[h1]Welcome to the second installment of the monthly dev blog of Hordes of Hunger[/h1] In our previous development log, we have shared with you our retrospection on taking the first steps in making Hordes of Hunger alongside the decision that has taken us to where we are now. In today’s dev blog we would like to shine more light on our approach to gameplay design and how it is interwoven with the design philosophy of enemies in Hordes of Hunger. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43718100/62d861bf06786ec8e24e18c507f5a3f08d5c7f00.jpg[/img] [i]The welcoming warm light of the keep casts a perplexing contrast over the deceased prisoners displayed at its foundation. [/i] [h2]Player Actions and Enemy Interactions[/h2] Last time, we revealed our first Specialist enemy, the Exploder. To reiterate for our new readers, enemies in Hordes of Hunger fall into two categories: the Horde and the Specialists. [b]The Horde[/b]: types of enemies here are easily disposable, but come in huge quantities; while a single entity does not pose much of a threat, the sheer amount of these meager adversaries may restrict the player’s movement and even entrap them, in which case they can chew through the player’s health bar in no time [b]The Specialists[/b]: singular and considerably stronger entities that have a much wider set of abilities and moves; the main purpose behind these enemies is to challenge the player, to reconsider their strategies. Additionally, the Specialists also interact with the Horde in both harmful and positive ways. So now that we all know what we’re fighting against, let’s investigate how we will be fighting them and defending ourselves against the attacks. The player has a wide range of offensive and defensive options available, While you can engage the horde on your terms and dictate the engagement, this is not always true with the Specialists. A great example of such an encounter is fighting the [b]Shieldbearer[/b]. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43718100/b674d94c2da02e9282b5ccaea7b0442658198685.gif[/img] [i]A bulwark stood before me, a memory of a soldier long slain, still holding its shield and ground.[/i] This creature is defined by its shield, which makes it impervious to light attacks. To break its defensive posture, the player will have to employ heavy attack. Once its defensive stance is broken, the Shieldbearer becomes vulnerable to all types of attacks. The Exploder and the Shieldbearer are just a small portion of the Specialists that you will encounter in Hordes of Hunger. How many of them? At the launch of the game, we are aiming at having around 30 of them, if not more. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43718100/7bc559d36267fa77f87d8213e2f3d1d540b82c30.jpg[/img] [h2]Experimenting With Inputs[/h2] During our initial development steps, we were experimenting with setting light and heavy attacks, and we have decided on auto-fire, which means that as long as you are holding the mouse button, the character will continue the string of attacks in perpetuity. In this model, we focus on rewarding the player for mixing the strings of combos. For example, the opening strikes of light and heavy attack chains will be noticeably stronger and will have a farther reach. However, during the extensive testing, we found out that some players do find it as satisfying as had intentionally thought. Therefore, we have decided to keep the attack per click option available as well. We had a similar dilemma, regarding side step and dash. At first, dash was activated as a result of a double tap of side step, but some players appeared to intentionally ignore it. So we have created a separate binding for dash, keeping the double tap mode as well. In general, we want players to customize the moment to moment gameplay as much as possible. Therefore, we have decided on leaving all the QoL and Input issues up to alterable parameters, so that the gameplay can be adapted to any player’s style. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43718100/1403849deb894cc75c3bca5943b1558eb01fbf68.jpg[/img] [h2]That’s is all for today's dev blog![/h2] [h3]Make sure to come back next month for another episode of our development news![/h3] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43718100/837feb3f28a9199565f25131081dd9a6a06b4fa0.png[/img]