EPTPrevious blogs:
Dev Diary - The Art of Dying #1: Movement
Dev Diary - The Art of Dying #2: Attacking
I'm a Computer Science student focusing on Game Programming and Design and, in my free time, I happen to work on a little platform game. I record short videos that focus on particular aspects of the game, this one is about enemies. Please take a look:
As always, let me talk about what I touch upon in the video in a bit more detail here:
I think that a very common problem for a lot of new game designers, when they make a platformer (or similar) game and start thinking about what enemies to put in, is that they may put too much emphasis on realism. Of course, it depends. If your entire goal is to make some sort of realism/simulation game, then things are quite different - but then it's unlikely that you're designing a platformer. Instead of thinking about what enemies would realistically be in whatever level you're making, think about enemy roles!
Once again, this is a concept that we can also find in our beloved game, Starcraft. Notice how Blizzard does not shower us with a ton of units, because their roles would overlap. A lot of C&C games aren't like that for example, they have a huge amount of units, a lot of them with the same role. I much prefer Starcraft's approach here, obviously, and I think it's just much, much better design. In fact, Blizzard has removed units (or tried to *hrm*Carrier*hrrrm*) because of this role overlap.
So, I followed the Starcraft lead here and came up with some enemy roles: I wanted an enemy that attacks you from above (Bird), I wanted an enemy that attacks you from the sides (Wall Turret, Guard) and one that attacks you from underneath (not presented in the video) for example. But wait? Don't we have overlap with the Wall Turret and Guard? They both shoot horizontally! Yes - but everything else about them is completely different. The Guard walks left and right (ie. horizontal movement), the turret slides up and down (vertical), the Guard can also aim 45 degrees up, the Turret is fixed. The Guard has no pre-attack delay and doesn't telegraph its attacks, the Turret gives you a second to react and does telegraph where it's going to shoot next. The Guard moves slowly, the Turret is fast. What I am trying to say here is, while following the one-role design philosophy, you also don't want to overdo it. If you go too strict on yourself, you can end up with a game that's simply too clinical. So, don't misunderstand me, do not make a table with unit roles on the left and enemies that fill these on the right. That is overdoing it! Just understand the unit-role idea as an approach, a way to get your creative juices going. A starting point. If you have a really, really cool idea, don't scrap it because of overlap. Adapt it or whatever is overlapping with it in other ways. Keep in mind that there's a LOT you can do with enemies in platformers: they can be invulnerable while they're not shooting (HellBot) for example, they could also go (almost) invisible while moving, they can shoot in all kinds of patterns (sine curves, homing missiles, arcs, cardinal directions etc.), maybe they jump out of water, or they can fly, maybe they blow up when they die and deal splash damage etc. The possibilities are endless.
Please let me know what you think about the video/game and let's discuss some platformer enemies maybe!
Cheers,
NihiL
