Ghostware: Enemies and interaction Devlog

Ghostware

A downloadable game

Posted October 18, 2023 by egurney

Ghostware: Enemies and Interaction Devlog

This Devlog for Ghostware will focus on the following topics:

-Basic enemies
-Bosses
-Puzzles
-Collectables
-Feedback

Basic enemies

Ghostware now has five basic enemies:

-Wraith: the standard ghost enemy, they slowly move towards Lumen with no attempts to dodge light. Harder difficulties after defeating bosses will make wraiths avoid Lumen and move in unpredictable patterns whilst Lumen uses its light.
-Technology Ghosts: a ghost that resides in technology, they will block you from using Lumen's equipment until destroyed. They will start firing projectiles when more than one boss has been defeated. This enemy has a different attack strategy, forcing the player to run up to it and press e to ‘turn it off’.
-Object Ghosts: a ghost that resides in an object, they will shoot projectile Spirit Orbs until destroyed. Harder difficulties will make object ghosts shoot faster with more varied patterns and have more object disguises to choose from.
-Mare: a ghost that likes going fast, they will charge toward Lumen at fast speeds. In harder difficulties, mares will be even faster and leave a trail of fire behind in the hardest difficulty.
-Banshee: a shadow-like ghost that enjoys making a lot of noise, will run around franticly and alert other ghosts to Lumen's position until destroyed. Harder difficulties will make the Banshee spawn ghosts faster.

Example of some of the enemies in action

Art for all the basic enemies (except the object ghost) was done by me, with an attempt to accentuate a spooky but cute look for all the ghosts. Only the mare is animated due to time constraints however since all the enemies are ghosts, they don’t need any animations to float.

Enemy Sprites - in order of least to most annoying to deal with :)

All enemies have increasing difficulties alongside the number of bosses defeated as mentioned above to provide increasing challenge as the game continues and provide variety in gameplay.

All enemies except the technology ghost and object ghost also have health bars above their heads to communicate to the player how much health they have left, with the technology ghost not needing this due to its different attack strategy and the object ghost not having a health bar to help it blend in with its environment. Apart from these two enemies, standard enemies will also drop either a health or battery item that will increase Lumen's stats if they are below max.

Bosses

Ghostware now has three bosses:

-The Phantom Puppeteer of Fear: A three-part boss (literally!) that consists of two hands and a head. Each part of the puppeteer has a different attack strategy, with one of the hands using charging attacks and the other using fire-based projectiles. The mask summons multiple ropes that swing across the screen and can damage Lumen. For each part defeated, the other parts become stronger, leading to players needing to strategize the order in which the puppeteer parts should be defeated.
-The Weeping Wraith of Regret: A stationary boss who uses either gushes of water or water projectiles to attack the player. They will also sometimes summon other wraiths to fight for them, making them invulnerable until the player defeats the wraiths. As the fight progresses these attacks become stronger and more varied, with the water moving faster and in different directions, the water projectiles become larger and harder to dodge and the number of summoned wraiths increases.
-The Blazing Mare of Rage: A Boss that has a stationary and active state that uses fire magic to damage the player. The mare will choose one of three attacks: a stationary ground pound, a stationary projectile fire spell or a moving charge attack. As the fight progresses, the ground pounds and projectiles become larger, and the charged attacks become faster with shockwaves after each charge.

Defeating one of these enemies brings Lumen one step closer to escape and provides Lumen with a health and battery powerup. These enemies were originally supposed to drop new weapons for Lumen however due to time constraints this mechanic was joined with the upgrade mechanic, still providing a reward for defeated bosses.

The art for the Phantom Puppeteer and Weeping Wraith were both made using AI with touch-ups from me and the Mare was a reused model of the normal mare enemy scaled up.

Art for the Bosses - I would have made the horse more detailed to match however AI can't make animations yet :(

Puzzles

Ghostware has a basic button puzzle for each area, with the player having to explore the environment to find buttons that will unlock the final boss of that area. Further implementations of Puzzles would have included a clock puzzle and an item collecting puzzle however these were cut short due to time constraints.

Example of how the button behaves in-game

Collectables

Whilst upgrades no longer exist, collectables are still a key part of the final score for the game and are scattered across the mansion for the player to collect, magnetically attracting to the player and making a little chime when collected.

Example of orb collection

Feedback

For enemy implementation, the feedback was overall positive except for the technology ghost which had issues with registering the player pressing e to destroy it. One tester suggested being able to click on the enemy to ‘turn it off’ and this was the implementation that was ultimately chosen.

Before:

Example of Technology Ghost Jank - Imagine I'm spamming E at it

After:

Jank is now fixed - ooo so smooth