Monster idea brainstorm record

#1

Too many ideas being brainstormed on IRC are being forgotten about. Recorded by area:

???:

  • a heavy ? that lets you crush enemies if you’re carrying it.

Forest:

  • a light, jellyfish-like floating mushroom that reduces gravity when you hold it.

Milgram’s Castle

  • ninja kitty. Invisible (except for a rarely-blinking eyes). Stays hiding until you walk past, at which point it takes a very quick/aggressive slash at you.

Desert:

  • land shark. Dorsal fin approaches from the side of the screen, dives down near where you are, and moments later, erupts at that spot trying to chomp you.
#2

[quote=“Jetrel, post:1, topic:138”]???:

  • a heavy ? that lets you crush enemies if you’re carrying it.[/quote]

Caterpillar? Although that would probably put it in the Forest area, too…

#3

One of the latest ideas, that we discussed briefly on IRC, was a bit like the land shark in the sense that it’d be an enemy that would interact with the environment in a different way;
That is, it could be, say, a monkey, that hanged from branches (maybe bridges as well?) either throwing stuff at frogatto or jumping down on him, as a surprise attack.
Then, on the ground, it could either try to climb back up again or becoming land-based from then on.

As an alternative, since Jetrel reminded me we have some spider graphics done - in that case, an interesting behavior could be making it switch from walking on branches to walking upside down on the other side, maybe at random or as a fleeing strategy when noticing Frogatto.

#4

  • mimic: something which mimics your movement (mirrored horizontally)

  • an enemy which is inside a balloon which floats relatively stationary, and when you get close the enemy opens the air valve and the balloon flies around completely randomly for a few seconds and then explodes on impact.

  • enemies inside balloons which, when the player moves underneath them, the balloons burst and the enemies drop on the player.

  • a kitty with a pogo stick which would constantly bounce (so hard to hit) and would most of the time try to stay a fixed distance away from you, but would randomly make this quick bouncy dash towards you (and then end up on your other side and again mostly just bounce there stalking you). but it might be either 1) too easy to run it into obstacles or into pits or 2) too hard to make it intelligent enough to avoid those.

  • A sniper kitty; walking frames would be reasonably easy to make for it, so we might do so for flexibility, but a common usage would be having the kitty perch on a ledge, and take aim at the player. When taking aim, you’d see a crosshair gradually home in on the player, and if the player doesn’t move to avoid it, a fast-or-instantaneous shot strikes them

  • a snake could be something like this: when you get within medium distance of it, it propels itself into the air and towards you at a random angle (like 10-45 degrees) so you never know if you need to duck or jump

  • a snake/spider with a balloon tied to its tail so that it floats around and tries to bite you

  • kitties with boomerangs

  • a ??? with a partly guided shot; one that travels at a moderate speed (or maybe slowly accelerates), but which the shot travels faster than it’s able to course correct, allowing the player to quickly get out of the way.

  • resurrect the red flying ant.

#5

Guided shot? Would that be some kind of bullet/missile or a living thing? Be kind of ironic if it was a fly or some kinda bug.

#6

^ lol

Some kinda enemy that shoots out virtual bullet hell could be really interesting. Probably not too difficult in regards to implementing geometry algorithms either from a programming standpoint… of course what do I know. I’m just a musician. :confused:

#7

Idea: a monster that changes type after you swallow-and-spit it (example given on irc was a grub that morphs into a butterfly).

[quote=“RyanReilly, post:6, topic:138”]^ lol

Some kinda enemy that shoots out virtual bullet hell could be really interesting. Probably not too difficult in regards to implementing geometry algorithms either from a programming standpoint… of course what do I know. I’m just a musician. :confused: [/quote]

Actually, bullet hell is really easy to do. Let’s explain something so you will be illuminated. :slight_smile: The trick with difficulty-in-implementing anything is that … basically everything in frogatto has to be done by giving things numerical “velocity” in X and Y (sometimes acceleration too, but velocity is the easy to understand one).

So, a really trivial job is figuring out a question like aiming a constant-speed shot. You figure out the proportions for where the player is; to make this easy, let’s say the player is at (0,0), and the shooter is at (300,100). So he’s 300 pixels to the right, and 100 ticks up, shooting down at the player. If I want him to aim that shot, it needs to go 3 pixels across, for every 1 pixel it goes down… and we can do that directly! We give the shot “velocity_x = -3, and velocity_y= -1”, and it’ll go 3 pixels to the left, and 1 pixel down for every frame of the game. That’d be slow, so we’d probably multiply it by some factor, but it’s really easy to figure out.

For a bullet hell thing, we’d just space out several of these at the same time; one shot might be (-3,-3), another (-4,-2), another (-5,-1), and then (-6,0), (-5,1), (-4,2), (-3,1), (-2,2). That’d give us a (slightly uneven) 90? spread shooting to the left.

Doing stuff involving curves and circles is where it gets ugly and involves trigonometry. :frowning:

Nitpicking nerd notice: Yes, I flipped to a regular cartesian orientation. Sod off.

#8

Hey thanks for that. I think we probably should nerd-out more if anything. :stuck_out_tongue: It’s really nice to see how this bullet geometry might work out theoretically. :slight_smile: I fumble with math largely b/c I often have trouble seeing the practical application in real world terms.

Still I am skeptical… Nothing could possibly be THAT simple to implement. ha

A bullet hell would be AMAZING for a boss battle, provided it isn’t an effect that is abused. But it seems it’d be easy to implement.

#9
Jetrel, btw, saw my mole idea?

the moles have a tunnel network which you can enter through molehills, which acts sort of like pacman: the moles try to intercept you, you can’t kill them, and you have to manouver around them somehow. all horizontal tunnels would be one tile high and vertical tunnels one tile wide so you can’t jump over the moles.

Sounds promising.

#10

An eagle which swoops in with talons and grabs frogatto… rising with him and then dropping him for damage. the eagle could also be ‘helpful’ allowing frogatto to reach areas far out of reach.

#11

For those who are wondering, the last couple weeks (since the release of the last rpg installment), I’ve been working on implementing new monsters. I’m trying to discipline myself, and do just the code, rather than sliding into doing art for them right away. Starting with the code side of things has several benefits; most importantly, I get the entire monster working and can determine if it’s actually fun or not, before doing all the artwork. Less crucial but still important is that I can do all the code for a monster, start-to-finish, in 1-2 nights, and the cumulative sense of accomplishment keeps me fired up. (Doing code+art takes something like 2-4 nights, and I feel kinda douchey if I spend an entire week and get only one new monster done).

Anyways, I’ve gotten the following done only as code:

  • a burrowing monster that leaps out of the floor
  • the red mosquito from ancient versions of frogatto is back
  • same, plus a boomerang attack
  • a bat-like enemy that dives at the player, and then returns to its roost.
  • (non-enemy) a rolling wheel you leap onto, and cause to turn with your momentum.

And I have have some art only done for:

  • a kitty sniper that sits on a ledge, gradually takes aim with a visible crosshairs, and then takes a shot at the player.
  • an armored kitty that swings a mace in a circle.
  • a ninja kitty that hides (intangible, and except for rare blinking, invisible) in your path, which takes a slash at you if you walk past.

So I’m hoping to finish this batch in the next couple weeks; this should help address our greatest weakness.

This is a good idea.

#12

I’m thinking there should be some kind of monster that becomes very slippery and shoots further when spat out. I always feel like the monsters should be covered in spit when I’m playing and I eat one :smiley:
Also, maybe a monster that could actually be eaten and digested for a powerup?

#13

I think the bounce physics are believable enough. If we were being completety literal with the frog saliva physics every enemy would stick to his tongue or other objects like velcro.

#14
  1. circular saw trap that moves along the ground, like in Super Mario World, and some others.
  2. an enemy that swims on the surface, dropping explosive “depth charges”.
#15

  • Platforms which need to be ridden on, but which are themselves dangerous to the player at some point. Includes options like platforms which fall off their track into the abyss, platforms which are solid and at a certain point will crush the player, also includes platforms which change to being harmful (such as growing spikes, or becoming red-hot).

  • also a staple is platforms which follow some series of nodes, rather than just oscillating between two.

an enemy which, if you [b]touch[/b] it, temporarily makes you lighter than air so you'll float upwards (although you can still move horizontally). combine with spikes in ceiling.

i was thinking something a bit like the “lsd clouds” in yoshi’s island. you could combine those with a long chasm you need to float over (re-inflating yourself several times)
[05:52am] zookeeper: ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb4m0OvcaOA )

…and, of course, a similar water enemy which makes you so heavy that you sink

Also, some ideas which could be indiscriminately ripped off from “dark castle:”

  • enemies which cannot be killed, but can be stunned for a while.

  • holes in the wall which occasionally respawn some enemy type (for all intents/purpose, like our anthills)

  • series of 3 buttons/pullchains/etc which need to be pulled in a certain sequence to trigger some effect. Mis-pulling the 3 just means you need to try the sequence again.

  • a big arrangement of identical-looking platforms, of which some are solid, and some are completely passthrough. Pulling a switch makes the solid ones light up momentarily, and remembering what’s what is a memory game (the arrangement is random-but-crossable each time).

  • instakill lasers which regularly cross an area at standing (but not ducking) height, combined with some enemies that threaten you whilst you’re stuck ducking. Plus some areas where the floor is slightly raised, bringing you up to hazardous height.

  • a catapault/cannon/rocket where you are able to set the power level, and where a few select levels result in interesting destinations. Might be related to some similar puzzles from myst, where you need to actually look up certain destinations to get at them.

  • 3x1 retracting blocks which collectively retract in specific timed patterns. Dungeon-blocks notwithstanding, the lack of this right now is a great embarrassment.

  • hazards falling from above, which will shatter if they hit a moving platform - therefore, a situation where you have to shelter under the platform to avoid dying

  • mosquitos (or anything) which exist in a rectangular area, and will normally just hover in a fixed position, but every random interval of time (20-60 seconds?) will pick a new location, and fly to it.

#16
how about a moose as a vehicle? you could sit in the middle of the antlers and use them to steer it, and charge through all sorts of low-level enemies

zookeeper: a beaver which attacks by doing a forward somersault and slams down with its tail

One idea I can think of would be an enemy that uses digging to appear and disappear.
And tosses rocks at you, or something.
a mole that appear from ground … shoot and disappear again … you must kill in the time when appear …

#17
zookeeper: have you got any monsters which interact with each other? [01:07am] Jetrel: No, actually. [01:08am] zookeeper: say, a flying monster which picks up ants if it sees them and tries to drop them on frogatto [01:08am] Jetrel: Not really, yet. [01:08am] zookeeper: well, those could be fun [01:08am] Jetrel: And probably more doable in frogatto than in most engines. [01:10am] Jetrel: I'm gonna make custom graphics for that new hopper-thing's shots [01:10am] zookeeper: a kitty mage which flies around and shoots speedup magic bolts at enemies, speeding them up for a few seconds (and thus making them harder to predict)? :x [01:10am] zookeeper: (and if you're quick, you can intercept such a bolt and get the speedup yourself) [01:12am] zookeeper: or an enemy which hops on an ant/grasshopper/squirrel/whatever, and while the mount keeps acting normally, the rider will throw projectiles at you at the same time [01:12am] zookeeper: (most suitable for combinations which wouldn't require new animations for the mount) [01:13am] Jetrel: Yeah, actually that's not a bad idea... [01:13am] Jetrel: I could try that with those owls, having them carry a sniper of some kind would work great. [01:14am] marcavis: Nice ones, folks [01:16am] zookeeper: or some magical monsters which occasionally fuse with each other to form a bigger monster [01:17am] DDR: How about an inverse of the usual slime thing? two small slimes merge into a bigger slime? :P [01:17am] DDR: Nah, slimes are boring. [01:17am] Jetrel: Slimes aren't boring. [01:17am] marcavis: Hmm, there were also that ones for the graveyard-forest; like ghosts to be disposed of by throwing them on graves [01:18am] zookeeper: slimes can come in big or small slimes, and if you leave small slimes alone for a few seconds, they might form into a big slime. and if you hit a big slime, it splits into small slimes. [01:18am] zookeeper: (and if you hit a small slime, it dies) [01:18am] marcavis: zookeeper, you gotta be careful about that splitting, though http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz9caEXhzzc [01:18am] zookeeper: _or_, the small slimes cannot be killed but they actually cannot harm you either [01:19am] zookeeper: so splitting slimes only buys you time
#18
[02:29am] zookeeper: durr. can you have worms/snakes which are essentially made up of an arbitrary number of objects chained together? [02:29am] DDR: zookeeper: Yep. [02:29am] zookeeper: ohh. nice. in that case i propose a monster which, when you kill one of the "links" in it, splits up into two smaller ones. does your monster do that already? :P [02:30am] DDR: No, it doesn't. [02:30am] Jetrel: No, it just loses links. [02:30am] DDR: I think it just shr... [02:30am] DDR: hehe, I'll just be quiet now. [02:31am] zookeeper: what do you call those paper dudes that you cut from a sheet of folded paper to get a chain of them? [02:31am] zookeeper: i thought of... those, for some reason [02:32am] DDR: paper dolls, I think... [02:32am] DDR: Though they might have a more specific name. [02:33am] zookeeper: yeah, i think that's it [02:36am] zookeeper: anyway, such a monster could make a good boss. just make it really long initially, so that it'll divide many many times before it's dead [02:39am] zookeeper: _or_ it could be a wheel of links, and its radius would simply shrink the less links it has left [02:40am] zookeeper: _or_ it could be a wheel of links, and when you destroy one link, it turns into a snake-like chain for a short while, during which you can split it into two, which then turn into two smaller wheels :P
#19
JonathanMuth (~Home@p5B153E1C.dip.t-dialin.net) joined the chat room. [06:45am] zookeeper: monster idea: flying enemies which attack frogatto from multiple sides, and rather than having a fixed speed, each one adjusts their speed so that they('d) hit frogatto simultaneously [06:46am] zookeeper: wouldn't need to be flying enemies though, i guess [06:47am] Jetrel: That's a good idea. [06:47am] zookeeper: so instead of (one comes from the left, you jump over it, another one comes from the right, you jump over it, etc) it'd be (one comes slow from the left, another one comes fast from the right, you have to jump over both at the same time) [06:47am] Jetrel: Makes some good tactical conundrums because you can't just run away. [06:48am] zookeeper: yeah, if they don't have a speed cap [06:49am] CIA-57: Richard Kettering master * r945a2a3 / data/objects/effects/control/text_controller.cfg : Text controllers now use an enum list to determine their font. - http://git.io/oE47Rg [06:50am] zookeeper: you implemented "enemy waves" (medusa heads etc) already, didn't you? i figured these would work sort of similarly, in that there'd be constant waves of these enemies, a pair (or more?) of them always coming simultaneously from left and right, and they'd attempt to ram you [06:50am] Jetrel: Yeah. [06:50am] Jetrel: I did.
#20

dumping ideas from a previous general “to do” list:

  • create enemy that flies to the side, ascends a few tiles, and flies back (otherwise like mosquito)

  • create a mushroom enemy that is stationary, and launches its cap as an attack. If either the cap or the mushroom survives, the mushroom is reborn from the survivor. If both survive but are separated, the cap dies and the stem continues (to prevent Sorcerer’s Apprentice madness). Or maybe not?

  • create a mushroom enemy that does like the above, but walks around, and fires caps which disintegrate shortly after the apex of their flight.

  • create a mushroom enemy that lazily floats around, but detonates, sending shots in all 8 cardinal directions.

  • create a log that you can splash onto, but will rapidly sink if you’re standing on it; offering only a tiny window of being above e.g. acid.

  • create enemy that meanders in a swarm, occasionally swooping at the player.

  • create an enemy that’s standable like the platform bugs. When shot, it loses a bunch of altitude, flies at a lower height for a little while, and then returns to its original height (thus being a puzzle the player can use to ascend into secret areas).