![]() Since Gauntlet is about tons of enemies there is always a struggle with readability. Even the swift little elf might have trouble keeping his distance. The brand new Skeleton Defender is a slow moving melee unit, but if you break its shield it starts running at you with vicious swings. This is the type of synergy we have worked hard to improve in Slayer Edition while simultaneously making higher-tier enemies more versatile. Thus, all enemies in Gauntlet are easy to defeat on their own, but combined they should provide a challenge. What I try to do as an enemy designer is create monster groups with synergy between them that together will make them challenging for all the classes in their own way. Designing one enemy that can challenge both equally is very difficult. Slayer Edition has four distinctly different character classes, from the Elf’s ranged keep-away game to the Warrior’s melee combat. With Gauntlet we are trying to create really diverse play styles without losing the accessibility of an arcade game. These limitations are great for creating a “purer,” more immediate gameplay experience, but makes it more tricky to offer the player different play styles. ![]() Arcade games focus on individual skill and the player’s ability to use a limited set of tools and maximize their potential. We don’t have the luxury of rounding out each character class with tons of abilities and options. Gauntlet is, at its core, an arcade game. I think veteran Gauntlet players will want to pay good old Morak another visit in Slayer Edition! We are of course doing some polish and fixes to them. When making Slayer Edition we made the decision to focus on improving the 95% of play time you are not fighting bosses. Anything straying from that formula gets increasingly more problematic to realize within the game’s framework. Now, Gauntlet’s core gameplay revolves around hordes of enemies. Then we as developers don’t have to deviate too much from the game’s core mechanics that we have spent so much time on getting right. ![]() Unfortunately that requires a lot of custom code and content, which is why many games have, from a player perspective, lazy boss battles - like beefed up normal enemies for example. A good boss battle lets the player apply his skills and abilities to a foe that optimally is unlike anything else in the game. ![]() The makings of a great boss is a project within the project. We have also given every enemy “family” (mummies, skeletons etc.), a new lower-tier spawner that only spawns the basic units of that “family.” This means we are no longer limited “all or nothing” options when pacing the game. Some enemies have been removed and some completely new ones have been added. For some we’ve just tweaked movement speeds and hit boxes, while others have received entirely new ability sets. In Slayer Edition we have gone through the game and re-evaluated every single enemy in the game, leading to changes in all but two. In Gauntlet 2014 they just weren’t different enough from each other to make the players change their playstyle in any meaningful way. The enemies are obviously a big part of that. As mentioned previously, we have been working a lot to get more variation in Gauntlet: Slayer Edition.
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