first i kind of want to say that i have this love for games with spikes. i don’t know why, but there is nothing more vicious and unforgiving on the snes or nes than just instant spike death. having spikes up down left and right is cool, but, a lot of times what i never understood was, like, a platformer just randomly having spikes in the most awkward of places.
for example you will be going through a forest and it would randomly have like, metal spikes. rarely did i see a reason or at least have a cover up. what i mean is like, maybe it’s a bed of spiked roses or something. with that being said i’m a “spike” lover, but i always try to place them in a relevant manner.
rainbow nightmare: libra has two kinds of styled boss encounters. terrain themed boss encounters where, it’s like these giant beasts/robots/creatures appear and it’s more of avoiding their attacks through timed patterns. and traditional rpg boss battles where you go into battle and use
dat noggin to drop them like a phat beat!
what’s interesting, and i thought i would share with you guys is, when i’m designing something, i don’t understand the references until after i’m done creating something. even i think it’s weird, because when i’m making stuff it just sort of happens and it takes me a good 10 or 15 minutes to finally understand how i made something and where i drew inspiration from. i’m going to give you a few examples.
when i was designing this boss, i designed it where there was this really rough and uneven terrain that you need to navigate. i gave it 4 legs designed to be 8 directional, so sort of like “spider” legs and you would have to stay in the middle while the screen pans across this rough terrain. like i said before i’m a fan of spikes so the chest spikes were put in so various pieces of the ground would lift you into the spikes so you would have to slide under it very quickly to avoid auto death.
it’s basically a spider horse with a weird head. i wasn’t sure if i wanted to add a head or not.as i finished this, while i thought the idea was really cool, i considered what part of my brain decided to construct this. i’ve always loved military technology, not a big fan of “war” stuff but, i was always interested in the technology that was used throughout history.
basically this military robot climbs mountains carrying supplies and junk. it’s pretty similar and i am almost certain that somewhere in my brain at the time the data was opened while i was drawing. even the moving mechanics were based off what the robot can do, which is climb stuff.
with this boss, theres a certain part of the game where there is more of an organic dungeon and this monster sort of appears and slumps forward and it’s just a giant mouth of spikes and the screen pans while you need to avoid various things.
looking at it after i realized there are several references to film implemented into the design.
from the film the fly. which has jeff goldblum, one of the sexiest men on planet earth imo. and it gives me an excuse to post his image.
boing
noticed a few reference pieces from the thing as well. another film, if you haven’t watched it get off ur arse and go find it. it’s a pretty crazy movie.
with this boss i want to have a building dungeon where you navigate these building tops, jump on signs, dive into buildings and so on and so forth. having a character jump into a very tall building and a giant monkey themed boss appears on the side holding onto the building and his mouth is just filled with gogs. with the cogs rotating he just starts chewing down the building and the screen pans and you have to navigate the inside of the building.
this one is really easy because i was like “oh this is a reference to king kong” and the building is suppose to represent the empire state building.
some people might be thinking, “wow baddie ur giving us all ur secrets get da ff out”. i mean, nothing is really original. like, if you meet people who say they compile things based off thin air, it’s bs. everyone takes pieces and references to things and create their own designs based off others. it’s no secret, it’s just an honest observation. it’s the cycle of creation. someone makes something, another person looks at it, and does something different with it.
i wanted to share it because i felt it was interesting. it’s cool to make something and then learn the roots of how it was created after. i think it’s equally important to address the things you got the inspiration from in the first place as well and not go “heh i created this it’s legit brah”. cuz, it’s not, chump -pops collar-
