Hello everyone,
Today I'll tell you something about the first race I've NOT designed around the mechanic of the sunlight: the Imps!
Why Imps?
During the development of the game I realized that in certain situations, during the creation of the levels, I was blocked with some technical limitations that were, apparently, impossible to avoid.
They were inherited by the design of the original enemies, which move every turn.
One of these problems was that, at a certain point of the game, I wanted to create "tunnels" of two tiles each, or even less, with enemies that guarded them.
The problem was obvius.
Given that enemies move by one tile each turn, it was impossible for Shorty to get through these areas.
So, whats the solution?
Let Them Sleep!
It came to me while solving a rare bug, in which enemies could not move for a turn.
Fortunately the bug was resolved quickly, but everytime it happened I tought it would be a nice mechanic to attach to an enemy.
For this very reason I created the Imps, that everytime they move they must rest for 1 turn, allowing players to move even through the narrowest of spaces, IF they think carefully about their turns!
The Design
The sleep mechanic initially was explained only with text, using the dialogues of the game.
However, after many tests, I've realized that sometimes it wasn't clear wheter an Imp was sleeping or moving.
This problem was especially obvious when there was a level that had an imp after many levels in which there weren't.
Because of that, I've added them a unique animation that triggers only when they sleep, along with a particle effect: the very very classical "ZzZzZzZZzzz...".
(TRIVIA: it is the same effect that its used for the stun effect of the goblin, just with another sprite!)
The Consequences
The peculiarity of imps is that they are usually positioned in order to be a nuisance.
If, apparently, avoiding them is very simple, they can make the players lose a lot of turns, if they took too much time to arrive to the point in which one is present.
Waiting for an imp to move, means that Shorty will lose double the turns!
Additionally, I've found interesting that, if they are placed along with other enemies, imps give an unexpected complexity to the level they are in.
The player is infact forced to align their "mental route", with two different movement times.
This is an important challenge in terms of level design, that in my opinion needs to be discussed along the theme of "timing".
Given that the imp is a type of enemy that is encountered in the later stages of the game, the player should be already quite familiar with the game rhythm.
The presence of an enemy that moves one tile every two turns, breaks this rhythm, altering the gameplay with a slowdown.
Others enemies of the game behave similiarly, Dwarves for example, that will be talked about in the following weeks.
These type of enemies, that "break the rhythm", are, in my opinion, a foundamental addition to the game, that throw in a more varied gameplay, and new challenges that do not alter greatly the foundation of the game.
Also, there is another enemy type which belongs to the Imp race, but I'll leave it for you to discover.
I hope you liked this devblog, and I'll take this chance to remember you that tomorrow (29/05/2025) the game demo will be realeased!
I hope you will like it!
May you sleep as peacefully as do the Imps!
-Giuseppe