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[baconman]

I noticed that a lot of the art threads here are very humanlike-character-centric, or generally focused on main protagonists/antagonists. But what about all the critters that populate many gaming worlds? You've got the shot-proof Koopa-Shelled Mets, the obligatorily-spiky-topped enemies, the fish and the birds of course... and what about all those animal buddies that became so big in the '90s; ala Kirby/Donkey Kong Country? (Heck, even Samurai Shodown picked up on that vibe...)

What all kinds of creatures do you think are essential to a well-designed game, and about how many should a solid title have? 20 or so? Closer to 50? Do you think you could pull it off with just a dozen, maybe; or do you think PokeMon has set the bar with it's 150/250 per title?

[Inanimate]

You just need to have the basics!


The Generic Enemy
Basically, a goomba. No attacks besides walking into you.

The Generic Flying Enemy
The flying goomba. Still mostly harmless.

The Spiky Enemy
The exception to the 'kill with jump' rule. Generally an annoyance, as it is invincible by normal means.

The Useful Enemy
It bounces you up, or it leaves behind a shell to attack with... whatever it does, it's useful. Maybe more than one variation, and maybe more than one Useful Enemy type.

The Trap Enemy
It tries to crush you, like a Thwomp. Should probably look like one too, for maximum cliche.

The Obstacle Enemy
More an invincible obstacle than any sort of enemy, but it is anthropomorphic, so it is counted as an enemy.

The Annoying Enemy
It can home in after you, be functionally invincible, or be placed in frustrating places. But it is definitely annoying.

[gimymblert]

Inanimate, how about the non platform base critters 

[Blindsight]

Inanimate, how about the non platform base critters 

Well then that really depends on the type of game you are creating. It's hard to say without know what type of game you have, how long you expect it to be, how many enemies you intend to populate it with etc.

There is a big difference between a 3 level game with 8-10 enemies a level vs. an RPG that you expect to have 10 or more hours of gameplay.

For a generic answer, you can always go the color variation where the color of the enemy suggests a different ability set while using the same models. That way you need a limited number of enemy art, but can easily multiply the enemies as far as gameplay is concerned. As for a number, start small and expand when you get the inspiration to. Perhaps game mechanics will lend itself inspiring you to create each additional enemy.

[s0]

What all kinds of creatures do you think are essential to a well-designed game, and about how many should a solid title have? 20 or so? Closer to 50? Do you think you could pull it off with just a dozen, maybe; or do you think PokeMon has set the bar with it's 150/250 per title?

I don't think there's an answer to that.

[alspal]

This is a very generic question, there is no standard answer that can answer that (especially when you're not specific about what genre). It really depends on your game and your imagination.

[jwaap]

7.4, and 2 bosses.

[mark]

Spore model, at least 50 shipped with the game and 2 mil downloaded from some database.

[TooMuchSpareTime]

Enemies whose movement obeys certain rules that the player can learn (and exploit!) - like space shmup ships following each other along a pre-defined path. Or chess pieces.
It helps if you design your characters to look like how you'd expect them to move, too...
but breaking that "rule" is when you get other fun stuff like Koopa shells flying around at high speed!