Editing Greg Fulton/Fanstratics Newsletters/8 (section)

== Fanstratics Feature: Legendary ‘Boss’ Battles ==
In last month’s ‘feature highlight’, I described the Troop Rally Ability as an old idea which never made it past the conceptual stage.  Legendary Boss Battles is another such idea... and another logical one.  If you look at HoMM3, it is clear where I wanted to have these events, specifically the ‘creature banks’. 

Why were full boss battles not implemented in HoMM3?  Time.  We simply didn’t have the time.  Like the Troop Rally Ability, it was a new feature and would require new programming and more unique art.  So, I quickly discarded the idea, and instead settled for battles where the Hero’s Army was ‘surrounded’ by the Enemy Army (versus the typical Left against Right arrangement).  Later, with the [[Armageddon's Blade]] expansion, we implemented the four neutral dragons ([[Faerie Dragon|Faerie]], [[Rust Dragon|Rust]], [[Crystal Dragon|Crystal]], and [[Azure Dragon|Azure]]), which were arguably the game’s first boss creatures.  While these dragons were more powerful, they were not what I ultimately wanted.

Almost 10 years later, I specifically remember playing ‘King’s Bounty: The Legend’, encountering the ‘giant turtle’, and thinking to myself, “Yep.  There it is.”  There were other such encounters in ‘King’s Bounty: The Legend’: a giant spider, a giant lizardman, a giant demon, a giant mech, etc.  My favorite was the Kraken.  Regardless, for Fanstratics, the plan is to have one ‘boss’ loosely associated with each of the nine Factions.

It is very interesting to know if you are familiar with the gameplay and game mechanics of the subsequent games of Heroes of Might and Magic (IV — VII), and King’s Bounty Legends? Will you take ideas for the most successful game elements from there?

Speaking of ‘King’s Bounty: The Legend’...

While it is more difficult than ever before, due to the sheer quantity of games being published today, I do try to stay market informed.  All of the HoMM’s, and HoMM related games, are typically on my radar, and if there is an idea or mechanic I find inspiring... yes... I try to incorporate it.  I’d be a fool to ignore a good idea.

Keep in mind, for all the people who love a unique element from a specific game, there are always others who hate it.  Obviously, as a game designer, this results in a ‘no win’ situation.  For myself, this leads to what I find so interesting about this question.  It gets to the inherent conflict of any creative endeavor... audience expectations versus author aspirations.

Game development is a production triathlon.  It requires focused attention, one day after the next, over the course of years.  If I’m not in love with the product I’m creating... my desire will evaporate and the production will falter.

I must create the game I long to play.  With this in mind, for Fanstratics, I have two general design guidelines.

First... do I find ‘it’ inspiring (author)?

Second... is ‘it’ in the spirit of the original HoMM games (audience)?

If I believe the answer to both questions is ‘yes’... I work to integrate ‘it’ into the game (time and budget permitting).

In my humble opinion, you should definitely consider making the game cross platform. Many users are switching to Apple and Linux.

HoMM3 was eventually ported to Linux, so a part of me wants to continue this tradition.  Unity makes compiling the game for Linux relatively easy, Steam encourages developers to port their games to Linux, and there’s always Wine.  It’s testing, with different distros, with different hardware configurations, where things become complicated.  In the end, it’s a cost/benefit issue, with the ultimate question being, “Will we sell enough copies on Linux to reap the costs spent converting and testing the game?”  All I can say is, “We will look into it.”