One of the more difficult aspects of working with this engine is that it is a rapidly developing tool. Most content is about v3 with barely anything about v4. Making the level timer was very difficult in 3 (using GBVM scripts) but was made a lot easier in 4 with the replace tile event.

Level slowdown from enemies

Have one actor sending move commands to the others and use larger commands: instead of each skeleton randomly moving by 1 every frame, the level logic actor tells all the skeletons to move by 3 every few frames. Also only read certain variables on one actor, such as player position for following.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeGQ0OOHtVc

People were frustrated trying to attack diagonally in testing. To remedy this, I expanded the hitboxes to spill over to the sides of the player, making it much more forgiving and allows to player to attack diagonally even if it is still just four directions. This wasn’t easy to implement though as changing projectile hitboxes or rotating them isn't possible. Instead I had to create different transparent sprites for horizontal and vertical attacks and launch a different projectile depending on what direction the player is facing. Also projectiles as attacks suck.

Incorporating different elements together. The challenge of avoiding the mage amongst a cramped maze or with holes/spikes around. Using the spikes purely as a way to stop you from accessing an enemy.