Claira G. Ames

At Inflexion Games I worked as a Creature Designer. I learned many things about working in the games industry. Below is a description of the creature itself, it’s place in the game’s progression, and an overview of the function of the creature’s abilities.

The Queen of Magwytch (Boss-fight)

The Queen of Magwytch is specialized to be a ranged focused enemy. She has two ranged attacks: One is a barrage of bullets while another is a lobbed mortar that does not require line-of-sight to it’s target. The Harpy Queen has a bubble shield she can activate once per phase of the fight which protects her from incoming projectiles. She can also call in harpy minions to protect her further. When approached by a melee fighter she will shield herself before unleashing a repulse that pushes all players back substantially into the effective range of it’s ranged attacks. She has three phases to her fight where at the beginning of each she will teleport to a new spot in her arena.

Combat Capabilities

• Both the ranged and melee abilities of the creature use AI Actions. In each is a function to check the target requirements where if the check fails the ability will not activate.
• For the ranged abilities, the Harpy Queen uses a behavior tree to do line-of-sight checks to determine which projectiles to cast.
  • This means the player will seek cover from the powerful barrages but still be struck by a mortar if they hide too long. To further this feeling of constant bombardment; much of the cover provided to the player is destructible by the creature.
• The melee B-Tree has the creature prefer to use the ‘shielded pushback’ ability unless it is on cooldown, otherwise it will do regular melee attacks with increased knockback.
  • This way when the player approaches they are quickly knocked back into the range of the creature’s barrages. An experienced player will learn the range they can tease the creature by positioning themselves close enough the ranged attacks miss and far enough away to punish the creature from shielding itself.

Poison Shield Ability

• Shield that blocks incoming projectiles. This ability can be activated at the start of each phase. It can be destroyed by casting a specific spell or grenade on the creature provided before the encounter begins.
  • This further enhances the experience of being in danger if you are not close to the creature. While at range a player would want to use their ranged tools but will be unable to effectively until they dispel the shield.
• I worked with VFX artists and Sound Designers to have the shield react to incoming projectiles in that beautiful pulsing manner.

Phase Change and Repositioning Ability

• Phase change script to emulate difficulty increase as the creature’s HP is reduced.
• Repositioning script to mask phase changes and grant the creature distance to better utilize it’s ranged capability. Additionally enables the creature to summon again and setup it’s shield
  • This makes the player feel like they are pushing the monster deeper into her lair before slaying her while also providing a stimulating progression during the battle.
  • One challenge I faced while developing the creature was that it was quite similar to a previous boss-fight. The solution was to work with a level designer to give the arena a clear progression with three distinct islands with clear views around them.

Minion Summoning Ability

• Summoning tech so the creature can summon minions to protect it and threaten the player.
  • As “The Queen of Magwytch” I decided it would be appropriate to have her summon her underlings to aid her. This increases the challenge of approaching her as her minions swarm around her shield.
  • This adds more ranged pressure as well because there are more angles a player taking cover can be attacked from.
  • The amount of minions present was a performance concern while in development. Thus I ensured that there would never be more than three minions at any given time.