While LadyStripes is hard at work making the animations for the various enemies we have planned, I'm in the process of making an AI. Here's some commentary, in case you're wondering how it's going:
The Good
I'm trying to make a really intelligent AI, because I always get upset when a game has really idiotic NPCs -- and now I'm in a position to change that. I'm building a 'virtual psychology' for each type of enemy, complete with fear/confidence, aggression, opinions about other beings, and more. My hope is to not just have enemies that attack Sigrid and do dirty things to her, but enemies that feel like real intelligent creatures interacting with Sigrid... and then doing dirty things to her.
The Bad
Unfortunately, the number of ways I could program an AI of this complexity is absolutely astronomical. I can make it simple, complex, flexible, specialized, etc. Plus, the more I put into the AI, the less likely it is the be portable over to other games that we start working on. And, in terms of complexity, I'd rather have a working AI by next week than a brilliant AI by the end of the month -- as I'm sure you can sympathize with.
The Ugly
Since LadyStripes only has a handful of graphics that are ready to put into the game, testing the AI has taken a hilarious turn for the ugly; at this point, I'm literally watching how coloured rectangles interact with each other and respond to Sigrid. It's extremely colourful, but definitely not easy on the eyes, which is why I may be looking forward to LadyStripes' animations even more than you are.
At the end of the day, though, I suppose I have to take what I have. After all, doing my own project is immensely satisfying, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. That's what I'm going to choose to take from all this:
Freedom is an amazing thing.
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