# How can I ensure reasonably spaced out enemies

I have a simple javascript game and I'm initializing their positions on the y axis using random numbers. How can I ensure that they are reasonably spaced apart? My simple algorithm is:

 y = (Math.random()*1000%600);


However I frequently get enemies almost directly on top of each other. This is a huge problem for the game, since it's a word game and the enemies have text on their center, that if overlapped makes them impossible to kill since you can't see the words. Any advice would be appreciated! I'm pretty new to making games in general so this has all been a learning experience for me!

• Hate to say it but random numbers are(n't) random. Also, in my experience compilers usually evaluate % before multiplication. so you may want to add some parentheses in there. – UnderscoreZero Nov 8 '13 at 21:18
• A simple solution is to divide the spawn area into a grid (for so say your screen has 5 rows and 10 columns), then pick a random grid space for each enemy (make sure no more than one enemy per space), then just get two random variance values (how far they away they are from the center of the grid space). – Benjamin Danger Johnson Nov 8 '13 at 21:19

y = ((Math.random()*1000)%600) + 10;