Wizard boss design guidelines

General description

These characters serve the main boss. The hero encounters this boss in an "arena" style environment. The arena should not exceed the available play field size (320x224).

There are four elemental bosses: Water, Earth, Fire and Energy

Boss life cycle

Spawn -> Attack mode -> Death

Attack mode loop

1. Walk N frames
2. Cast projectile spell
   • Wizard teleports to the top of the play field
   • Shoots 1 - 3 projectiles at player in .5s increments
3. Walk N Frames
4. Cast invisibility & pillar spell
   • Boss becomes invisible, player must doge 3 - 6 "pillar" attacks.
   • Boss reappears on play field somewhere within camera view, within the top 3 tiles (96 pixels)
5. Repeat

Sprite Sheets used: (src/resources/sprites/wizards/)

• Enemy Sprites (64 x 64px)

earth_wizard.bmp
energy_wizard.bmp
fire_wizard.bmp
water_wizard.bmp

Gameplay and Animation Characteristics

• Sprite size is 128px x 128px
• Idle Frame is 2
• Wizards can walk up, down, left and right. While they are walking, they are vulnerable to attack.
• Once Wizards are done moving, rest on idle frame 2 (face the player).
• Wizards have two attacks: Projectile and Pillar
• Wizards will appear at the center-top of the screen, facing the hero

Walking Animation frames (all timing 160ms)

• Walking down 0, 1, 2, 1 and repeat

• Walking right 4, 5, 6, 5 and repeat

• Walking left (mirror right)

• Walking up 8, 9, 10, 9 and repeat

Spherical attack transformation frames (all 80ms)

Spherical attack works in three phases: Transform, move & attack, revert.

• Transform frames: 1 , 3, 7, 11
• Move & Attack: 12, 13, 14, 15
• Revert: 11, 7, 3, 1
• Spherical attack is a "rush" attack, but the MB bounces off the screen in 45 degree angles.
  • Player receives damage if the MB hits the player
  • MB is invincible at this phase

Projectile attacks

MB will return to the top of the screen after the bounce attack and revert to it's original shape. From here, it will fire its projectiles. Projectile animation frames:

• Shooting 0, 1, 2, 3, 4
• Impact player 5, 6, 7, 8

Fire projectile example:

Death sequence (80ms)

Using death mid_boss_explosion.bmp, animate 10 frames of the animation sequence around the hit box of the MB.

Layer up to 3 explosion animations at a time, with a 3 frame offset.

Timeline looks something like this.

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
., ., ., 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
., ., ., ., ., ., 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

After 7th cycle, stop rendering boss

Continue rendering explosions for 3 more cycles

Example of the cycle (crude)