I've seen some other responses about this and they talk about interfaces but I'm pretty sure you can do this with classes and base classes but I can't this to work.

```
Public Class Behavior
Private _name As String
Public ReadOnly Property Name As String
    Get
        Return _name
    End Get
End Property

Public Property EditorUpdate As Boolean

Public Sub New(ByVal name As String)
    _name = name
    EditorUpdate = False
End Sub

Public Overridable Sub Update()

End Sub

' runs right away in editor mode. also runs when in stand alone game mode right away
Public Overridable Sub Start()

End Sub

' runs after game mode is done and right before back in editor mode
Public Overridable Sub Finish()

End Sub

' runs right when put into game mode
Public Overridable Sub Initialize()

End Sub

' runs when the game is complete in stand alone mode to clean up
Public Overridable Sub Destroy()

End Sub

```

End Class

```
Public Class CharacterController
Inherits Behavior.Behavior

Public Sub New()
    MyBase.New("Character Controller")

End Sub

Public Overrides Sub Update()
    ' TODO: call UpdateController()
    ' THINK: how can UpdateController() get the controller entity it's attached to?
    ' Behaviors need a way to get the entity they are attached to. Have that set when it's assigned in the ctor?
End Sub

```

End Class

```
Dim plugins() As String
    Dim asm As Assembly

    plugins = Directory.GetFileSystemEntries(Path.Combine(Application.StartupPath, "Plugins"), "*.dll")

    For i As Integer = 0 To plugins.Length - 1
        asm = Assembly.LoadFrom(plugins(i))

        For Each t As Type In asm.GetTypes
            If t.IsPublic Then
                If t.BaseType.Name = "Behavior" Then
                    behaviorTypes.Add(t.Name, t)

                    Dim b As Behavior.Behavior
                    b = CType(Activator.CreateInstance(t), Behavior.Behavior)
                    'Dim o As Object = Activator.CreateInstance(t)

                End If
            End If
        Next
    Next

```

When it tries to convert whatever Activator.CreateInstance(t) returns to the base class of type Behavior I'm getting invalid cast exception. That type should be of CharacterController which is defined as a child of Behavior so why wouldn't it let me cast that? I've done something like this before but I can't find my code. What am I missing?