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. The God of War series is noteworthy in the huge size differences between the players' avatars and the Boss Monsters in the games; Shadow of the Colossus has the same characteristic but here the Boss Monsters are the only type of enemies encountered.

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.

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

Invulnerabilities

Diegetic Aspects

Given that Boss Monsters are either "better" or unique types of Enemies, they often also have Diegetically Outstanding Features so that players can realize this difference.

Narrative Aspects

Although Boss Monsters may be randomly encountered in games - the Left 4 Dead series is an example - the can be used as integral parts of Predetermined Story Structures by providing finales to Instances, Levels, and Quests. When used for this purpose, Cutscenes can be added right before and after the Combat to frame it within the Narration Structures of the games.

When the Boss Monsters are also the driving forces for causing the events in Predetermined Story Structures, there is often a need to create them as Non-Player Characters to define their nature, history, abilities, and even appearance so that their behavior is part of the games' Thematic Consistency.

Consequences

Boss Monsters are a form of Enemies, and given that they differ from these encountering them may be Surprises to players. When placed at closure points, e.g. the end of Instances or Levels, Boss Monsters ensure Higher-Level Closures as Gameplay Progresses. Regardless of where they are placed in Game Worlds, Instances, or Levels, the presence of Boss Monsters can cause Tension to a higher degree than other Enemies and also Anticipation if foreshadowed by Cutscenes or other narrative means.

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. Somewhat paradoxically, the use of Achilles' Heels or Invulnerabilities may make Combat less likely to be solutions to Boss Monsters than for other types of Enemies. Due to this, trying to Overcome them are likely to result in Varied Gameplay for players, as is coping with any Privileged Abilities the Boss Monsters may have.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Challenging Gameplay, Higher-Level Closures as Gameplay Progresses, Surprises, Tension

with Cutscenes

Anticipation

with Achilles' Heel or Privileged Abilities

Puzzle Solving

with Improved Abilities or Privileged Abilities

Varied Gameplay

Can Modulate

Instances, Levels, Quests

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, Invulnerabilities, Predetermined Story Structures

Possible Closure Effects

-

Potentially Conflicting With

Combat

History

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

Acknowledgements

-