Witch Hunted Devlog #2 - Exits, Doors, Items and Enemies

Hi again, thanks for reading! In this update, I focused on making the procedural forest more interactive by adding exit doors, item spawning, and enemy placement. These mechanics help shape the exploration loop—allowing players to progress between different forest layouts, collect resources for crafting, and encounter threats in open spaces.

The exit door system ensures the player can transition between procedurally generated forests, while the item placement system introduces foraging mechanics, making sure that resources appear in logical locations rather than being scattered 100% randomly. The enemy spawning system follows a similar process but ensures that enemies only appear in open areas, avoiding obstacles.

From a technical perspective, this involved a mix of grid-based tile detection, procedural placement algorithms, and spawn rate balancing. There are still some refinements to be made—specifically, preventing items and enemies from blocking key paths like corridors—but for now, these systems are in place and working. 

Attached below is a short video showing my current progress on the forest generator.

Exit Doors: Structuring Forest Progression

The first major task was setting up exit doors, allowing the player to leave the current forest and load a new one. Instead of placing the exit randomly, I decided to use a tracked movement system that follows the last tile placed by the procedural generator. This ensures that the exit is naturally positioned far from the starting point, making progression feel deliberate rather than random.

From a technical standpoint, the exit door is a prefab with a Box Collider 2D acting as a trigger. When the player enters the trigger area, the script reloads the scene, generating a new forest layout. However, since the exit can only be placed once the entire forest has been generated, I had to use a coroutine to delay its placement.

The coroutine ensures that the script waits until all tiles have finished spawning before placing the exit. Without this, the exit could potentially spawn in an unfinished section of the forest. Now, with this system in place, players can navigate multiple procedural environments without disruption.

Foraging & Item Placement: A More Natural Resource System

Next, I worked on item spawning, focusing on making foraging feel natural and intuitive. Instead of dropping items randomly, I designed a system that only places resources near trees or other solid objects, ensuring that they appear in believable locations rather than in open spaces.

How it Works

1. The script scans the forest grid, identifying tiles next to trees or obstacles.
2. If a tile meets the placement conditions (e.g., adjacent to a tree but not completely surrounded), it is marked as a valid spawn point.
3. A random item prefab is selected from a list and instantiated at that position.
4. An adjustable spawn rate slider controls item density, allowing me to fine-tune the distribution for balance.

This system ensures that players can predict and search for resources in logical places rather than aimlessly wandering. Eventually, foraged items will be used for crafting, rituals, and alchemy, but for now, they act as a foundation for interactable objects.

However, one issue I ran into was that items could sometimes block narrow corridors, which could make navigation frustrating. To fix this, I need to add additional placement conditions to prevent items from spawning in critical path areas.

Enemy Placement: Keeping Threats in the Open

With items in place, I moved on to enemy spawning, which follows similar logic but with an important difference—enemies should spawn in open areas, not near obstacles.

Enemy Placement Algorithm

• The script scans the grid, looking for floor tiles that are completely clear on all sides (no trees, rocks, or walls adjacent).
• If a tile meets these criteria, it becomes a valid enemy spawn point.
• A random enemy prefab is selected from a list and placed at that position.
• Like items, enemy density is controlled using an adjustable spawn rate slider.

One issue I ran into was that enemies, like items, could sometimes block corridors, making certain paths inaccessible. This will be fixed by refining the placement logic to exclude tiles that are part of key paths.

Another early issue was that the player could walk through enemies because I initially forgot to assign them to the collision layer. After correcting this, enemies now properly block movement, ensuring they serve as obstacles rather than decorative elements.

Right now, enemies are static. Eventually, enemies will be able to chase the player and initiate turn-based combat when caught.

Writing & Design Work

In addition to working on these systems, I’ve also been writing out the entire game structure, mechanics, and interactions on paper. This includes outlining how different elements connect, detailing character interactions, and refining the game’s overall flow. Having everything mapped out beforehand helps ensure that the systems I’m building will fit together cohesively as development progresses.

What’s Next

While the procedural forest is functional, it still needs further refinement—particularly in creating structured areas like corridors and winding paths. However, before returning to that, I want to start implementing the other core systems and getting the main game loop running.

The next steps are:

• Connecting Systems & Greyboxing – I’ll start integrating mechanics and setting up a basic greybox using the Yarn Spinner plugin to lay out interactions, dialogue, and general game flow. This will serve as a foundation for structuring progression and testing how different elements interact.
• Combat System – Using variables in Yarn Spinner, I’ll begin working on turn-based combat, allowing enemies to engage with the player rather than just existing on the map.
• Item Collection & Inventory – Since foraging is already implemented, I’ll move on to inventory management, allowing players to collect and store items. This will tie into crafting later.
• Refining Placement Algorithms – The current item and enemy placement system needs adjustments to prevent blocking corridors. I’ll be adding conditions to ensure objects don’t spawn in critical path areas.
• Returning to the Forest Generator – Once the main mechanics are functional, I’ll revisit the procedural generation system to refine the layout logic and improve variety in the forest structure.