SPOILER ALERT: If you want the mechanics of this upcoming battle to be a complete surprise, you should probably stop reading now!
This boss has three different heads: summer, winter and autumn. Each of them have one normal attack, which basically works like a headbutt. Depending on the season, each head will also gain a special attack: the summer head will only use its special attack when it's summer, the winter head will only use its special attack when its winter, and so on.
You're only able to change season at certain points of the fight: the rest of the time the season changing orbs will be grey and nonfunctional, and once a head has been defeated that season will no longer be available in the room.
The Summer Head
Click the GIF to view a bigger, more crisp version!
When it's summer, the summer head can use this annoying special attack! Basically he spits fire at you, leaving a trail of flames which will hurt anyone that gets too close. Touching the fire will cause you to burn, meaning you take damage over time for a short duration.
The Winter Head
Click the GIF to view a bigger, more crisp version!
The winter head doesn't aim at you like the summer one does, but he seems intent on covering the entire area in ice. When running on it, you'll slide around and not be able to steer your character quite as easily as on regular surfaces.
The Autumn Head
Click the GIF to view a bigger, more crisp version!
The autumn head, on the other hand, sends spores your way! After a while, or on impact, the spore cloud will explode and leave a bunch of mushrooms on the ground. When touching any of these mushrooms, they'll blind you, and you'll remain blind as long as you stay near the place where they were trampled down.Right now the battles are a bit hectic, as you might be able to tell. While the fight works quite well on hard difficulty, we'll adjust some timings for those playing on normal settings. For instance, we want the heads to stay down a bit longer when you get headbutted, so it's possible to deal more damage before they become untargetable again. We might also adjust how often they use their special attacks, so there isn't constantly hazards to watch out for while trying to deal enough damage!
Overall, though, we're pretty happy where this fight is going, and we hope you look forward to trying it out yourselves!
Hi! Been following the blog for a while and am excited to get the opportunity to play this game.
ReplyDeleteI have a suggestion regarding the headbutt ability the hydra's use. Due to how the blue head looks when it tries to headbutt a player from across the map in the third gif, I feel that the range should be limited. It looks kind of awkward seeing the creature essentially break itself in an attempt to attack the player. I think limiting the range of the headbutt to avoid that from happening would be good aesthetically, but there may have to be some tweaks on the encounter as a whole.
- The timing on the headbutt for the heads in range of the player may need to be changed.
- Each head would have to handle a specific portion of the map, but there would be some overlap given the position of the summer head.
- An additional ability may need to be added to each head for when the player is out of range of a headbutt and when a hydra's preferred season is inactive. For instance, the summer head could launch a fireball during winter/fall when the player is beyond it's headbutt range.
Other than that, the game, the sprites and animations are amazing. I love the art style and what you guys are trying to achieve. Keep up the good work. :D
Thanks for your feedback! You definitely have some great points that we'll discuss with the team :)
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