Hi everyone!

Yesterday I talked about difficulty, and how the current difficulty in Operation Winston is probably a bit too much. I think the main culprit is probably the bosses. I want to discuss my process for designing bosses to see if I can figure out why some of them are so tricky!

Each end-level boss in the game has three phases to their fight, and each phase is built up of two different attacks. The first attack of A.D.’s fight is his frantic running and his second is an attempt at crushing Winston! In his second phase, not too much is different. Now after A.D. frantically runs, he spawns enemies that attack Winston, and, in his second attack, he pounds a bit faster and does it one more time. Then we get to the third phase. Suddenly A.D. is flashing white, a weird sound is playing, Winston is stuck and then he gets stabbed by the tail of a cartoon lizard… Let’s talk about that.

At least from what I’ve learned making these bosses, there’s three things that make them more enjoyable to fight: consistency each phase, a respect for Winston’s movement, and being able to get sneaky hits in.

First, let’s talk about phase consistency. The second phase in A.D.’s fight, as previously stated, is pretty similar to the first. In the third phase, however, A.D. draws Larry (a cartoon lizard I used to draw) and the player is introduced to the rumble mechanic, where an enemy slams the ground so hard that it puts Winston into shock. While the first phase preps the player for the second phase, nothing in the game prepares the player for the rumble attack. The player has to be in the air while A.D. is landing to avoid being shocked, but there’s no way the player could know that, and they’ll most likely get stunned and whipped by Larry, which potentially leads to a death that feels out of nowhere and unfair.

The fight at the end of Glorious Gambit, along with having an inconsistent third phase, doesn’t really respect Winston’s movement. Winston is very slow, and, while he’s shooting in the air, he’s very vulnerable. In order to damage Penguin, Winston must use his double jump, however, in the meantime, music notes fly in from the sides, which can easily blindside Winston while he’s firing, leaving the player without a chance to dodge. The notes always have the same pattern within the phase, and if you memorize the notes, the fight is actually really fun! But, in a game that’s otherwise pretty reactionary, I figure players probably don’t want to try and remember the patterns.

I’ve been kind of down on myself so far, but now I want to discuss a boss that excels where both of those fights don’t. The fight against Toast in Awkward Aqueduct is easily my favorite! If you haven’t played it, the premise is basically, “what if you got stuck in the middle of a pong match?”

When I did Toast’s fight, I was starting to get tired of working on the game. So, to get the fight done quicker, I made each phase have the same attacks, but made them just a bit harder each time. Turns out, that’s the ideal way to design bosses for this game! Unlike the A.D. fight, each phase preps the player for the next, and the wrinkles that get added in are subtle enough that the player can adapt.

Because of the way the fight’s designed, Winston isn’t put into any precarious situations due to his movement. Winston can easily single-jump over the ball that gets flung back and forth. When Toast is open to attack, there aren’t any projectiles that Winston can’t avoid. 

Lastly, I want to touch on the last aspect of a good Operation Winston boss: the sneaky hits! The more you fight a boss, the better you get at finding windows of opportunity to fire at them. In most fights, whether intentionally designed or not, there are really satisfying points where you can get a few cheap hits in, which can take a while to find, but are really satisfying to pull off! Most of the time, Toast kicks the ball straight and Winston must simply jump over it; however, starting in phase two, Toast might hit the ball with a tennis racket, which makes the ball travel in an arc, damaging Winston if he jumps. Despite Toast’s attempt to trick you, the ball can’t shield him when it arcs, which leaves time for Winston to turn the tables and get a satisfying hit on him!

In version 1.1, I lowered the amount of hits a boss needs to be defeated in easy mode. While I think that certainly helps, it doesn’t mitigate the issues I described above. I’m hoping at some point I can take a look at the bosses and make some substantial changes. In the meantime, I think they’re certainly beatable, but I get that they can be frustrating. Take a look at this post here to learn how to skip them, or cheese them, if you need to. This was a long one! Thanks for reading!

Keep saving the world!

- Alec