Design how to add MORE enemies?

[fxokz]

In my shoot em up platformer there doesnt seem to be enough enemies that the player can shoot. I can add maybe 2 or 3 to a single platform before it starts to look repetitive and boring, i only have 2 enemies thus far. a normal goomba like enemy that just moves left and right on platforms and a weird flying creature that shoots fireballs..

ITS STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH. I need more enemies on the screen at one time and im unsure on how to implement them the right way. Any advice?

 

[Bingdom]

Make the enemies vary in mechanics.

E.g.
One could go into a 'charge' state and go fast towards the until it's hit or it hits the player
Another one can place traps that last for 30 secs
Another one can shoot slow homing rockets

Make the player get introduced one by one, then have combinations.

 

[Roderick]

Go play games.

Don't just play the games though. As you play them, pay attention to everything that's going on, and break down what each thing is doing, and how.

Or just watch some Let's Play videos and do the same thing.

Even something as basic as Super Mario Bros can be educational. For example, look at Goombas, Koopas and Spinies. They're all essentially the same thing, except that a Spiny can't be killed by jumping on it, and a Koopa gets knocked into its shell and can be kicked. But how they move around is identical.

 

[JammyUX]

Add in some environmental objects, falling spikes, jumping over a gap, - larva sprays up, swinging traps so the player has to duck or time it right.... have something that appears in the background, but its actually hurts you, then make this random also, make sure these have a 'tell-tail-sign' like a shimmer or shake, like a spider sense to the user that something is about to happen...

 

[Jaqueta]

Hazards, but unlike Jammy said, making it random is NOT a good idea, as this could make the game impossible to predict and speedrun it.
A good level design, is when a player can go through it without taking any damage (The same is for Boss Fights), but the level should still be challenging, of course that at the start of the game, you should take it easy on the player by presenting the enemy/hazard on a safe environment, and then, increase the difficulty as the level progress (by combining multiple enemies/hazards that the player already know how to deal with).

 

[JammyUX]

Hazards, but unlike Jammy said, making it random is NOT a good idea, as this could make the game impossible to predict and speedrun it.
A good level design, is when a player can go through it without taking any damage (The same is for Boss Fights), but the level should still be challenging, of course that at the start of the game, you should take it easy on the player by presenting the enemy/hazard on a safe environment, and then, increase the difficulty as the level progress (by combining multiple enemies/hazards that the player already know how to deal with).

Agree about the 'good level design' however, speedrun it, who wants to do that? maybe... 'impossible to predict' - i thought that what game ares for, if they are too easy people will get bored, regardless, the point being is that if all hazards have a tell tail (wiggle, shine, movement before they happen) then you know which ones are going to do damage, therefore if its random, static it doesn't matter, the fundamentals are there.

 

[Yal]

ITS STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH. I need more enemies on the screen at one time and im unsure on how to implement them the right way. Any advice?

• Make enemies different from each other. Different sizes (and health), different speeds, different movement patterns (enemies that chase you versus moves along a set path, jump, climb ladders, patrols an area etc). Also make them visually different, not just for aestethics, but also to express their behavior and possible strengths and weaknesses for the player.
  
• Make enemies use space differently. Instead of being confined to a platform, enemies could cover the screen by shooting projectiles of some sort, fly in from outside the view and land on the platform as you pass it, alternate between guarding a spot and moving around in some fashion, and so on.
• Have variety in your enemy party setup. Fighting 2 Goombas and one Fire Weird on every single platorm gets old quickly. Have some platforms have two shooting enemies, others have a horde of goombas, and occasionally just a single enemy that's no real threat. You'd generally want to ramp up the difficulty incrementally throughout the level, but have drops every now and then (especially near checkpoints and right before the end) so the player feels accomplished in overcoming a challenge.

 

[RangerX]

On top of the excellent suggestions from Yal, another good way to inspire yourself for new ennemies is to realise that those ennemies have a purpose in your game.
During a game's player progression, that player learns how to master the gameplay step by step and difficulty rises step and by step as the player masters the game. At some point you will realise that your ennemies should be tools to favorise those 2 concepts. They basically help the player master the gameplay and are great instruments for difficulty progression. Try to imagine them with that purpose. Per example, let's say your player has a slide move. You could design a tall mob that the player needs to slide between its legs in order to dodge.

 

[mjmiller1824]

So, if you want it like old school platformers you're going to have totally set patterns. That being said, create your objects (both in the gamemaker sense and understand the concept of Object Oriented Programming) and if you want some variety, you can create one or two more and use an array to store them in different proportions for instance [goomba, koopatroopa, flying koopa troopa] (as a basic array), or [goomba, goomba, goomba, koopa troopa, koopa troopa , flying koopa troopa], then select randomly from the array and create an instance of that enemy, you can also use random to set a range of spawn times based on the refresh rate of your game.