It’s been.. 9 hours! I’ve amassed 500+ screenshots and settled on something achievable! But this is just a milestone..

I have myself a temporary menu/state handler, and a good deal of prototype code – I spent 2 hours after the theme was announced brainstorming and had a lot of ideas to balance out! Here are some ideas which came out that I rejected:

• Implication of danger/attack (intense atmosphere)
• Items of power (balanced gameplay is important to me)
• Paranoia
• Emotional independence
• Clones
• Dying if alone
• Wildcard: honeytraps

Here are the idea I’m adopting:

• Survival
• Trails (tracking or tracing paths)
• Distractions/focus
• Context sensitivity
• Separation

I made some concept art with some distorted perspective which I’m growing fond of.. I think an extra dimension will bring it more to life?

Either way – sleep is next on my agenda.

Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t have a clue what I’m doing when it comes to procedural generation. I should have had this done much sooner, but I’ve finally reached the stage where I have something which could be described as procedural dungeon generation.

I don’t actually have any graphics or gameplay, but I can now generate maps from a seed number. Here’s a section of map 0:


# # # # # . # # # # # . # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # . . . . . . . . . . . # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # . . . . . . . . . . . # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # . . . . . . . . . . . # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # # . # # # . # X # # # # # # # # # # # . . . . . . X
# # # . # # # . # . # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # # . # # # . # . # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # # . # # # . # . # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # # . # # # . # . # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # # . . . . . # . # # . . . . # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # # . # # # . # . # # . . . . # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # # . # # # . . . X . . . . . . . . . . . . # # # # #
# # # . # # # . # . # # . . . . # # # # # # . . . # # #
# # # . # # # . . . . X . . . . X . . . . . . . . # # #
# # # . # # # . # # # # . . . . # # # # # # . . . # # #
# # # . # # # . # # # # . . . . # # # # # # X # # # # #
# # # . # # # . # # # # . . . . # # # # # # . # # # # #
# # # # # # # . # # # # . . . . . # # # # # . # # # # #
# # # # # # # . # # # # # # # # . # # # # # . # # # # #
. . . . . . X . . . . X # # # # X # # # # # . # # # # #
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # . . . . . . . X . . . .
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # . # # # # # . # # # # #
# . . . . . . . # # # # # # # # . # # # # # . # # # # #
# . . . . . . . # # # # # # # # . # # # # # . # # # # #


Once I’ve had some well-needed sleep I’ll get some graphics done, tilemap rendering, get a player walking around and introduce some treasures for him to find. Bah – there’s loads of time left

Well, I’m way behind schedule but I’ve finally hit an important milestone. I had hoped to get the chance to write more posts than this, but its been hard work to get to this point and I didn’t want to stop until I had something worth showing.

Some kinda cavern

I’m trying to make a text adventure with a kind of Eye-of-the-Beholder-type first-person view.

Creating all the wall images and getting them to line up and everything has been a total pain, but that’s mostly done now, meaning I can move on to the actual text part of things. I’m really going to have to pick up the pace tomorrow if I’m going to get anywhere near the game I envisioned at the start =/