Robert Wolf Game Design Notes

 The issue itself isn't the recolor but rather that many games and MMOs tend to just recolor and re-shade the enemy. This isn't the only issue; the main issue is, that recolor doesn't come with any gameplay changes. No increase in HP, dmg output, and more. You need interesting changes or even simple changes; things that force the player to learn or consider combat from a different perspective. Think about it like this; would you like a puzzle in Portal if it was just a different colored room like a blue room instead of it's normal look? No, you wouldn't because the gameplay is outright the same, no real difference. You need differences, something that makes the player tackle the content in a new way or a new manner. So many MMOs do this sin, when in reality it's not hard to make minor changes that makes the player not have to grind the same mob but a slightly different mob.

 The hybrid zoner/ trapper enemy type with breaking these enemy types down into archetypes to help clarify their abilities/ usage. The set up creature as it were; having creature types that set traps and keep the player at a distance, these playstyles opening up other ways of fighting the enemy. These enemy types allow for keeping the player at a distance and even keeping them from going into the air too fast. Combining the shotgun move allowing for anti-air and a grounded slime trap you have a double whammy now. That's for the blue shell enemy. For the red shelled enemy you have a singular firing and of course slower firing for the blue shelled enemy. These enemy types allow for more ways to tackle combat and overall make an interesting experience for fighting overall. Challenging the player's ability to move and avoid damage through the environment and the actual enemy attacks themselves being important. Mind you combing the features from the slime trail with something like t...

 It is important to reflect on your design choices and this helps me not talk out loud and to come back; to reflect on what design choices I believe/ reinforce or don't enjoy as much, what games are my sources of inspiration or have been an influence on my choices as of recent. An example being inspired by roguelikes to make a roguelike clicker game because well, having no death and only number go up and no challenge to overcome is boring. But besides that reflecting on the ideas and why I enjoy x or y thing and what I could do differently to change my level of enjoyment.

 The difference between the two is, am I introducing a new challenge or am I introducing a bigger challenge but the same as the last one? That's what it boils down to. Think of it like Dark Souls vs Warframe; as much as I love the two, souls games focus on adding new mechanics and systems for you to overcome or deal with. Warframe mostly beefs up and introduces more of the same. Horizontal difficulty forces you to adapt to new challenges and adds more, sometimes the newer difficult content will miss the mark or have some mechanical overlap with older stuff. Vertical difficulty is the bigger number and more XP drop; more of the same which isn't bad. You want to know the most funny thing about this is? Vertical difficulty is fun when you have more tools to use on the same bigger number stuff like Warframe and Runescape. Horizontal difficulty can work with both but works really well with the same move set/ tool set dealing with different challenges. A game with both is going to be...

 So far with designing trapper enemies such as the cannon slug turtle the overall enemy design being used for both movement, shooting and dropping slime that slows down the player. Trapper enemies being used to control space are effective in multiple manners. Well in this case both a trapper and a zoner. The two combined playstyles make it hard to approach and hard to keep your distance depending on the life of the trap, how easy it is to avoid/ damage the trap, etc. This changes many playstyle aspects depending on the trap and how effective the tool is for keeping the player at bay. The distance factor multiplies their effective combat use with non-brute force. It also allows for more smart difficulty which I will go through and talk about later. The pressure put on by more traps and more environmental damage factors means it's harder to play risky, in this case having the slug enemy drop a slime trail behind them you have to be careful about the enemies you took out from behind y...

Things accomplished 1. Buzzsaw turret - 4/17/2026 Archetype; Zoner Buzzsaw fired Buzzsaw gets stuck HP regen Fired distance 2. Athena (player) Energy Reload (charging) - 4/15/2026 Jumping State Machine Running Fast Fall 3. Flying Beetle Bot - 4/18/2026 HP regen Flying Hurt box Melee Hit box 4. Slug Turtle Cannon Bot - 4/24/2026 Archetype; Zoner Trapper HP regen slime trail that slows the player Hurt Box Shooting (might add a shotgun variant) 5. Slug Turtle Shotgun Bot - 5/4/2026 6. Spawner - 5/9/2026 1 - spawn and de-spawn enemies 7. Floating Squid Bot - 5/9/2026 1 - Floating 2 - Turning around 3 - can be hit by the head and less dmg on the limbs 4 - Multi-directional shooting