Hola/Hello!
We know you have been patiently waiting for the next blog of Decrypting the Station.
The last few weeks have been a bit busy in the studio as we have some members of the press playing the game. Perhaps you have spotted some of the articles ;)
It is time to talk about the Bosses, and more specifically about 2 bosses that you might have seen, or not, on the previous OpenDevs.
Here is a quick summary of what the Bosses represent on Endless Dungeon, from a Game Design perspective.
Bosses are strong representant of their own family of monsters. Each boss has a unique way of fighting and adds diversity to the runs.
BUG MOMMA
Lore
No surprises here, let's see what Jeff, our Narrative Director, has to say about Bug Momma and the Shelldiver
The origin of the Bug Momma is hotly debated between those who have met her and lived to tell the tale (current count: 8). While far too large to have been a common sight in the heyday of the Station, she is quite clearly at home now in the remains of the Labor Colony. Among the various theories that are debated, three seem to be the most plausible:One hint, however, is the tag "Proliferator" that comes from the Station archives. Cross-reference with other Endless sites might at one time have given a hint, but as they are in ruins this can no longer be done.
- She is the result of a natural evolution of the Bugs; once they were able to freely roam the Station they exploded in number, size, weight, and hostility.
- Similar to other hostile species created by the Virtuals as weapons, she is a killer hive queen designed to do exactly what she does.
- She is an optical illusion, and if you close your eyes, she can't hurt you (please note that supporters of this theory seem to Reload more frequently).
Gameplay
Today we have some "fresh meat", well for you at least. Let's meet Nicolas, Game Designer on Endless Dungeon.
Hello, I’m Nicolas (aka sweetonion on the official forums), I’m a game designer in charge of the bosses, the procedural generation and part of the wave balancing
Okay let's dive on Bug Momma:
The queen of all the bugs is settled in Labor Colony. Finding and destroying her eggs will make her very angry and she will call for her progeny to protect her. This fight is focussed on the tower defence aspect of the game. You will have to deal with the large swarm of bugs by building lots of turrets while your heroes damage the boss. The boss attack also damages monster you will be able to clear the wave by controlling where the boss is attacking. For each egg destroyed, a new path of monsters is opened until your crystal is surrounding so be careful on preparing your defences before destroying a new one.
Art
We are going to host Hadrien, the Lead 3D Artist. to talk about the art of Bug Momma (+ Shelldiver).
Bug Momma is the main character of Bugs family. There were fewer iterations than others on this one because we soon found out we wanted something evocating a giant mother of bugs. Jeanne, the artist in charge of the design, imagined a giant worm inspired by Dune, like a queen bee for the bugs. The monster has been roaming under Labor Colony district since the anomaly and giving birth to Bugs.
It has a thick skin to accommodate and illustrate gameplay as well as the possibility to retract onto itself to avoid sustaining damages (in defense mode). Boss mouth is also filled with poison since it has the capacity to spit it on the player, more or less like a dragon attack that the player should avoid.
At the same time, Jeanne was also asked to design the creature egg needed for the boss gameplay: it has to be readable and could be destroyable.
SHELLDIVER
Lore
The Shelldiver is the creation of an Endless (mad) scientist who just enjoyed seeing what they could do with different life forms. Known as Laueoine, the player will learn a lot about this Endless character as they explore the Life Incubator and pick up the lab notes that remain. One of those notes refers to the Shelldiver, as does one other, in the Procedural Factory, that explains a few things about what is going on with that boss encounter. A final clue is the plaque on the landmark of the Life Incubator itself...
Gameplay
The blob boss escaped from Life Incubator and can be met in a unique room of Procedural Factory. It’s a giant blob which has ingested a dust shard thus becoming immortal (and addicted to dust). This fight is focused on the crystal movement and the positioning of your heroes. The boss will charge the crystal bot forcing you to dodge the deadly AOE while dealing with other monster spawning at each impact. Like the Shield blob monster, this boss is protected from upfront damage, pushing you to split your heroes and build turret to KO (knockout) the boss as soon as possible. When the boss is KO, you will have to bring the crystal bot to drill the shard in it and defend against waves of blobs.
Art
The ShellDiver is an ugly failed experience monster who escaped Life Incubator in the station, he is nonetheless a proud member of the Blobs family. Jeanne the artist in charge of the concept arts initially proposed a broad range of different designs.
The main characteristic of the boss is a thick front part resistant to attacks and capable of sustaining the heavy charge boss attack. That's why in some concepts she used horns to feedback that on the boss visuals. The shape of the boss is purposely chaotic and tries to feedback an interrupted development of the creature. That is why the tentacles were added to accentuate that effect, as if some limbs couldn't complete their growth.
In the final iterations some broken glass parts were added on the creature back to remind the jar he escaped in Life Incubator.
Hope you find interesting the difference between the bosses, the creative side, and a bit of the lore (we don´t want to spoil you everything).
Let me anticipate the question of, are those all the bosses? Nop... here you have met the bosses of the Bugs and the Blobs so there are a couple of them missing ;P
Have a nice day ^-^
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