Galaga-type enemy AI

Questions & Answers
1

Hey unity community, this is my first time posting so do tell me if i break any etiquette.

Now on to my question, im currently practicing coding in C# to teach it to myself.
I do this through creating a galaga-type game (top down, 2d, powerups bullets, space etc.).

i have my playercontroller working and all and im starting on the enemy ai. thing is im fully stuck as i cant find anything related to putting 2d enemy objects into a grid, and even less on having them enter a level with a set path.
is there any way some of you can help me? or point me in the right direction?

i myself was thinking about using a table, or an array of gameobjects that act as “idle positions” for the enemies to fly to when done “entering” the level. but i would have to check if a gameobject is already taken or not. anyhow, any help is appreciated!.

2

If you’re new to programming try not to program the movement, but make a simple animation in the animator and trigger that in an animation.

There is really not much AI to Galaga. Everything is a scripted animation that does not respond to your actions except for the direction of the bullets maybe.

Adding simple animations to individual enemies could make them do “real” attacks.

Why don’t you first place the enemies by hand for a start, like space-invaders and parent the “wave” to a common gameobject that moves from side to side and down slowly. (animation).
The then only needs to change the sprites, so it looks like it is animating, die when a bullet hits it and sometimes drop a bullet down.
You could make multiple waves or simply increase the speed of a single repeating wave.