Combat

Developers
Designer(s): Floyd Krielaart

What is this feature?
Enemies will represent all the aggressive NPCs towards the player that exist within our Science Pulp Fiction universe. Smart beings that will challenge the player in a fast paced over-the-top combat.

Why do we have this feature?
Out of Space is a top down shooter focused on being the hero of the story that faces any kind of challenges and overcomes them. We wanted to represent this challenges with creatures that the player will encounter. Every reference from Science Pulp Fiction has shooting and creatures that the main character faces during his journey.

Design Pillars | How should it be designed?

 * 1) Enemies built after the Base Enemy - This pillar is up to debate but it basically means using the base enemy design as a base template for designing future enemies to mitigate risks on balancing.
 * 2) Fast Paced combat - Enemies will encourage a fast paced combat by shooting, hostile enemies and forcing the player to use our core dynamic, dodging.
 * 3) Chaotic and over the top feel for combat - This pillar ties to the Science Pulp Fiction comics since comics support the over-the-top feel and each encounter looks chaotic.
 * 4) Enemies are smart and feel alive (Behavior and AI) - Each enemy will have its own behavior based on narrative, AI and design goals such as testing the player’s dodging skills. Enemies must feel like they have their own tactics, thinking and tests the player’s thinking and skillset.
 * 5) Small scope - Simple to implement, simple to design and simple to understand but difficult to master.
 * 6) Aligned with Pulp Fiction - Each enemy must replicate the narrative of Pulp Fiction till some degree without damaging design, art and programming.
 * 7) Each enemy teaches the player something new - We will use enemies as onboarding tools teaching the player new mechanics or set of skills that he/she needs, for example kiting.
 * 8) Fair play - Enemies will never make the player feel cheated or that the AI is working against him directly, it should feel like a duel between the player and a smart AI that has rules and mechanics that can be mastered and overcome.
 * 9) Difficulty/Punishment level - I will aim to make the game difficulty be somewhere around Enter the Gungeon and Darkest Dungeon, leaning more into Darkest Dungeon.
 * 10) Players must be able to kill enemies - Regardless of how many squad members the player has he/she should be able to defeat all the enemies that he is presented with, if they have squad members then they will have an easier time when dealing with enemies. We need to encourage the use of squad members but not force the player into a specific tactic.