PROJECT EDEN - ENEMY DESIGN

NARRATIVE & THEMES FEATURES and DESIGN
The visual design for the enemies that the player will encounter throughout the game aims to deliver creatures that once were human, so with humanoid silhoutte, but then have been infected by a mysterious outbreak which slowly transformed them into half-human and half-funghi monstrosities.

The infection happens through different stages and with each subsequent stage the mutations and body alteration become more evident and of greater visual impact.
The greater the infection and the greater is the display of blend between human flesh and plant like and/or funghi like growth and/or physiology.

The creatures that wander within the facility were once the staff that worked there and which were exposed to the viral outbreak unleashed from the labs.
Their design is meant to resemble and demonstrate their original nature as human beings, however their humanity is only a vestigial trait now as their bodies are being overtaken by the infection and slowly turned into funghi monstruosities.
Following the project identity trait of DESCENT, a new enemy will be introduced with each new level the player will venture in.
The appearance of these enemies will be progressively more dehumanised to represent the higher degree of infection exposure based on how close the level is to the point from which the outbreak originated from.
The looks and visual design of each AI has been designed to provide indicative aid to the player about the nature of the threat it poses.

GAMEPLAY FEATURES and DESIGN
DESIGN INTENT
The enemy AI and every aspect of its design has been designed to support, deliver and reinforce the project identity and production filter goals.
The role of the enemy AI is to act as an active obstacle on the way of the player, and attempting to hold it back from achieving the game goal an dobjectives.
Each enemy has been designed to exploit one or more vulnerabilities of the player and/or attack one or more of its needs, in relation to interactivity with the game.
Each enemy AI, and hence behaviour, has been designed keeping in mind what abilities and what weapons the player will have available at all stages of the game and what could be the interaction between player and enemy AI during each one of those stages, to make sure that the power of each EAI will remain consistent throughout the game and avoid as much as possible that each EAI fails to deliver the threat it's meant to deliver, and that each EAI won't be able to create a challenge for the player.
Each EAI has been designed to have weaknesses and strengths.
Alongside this principle, each EAI has been designed to have a specific and narrow-focused efficiency on its own but also, once and if put alongside other different EAI, they can provide complementary support to each other in those areas where they have vulnerability and/or are more exposed.

AI BEHAVIOUR
Each AI has one specific focus for the way it behaves and the way it interacts with the player. Each enemy will have only 1 direct way of attacking the player.
All enemies never linger still and are constantly in movement. This is done to put pressure on the player's reactions and decisions and to pose a threat to stealthy playstyles that would otherwise minimize the threat posed by the enemy encounter.
Because all enemies, as per lore inspiration, are viral/fungal vectors their prerogative is attack and aggression.
Each AI will display clear behavioural patterns that will allow the player to spot them, understand them, learn them and then use this knowledge to plan gameplay and playstyle.
There are two categories of enemy AI : Melee Chasers and Range Shooters.
Each AI category will behave in completely different ways from one another, exclusion done only for their aggressivity.
The AI behaviour of each AI category should be easy to understand and notice.

AI ABILITIES
As Ashleigh is designed to exploit and create spatial advantage to deal with threats, all enemy AI have been granted abilities which create hazards within the environment around them and/or in which they move.
This factor attempts in helping to create pressure for the player and stimulate even further the intentionality of the player.
Given that the design direction of all enemy AI within the game has been devised to be simple and straightforward in its functionality, the large majority of abilities that have been granted to the enemy are passive abilities which do not require the AI to actively and intentionally use it against the player, hence disrupting the efficiency and focus of its behaviour.
Furthermore, each AI has been given an ability that compliments and favors its individual behaviour and the way it poses a threat to the player.

ENEMY MOODBOARD

This is the moodboard I have assembled for the project.
I have used pictures and concept art from across different game titles, movie titles, and concept art websites.
The purpose of the moodboard was to put together an assembly of all diferent elements that could have fit the game’s type of themes and design, and present many different possibilities and variations of a single concept.

Images used in the moodboard have been borrowed from the internet.

ENEMY CONCEPTS SKECTHES

Here is a collection of some of the concept sketches that I drew while exploring ideas and working toward identifying the final direction of the visual design for the enemies in Project Eden.