The Elder Scrolls Online Deep Dive – Designing Tamriel’s Bosses

Following the recent launch of the Ascending Tide dungeon pack for The Elder Scrolls Online, we’re treated to a series of articles that shed some light on how Bethesda designs bosses for their MMORPG. The first one focuses on Bethesda’s core philosophy and their step-by-step process, while the second one is more about the challenges of designing an MMO boss.

Here’s the first article and you take it from there:

Discover how The Elder Scrolls Online’s developers design Tamriel’s many challenging bosses in part one of this deep dive series.

To celebrate the release of Ascending Tide, we asked Lead Encounter Designer Mike Finnigan and Senior Content Designer Shane Slama to share their process and knowledge surrounding the design and creation of a Dungeon or Trial boss in ESO. First up, we dive into the team’s philosophies and core design elements, plus get a complete overview of the process from start to finish.

Thank you for taking the time to share your work with the ESO community! To get us started, is there a core philosophy that drives the design of a Dungeon or Trial boss?

Mike Finnigan: Yes! We have a few core tenets that we always try to follow when designing a new boss. One important one is that we always try to reinforce the standout elements of ESO’s gameplay. For example, movement is key, and you shouldn’t have a boss standing still while the team simply whacks away at them. We want to get players moving around, and, whenever possible, lean into things like interrupts, blocking, and dodge rolling.

Shane Slama: I think another tenet I’d include would be related to story and setting. We want to make sure that these monsters and bosses tell the story that we’re looking to tell and fit in to the overall adventure.

Mike Finnigan: Yeah. It all starts with the story we’re telling in the dungeon, and everything leans into that, including what specific bosses we’re going to design and how they fight.

What elements of a Dungeon or Trial boss does the individual designer generally develop?

Shane Slama: We design the abilities suite that the monster uses, but also the way the monster interacts with the environment. This can include how it moves around in the space, or whether there’s other environmental elements that it can pick up, go to, or move around.

Mike Finnigan: Even the space itself. The designer will work with a world builder to craft the space to fit the boss design, too. We like to say we’re not building bosses, we’re building encounters. It’s the totality of the environment they’re in and all the other elements that are going to be part of that scene.

Shane Slama: Right. We’re building an experience. The boss should inhabit the space and the space should inhabit the boss. They should kind of meld together if done correctly.

When you walk into a space, we also like to introduce elements of the fight. They can be super memorable and can really set the tone for the battle and location, and the setting matters. For example, at the top of the White-Gold Tower, after it explodes there’s lightning all around that turns into a hazard, and during the fight the boss actively uses that against you.

It’s really the whole thing we’re designing. It’s the level and environment, it’s what the boss does, and what other monsters are a part of it, too. Sometimes, it’s all about what we give players access to. What do we introduce to the player that’s unique? Can the players use the environment to their advantage? That all plays into it.

With all this in mind, could you run us through the step-by-step process is for the creation of a boss in ESO?

Mike Finnigan: It starts with figuring out what monster or character we’re going to use. Usually, it’s suggested in the zone or dungeon design document, as it covers the theme and we always want to build bosses that integrate well into the story. From that point we pass it on to the designer.

Shane Slama: Once we have a design document that outlines the dungeon and a suggested monster, the designer can either go forward with that monster or say, “Hey, I have a different idea, and I want to go in this direction,” and potentially use a different monster so long as it’s still servicing the story.

Mike Finnigan: Yeah. As far as how each individual designer approaches a specific boss once the story elements are worked out is going to vary. One designer might prefer you give them the full background of a character to inform how they make the abilities. Whereas another might believe that a particular mechanic is fun and start there (adding the story flavor later). So, how a designer approaches a specific boss is up to them.

Shane Slama: At that point they build out the abilities and craft the encounter design document. They then put it in front of different teams (specifically Animation, Visual Effects, and Audio), and they tell the designer how much the encounter is going to cost and, together, they adjust from there. Once they have a pretty good idea from the production side regarding what they’re able to deliver, the designer moves ahead to building out a prototype. They then get an early playtest of it and start fine tuning.

During this process, the boss designer is working with both the Writer and Content Designer to make sure the boss fits into the dungeon’s storytelling and questline.

Eventually, the designer gets a pretty good feeling as to whether what they have is going to work or not, and the foundation is set so that the iteration process keeps going. At that point, the environment and art starts to come in and is integrated, too.

There’s also playtesting all the way through and a lot of QA as the designer continues to iterate and makes it ready for a balance pass. Finally, the designer goes into bug-fixing mode, starts cleaning it up, and prepares the boss to hit the Public Test Server and cycle.

How important is collaboration during this process?

Mike Finnigan: Collaboration is essential in every boss encounter design. The designer initially crafts the experience, but as mentioned earlier, they do that while speaking with Animation, VFX, Audio, and World Building teams to ensure the entire vision is doable and that it fits within the budgeted times for each team.

Collaboration with the team’s Content Designer and Writer Designer is also crucial at this point to make sure all the story beats are hit. After the initial pass with temp art, we go right to QA and designer playtests to make sure the experience is fun, first and foremost. Often, we will see ways to adjust or make tweaks in these early stages of design to make the encounter “pop” more and also make sure we know what and how we should communicate mechanics.