I posted this vid like 4 months ago but wasn't sure if I could share it here.  At this point I'm firmly in the "screw it, why not?" mindset.

When I was making the different opponents I based a LOT of their skills and abilities on the type of person they were meant to be. This video goes into how I designed the first boss's personality and the effect it had on her strategy and move set! Watch it! Watch it.

We skip over all the number crunching because that's really boring and better left to actual tutorials. You'll see references to a number of different games/media and how the design inspired my own so that'll be fun!  I'll be doing this for the remainder of the rogues' gallery of SPECTACULAR BEATDOWN over the next year! :D

The below is supplementary text to the visuals above! Enjoy!

THE BEAST

An absolute wall of a human compared to the Crimson Dynamo, this big girl won't go down easy!

How to design her was simple on the surface: she's a big gal so a lot of her moves are extremely physical and her grab style is brutal with headbutts,  throttling, and piledrivers! But that on it's own, though clear and effective, was a bit too simple for my blood. This is a character!  She isn't just a set of skills, she's a personality with dreams, goals, and insecurities!   So the question then became: why she was at the bottom of the amateur league? Not just from a simple gameplay perspective but a minor narrative one!

So we've established The Beast is bigger than Max. Someone who depends on their size and weight to win will eventually go down one way or another, usually when they're outplayed and that wouldn't take much. That probably means her ego is freaking massive after riding on easy wins against inexperienced fighters. She believes in her own hype and hasn't had too much to challenge it for a bit too long.

Wait, believing her own hype...yes....yes...SHE IS THE HYPE!!!!

PRINCE VEGETA

Who better to portray a 2nd fiddle than the Prince of all Saiyans himself, PRINCE VEGETA!  If there's one thing that rarely changes, it's his titanium core of pride...and that has been his downfall (and/or the near-death of the universe) more times than he'd like to admit.  His pride cost him the win against a certain Carrot, his life against a Freezer, and his dignity and spawn to an ugly bug man. Needless to say, the man has something to prove and he's bitten the curb many times for it.

Now take these ideas , and reduce the scale from planetary/universal survival down to personal image. Suddenly it hit me:  the facade that is her ego is so big and so  incredibly fragile that if pressure is applied she'll start to panic, make excuses, even accuse the other side of cheating! She's the best! SHE'S THE BEST! Nothing can get past her  right? RIGHT?! She's won so many times for a reason! 

"STOP IT! STOP GETTING UP! I'M SUPPOSED TO WIN!"

So... #PapaVeggie is where part of the personality and style is born...what about her gameplay?

BEAR HUGGER

Time to get to the meat of things.  Obligatory  "Punch-Out" reference.

Bear Hugger was a significant part of her early design doc because a large detail about her, in terms of gameplay, came from him. Alex taught you how to swing,  The Beast taught you how to FIGHT! If you don't grasp how the different skills work and fail to figure out her quirks then you're in for a rough ride.  Bear Hugger, like the Beast, is simple: He big, he hard to hurt, and he hits like a bus.  You're gonna learn from your mistakes...or else. He is amazing for beginners since Gabby Jay is a pushover and could be KO'd by getting lightly tapped in the right spot. The big Canadian Lumberjack isn't made of glass and you're gonna learn that FAST.

When you learn the Beasts openings and weaknesses, like Bear Hugger and most Punch-Out opponents, all it will take is time!

A  fitting tutorial to acclimate the player hmm? Lesson 1:  the flow of combat.

Hold on, though....

What if I told you there was someone bigger? Another character that helped define the Beast that's bigger than the bear?

You'll have to see next time! Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading and take care!