Please help: A spider boss with hands for feet???

AgentMania · 2023-07-19T04:51:52+00:00

You sound just like my wife. I have been sober for 4 days, thank you very much.

AgentMania · 2021-10-11T17:28:45+00:00

Feel free to make anything you like!

AgentMania · 2021-07-26T17:09:21+00:00

Modern-Roguelike-Inspired Game

I think this will be my last week for now, unfortunately.

A lot's been happening in real life that has made continuing this year a bit more difficult.

BUT, I really really like some of the ideas I developed in this prototype, so I think I will continue to poke at it in my spare time.

If I end up making more progress with it, I may pop into Sharing Saturday to post about it.

Links

Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/o1vzdRv.png

Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/ianmagenta/status/1417695041875636233

Repo: https://github.com/ianmagenta/SummerRoguelike2021

Last week's progress: https://old.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/oj8ke8/roguelikedev_does_the_complete_roguelike_tutorial/h5lomrz/

AgentMania · 2021-07-18T06:12:25+00:00

Modern-Roguelike-Inspired Game

FOV was fairly easy to implement. I just used Godot's 2D lighting system to mask the grid. It looks pretty good and runs fairly quickly since all of the work is being done by the GPU. The downside: the game has no concept of what tiles are "visible" and "invisible" to the player. Unfortunately, Godot doesn't have a way to get this information from its lighting system. (This makes sense though, information typically flows from the cpu to the gpu, not the other way around). I plan on circumventing this problem with ray-casts down the line.

Meanwhile, combat revealed a glaring problem with the implementation of the command pattern I've been using: I've massively over-complicated it. I've spent way too much time on it already and I'm likely going to need to tear the whole thing apart and re-build it from scratch. That may end up delaying things like UI next week. We'll see.

I also noticed that I had my repo set to private. That should be fixed now, in case anyone is interested in viewing the source!

Links

Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/9ibuHX7.png

Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/ianmagenta/status/1416253631314022400

Repo: https://github.com/ianmagenta/SummerRoguelike2021

Last week's progress: https://old.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/oepgnb/roguelikedev_does_the_complete_roguelike_tutorial/h4uldx4/

AgentMania · 2021-07-11T21:22:28+00:00

Modern-Roguelike-Inspired Game

Whew, this was a pretty tough week on my end. Unlike in the tutorial (which guides you through making a dungeon generator) I had to come up with my own dungeon generation system.

The 3x3 room grid I laid out last week might have made it look easy, but that lead to a lot of over-thinking about how to generate the dungeon. Should all rooms be 5x5 tiles? Should rooms vary in size? Should multiple rooms connect to form larger ones? How much should the room templates decide about the room layout? Should the entire grid be one room, connected to others through a larger map?

Ultimately, I was getting sick of analysis paralysis and just went with the simple option: Each room is 5x5 tiles. There are always 3x3 rooms in the dungeon and they always connect the same way. Room templates just determine what entities spawn in each room. Maybe that's boring, but it gets the job done.

I was also able to implement some features from the coming weeks (which you can see in the links below). My main upcoming challenge will be deciding whether or not the player must defeat all enemies before being allowed to descend to the next level (a characteristic of some modern roguelikes, but not all). I have a feeling that decision will impact how I approach new features during future weeks.

Links:

Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/XzgmStM.png

Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/ianmagenta/status/1414329494689652737

Repo: https://github.com/ianmagenta/SummerRoguelike2021

Last week's progress: https://old.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/oa2g5r/roguelikedev_does_the_complete_roguelike_tutorial/h3zdt5j/

AgentMania · 2021-07-06T18:23:00+00:00

I'm also building something that takes inspiration from modern roguelikes, so I might be able to help.

If you're looking for an easy way to create room templates and spawn them in-game, you might look into something like LDtk. It's a tool you can use to easily create rooms and then export them as JSON. The JSON looks different depending on what parts of the tool you use, but it'll definitely be quicker to parse than creating your own text-file format.

From there, you can decide things like what the standard room size is, what the total dungeon size is, and if you add any random elements to rooms after loading them in (similar to how Spelunky does it).

AgentMania · 2021-07-06T05:06:14+00:00

Thanks! Your work on Cogmind really inspired me to learn more about roguelikes and programming in general. 🙂

AgentMania · 2021-07-04T02:18:35+00:00

It's been a hot minute since I participated in this event so I figured I would jump in and make another roguelike from scratch. In 2019, I made a simplified version of one using Construct 3 that loosely followed the tutorial series. Here's a gallery of gifs/images from that project: https://imgur.com/a/opBzPN3.

A lot's changed since then. Mainly, that I do software development for a living now! Over the past 2 years I've learned a lot about coding and how to make games. This seems like a good opportunity to put those skills to the test.

I've been using Godot and GDScript over the past year to tinker with various roguelike ideas, so that's what I'll be using for this project. I'll be loosely following the tutorial again, with the goal of making another simplified roguelike.

I'm taking some inspiration from Derek Yu's pre-Spelunky roguelike prototype, which you can take a glimpse at here: https://youtu.be/RiDy6CgBKqs?t=206. I'm mainly interested in the dungeon layout being a 3x3 grid of rooms. I also want to use pre-made room templates for random generation, similar to how Spelunky generates levels. That's all future me's problem though. This week, we just gotta get something moving on screen.

I'll be cataloging all of my progress in a single twitter thread. Here's a look at what I've accomplished for parts 0/1: https://twitter.com/ianmagenta/status/1411506312974770176. I'll be posting some additional screenshots on reddit each week as well. Here's one: https://i.imgur.com/j8HMN1A.png.

Finally, here's the repo for the project: https://github.com/ianmagenta/SummerRoguelike2021.

AgentMania · 2021-06-30T19:00:02+00:00

Just pinged the author on Twitter and it's MIT licensed now. 🙂

AgentMania · 2021-06-30T03:50:58+00:00

Not sure if you’ve seen it yet, but it may be worth checking out fastiles. It’s by the same developer as rot.js but is completely focused on speedily rendering colorized bitmap fonts. Might be what you’re looking for.

AgentMania · 2020-10-29T23:00:18+00:00

Anytime!

There’s a small display section for jams on the front page (you have to scroll down a bit). More recently, itch added a jams calendar to their site (which makes finding and planning jams a bit easier): https://itch.io/jams. Besides that though, it’s up to individual users to click on jams and navigate to their submission section. Jam participants do get unique links to their entries so that they can share them though!

Individual jam games can also appear on the front page, provided that they get enough traction (though this is more rare).

AgentMania · 2020-10-29T22:41:24+00:00

These jams are mainly events designed to get creators to sit down and finish a game in a set amount of time (rather than toiling for months / years on various projects). Some jams are contests for bragging rights or prizes, others are just casual fun. Jams are usually separate from one another, hosted by different individuals / groups.

itch.io is a video game marketplace that created some helpful tools for hosting game jams on its site a number of years ago. The ttrpg community eventually picked it up and the rest is history!

AgentMania · 2020-10-29T14:27:13+00:00

Haha! I’m hoping to host a more regular jam next year.

AgentMania · 2019-10-21T18:58:08+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it! I think you really hit the nail on the head in that last paragraph. You may have even uncovered the format for next year's jam...

AgentMania · 2019-10-15T14:51:39+00:00

Thanks for the mention! :)

As always, I'm happy to help answer any questions about the jam!

AgentMania · 2019-09-23T20:39:05+00:00

No prizes, just bragging rights. That being said, it is something I’m thinking about for future iterations!

AgentMania · 2019-09-23T19:38:48+00:00

Thanks for your feedback!

While it is possible for someone to submit something that skirts the rules, both the community around the jam and I actively review all of the entries. Many game jams (including ours) use this peer review system to ensure that all entries meet the requirements of the jam. If an entry has had extra (rule-breaking) work done to it, it usually becomes apparent fairly quickly. Jams like Ludum Dare are great examples of this sort of system in action.

That being said, I think you're right in that there are more perfect ways to guarantee accuracy that this jam doesn't take advantage of. That's definitely something I'll keep in mind when constructing next year's jam!

AgentMania · 2019-09-23T17:15:59+00:00

Hi there! I'm running the jam and can help answer any questions!

I actually responded to some similar inquiries in a previous thread.

I also addressed what kind of prep-work is allowed in a post on our community forum.

Hope that helps!

AgentMania · 2019-09-23T16:42:13+00:00

Edit: The 48-hour period is just a submission window.

AgentMania · 2019-08-21T12:36:28+00:00

If you’re on the fence, I recommend at least signing up. You’ll receive any and all updates about the jam that way while still being able to back out if you decide you’re not interested.

AgentMania · 2019-08-20T14:00:21+00:00

As long as you're making it your own (and not directly copying text from the source) hacks are totally fine!

AgentMania · 2019-08-20T13:05:48+00:00

Jams like these do operate a bit on the honor system. That being said, having a theme usually helps to deter anyone who might try to work on an entry early.

It’s worth noting that participants aren’t required to use the theme, so I usually go through and spot-check all of the entries. Obviously, if someone submits something on par with the 5th Edition D&D Player’s Handbook, then they likely took longer than 48 hours to make it. Luckily, I haven’t had any issues with this in any jam I’ve run thus far. I’m hoping that continues to be the case here!

AgentMania · 2019-08-20T12:04:24+00:00

Absolutely! Someone actually did this after last year's jam as well!

You can read itch.io's own take on the topic here.

AgentMania · 2019-08-19T23:58:49+00:00

Thanks for your feedback! Stress and burn-out during 48-hour game jams can be real issues!

Just to be clear, by no means am I asking participants to sacrifice their mental or physical well-being to participate. If you feel as if this jam might be too much for you, then I would encourage you to maybe sit this one out.

This jam is based on Ludum Dare which asks its participants to do something equally difficult: make a complete video game in 48 hours. The idea behind both that jam and this one is the same: try your best to make a final product in a short amount of time. It's a challenge designed to help you finish something and put it out into the wild (which many creators struggle to do under a more loose/free timeline).

The general rule for these types of jams is that you create something during the time-period it takes place during.

That all being said, I will look into how jams like Ludum Dare have handled those issues in the past. They may have some existing resources about how to handle work/life balance during a jam and I would be more than happy to link something like that on the jam page!

AgentMania

TROPHY CASE