bowling alley Knock down a Vulture using a missile or a Vulture pilot 250

One stone, two birds Deactivate a gun turret by destroying a Vulture 250

Visuals

The boss fight should convey the feeling of falling down. In order to do so, some elements should be going up as the player, the ship and the Vultures go down. These could include common « sky objects » like clouds or birds.

The lanscape, both sky and ground) should be generic, in order to avoid drawing attention towards it.

The General's ship should be looking new, well maintained and, more importantly, intimidating. This is a gunship of the highest order, made to protect elite members of the society. It has never served until now.

Conclusion

As the ship control system breaks, General Sarrano decides it is better for him to flee using an escape pod. As for Grayson, he manages to enter the falling ship and recovers a parachute. He lands close to where he launched and where Ishi is waiting for him with an angry look.

The setting of this boss fight (a single man fighting a ship while falling through the sky) should provide enough excitment to interest the player. The mechanics (shooting, Leash) are based on what the player learned so far, but the exotic gameplay (the inability to move) will bring them to a new level. All in all, this boss fight should provide a great 5 minutes of gameplay and awe to the player.

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