I left of the last devlog with creatures on the horizon, with the aim of starting to move from a very basic puzzle game towards more of a roguelike.

I love the way that games like Spelunky have a relatively small set of monsters (per-area) but they all have distinctive movement/attack patterns. I don't think it does a game any good to have 50 different basic mobs that move one tile at a time and deal X damage when they are next to their target.

That said, I haven't figured out any of the AI yet, so for now these creatures are the same. Having a few sprites helps create an idea of how the game will feel further down the line.

The List of Greek mythological creatures on Wikipedia is a fantastic resource for pulling interesting creatures into the game. We've got Cyclops, Gorgons, Cerastes (Serpents with ram-horns) and Empusa (demigoddess, with flaming hair and with one brass leg) here. Having a mythological theme with a huge pool of inspiration is far more refreshing for me, than dredging the high-fantasy or Tolkien sources again.

Just like the blocks, these creatures can be transmuted into gold, which affects Midas' sanity. However, they don't turn with a single touch, but instead need to have their health/defenses/whatever taken away first.

I've decided to put the health markers for the enemies directly onscreen, but I might change that in future if health is going to be increased. I wouldn't want to render more than 6 hearts in that format.

There's also some placeholder UI in the screenshot, but I'm not expecting that to stay. I think the size of the levels is likely to change and that'll mean having something that can overlay the game, rather than sit around it.

Next up its time to start making things juicy.