Hey all, What are some good ways to connect the progression of bosses in an interesting manner when the bosses aren't in the same area? If you go down into a bunker, you might expect to find a boss at the end of every floor. How do you achieve the same sort of, "logically we go here next" when the bosses might be in completely different areas? Here's the situation: Boss 1 is leading a war party. Boss 2 is hiding in a cave. Boss 3 is planning things in his castle. How can you obtain the information that after Boss 1 you need to push on towards Boss 2? If you have six bosses, you can't keep "finding a note with so and so's location / plans". What are some interesting devices to connect these (major) minor characters?

A simple method would be the "You need the purple wig to enter this area."

I don't know what the style of game is, or if this would work for it, but if you introduce an obstacle before you introduce the means to circumvent it, then the player will be able to figure out where to go next when they do get it. So Boss #1 was wearing a purple wig, so now the player can get through until they come to Boss #2. In a room behind Boss #2 is the moldy artichoke, which is exactly what they needed to get past the one-legged hermit that stands between them and the castle.

It depends heavily on what type of game you are making.
There is the key hold method in which some obstacle vanishes/or can be overcome after defeating a boss opening new areas. This might be as simple as bolders can be destroyed with the weapon you get for beating boss one or that the mining guild goes back to work and removes all bolders from the game.

There is directed action, in which the player is told to where to go next. Maybe they find a note, or an npc tells them where they have to go next.

If you give us more information on your game people will be better able to help you.

What connects all these bosses together?
Why can't the player go to them in any order?
What is the player's over all objective?

If it's an RPG, you could make one of the enemies survive and make him tell where's the "real" boss. Or you could make an item connecting to the next area, "log of a tree" makes you think there is a forest connected to them. And finally, you could have someone just show up and take them there with a preset path AI.

Many games i've played, there is a point somewhat early in the game where a determined and somewhat unskilled warrior comes to get you for some reason. You might defeat the opponent easily the first time, but as the story progresses, the person sneaks up on you and somehow survives to challenge you each time, with increasing powers, until there is a final point where he or she has a huge advantage over you but you manage to blow the opponent to smittereens!!

Oh sorry if I sound rushed, I get excited.

In this game shogo, a blue haired person and you fight like 3 or 4 times in the story using big robots, but then near the end you are without your giant robot and she attacks with a huge machine which you must defeat...

A way to grow into a boss?

Can't go wrong with the old classic...

Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!

Quote: Original post by Vampyre_Dark
Can't go wrong with the old classic...

Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!

Hahaha I was thinking of exactly that.

Why do you have to make it so that they have to find the next boss? Why don't you arrange it so that the boss just happens to be where they are heading it would seem a lot simpler that way.

How about you attack boss 1 untill he is on his last breath, you go up to him and tell him that you will spare him if he tells you the locations of the other two bosses. He tells you where boss 2 and boss 3 are, then you choose who to get first. Maybe there can also be disadvantages and advantages to make the choice a bit more harder.

You could have the first boss drop a key which unlocks a door that leads to the path to boss two. And then from boss two you could have the protagonist find a map with the final boss location on it. Another way would be to have letters and memos littered about the area and the player has to piece together from the letters where the separate boss locations are.

I see a number of ways you could do it. I'm not an expert at this, but I'll try. :)

1) Reveal all the bosses and their locations right at the start. The player will then know who they are and the order they're going to be taken out. I haven't seen this technique used in a while (probably for good reason), but it's an option.

2) The 'finding a note' technique can be used, but you could also let an NPC provide the information. For example, after defeating a boss, the player character might decide to wander off in a direction that intriques him/her. On the way, the PC might be contacted by an NPC via a communcation device or meet someone on their travels who knows what is going on.

3) Make the player think he's defeated all the bosses, but then reveal that it's not the case. You could have the 'last' boss say something like "The end...*coughs blood*...of our reign? Hahahahahaha!" (or something better...) and then he reveals a bunch of new people to deal with.

That's all I can think of at the moment. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know.