--- DevDiary ---

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- 2024/03/16 -

This week, I started working on Ilriss.

I remember.

Ilriss is supposed to be the second boss of Sunrise Doll. In contrast with the first boss, Ilriss is what I have come to call a "peer boss" - that is, she may be considered a peer to Pawn, unlike the buffed-up enemies such as Prime Sin.

Sunrise Doll R's campaign, like I mentioned before, consists of "blocks", each block containing 4 ordinary stages, followed by 1 boss stage. With the advent of Ilriss, it is time to clarify that these "blocks" come in pairs: the game alternates between a "normal" boss and a "peer" boss, until the campaign is beaten.

This pattern of bosses was inspired by the way bosses are handled in Sonic Heroes. In that game, every two stages are followed by a boss, and the type of the boss cycles through the campaign.

Sonic Heroes campaign structure.

Sunrise Doll R campaign structure.

Sunrise Doll R does deviate at the very end, where the boss of block 5 is a special type of deal, but overall the formula is simple. I have to stress that the "normalcy" of the normal bosses does not refer to simplicity - boss 3, despite being called a "normal" boss, is planned to have behavior patterns that are quite complex compared to Prime Sin, let alone ordinary enemies.

The main difference between "peer" bosses like Ilriss and "normal" bosses like Prime Sin is that the "peer" bosses, instead of utilizing a collection of various patterns, run on a fixed set of patterns that goes uninterrupted from the beginning of the boss to its end. The patterns themselves may include random elements, such as the boss' position, the scatter distribution of the pellets, but the methods of attacking stay the same.

This is a crucially deliberate design choice that involves a hidden element that I will not disclose at any point of the development of the game - or afterwards, for that matter. But that I think - is something very beautiful.

The attack patterns of Ilriss are somewhat figured out, but they are far from finished. I plan to go the bullet hell route for her, to underline the inspiration from the source games, but I want to mix it up with other types of attacks, so that Ilriss does not end up as one giant multiphase spell card.