Game styles
Game style

Boss Fight

One enemy that is the whole level, and you learn it by losing to it.

Shrink a game down to one room and one enemy, then make that enemy worth studying. A boss does not get harder by having more health. It gets harder by having patterns, and the fight is over the moment you have learned them.

The rules

  • One enemy IS the level. There is nowhere else to go.
  • Attacks are telegraphed, so every death is one you can explain.
  • The boss has phases, and changes its moves as its health drops.
  • You only deal damage in the openings the boss gives you.

Games like this: Cuphead, Hollow Knight, Shadow of the Colossus.

Play a 60-second sample: Boss Fight

Lessons that build this style