top of page

BOSS-TON TEA PARTY

Screenshot 2025-07-01 210117.png

ROLE

 Combat Design  ​

​​

GAME ENGINE

 Unreal Engine 5.3.2 

​

TEAM

 5 ​

​

TIME FRAME

 2 Weeks 

​

DESCRIPTION

This is a prototype for a mid game boss battle with a giant tea pot. 

YEAR

2024

​

GENRE

RPG

​

PLAYER MODES

Single-player, Multiplayer

​​​

CONCEPT

Project Set Up

​

Create an arena for an RPG boss battle of mid-game difficulty where the boss has two phases and an ability that influences the level. Our inspiration was the tea party from Alice in wonderland.

DEVELOPMENT

Boss attacks

​

The mechanics of this project were inspired by Breath of the Wild. I researched and categorized its boss attacks by type to use as a framework to design boss mechanics aligned with our game’s theme.​

Boss's attack pattern

​

After getting feedback from my team, I scoped down our attack options based on implementation difficulty, time and resources while prioritizing player challenges like pacing, functionality, combination potential and gameplay enrichment.

Preventing spamming with cool downs

​​

During playtesting, we noticed players could spam attacks to quickly defeat the boss. Acting on our Technical Designer’s suggestion, we added a cooldown timer, which, combined with the slingshot pullback duration, created a natural, frustration-free delay between attacks.

Preventing close combat with a wave

​

We also noticed that the teapot had a blindspot right at the base of its body so we added a small wave of tea to push the player away from the blindspot and penalise them with a bit of damage.

CONTRIBUTIONS

Combat Design​

  • Conceptualized the boss attacks. 

  • Set damage, speed, frequency and order of the boss attacks.​​​

  • Balanced the cool down, charge up time and range for the player slingshot. 

  • Placed spawning locations for the boss' re-location ability. 

  • Set the height for the tea flood. 

REFLECTION

I’m happy with the experience we created and the features we implemented, which provide a strong foundation for future growth. While not perfect, the project offered valuable insights and room for improvement.

​

Features I wish we had implemented include:

  • Slight rotation of the boss away from the player when the weak spot is exposed, to increase difficulty and encourage movement.

  • A more enclosed arena to make spinning teacups more threatening and reduce safe blind spots.

  • Hovering the teapot in phase 2 to add variety, menace, and an extra shooting challenge.

bottom of page