Boss Monsters

Powerful enemies players have to overcome to reach goals in games.

While many games where players have to fight enemies, usually some of these are made to be more powerful or require special tricks to defeat. These Boss Monsters allow players to have more challenging fights to mark out the end of levels, quests, or the game itself. Besides allowing players to experience that they have reached closure points in the games, the abilities of Boss Monsters often also requires them to play differently than they can against "ordinary" enemies.

Examples

Roleplaying Games quite often have Boss Monsters during the final part of a dungeon, adventure, or campaign. Not too surprising, in Dungeons & Dragons this is often some form of dragon but other unique monsters that appear as Boss Monsters are the devil Asmodeus, the demons Orcus and Demogorgon, and the evil goddess Lloth. The computer-based game Torchlight has Boss Monsters at the end of each of its eight levels, including Brink the Corrupted, Krag, Medea, and the final enemy Ordrak.

First-Person Shooters make regular use of Boss Monsters. The Doom series have various forms of demons, including Sabaoth, Spiderdemons, and Cyberdemons. Of the special infected in the Left 4 Dead series the Tank best fits as a Boss Monster. Although it is met randomly in some levels it is specifically used as a final challenge in the Rooftop Finale of the first campaign (Mercy Hospital) of the first game in the series. The immense final enemy players have to defeat in Crysis can also count as a Boss Monster.

Bowser is used as a Boss Monster in many of the games in the Super Mario series, and often met at the end of several different levels of the same game. Although the Tomb Raider series has many different Boss Monsters, in the first three games it uses a Tyrannosaurus Rex as Lara Croft's opponent at various points.

Side-scrolling games such as Zaxxon and 1942 also use of Boss Monsters at the end of levels.

Can Be Instantiated By

Enemies together with Improved Abilities, Non-Player Characters, or Privileged Abilities

Can Be Modulated By

Cutscenes, Diegetically Outstanding Features, Game Element Insertion

Defeating the Boss Monster typically uses Eliminate modulated with some version of Overcome goal patterns. For example, in a tabletop roleplaying game, defeating the evil dragon guarding the princess consists of several rounds of tests of skills and attributes of the players until the dragon is dead. As previously mentioned, the Boss Monster is used as a subgoal to signify reaching a high-level goal, as is the case in the previous roleplaying example:Eliminating the dragon is a subgoal for Rescuing the princess. It is common for Boss Monsters to have some form of Achilles' Heel that allows players to have an easier way to defeat them.

Boss Monsters are usually an integral part of Narrative Structures and sometimes they are the main motivation for the player to progress in the game. That is why there is a need to carefully consider how to fit the nature, history, abilities, and even the audiovisual representation of the Boss Monsters to the Alternative Reality of the game.

One design choice for Boss Monsters is if they should be based on types of Enemies that can be encountered or if they should be unique Enemies.

Hierarchy of Goals

Diegetic Aspects

Diegetically Outstanding Features,

Narrative Aspects

Cutscenes

Consequences

Surprises

When placed at closure points Boss Monsters

are used to structure the progress in the Hierarchy of Goals so that Higher-Level Closures as Gameplay Progresses occur, and they typically signify the end of Levels. Defeating the Boss Monster creates a more significant closure associated with the progress in the game. The Boss Monster can be used to modulate the Tension in the overall game and is a natural part in the Narrative Structure of the game, as it can be seen as an end climax for a narrative section.

Puzzle Solving can emerge from Boss Monsters with Achilles' Heels if this is the only way to defeat them, or if players are made aware that the Boss Monsters have weaknesses but not told exactly what they are.

Varied Gameplay

Can Instantiate

Challenging Gameplay

with Improved Abilities or Privileged Abilities

Varied Gameplay

with Achilles' Heel

Puzzle Solving

Can Modulate

Instances Levels

Relations

Can Instantiate

Challenging Gameplay, Surprises

with Improved Abilities or Privileged Abilities

Varied Gameplay

with Achilles' Heel

Puzzle Solving

Can Modulate

Instances Levels

Can Be Instantiated By

Enemies together with Improved Abilities, Non-Player Characters, or Privileged Abilities

Can Be Modulated By

Cutscenes, Diegetically Outstanding Features, Game Element Insertion

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

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History

An updated version of the pattern Boss Monsters that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.

Acknowledgements

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