Creating a dungeon or world boss in an MMORPG isn’t as simple as loading up a mob with gobs of hit points and choice loot. To disabuse you of this notion — and perhaps educate you on the complexities of such design — two Elder Scrolls Online developers sat down for an interview on the official site about the creation of such encounters.
Senior Content Designer Shane Slama spoke to the inspiration behind boss fights: “Something our designers do first is figure out what the boss is all about. What’s their background? What’s their story? What kind of monster is it? All that can give a good foundation to go from. In addition, we also go through the catalogue of stuff we’ve already done and see how this type of monster was presented previously.”
The devs said that they try to take a “holistic” approach to boss design that balances mechanics and storytelling. Lead Encounter Designer Mike Finnigan noted that each fight goes through multiple iterations.
“It’s very much a layered approach where we say, ‘You’ve got that one cool big mechanic, but what else is going to happen?’ We’re not building a fight for one moment,” he said.
Source: Elder Scrolls Online
