So this is Lost Caves' first devlog. I probably shoulda made this a while ago, but better late than never I suppose.

The game's first  zone is in its later stages, with its last level almost done.  It probably would have been done a while ago, but I have the tendency to get carried away in terms of level size. Whatever next level I make for this, I'm probably gonna have to set some boundaries.

This level is still not finished, either. But I'm not gonna spend quite as long on the other sections of the level, and try to limit them in size. I am currently working on the lower portion of the level (the starting area is that chamber on the left that splits off into three paths). I'm gonna make it simply moderately sized, and the left area that I'll eventually add will be very small and mores a bonus area.

Once this level is done, that'll take me to the penultimate area before the boss, a "gauntlet" level as I like to call it. It'll be significantly more linear than its previous levels since your main goal is to get to where the boss is, and not to explore and collect treasure like in the others. It'll much like the Bowser's Road levels in Super Mario 64 in terms of design structure. As for what the boss is, I'm currently keeping that under wraps. It's still in the early stages and I need to find a good way to handle it as well, but I'll be leaving it as a surprise for when its done and the game gets released with the first zone fully playable.

While working on this level, I decided to add another enemy, which will probably be the last one I add for this zone and before the game's release. In the game's first zone, you come across several bear/mole looking enemies called the Wayward Bears. There were currently three different types. The normal cub that hops around the levels that behave much like the skeletons, only the hop, a flying variant with wings that shoots projectiles from its stinger, and a mini boss, which is a large variant with an armadillo-looking shell. I recently designed and programmed a fourth one, that's similar to the mini boss, having a green armadillo looking shell on its back. These guys will pop out of the ground, roll into a ball, and chase you rather relentlessly. The enemy was inspired by the monty moles in Super Mario World, my favorite video game. 

However, these enemies, when in their ball form, are completely impervious to your pickaxe attacks. The only way you'll be able to attack them is to get them to hit a wall, which will temporarily stun them, allowing you to strike. They're rather relentless enemies, too. They roll faster than you can run, so you have to rely on their low friction, causing them to skid around, to your advantage. They can also detect small ledges and hop up them if they're low enough (About 1 tile high), if it's too high though then they'll get knocked back and stunned like I said. I may give them the ability to hop over small gaps. But maybe they'll get too persistent if I do that. It's probably in a good spot right now in terms of difficulty. 

Not to brag, but I gotta say, I did a really good job on the code I think. I'm not a master programmer, but the code I think was still really well organized and easy to read. Back when I first developed Lost Caves, I was new to Unity and C#, relatively speaking, so there was a lot of spaghetti code. I've really grown a lot since then, and the code for this enemy I think reflects it. There's no large chunks of commented out code that I never remove out of fear that I made need it again, and the fixed update function isn't filled with a mish-mash of different stuff. Things are all organized into their own neat methods. I even use an enumerator to set up a really basic state machine so that the enemy (currently called the "wayward roller") can cycle through different behaviors. Overall, I'm really proud of how it works. I may have to go back and revise some older code from Lost Caves' earlier days, now that I'm much more advanced at C#. (The wayward bear mini-boss is particularly guilty at having some spaghetti code in need of revision).

Anyways, these enemies will be prominent in the lower section I'm working on in the fourth level, along with the gauntlet level before the boss. I think they'll pose quite the challenge to players when they encounter it.