"One of the main purposes of adding enemies to a game is to create an interesting challenge to teach the player, little by little, the mechanics of the game." - Ubisoft Montreal senior game designer Sébastien Lambottin.
August 15, 2012
"One of the main purposes of adding enemies to a game is to create an interesting challenge to teach the player, little by little, the mechanics of the game."
- Sebastien Lambottin, senior game designer for Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed team, breaks down how developers should approach enemy and combat system design in the their games. Many designers tend to focus too much on creating clever or realistic enemy AI for a more immersive experience, but they need to also keep in mind what kind of challenges they want to present players through enemies, and how players can learn from them. "This means that as designers we need to go back to what is fundamental in designing a challenge, and understand precisely what are the most important properties of an AI to offer the right challenge we are aiming for," saya Lambottin. Designers should define a precise challenge for each enemy, asking themselves, "How can the player attack and destroy an enemy? How can the player defend himself against an enemy?" It's a fundamental concept many often don't even notice until they play a game that hasn't considered those questions. How many games have we seen with forgettable combat because their enemies lacked any nuances or challenges? Lamobottin talks more into depth on the idea, as well as on other fundamental combat design concepts, in today's feature.
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