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Variety in Enemies
July 16th, 2022

Happy Saturday,

I initially started this game with the goal of "going further" with a personal project and seeing what it's like to make a "big" game (in my world, at least 😄). One thing I was willing to sacrifice was "compelling combat" for the sake of "completing something," i.e. I wanted to prioritize things like inventory, leveling-up, and random-generation first.

However! At some point I decided I got far enough with that and now I want the game to be fun. I really do think the difference between an average game and a great game is the subtleties in the core gameplay loop. So I want to play around with what makes combat fun; one effort to do that is by creating new and various types of enemies, so that combat doesn't feel boring or monotone.

I've introduced a variety of new enemies into my game. One is an enemy-type that I call a "trailer," where it produces a slime trail behind it that is dangerous to the touch of the player. I've also created a "bomber" enemy that starts to "puff up" when you get in its range, and then it will explode and inflict massive damange if you are still nearby (it's an homage to the Minecraft Creeper).

I've also created what I call a "bounty" enemy, which is essentially not an enemy but instead a golden raccoon that has had too much caffeine and runs around erratically. If you're quick enough, you can defeat it and it will drop big money 💰 💰. (If you have qualms over the morality of killing a creature that isn't attacking you, then let's say in the official lore of the game, these golden raccoons are trying to find children to steal lollipops from. Now you're obligated to stop them!)

I'm hoping to also create a boss enemy soon that is bigger, has more health, and has a variety of attacks. I'm hoping to learn a lot about gameplay in the next few weeks, and hope to make my game as exciting as possible!

--Josh

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