Hi, this is my first post, so I don't know if I should introduce myself somewhere. I'm going to start by saying that I'm terrible at game design and that I'd like to get better at it.

I am still conceptualizing a project that I want to develop : it will be a 2D action-adventure where your goal is to paint everything in white with a brush and other items you will unlock.

The player will be able to attack vertically or horizontally, from one side or another, directing the weapon with the mouse.

My main ideas for enemies focus on coloring with white their parts of another color to defeat them. Let's say that the enemy has a red, horizontal stripe on the chest : the player will have to swipe its brush horizontally at it.

The problem with this fighting system is that the side that you have to hit should be facing the camera to let you know how to beat him.

Being combat in action adventure games secondary to exploration, such a tricky mechanic would heavily disrupt the flow of the game, other than being counterintuitive.

I haven't come up with any good solution yet and I'm willing to drop the whole mechanic if it doesn't work or it's bad.

Thanks in advance.

You could just go for a floating icon rather than a stripe on the chest? It would be a lot easier to implement and could even look better if you get the icons right.

I'm sorry, I didn't really understand what do you mean by floating icon. Can you make an example?

I presume that Cyberpunkdreams is describing a flat image, hovering above the enemy and always facing the player; a billboard sprite.

Since your game is two-dimensional, I presume that the camera doesn't rotate much. In this case, could you not just take a bit of licence and move the enemy's coloured marking to whichever part of them faces the camera?

At first, I was pretty sceptic about that idea, but thinking about it, that may work.

Thanks! I may to work it into a prototype.