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World 7 Boss: Hindenbird - Kipernal/MarioE (ASM), Alessio (GFX)

W.I.P.

Claimed by: Kipernal

Briefing: The proposed boss for this level is the Blimp Duck.

Name has not been finalized yet.
Design and Attacks are posted below

Battle Field:
First off, if you are interested in experiencing first-hand how the boss works and do now want it to be spoiled for you, I'd like to ask that you please leave now. This will go in-depth into how each and every one of this boss's attacks work and may spoil your enjoyment (though you should've known that coming in here).








This boss has four different attack patterns, three of which leave him vulnerable, though at any given health level only one of which can actually be used to hurt him (I'll elaborate later). Before every attack, he will fly off the top of the screen before beginning (with possible the exception of #1). The attacks are as follows:

1. The most generic attack, he will summon goombas, koopas, spinies, or whatever from the sky that will go after Mario. The goombas and koopas cannot be thrown to hurt the boss; any attempt will have him fly out of the way.

2. He appears on either the left or right side of the screen (whichever Mario is farthest from) and will summon bullet bills to fire at Mario. They will fire at his current height at a rate of 1 per second or so. This will keep going until Mario jumps on the boss's head. If this was the attack he was vulnerable to, then he will be hit, otherwise he will fly off just before Mario lands his attack. Note that the bullets will be fired several blocks away from the edge of the screen, giving Mario time to dodge the attack when he would otherwise be too close to do so.

3. He flies across the screen twice from opposite ends of the screen in a similar manner to the Jeptaks. If this is the attack he was vulnerable to for this round, he can be jumped on by Mario. Otherwise, he will be carrying a spiny on his back for safety and any attempt at jumping on him will end up...about as well as you'd expect.

4. He flies straight down and smashes into the blimp, causing a huge shockwave that will launch Mario straight up and give him his chance to attack the boss. See this GIF I made a while ago for how this would play out:

(For obvious reasons, please ignore the "artwork".)

If this was the attack he was vulnerable to, the boss won't have seen Mario fly above him and will be hit, otherwise he'll be expecting it and move out of the way accordingly.

So, a given attack pattern might look like this:


Smash attack. Mario attempts to jump on him, but the boss dodges. This was not his "vulnerable" attack.
Throw enemies.
Jeptak attack. The boss is not carrying a spiny, so Mario attacks. This was his "vulnerable" attack.

Throw enemies.
Jeptak attack. This time the boss is carrying a spiny, so Mario does not attack. This was not his "vulnerable" attack.
Bullet attack. Mario successfully lands a hit on the boss. This was his "vulnerable" attack.

Jeptak attack. The boss is carrying a spiny, so he cannot be hit. This was not his "vulnerable" attack.
Smash attack. Mario lands the final hit, defeating the boss. This was his "vulnerable" attack.








As for the boss's graphical design, I refer you to Smallhacker's drawing:



In terms of sprite work I would need, at the very least, poses for (in the attack order above):

  • Floating idly with his feet swinging lazily back and forth.
  • Summoning enemies, which would either involve looking to the sky with his hands above him, grabbing the enemies from hammerspace behind his back, or pointing in Mario's direction before zooming vertically offscreen.
  • Floating close to the ground holding a remote used to control the bullet bills.
  • Zooming left and right, drawn in a style similar to the jeptaks.
  • Smashing into the ground, probably in a ground-pound manner. Also needed would be poses for him looking confusedly for Mario on the ground (if he is vulnerable this round), or looking up at Mario (if he is not vulnerable this round).
  • A defeated pose.


However, I'd like to ask that nobody start spriting these yet, as nothing has been finalized, and I don't want our hard-working spriters wasting their time. I would, however, appreciate feedback on what I have so far, ideas for possible names, etc.
What if his name was "Quackle"? An obvious mixture of "quack" and "cackle"? Also, I didn't understand much of your concept... will he fight you inside or outside the blimp? In other words, will he fight you by himself or he will control his blimp to attack you?

Originally posted by Magiluigi
What if his name was "Quackle"? An obvious mixture of "quack" and "cackle"? Also, I didn't understand much of your concept... will he fight you inside or outside the blimp? In other words, will he fight you by himself or he will control his blimp to attack you?

You fight on top of the blimp, the duck is using a jetpack.
Your layout has been removed.
Oh, wow... now that I think of it...it was pretty obvious... OK, I'm feeling stupid now :P

Extras



I should have something witty to put here (even if it's just to update dated info), shouldn't I?

Advertising Space

Originally posted by Magiluigi
What if his name was "Quackle"? An obvious mixture of "quack" and "cackle"?


Corporal Quackle?

Eh... maybe it's just me, but "Corporal Quackle", while a good pun, isn't exactly a name that's going to make the player take the boss seriously; it sounds like it belongs more to a children's toy than to something that's trying to kill you. That might be a moot point, though, considering that you're, well, fighting a duck, and traditionally the Mario series has never forced an intimidating name on every boss, take "Gobblegut" as an example. I'm not saying no, mind you, I'm just pointing it out.
I should get a new layout.

Probably won't, though.
Hindenquack?

I've got nothing.
Come on now, man, you could have at least gone with "Hindenbird" (not that I'm recommending that, either).
Depending on how high Mario gets bounced from the shockwave, I'd suggest hijacking the camera to follow Mario in this level, instead of staying mostly static.
Originally posted by S.N.N.
Hindenquack?


Originally posted by Rameau's Nephew
Come on now, man, you could have at least gone with "Hindenbird" (not that I'm recommending that, either).


Dirigibird.

Unless Hindenquack is a reference I'm not aware of (besides, y'know, the Hindenburg), I kinda think "Hindenbird" ends up working a bit better. Again, though, that's not final or anything.

Originally posted by FirePhoenix
Depending on how high Mario gets bounced from the shockwave, I'd suggest hijacking the camera to follow Mario in this level, instead of staying mostly static.


I, unfortunately, can't think of a feasible way to get that to work under the conditions of the boss's stage. That being said, though, I did plan for this, and the alternative I devised is for an arrow to mark Mario's position when he's above the top of the screen (Smash Bros. does the same thing, if I recall).

Also, I'd like to request two things: a very simple foreground to be used as the ground Mario stands on (it should, ideally, be simple to avoid as much "tearing" as possible, since the shockwave will split the ground into 8-pixel wide chunks), and, of less importance, some sort of background (Dark clouds or something? It can really be just about anything.) Hopefully the foreground shouldn't take very long for anyone to do, since, like I said, it needs to be fairly simple.
I should get a new layout.

Probably won't, though.
For the background, you can just use the one already seen throughout the level (or better yet, grab the starry background from my level, minus the parallax). As for the foreground .. I guess a simple set of grey stiles showing the top of a blimp should do the trick. I can't visualize how it would look in my head really, but I can't imagine it would be overly complex.

In the meantime, you could always use some placeholder tiles.

(also Hindenbird > Hindenquck)
Alright, this is purely for aesthetics, but...how's this? Yea or nay?



(More specifically, I need to know if you guys think I should use this to make the blimp look squishier, or if the illusion fails and I should just use the boss's attack to demonstrate it)
I should get a new layout.

Probably won't, though.
Of course the illusion doesn't fail! It's awesome!

Yes. Awesome. Yes.

It looks perfect, and I'm pretty sure it'll actually make it easier to understand the boss's attack, if anything.
Your layout has been removed.

So are you still working on this Kipernal? We haven seen anything in almost 2 months. Do we open this up again?
Layout by LDA during C3.
Yep, I'm still working on it. As I said to S.N.N. in a PM December was a really busy month for me; now that I'm on break I should have something to show soon.
I should get a new layout.

Probably won't, though.
Okay, I've got the majority of the coding done, so I now know specifically what I need in terms of graphics:

  • For his "idle" state, just something with him floating lazily through the air will work fine. He bobs up and down slowly during this in case it's something important to know.
  • A "hurt" pose. Personally I'm thinking something like in Donkey Kong Country where he looks more surprised at his being hurt than anything else, but it's completely open.
  • Before he attacks he zooms off the screen vertically (specifically he dips a bit and then zips upward). This doesn't really need a unique pose, but if you'd like to draw it, go for it.
  • When he's using the bullet bill attack, I pictured him pushing a big, red button on a small, handheld remote to fire each bullet. It doesn't have to be that at all, though; if you can think up something better (or easier to draw) go ahead.
  • A sprite of him zooming left or right in a mannar similar to the Jeptaks. Remember that he may be holding a spiny on his back for protection for this attack, so if you want to draw an extra version of him holding something that would be fine, though not necessary.
  • Some sort of a ground pound pose for when he slams into the blimp.
  • A pose of him looking down confusedly for Mario.
  • A pose of him looking up at Mario.
  • Optionally, an animation of him falling out of the sky after being defeated.


Incidentally the "target size" for all of these sprites is 16x32, but since I haven't done anything with the graphics routine any of these sprites can go beyond that if it makes it easier to animate. Essentially, take whatever liberties you want when drawing these; draw as many or as few frames with whatever dimensions you need to get the sprite to look good. Major thanks to whoever takes this on.

EDIT: One thing to make clear: he's flying using a jetpack. You can kind of tell that's what I planned if you look at the GIF demonstrating the smash attack, though with those art skills I could understand if someone missed that detail.
I should get a new layout.

Probably won't, though.
Hey, I just realized this I just want to say it now:

Please have this boss have a "hurt state".

Its just a big pet peeve of mine; I don't like how many bosses don't have a "hurt" state or graphics; it looks so... unprofessional.

W.I.P.