The Daily Click

::. ::.

Project Started:	19th December, 2010	Last Update:	5th March, 2017
Project Owner:	HitmanN	Project Members:
Project Type:	Dungeon Crawler Platformer	Project Progress:

Randomness in the devlogness

Posted 4th Mar 11, by HitmanN

There's not terribly much new content since the last update, because I've mainly been focusing on cleaning up the code, grouping loops, making sure stuff is only active when needed and so forth. Polish here and there, and taking care of the tiniest of bugs and somesuch.

I have worked a bit on the backdrops for the town and catacombs sections, but nothing's used in-game yet. But definitely soon enough.

In any case, some of the new stuff added since last update include:
* Two new spells, one offensive, one support.
* New possible weapon bonuses, such as extra EXP and increased MP drop rate.
* Some new minor visual effects, mostly for some of the bonuses.
* Resource Bag is finished for now. Selecting the bag in inventory will pop-up a window with a list of all crafting resources, and you can view a description and data on each. (Crafting itself is not available until the town section is made, so these have no real use yet.)

Expect more new stuff in next updates, as I shift from tweak mode to creative mode. ;P

Posted by Shiru

4th March, 2011

So good news

. What's the spell at the first screen ?

Posted by HitmanN

4th March, 2011

The spell is called Thunderstream.

Posted by Blue66

7th March, 2011

Pretty cool stuff! I would like to see a new gameplay video or something or maybe a developer vlog where you explain how random dungeons get generated or something, because that interests me greatly

Posted by HitmanN

7th March, 2011

Blue66
I'll see if I can compile a new gameplay video this week.

As for the dungeon generation, it's actually very simple, though takes a bit to explain. I'd rather do it here than as a vlog or something. xP

Levels consist of a 6x7 array, where each cell has four basic values; left, right, up, down (some others too, but they're not relevant for the basics). The generation is started at a random cell. A random direction is chosen from the four possible, let's take right as example, so the current cell is marked with Right=1, then the current cell is switched to the next one on that row (since it's to the right), and that is marked with the opposite direction, Left=1. The cells now basically have a connection between them. This is continued for as many times as the complexity of the level needs to be. The result is often a route that snakes around through the array (additional steps and randomizations can be added to increase complexity). After the route has been generated, each cell's direction values are looked at, and a corresponding type of map section is loaded and pasted in the frame, cell by cell. For instance, if the cell has Up=1 and Right=1, then the map section is one that has no wall or obstacles at the top edge, or the right edge, allowing passage to the section above and to the right (provided that the opposing cell has the opposite direction enabled, otherwise it'll be a dead end, since the opposing cell has a wall in that direction). Basically, it's the same as any array/tileset-based levels, except that instead of one huge level, it's like 6x7 small levels. I've made a map section editor for making the sections, and I've added several versions of each, so the combinations of sections that can connect with each other are plentiful. I still need to look into making the level generation more varying, as the current maps too often end up as snake-like maps that lack interesting forks and dead-ends.

That's it, in a nutshell. All it really uses is an Array for the layout, Array to load the section tiles in, and an Active Picture with the tileset in it. Although, to be honest, I don't use an array for the layout generation yet, just a bunch of Actives that are replaced with the sections, but I need to switch that soon, as I want the section sizes to vary in follow-up level themes.

Comment edited by HitmanN on 3/7/2011

Project Forums

Public Forum

Quick Links

Project Main
Project Archive
Project Forum
Project Members

Favourite

Is this worth a look? Let others know!

Favourite

Worth A Click