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Procedural Generation

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by tccoxon, Sep 8, 2014.

  1. tccoxon

    tccoxon Procedurally Generated Programmer

    Hi everyone!

    I've been writing up how the procedural generation in Lenna's Inception works. It's mainly for the developers, but if you're curious here's the first part:


    I've tried to keep it accessible with diagrams and animations, so if you're not a dev, you'll probably still get a decent idea of how it works. :)

    The second part (and conclusion) will go up on Monday next week!
     
      Zael and jude24to25 like this.
    • derr

      derr Space Hobo

      This is really fascinating! And curious timing too, I had just been thinking about this problem on my drive to work this morning...

      So on my lunch, poking around Github, I stumbled upon your metazelda repo. And from the readme, found your site. By the time I finished reading about your game, you had just published this overworld post!

      Thank-you so much for the write-up, and of course for making the code open source!
       
        tccoxon likes this.
      • tccoxon

        tccoxon Procedurally Generated Programmer

        Haha that is great timing! I'm glad you found it interesting.
         
        • Ashen

          Ashen Scruffy Nerf-Herder

          Wow, this is truly amazing. I am impressed with your writing skills and your method for relaying complicated information. Keep up the impressive work!
           
          • dropdead

            dropdead Big Damn Hero

            Hello there, I've read the stuff you've written about the making of the game. I'm terribly fascinated about procedural generation and AI and although I work a bit with programming I have nothing to do with games.

            Of course I've tried my hand with your available older versions of the game but sadly I did not get very far. This game requires a kind of dexterity I simply don't have. A real pitty. Nevertheless I wanted to show my appreciation for what you have achieved thus far. I'm impressed!

            Oh, and Kentuckys fried chicken you've talked about in the other thread? Well, I've always thought that the gaming world was a bit lacking in the chicken area and your feathered little beast rocks!
             
            • tccoxon

              tccoxon Procedurally Generated Programmer

              Thanks everyone!

              I'm sorry to hear that. :/ If it helps, most of the enemies behave predictably once you know their patterns and timings. If you take your time with it and use obstacles to your advantage you can avoid taking damage most of the time. Then you can observe them to figure out how they behave. If there's something in particular that made it difficult for you, feel free to email me and I'll see what I can do about it.
               
                dropdead likes this.
              • dropdead

                dropdead Big Damn Hero

                I've noticed the pattern - and sometimes that is the only key needed to beat a boss. But I'm not the kind of player to study an opponent - I want to beat it to a pulp and move on. I'm the one that plays an archer in light armor and throws himself right at the opponent if the other way seems to arduous or is too time consuming. I don't strategize, I want the enemy gone.

                I'm all for pleasing the masses: somebody likes permadeath? That's great! But I want to play safe and... save. Often.
                The game has a nightmare game mode for the tough ones? Lovely, but rest assured I'm not gonna play it.

                And I did try your game again. I'd like to think I'm a pretty clever gal (if a bit lacking in the strategy department... so what?) and it can't be that hard. So I stumbled around and right over some cranky bat boss and... owned it. Is this, by chance, a bug?

                Fun aside your game is quite charming and I'd love to play it. This is not even really about me, there might be others who prefer the easy mode. I have put aside quite a few games, just because I didn't like or get some stupid game mechanic. Have a heart for the inept ones. If not just think they might pay too, if they got wind of the a super easy mode for the dumb ones. It would really be a pity to put aside something that has been put together with such commitment.

                [Okay, now would be the time for somebody to cry "Oh noes! I LOVE permadeath SO much, but PLEASE don't implement a save mode, because if I know there IS one I just can't help myself!"]

                Long story short this was long winded feedback from someone who plays to relax and doesn't want to keep an eye on the special move the super serious mobster makes just before... damn, I died!

                Everything strange or possibly offending in my post is because English is not my first language my keyboard is faulty.
                 
                • tccoxon

                  tccoxon Procedurally Generated Programmer

                  dropdead, I'll reply in a PM so as not to take this thread off-topic.
                   
                  • jude24to25

                    jude24to25 Void-Bound Voyager

                    Im not a developer, but i definitely found your post interesting! It's cool to see how such a challenging concept ad procedural generation is tackled.
                     
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                    • tccoxon

                      tccoxon Procedurally Generated Programmer

                      jude24to25 likes this.
                    • dropdead

                      dropdead Big Damn Hero

                      Yay! I'm so gonna read that when I find the time. <drools>

                      Edit: When I got the fish leather shorts and jumped in water (voluntarily) I was wondering if it is possible to get trapped because of some inconveniently placed bushes.
                      Obviously it isn't and now I know how you caught cases like that.

                      Very interesting. :up:
                       
                        Last edited: Sep 16, 2014
                        tccoxon likes this.
                      • jude24to25

                        jude24to25 Void-Bound Voyager

                        Is it possible to tweak the procgen system so that certain certain lock and key elements - namely water - must be continuous in their placement? What I mean by this is for example, the water tiles must be connected horizontally and/or vertically; or in other words, they cannot be primarily connected only diagonally, as we see in the picture above. The purpose of this would be to allow for a more continuous water line that looks more like a moat or river. I'm not sure if I'm describing this correctly, haha, but the main idea would be to have more continuous (contiguous?) water tiles, as well as potentially more continuous hole/chasm tiles.
                         
                        • tccoxon

                          tccoxon Procedurally Generated Programmer

                          Yes, the spreading effect described in the section after that tends to have that effect.
                           

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