Been in a deep dive on Emergent Gameplay/Narrative in games - via the creation of tools/systems which allow players to author their own solutions to problems and navigate the world the way they want. Also for the world itself to interact and react to itself - the creation of an immersive simulation. Has anyone ever tried this on any level in AGS? Typically the rules set in emergent games are actually pretty simple - like John Conway’s “Life†simulation, which in code is merely
for x …
for y …
If count = 2 no change
Else if count = 3 alive
Else dead
Look it up and you’ll be amazed by the complexity that arises from such simple coding. All that to say, given how simple that is, I’m sure AGS could house something right?
Like AGSLife (https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1844-agslife/)?
I read the title and I thought I needed to call a medic somewhere
Edit: if you mean procedural generation, or if this fits the category, I have once made a plugin for something that perhaps maybe could be rewritten as a script at some point, but not sure how to do it in this case as fast as the plugin... https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=57410.0
Quote from: hobbesboi on Thu 02/06/2022 20:47:13
Been in a deep dive on Emergent Gameplay/Narrative in games - via the creation of tools/systems which allow players to author their own solutions to problems and navigate the world the way they want. Also for the world itself to interact and react to itself - the creation of an immersive simulation. Has anyone ever tried this on any level in AGS? Typically the rules set in emergent games are actually pretty simple - like John Conway’s “Life†simulation, which in code is merely
for x …
for y …
If count = 2 no change
Else if count = 3 alive
Else dead
Look it up and you’ll be amazed by the complexity that arises from such simple coding. All that to say, given how simple that is, I’m sure AGS could house something right?
My game "Predators Prey For Plants" is along exactly these lines.
I feel like emergent gameplay is something that's actively avoided in modern games, to the point where I've noted instances where it's been patched out. >:(
Such a shame too. Games from the 80s seem to have had this dream where they could simulate the world if they tried, but they just didn't have the computing power to do it. But that dream seems to have all but died. :~(
The only adventure game I know of with truly emergent gameplay is The Hobbit (1982), and I highly recommend you looking it up and seeing what I mean, specifically Wilderland.
I'd love to see a modern adventure game that took on and expanded on those ideas. It's a little beyond my abilities though.
It's hard to balance truly emergent systems in games, which is probably why they're shunned outside of pure sandbox games, but they do occur. For example 'Ancient Domains of Mystery' (ADOM (https://store.steampowered.com/app/333300/ADOM_Ancient_Domains_Of_Mystery/)) allow you to plant herb bushes in conway patterns (https://ancardia.fandom.com/wiki/Herbs), and even Minecraft has some of that kind of logic going on. I guess whenever you have a dynamic world where entitites follow their own rules, you'll have to consider the emerging systems, so if you have trees, plants, resources, treasure, or enemies spawning endlessly somewhere, they either have to have limited duration/life, or you need to introduce a countering system that destroys or transforms them. And you have to prepare for weird and unexpected conway effects, like gliders (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glider_(Conway%27s_Life)) that can dramatically change the environment :)