How to make following enemy for a platformer

How do I...?
#1

Hello. Currently, I am making a pretty simple platformer game where you beat up guys as you defeat a science company or whatev. Just imagine reverse Half-Life without the aliens.

I am currently in the process of making the gameplay so I can prepare for the first level n such. At the moment, I’m stuck with my first (main) enemy. The goal of this enemy is to be exactly like the player but half as speedy (and anything else I add in the future). However, I cannot program the first step: making the enemy follow the player.

I do not want to go down the path of a back-and-forth enemy. It doesn’t fit the style of the platformer. I want an enemy that will possibly use a pathfinding system to go to the player and attack them. As long as the enemy can walk to the player’s location, I can do the rest.

I just can’t find the right things to piece together to create it. How do I make an AI platformer character that’ll attack the player?

#2

Highly depends on your game and enemy behavior in-game.
You could check the distance between player and enemy using “Distance between two objects” and apply movement if under a set distance.
You could check the difference between X positions (for horizontal line of sight) or Y positions (for vertical line of sight) and apply movement if under a set distance.

Or you could use a helper sprite to represent the enemy’s line of sight attached to the enemy and apply movement if the player collides with the line of sight sprite.
Something like this

#3

The video you linked appears to be for ranged enemies. I may use this in the future, but I need an enemy that’ll get right into the player’s face.

I want to try the other method you suggested, but I need a better way of knowing how to do it.