Idea 4: Boss Fights

Ok this is kind of a jumbled idea but i'm going to try and map it out and see what happens.

Basically ive been playing dead space lately and the other day i was watching James Cameron's Avatar, whats his face was controlling the Avatar who was attacked by a big black panthery lizard thing that proceeded to corner him under some giant tree roots and claw at him. The first though that came into my head was that he should use his big ass machine gun to shoot its arm off, slowing it down and causing it to take bleed damage, obviously dead space had seeped into my brain, but the point is that i began to think of a game.

The basis of this game is that all your enemies are way bigger, faster and stronger than you and the only way you can defeat them is with planning, persistence and basically making the right decision when backed into a corner, unlike what's his face from Avatar.

So if you're not following at this point id like to restate my idea as a combination of Dead Space, Shadow of the Collosus and Bioshock.

The game could be played single player or with up to four players, the enemies would get tougher with each additional player, and there would be some kind of story i imagine, but the point is that you start in some remote village and people in the village give you bounties for destroying these powerful creatures. By going on these bounties you gain money for weapons, experience points for abilities, and unlock new areas, eg: Bob of village 1 wants you to kill the six legged panther lizard thing blocking the forest path to village 2.

Once a creature is killed it remains dead forever, however you may be required to kill another beast of the same species in a different area. because the beasts are so tough, planning your attack and using the surroundings is crucial, and having the same beast in a different setting would offer a completely new battle. of course certain beasts would be key to the story, and they would be the only ones you are required to defeat, so you never have to fight the same enemy twice, however gaining extra money, XP and equipment would be a big advantage.

There are three memorable moments in my experience of gamin that im trying to capture with this idea so i should make my intentions clear by describing them.

One is from kotor, the point where you are basically locked in a room with 2 rancor beasts. Fighting these things directly is pretty much suicide, especially for my character who was a rogue. The way i solved this by going stealth and placing a chain of every mine i had collected since the start of the game zig zagged across the room, then unstealthing and running along the pattern as the rancor beasts followed me, constantly being exploded and gassed until they died. Actually making a plan, using the room to my advantage, and defeating two tough enemies against the odds made this one of my favourite moments in kotor.

The second is from dead space, id like to add spoiler alert if anyone is planning on playing this game in the near future. The final boss of the game is extremely easy, i was playing the game on hard and beat it on my third try, all you have to do is side step his attacks a few times so that it exposes its weak point and then shoot. There was, however, one point that took my by surprise, nearing the end of the first phase of this boss, it launches an attack that is impossible to dodge, resulting in the player being dangled by the foot as the creature tries to eat you. At this point you have to act quickly to destroy the boss' final two weak points in the 30 or so seconds before you are eaten, this is made difficult by the creature constantly moving as well as shaking you which throws of your aim. Being taken to a point where youre really pushed against the wall and have to react quickly to escape is what made that boss scene memorable and the fact that youre using your weakened position to actually further your progress in defeating this boss makes it all the more rewarding.

The third is bioshock in general. The thing i like about bioshock is the way you can customise your traits, and by picking those that work well together you can massively increase your attack power. My preferred tactic as far as taking on the big daddies went was to freeze them with the wrench as quickly as possible and fire trap bolts around them while they were frozen, then knock them down with an explosive, freeze them again while they were down and repeat this process until they were good and dead.

Hopefully that's all made clear what i'm going for with this idea.

Also i would like to include John Gregg in our group, i think it would be nice to have another designer on board. He's also done the iphone course so he will have extra time to dedicate to the subject and prior knowledge if we decide to do an iphone/pad game. If anyone has objections they'd prefer to keep private, please comment or email me, otherwise ill invite him to the blog next friday so he can see where our ideas are heading and further discuss what were going to be doing.