Enemy

A range of enemy objects are provided by gma.enemy. An enemy object is very similar to the character object, except that it is not controlled by the player. Instead it follows a set of behaviour definitions to determine its movement.

Enemy Movement and Collision Behaviour

Gamma provides several behaviours which can be assigned to an enemy, by specifying particular tags when you create the enemy. These tags and the associated behaviour are described below:

Patrolling

The patrolling tag makes the enemy move back and forward between 2 specified x coordinates.

It requires that the enemy has limitLeft and limitRight properties set on it, which hold a number representing the left and right horizontal limit of the enemys patrolling area respectively.

Note

This is provided via behaviour__patrolling, through determineState.

Platformer

The platformer tag makes the enemy move back and forward between the edges of the platform which it is currently standing on. The enemy will automatically detect edges of the platform so no extra information is required when declaring it.

Note

This is provided via behaviour__platformer, through determineState.

Jumping

The jumping tag makes the enemy jump repeatedly on the spot. It is possible to customize how high the enemy jumps by changing the value of its jumpVelocity property.

Note

This is provided via behaviour__jumping, through determineState.

Deathtouch

Enemies with the deathtouch tag will kill a character if it collides with one.

Note

This is provided via collided__deathtouch. See this explanation of collision functions.

Rebound

Enemies that have the rebound tag will turn around and walk in the opposite direction if they collide with another entity.

Note

This is provided via collided__rebound. See this explanation of collision functions.

Weakhead

The weakhead tag makes the top of the enemy vulnerable to gma.character objects. As in, if a character jumps on top of an enemy that has this tag, that enemy will be killed.

This functionality has precedence over deathtouch, such that you can kill an enemy with deathtouch without dying.

Note

This is provided via collided__weakhead. See this explanation of collision functions.

Predefined Enemies

Gamma also provides some convenience objects for you that already have particular tags defined on them.

All of them have weakhead and deathtouch tags by default.

gma.patrolEnemy

This object also has rebound and patrolling tags

var turtle = gma.patrolEnemy({
    x:0, y:0, width:1, height:1,
    limitLeft: 20,
    limitRight: 40
});

// Is equivalent to

var turtle = gma.enemy({
    x:0, y:0, width:1, height:1,
    tags: [weakhead, deathtouch, rebound, patrolling],
    limitLeft: 20,
    limitRight: 40
});

gma.jumpingEnemy

This object also has a jumping tag.

platform_turtle = gma.jumpingEnemy({
    x:0, y:0, width:1, height:1,
});

// Is equivalent to

var turtle = gma.enemy({
    x:0, y:0, width:1, height:1,
    tags: [weakhead, deathtouch, jumping]
});

gma.platformEnemy

This object also has rebound and platformer tags

platformer = gma.platformEnemy({
    x:0, y:0, width:1, height:1,
});

// Is equivalent to

var turtle = gma.enemy({
    x:0, y:0, width:1, height:1,
    tags: [weakhead, deathtouch, rebound, platformer]
});

Create Your Own Enemy Definition

As these behaviours and enemy interactions are based on tags, you can define your own combination of enemy behaviours. This example creates a patrolling gma.enemy that doesn't die if you jump on it (no weakhead tag) and won't turn around until it reaches the end of it's patrol (no rebound tag)

var onyx_one = gma.enemy({
    tags: ["deathtouch", "patrolling"],
    x:30, y:0, width:1, height:1,
    limitLeft: 20,
    limitRight: 40
});

To make this into a reusable definition, create a function that calls gma.enemy and modifies the result:

gma.onyx = function(spec) {
    var self = gma.enemy(spec);
    self.tags.deathtouch = true;
    self.tags.patrolling = true;
    return self;
};

// Example of using the new definition
var onyx_two = gma.onyx({
    x:50, y:0, width:1, height:1,
    limitLeft: 40,
    limitRight: 60
});