Thank you for checking out my game! I totally agree. The rat's detection area is actually on the rat itself, and it detects the actual enemy (which is underground for the trap door spider), so for some angles etc. it seems like it might not squeak until it is too late unfortunately. Though the trap door itself is fairly noticeable, so I might mention that as a hint on the page as a work around for now!
Viewing post in Crater Forest jam comments
It’s funny, initially I didn’t see the trapdoor at all but then once I did, it was pretty obvious. Reflecting on it more, I think that when I started I was really focused on the rat and kinda got tunnel vision as a result.
It’s a common design struggle for me (and I think most people), worrying that something is too obvious but it’s only obvious with certain assumptions/situations. It might be interesting to make the rat even more “radar” like, on approach to put an “initial check” cylinder on the player so it feels more consistent, and then get the distance to the enemy AND flatten the vector from the rat to the enemy compared to the the player facing direction then animate it differently bases on how far and how “in front” the enemy is. Just an idea because I like thinking of things.