From the start we knew that enemies have to be interesting, dangerous and very diverse. So each one has his own strenghts and weaknesses, his role in battle.

Visuals

We took inspiration from popular post-apocalyptic worlds – Mad Max and Fallout. We wanted two distinctive groups of enemies with very different combat capabilites. We call them „Bandits“ and „Mutants“ but in our lore they are known as „Unblessed“ (because they weren’t blessed by mutations) and „Better-ones“ (well, because they are better, or at least stronger and more dominant). These groups cooperate with Bandits being more of a slaves than equal partners to the Mutants. That’s why Bandits look like caricature of a human beings – they can carry huge explosives on their hunched back or be chained like slaves. There isn’t job enough inferior or dangerous that Bandits can’t do it.

Mutants on the other hand are strong, big, muscular and important. They are tough (and green) and each one of them is very dangerous.

Behavior

Slave-like status of Bandits makes them expendable. They usually act as a frontline cannon fodder – be it basic melee enemy, suicide bomber or „engineer“ that sabotages your turrets. It doesn’t mean that they are not dangerous! They just fullfill ungrateful role on the battlefield and their life expentancy isn’t very high.

Mutants are much more durable than Bandits but they often also act more carefully – they can shoot at you from distance or even launch artillery strikes from far away and when they approach your base, they can use big melee weapons to destroy your fortifications in a blink of an eye.

First enemy – our cannon fodder bandit

Lets put off theory now and look at our first enemy – we call him „Bandit Trash“ because he is the weakest enemy you will encounter.

This handsome man with huge iron shackles on his body will be one of the most common enemies you will meet. He will try to punch you or your defensive structures to pieces but thanks to his low damage, low HP and non-existent armor you won’t have much trouble dealing with him. But it is his purpose – give time to bigger threats to come near your defenses and crush them with huge melee weapons, rocket launchers and bombs.

That’s why barricades were the first thing we focused on and it was a good call, because it wasn’t easy to make it right. If you want to read about barricades from developer’s angle of view, you can do so in our gamasutra blog here. This will show barricades in a way that is more interesting for players.

Concrete barricade for basic protection

You are starting small in Band of Defenders. You have only knife and gun and option to build only basic structures – because you don’t have enough resources and because before leveling up your character you have access only to low-level gear. Concrete barricade is the first one you will encounter in the game and it is your typical jersey wall (or K-rail). It isn’t very high and doesn’t really protect you from gunshots, but it will stop movement of most enemies who have to go around it or destroy it to continue to more important targets – player, turrets or base. Most of all – it is cheap so you can build long wall to secure whole entrance to your base.

Building concrete barricades

Bastion will strengthen most critical points

Bastion barricade is inspired by real military barricades and it is much more durable and higher than concrete barricade. Function is similar but it is much more expensive and it takes much more damage to destroy it. It is great for protecting very expensive turrets from harm or in later waves when there is higher concentration of dangerous enemies. It can also serve as a cover (destructible though) thanks to its height.

Spike barricade is going to fight back

This barricade damages anyone who tries to hit it by melee attack. It is quite expensive but it helps to keep enemies at bay by reducing their health before players have time to deal with them.

Trap barricade doesn’t attract unwanted attention

Our favorite barricade must be this one. It doesn’t stop movement of enemies so they don’t really try to destroy it (some do, but most of them don’t) – that makes it great for damaging enemies as they go through corridor created by other barricades. These barricades can survive even big waves of enemies and help you by continuously damaging everyone who steps on them.

So, what do you think about barricades in Band of Defenders? Is it missing something important or do you have any suggestions to make it better? We appreciate any feedback. Thanks for reading. Next time, we will show you our turrets or enemies.

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You can still find some interesting information about Band of Defenders on our Greenlight page as it will take some time before we will be able to release game – at least 6 months from now.

In the meantime, we would be happy if you followed development – all feedback is welcome as we want to make game that You will enjoy playing.

BoD Steam Greenlight page: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=922437641

BoD Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BandOfDefenders/