I'm making a game where at some point the game will create enemies of random types. Each type of enemy available is defined on its own class derived from an enemy superclass. To do this, obviously the different types of enemies should be known. This is what I have thought of:
Just make a list manually. Very simple to do, but I don't like it because I'll be adding more enemy types over time, so any time I add a new class I have to remember to update this (same if I remove an enemy). I would like some kind of auto-updating list.
A completely component based system. There are no different classes for each enemy, but definitions of enemies in some file where all enemy types can be found. I really don't need that level of complexity for my game. I'm still using a component based model to some degree, but each Enemy type gets defined on its own class.
Java Annotation processing. Give each enemy subclass an annotation like @EnemyType("whatever"), then code an annotation processor that writes in a file all available enemy types. Any time a new class is added the file gets updated after compilation.This gives me a feeling of failure even if its a good solution, it's very dependant on Java, so it means I cant think of a general design good for any kind of language. Also I think that this would be too much work for something so simple.
I would like to see comments on these ideas and other possible solutions
Thanks
