4:Loop – designing the ominous cube-shaped Scanner boss

Hi, I’m Mike Booth, Chief Creative Officer at Bad Robot Games, and Game Director of 4:Loop. In my last post, I shared how our core gameplay systems come together to create an unpredictable and endlessly replayable experience. Today, I’d like to share more details on one of our co-op shooter’s high-stakes boss fights...

Hi, I’m Mike Booth, Chief Creative Officer at Bad Robot Games, and Game Director of 4:Loop . In my last post, I shared how our core gameplay systems come together to create an unpredictable and endlessly replayable experience . Today, I’d like to share more details on one of our co-op shooter’s high-stakes boss fights.  Specifically, I’d like to talk about how our team approaches designing these battles, and how these considerations led to one of our most unique enemies so far: The Scanner.  No two bosses are alike ​​ One of our main goals when designing bosses in 4:Loop is making each of them unique – not only in their visual design, but in how they behave.

We know we’re on the right track when a boss requires players to adopt new forms of cooperation, improvisation, and combinations of equipment and abilities. All of this results in the kind of creative problem solving at the heart of 4:Loop. When we first started exploring the Scanner, or “The Cube,” as it’s called internally, I wanted to do something a bit different: create a boss battle that wasn’t about direct combat, but navigation, spatial awareness, and cross-map coordination.

Keep moving to stay alive For some of our boss battles, players can succeed by finding cover, hunkering down, and dishing out heaps of damage. But with the Scanner, that’s a sure-fire way to get yourself killed. Rather than attacking players directly, the Scanner emits a Laser Matrix over the entire map.

Source: https://blog.playstation.com/2026/04/28/4loop-designing-the-ominous-cube-shaped-scanner-boss