My LD19 game ended up being about a lizard who runs around in caves swallowing flies which represent pieces of Wikipedia articles. WHAT THE HECK

My first blog post contains a vague concept of what I originally wanted this game to be about: seeking skill and knowledge in a cave system, as a lizard. You were going to be able to whip people with your tail. It was going to be awesome.

But I started thinking about the theme more, and I couldn’t make my mechanics fit. So I mentioned the idea of finding pieces of Wikipedia articles on the Mumble (group voice chat) and a couple of people responded positively. I had already implemented the lizard movement and cave generator, so I rearranged my plotwise justifications and started figuring out how to scrape Wikipedia for random article titles and text.

A word to the wise: scraping data from a user-edited site with its own special markup is pretty damn annoying. Lizard Wizard does an…okay job, but it took far too much time to do.

Morp, a young apprentice to the aging Lizard Wizard Edrick, was woken in his sleep by his master.

MORP: Nnng? Wh?

EDRICK: Come, Morp. It is time for your trials.

MORP: Trials? What trials?

EDRICK: You are nearly ready to becom a Lizard Wizard. Now you must go on the Apprentice’s Surprise Quest.

MORP: Why is it a surprise?

EDRICK: Because I just love surprises!

EDRICK: For other people.

EDRICK: You will go into the Perlin Caves in search of enlightenment in three forms:

EDRICK: Mastery of the Feet

EDRICK: Mastery of the Tail

EDRICK: and Mastery of the Tongue.

EDRICK: You will find an artifact for each form of enlightenment. Bring them back.

EDRICK: Did you get all that?

MORP: I think so. To the caves!

And so it begins.