SERVICE SUMMARY
MASTERCLASS:
BOSS FIGHT DESIGN
Join Marie Mejerwall in her Masterclass in Boss Fight Design to learn the process, tools and best practices to design top-tier boss fights. Marie has long experience from working on boss fights on acclaimed AAA franchises Batman Arkham, Dead Rising and RuneScape. She now shares her knowledge with the wider industry to in a series of live sessions where she guides you through her process to make elaborate boss fights. Her Masterclass consists of 10x hour long lectures, each equipped with exercises, templates, and additional resources. Marie runs her Masterclass both online, on-demand and at certain conferences. If you are interested in joining her next Masterclass, sign up below on her Eventbrite page, or scroll to the bottom to get an email notification on her next run. If you are interested in having her perform her Masterclass exclusively at your studio or event, contact Marie here:
TAKEAWAYS
In this course, you will learn (to):
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Design a boss fight from start to end
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Methodologies to use while designing
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Gameplay challenge theory
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Pick or combine archetypes into a coherent identity
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Which actions to equip to match your boss' archetype, challenge and arena
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The interplay between bosses and their minions
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Craft the boss's behaviour
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Special rules for target selection and attack priority
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Decorate your boss with properties to craft a unique identity
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Add stability, immunities and defense maneuvers to secure your boss' integrity
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Design additional stages or intermittent states to increase the fight intensity
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Balance your boss to ensure a good fight
OUTLINE
Intro
The design process
Course overview
Warmup
Design considerations
The Arena
Additional resources
Introducing the Flow Board
Tiers of content
Cinematics
Silver conversations
Scripted sequences
Systemic gameplay
Deconstructing famous boss fights
Best practices
Common phases
The Intro
The warmup
The fight
The Plot Twist
Intermittent states
The Finale
Fight intensity curves
Composing your fight flow
Factors to consider
Common archetypes
Hybrids
Intermittent modes
Transitioning bosses
Behaviours blends
Set piece bosses
Picking your archetype
Getting started with your own boss
Introduction to challenges
Classifications
Mechanical challenges
Tactical challenges
Compounded challenges
Composing your challenges layers
What is primary action?
Design approach
Offensive actions
Auxiliary actions
Movement actions
Boss kit – typical number of abilities
Secondary actions
Purposes
Challenging player abilities
Special actions
What defines a boss fight?
Positive traits
Negative traits – weaknesses
Resources & arena interactions
Traps
Minions
Weapons & throwables
Behaviour basics
Design values – Integrity versus responsiveness
States and transitions
Behaviour tree implementation
Reaction system
Target selection
Combat Director
Attack allowance
Aggression & state changes
Leashing and tethering
Plot an optimal player strategy
Prevention overview
Stability & Hit reactions
Stun bar
Immunities
Uninterruptable maneuvers
Animation frames
Stunbreakers
Getting out of sticky situations
Evades
Blocks
Protective maneuvers
Counters
Armor
Disallowment
Defense toolbox
Balancing single-player games
Balancing multiplayer games
Balancing toolbox
Hints
Player boosts
Arena/NPC boosts
Script modification
Behaviour changes
Boss boosts
Static difficulty scaling
Dynamic difficulty scaling
Hard mode
Balancing guidelines
Tips & tricks
TESTIMONIALS
"Top industry knowledge"
"Learned a ton"
"Incredibly insightful"
Keep an eye [...] if you want to join her next masterclass, I most definitely recommend it!"
SERVICES OFFERED
Join online Masterclass
This service includes:
- 10x online sessions
- One session per week
- Summarized notes for each session
- Optional exercises
- Additional reading material
- Access to her Masterclass community
- DIploma or Certification on completion
- Feedback on your boss fight
- For one person (one seat)
- Whenever Marie runs her next online class
€400
(excl VAT)
Exclusive Masterclass for your studio
This service includes:
- 10x sessions online or in person
- 1-2 sessions per day
- Summarized notes for each session
- Optional exercices
- Additional reading material
- Access to her Masterclass community
- Certification on completion
- For up to 30 people
- At a time convenient for you
€5000
(excl VAT & travel)
GET NOTIFIED
Enter your email to get a notification sent next time Marie announces a run of this Masterclass: