Non-Enemy Enemies
As mentioned at the start of this chapter, not every game has physical enemies that are to be overcome with hot lead and cold steel. There are plenty of ways to push and punish your players without resorting to fighting sentient beings:
- Gremlin—This character looks like an enemy but doesn’t directly engage the player. Instead, a gremlin will disrupt the game by undoing the player’s progress. For example, SimCity features a Godzilla-like monster that stomps through the player’s city, leaving destruction in his wake.
- Tormentor—This enemy challenges and taunts the player throughout the course of the game but never directly confronts or attacks him. The alien overlord of Space Fury and Portal’s sentient computer GLaDOS are examples of tormentor enemies. In the case of Portal, the player can “defeat” GLaDOS by tearing her apart, but it is implied that—SPOILER ALERT!—she is “still alive” at...