Hello wonderful people from the internet!
Welcome to the 21th chapter of the more or less weekly Progress Blog!
Since we have been focusing heavily on the design of our enemies over the past few weeks, we can now present the structure and also specific enemies, all at the design level, of course. We have many different types of enemies, all of which will be introduced over time. Today, we’ll start with the realmbound enemies. Since our game takes place in four distinct worlds, there are also enemies that only reside in specific realms, known as realmbound enemies.
These Enemies are tied to the realm they originate from. If the player rotates or transitions to a different realm, these enemies immediately vanish and no longer interact with the player. They only exist and remain active while the player is within their corresponding realm.
Enu is composed of four distinct realms, represented by the four worlds you can rotate to. The level structure is organized into four major sections, each further divided into three sub-areas with unique biomes. Across the twelve biomes in total, each introduces a new realmbound enemy. We would now like to introduce you to a few of these and give you a closer look at their design. You are welcome to join our Discord to contribute your design idea, names or behaviours, and your idea may end up in the game.
North
As already mentioned, each biome will provide a new realmbound enemy. The north also has its own specific enemies, one of which is the Self Destruct enemy (name is not set yet). It has the following characteristics.
This Enemy is a high-risk enemy that aggressively rushes the player and detonates upon contact. The explosion deals significant damage, killing the enemy in the process.
Here we see his behavior tree. He is a range-triggered enemy, when the player enters his detection radius, he begins charging. Once the charge time has elapsed, he sprints rapidly toward the player. The enemy will explode upon colliding with the player, entering a defined detonation radius, or having his HP reduced to zero. Notably, if he is killed during the wind-up phase, he dies normally and does not enter the death spiral or initiate the chase.
East
In the east there is the Latchling (WIP), a small creature that clings to walls and ceilings. When the player passes beneath it, the Latchling drops down, briefly chases the player before fleeing and returning to its original position. A Latchling dropping down triggers other Latchlings in its Radius to drop down as well.
This behavior tree shows that latchlings are triggered from their idle state either by the player or by other latchlings. When they are dropped, they will chase and attack the enemy if it has not yet been defeated. If the player runs away, the latchling will eventually stop the chase and enter the retreat state, returning to its original location as quickly as possible. Even if it has already attacked and caused damage, it will still retreat. There may also be variants of this enemy that can steal currency or XP in addition to causing damage.
South
In the southern realm, one of the realmbound enemies is the Portal Master (also WIP). He patrols between two fixed points and creates a pair of linked portals. When the player enters the activation range of a portal, they are teleported to the paired portal, take damage, and the portals are destroyed.
This behavior tree is fairly self-explanatory. When the player enters a certain range, the enemy charges up and, after a defined wind-up time, the portals are created. The enemy then returns to its patrol state. Overall, the enemy and its behavior are relatively basic, but the portal attack makes it quite interesting.
West
In the west there is the dangerous and agile Skirmisher (WIP of course), a fast, evasive enemy that avoids player attacks by leaping upward. After a brief wind-up (jump into the air), it becomes invisible and counterattacks with an aerial dash that can only be dodged by outranging it, then it returns to it initial visible state.
This behavior tree shows that the patrolling skirmisher is triggered by an range trigger. It then begins its wind-up and, once this is complete, becomes invisible and attacks the player. During this attack phase, it cannot be attacked. After the attack, there is a cooldown period, after which it becomes visible again and resumes patrolling.
That wraps up this week’s update. With each milestone, Enu continues to take shape as the world we set out to create. Thank you for following along and supporting the project, your encouragement truly makes a difference. We would also love to hear your ideas for unique and interesting enemies, so feel free to share your thoughts. There’s much more ahead, so keep an eye out for what’s next.
