Sporting over 100 bosses and more on the way, the developers at Grinding Gear Games give us a bit more insight on the process of curating engaging and epic bosses and their mechanics from scratch in Path of Exile 2.
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00:00I think, honestly, making bosses in Path of Exile 2 is the most satisfying part of the
00:23job.
00:24It is so enjoyable from start to end, even after it's gone out, it's satisfying.
00:29I think if I could choose to do anything all the time, full time, that would be the single
00:34thing.
00:46Bosses in Path of Exile 2 come about two major ways.
00:49You obviously have the more traditional approach where you create a narrative and you design
00:55a boss around that narrative.
01:11The second way, which I think is something that can be very unique and create some of
01:16the more interesting encounters, is letting the creative genius of our artists do what
01:22they need to do.
01:24They can come up with something completely abstract.
01:28And this is how you get some of the most awesome things, because all of a sudden it can be
01:32something with 100 tentacles, or 9 limbs, or no limbs, or 1000 teeth, or none, and obviously
01:41things that aren't even in my imagination.
02:04While a boss in Path of Exile 2 ultimately is the culmination of decades of experience,
02:10taking hundreds if not thousands of bosses and its predecessor, taking all that knowledge
02:14together, and puts it in a package that delivers the best of what could possibly be of boss
02:19encounters in an action RPG environment with bosses that are utilizing souls-like mechanics.
02:32Despite the fact there's over 100 bosses, and more to come, a lot more to come, every
02:39single boss fight is completely unique, hand-animated from scratch, it is designed from scratch,
02:45it is balanced from scratch, and it doesn't reuse a single asset in our library or anything
02:50like that.
03:09One of the main challenges balancing boss fights in Path of Exile 2, especially compared
03:12to its predecessor, you have to, in a single attempt, reduce the boss from full life to
03:17zero in order to then progress through.
03:19If a player cannot defeat them now, then they're stuck.
03:25Which helps in many ways, because it makes the bosses feel so much more satisfying to
03:29kill once you do overcome it and learn it.
03:36It is very, very important to us that Path of Exile bosses' mechanics, especially around
03:42telegraphing, feels fair to the user, as opposed to them being cheated out of something when
03:47they happen to die.
03:49We want to make sure that hitboxes are accurate, and of course, when something hits you, it
03:54feels like it hits you.
03:57It ultimately makes it feel that much more satisfying when you kill it, and you feel
04:02that much more pride when you are able to overcome something difficult, knowing that
04:06the game hasn't robbed you of this thing.
04:10At the end of the day, you want to see that healthy balance, where some people are struggling,
04:18and you want to see that moment, that second-hand moment, where someone overcomes that challenge
04:23and is so happy for doing so, and so I'm looking forward to that.
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