SPE: The experiment

[suicidal pencil]

The experiment being an attempt to create an AGS game with as much of the content that I can get away with randomly generated when the game starts when I say as much as I can get away with, no part of the game and it's content will be unmolested by randomness.

Now of course, there are constraints: there will be a theme to stick to (hint: think apocalypse), and there are some things that I can't really randomly generate properly or at all in AGS (sound and music. I think it could be possible but I'm not willing to spend the time on that...yet), and of course the constraints AGS comes with (like only 40 objects per room, 30000 sprites, etc.), but that's part of the fun: seeing how much I can twist AGS before it breaks.

It's called 'SPE' just because I haven't thought of a name for it yet, and I'm trying to retain at least a little bit of ambiguity for what the final product will look like, even though I'll be sharing it's development every step of the way.

Enough with the rambling, below is the current information available for it. I'll try and keep at least a weekly update both on the development blog and here. updated February 12th, 2012

The development blog is here: http://bigfiredev.blogspot.com/

latest post: "State of the project 2
latest build (0-01) is available here
source of that build (0-01) is available here

snapshot of progress: February 12th, 2012

Progress
Level Generator / design ~= 15%
Story and Theme ~= 2%
Player ~= 80%
Enemies = 0%
Objects = 0%

This project is in it's infancy so don't expect something spectacular until I sink more and more time into it   As well, I'm in the middle of refactoring the level generation code and the latest build doesn't reflect this yet. Code refactored the way I like it. Now to making it do some more fun stuff

latest images

The level generator is working much better now!...but the doors are still being a little annoying


first look at how the game is going to look


Another attempt at generating the map


how the generated map will look, and it's data structure

Obviously there's a long way to go yet, but I think the project is an interesting enough idea as it is to warrant discussion. Comments and criticism are welcome. Right now, the only thing the level generator is doing is creating the starting sector, the doors to that sector, and placing another side room behind those doors. There is currently no method of opening doors and the basic implementation of collision detection for the player stops him from moving past the starting sector, but I'm working on this. The level generator is doing a bit more then that now. The challenge now is to tweak how it's going about it, and add a few more level segment types to the mix. Once I have a basic version of the level generator working the way I want it to, I'm going to start putting in some enemies to spice the game up a bit, and work on a basic form of "AI' for them.

Progress is being made, no matter how hard qptain_Nemo tries to distract me on IRC 

[Darth Mandarb]

An interesting idea... however, we still need TWO in-game screen shots (one more).

Also, keep the criticism out of this thread.  If you want that, post it in the Critics Lounge.

[suicidal pencil]

...we still need TWO in-game screen shots (one more).

hold that thought...
As you requested

Also, keep the criticism out of this thread.

Didn't mean to imply I wanted people to deliberately talk shit about the project, just a heads up that I don't care if people do (preempting any trolls, ye see...) I might make a sister-topic to this one in the Critic's lounge just to see what happens.

[Construed]

This is awesome, love the minimap too

[suicidal pencil]

Development blog and top post updated

The minimap demonstrates the general shapes and possible layouts that I want the level generator to be able to make. It's not all the way there yet, only generating one-size side rooms and doors. I have a few more ideas about what the level generator will do, but at the moment I'm sticking with the basic level components: side rooms, corridors, and doors. Outdoor environments (urban and rural) are planned, but will not be implemented for a few weeks yet.

Plus, I'm also thinking about implementing something that would let me (or anyone else) build maps for it. That way if I (or anyone else )want to build a specific map, it can be done.

Even with only two types of map segments (64x64 side room and 5x15 door), some of the designs this thing pulls out of it's ass are kinda cool

[Construed]

Hey man, where did you go, Haven't seen you in quite awhile!