Development of Gridform has been going very well.

Currently the majority of my time is being spent on filling out the roster of enemies. So lets just check out all the enemies I've added in the last month or so.

Xob

The Xob(yellow) enemy acts as the opposite as the Box(blue). Where the Box goes to players position, the Xob goes to the opposite position on the grid as the player. It is a super simple enemy, but is a really useful mix-up when designing levels. I can use it as just a refreshing enemy with new pathing, or to punish the player for lazy habits like waiting for everything to come to them.

Battery

The battery(purple) is a stationary enemy that gains charge when enemies are killed within its radius. Once fully charged it explodes shooting projectiles that cover a large portion of the grid. Design wise these most often act as a "soft objective" that the player wants to activate. Doing so requires a little forward planning but is not usually required for a level. These also allow me to have "hard" level objects that are essentially "kill enemies in this exact location".

Coins

Coins(yellow) are stationary objects that are primarily used for creating objectives in a level. The player can either collect them by touching them or kill them by shooting them like any other enemy. In most levels that contain these the player will be tasked to collect the coins in order to win. While these are a pretty simple and familiar concept the fact that the player can accidentally destroy them and that enemies can push them around the arena add a ton of depth to levels with these.

Strength Gate

This is probably the weirdest of the bunch and the most likely to be changed in the future. The basics of this enemy is that anything that passes through the gate gets "upgraded". Enemies are transformed, bullets are upgraded, and the player gets a temporary speed and weapon boost. It's named "Strength gate" because my plan is to have a similar Intelligence and Dexterity gate that do...something. As it currently stands I am not 100% happy with the design as they don't really feel good as the primary gimmick of a level as I had originally intended them to be. 

Reform

The Reform...reforms when you kill it. In other words the player can not kill this enemy by themselves. Any source of damage that comes from other enemies like the Battery will permanently kill them. In addition to this they have a funky movement that seems very unpredictable at first. These enemies are really great at two things: forcing the player to use enemy interactions, and providing constant pressure when they can't be killed. While these are alive they are pretty deadly meaning you will  either want to kill them asap, or you will need to always be juggling them.

Pop

Pops are mildly aggressive enemies that follow the player in a similar manner to Reforms. When shot they stop chasing the player and explode after a bit. The explosion will hit nearby enemies. Overall these are pretty much just "basic" enemies that are really fun to play with. I think visually they look awesome in motion and chaining together a group of them is super fun. 

Virus

As the name implies the Virus is an enemy that can infect others. Infecting another enemy creates two viruses, so they can grow very rapidly. All Viruses on the grid will clump together and move around the arena as one. In terms of gameplay these are so much fun to play with. Currently a level in which you have to control the population of Virus on the grid to avoid failing is my favorite level in the game.

If you are interested in the game you can play an older build by joining my discord: https://discord.gg/NHqsBw8nRv

You can also follow me on twitter for any major news on the game: https://twitter.com/AlanSherba