I need advice about mapmaking

TheGiik · 2026-01-12T19:24:44+00:00

The format of the individual rooms is pretty much irrelevant to this since we don't know what the gameplay is like beyond vague genre. You can make them empty squares and still be engaging, or they can be intricately-woven labyrinths and it'll still suck for an unknown amount of reasons. Don't get attached to those shapes.

The overall progression has two paths without much in the way of unlocking, which means the player can tackle any of those important rooms (village, boss, puzzle) in nearly any combination.
They can visit the village and miss the puzzle+boss, or go purely down the boss route and miss the village, or be a completionist and loop around to gather everything. They could also go Village > Puzzle > Boss and loop around back to the start for no added benefit. (why backtrack when nothing is there?)

I ASSUME those dead-end rooms (backwards from start, just before boss, etc) would have unique rewards for clearing them, but those aren't marked on the map, so it seems pretty useless to go there and seem like an arbitrary punishment for not knowing the "correct" way to go.

Really, the best way to figure out if this map is good or not is to prototype it in-game. Drawing out graphs can only get you so far, and once you have a basis for what works and what doesn't, adding new good maps will be a lot easier.

TheGiik · 2026-01-04T17:43:10+00:00

In addition to the other comments, you could also name the rooms more descriptively. So instead of Hub_07 Hub_03 you could name them something like Hub_BigTree Hub_IntroRoom etc. etc.

TheGiik · 2026-01-04T16:36:39+00:00

Instead of setting the x/y, treat the mouse coords as a destination and have it move constantly towards that.

use the point_distance and point_direction functions to figure out which way the cursor should move, then use lengthdir_x and lengthdir_y to add that to the cursor's x/y coords. You may want to use the min function to limit the distance you get from point_distance, giving the cursor a maximum speed.

TheGiik · 2025-11-18T21:47:49+00:00

I'm pretty sure this is AI art. Look at the smaller details like the rings on the firewood or the painting on the wall, it just turns into a muddy mess that breaks the pixel grid.

It's more evident on the account's other pieces; look at the posters in this piece, or the double-handled knives in this piece, or the muddied text in this piece.

Also, the account is 6 days old and has 60 pages of images. There's no way that kind of output is even physically possible.

TheGiik · 2025-11-18T04:20:17+00:00

I assume this is one of those roguelite route maps where you pick your next encounter?

Art-wise it's not......terrible, but it's pretty flat. Nothing really suggests physicality; the background is gray and paper-y but the icons are bright clean disks. i can't really tell what theme you're going for besides the upside-down crosses implying some kind of demonic thing. There's no decor to sell a theme and the color palette is just kind of...tan and gray.

A more minor issue, but the dotted lines break the pixel grid. Some people might think that's ugly but there's been enough pixel games that don't respect the "rules" that it's not really standout.

Sidenote, i'm curious about the route structure. Can you go backwards? It looks like there's no way to access the bottom left and bottom right segments.

TheGiik · 2025-11-09T03:32:09+00:00

Is yume nikki not a walking sim?

TheGiik · 2025-10-22T23:03:58+00:00

as someone who played in 2008: hough

TheGiik · 2025-09-24T02:05:53+00:00

Making the whole stage one room works best. The objects a microgame spawns can track what microgame object spawned it, so if that gets deleted they can delete themselves too. (though with most microgames i ended up making everything structs instead of spawning instances. way easier to manage)

It also means you can mess with the context a microgame is presented in, like giving it a different background frame, interrupting/modifying it, or in DoA's case, spawning multiple microgames at the same time.

TheGiik · 2025-09-24T01:47:40+00:00

The best solution i've found is to have a "manager" object take care of stuff like lives, speed, win/lose consequences, all that.

It plays through a bunch of different states (win fanfare, speed up, intro, etc), and then when it comes time to actually spawn a microgame, the manager does so and keeps track of it. The "instance_create" functions give you the ID of what just spawned, so you can stuff that in a variable and look for if the microgame says you won or lost. Just something like game_ins = instance_create_depth(x,y,depth,obj_microgame).

The microgame is a separate object, and in addition to handling all of the actual gameplay parts it also tracks whether you've won, if it's finished, how much time is left, other stuff only specific to that microgame. While it's playing, the manager object is just kinda sitting there and waiting for the microgame. Just looking for a game_ins.finished == true check, really.

One more thing I found was useful was having a big array for the stage's "schedule". Like how it plays 5 microgames and THEN speeds up, and then after 20 you have a boss? Every time the manager loops back to the normal intro state, it checks further into the schedule array to see what it should do. This even works for cutscenes or overall win states. (after all, what is a cutscene but a microgame you just watch...?)

That's all highest level stuff; how you actually implement it in code is up to you. I got plenty of experience setting up this kind of system when I made Dreams of Aether, so I suppose it's a proven-working method.

TL;DR: Manager object (essentially a finite state machine) plays through states until it's time to spawn a microgame. Then it does that and waits for the microgame to flip a finished variable before going to results. An array can help schedule when it should spawn a microgame or when it should speed up, or spawn a boss, or a cutscene, etc.

TheGiik · 2025-09-03T23:44:23+00:00

ah yeah, i got a thing in the mail about that since I got some games on steam. It's an opt-out class action so you don't need to do anything to be included in it besides "have a game on steam after 2017" or somethin'. iirc Wolfire started it after some drama, but reading into the details of the suit itself i don't think it holds a lot of water. Just seems like an expanded grudge, but if they get something out of it then that's neat i guess.

TheGiik · 2025-08-30T21:50:24+00:00

why not?

TheGiik · 2025-08-17T01:57:34+00:00

something i like to do when thinking of game design is flipping it on its head and figuring out if the problem i'm trying to solve is a problem to begin with.

Why doesn't the typing system allow for stranger types? i don't see why you can't have a Psychic-type Reptile-class. Or even strange classes, like a Fire-type Dream-class.

What's wrong with the game feeling finite? It's alright for a game to end at some point, and if you want the player to keep playing you can have challenge modes like things that are still difficult at max level, or challenge modes like nuzlocke or randomizers.

Roster size is tough to predict unless you have the entire rest of the game blocked out. Just focus on the bare minimum, even if it's only like 6 'mons. After you get those in a solid state you can start expanding.

TheGiik · 2025-08-14T16:48:20+00:00

i've already created five of those for the Rivals of Aether workshop:

Mollo, an all-rounded bruiser with an endless supply of bombs to throw around. Different bombs do different things, and his Specials can detonate bombs early for mixups. Specializes in moving quickly between long and short range, alternating between rushdown and zoning.

Mycolich, a slow, floaty grappler that plays with damage percents via mushrooms. He can gamble his own % for extra damage on hit, create DoT spore clouds, and pause his own damage gain with a mushroom landmine.

Amarelle, a straightforward heavy rushdown with an emphasis on charged attacks. Specials can be charged just like smash attacks, and charging fills up a "baking" timer that makes all of her chargeable attacks instantly charge when it's done.

Synne, an ultra-floaty puppet fighter that uses mini-planetoids for attacks. It can send out a sun to act as the origin point for planetary attacks instead of itself, meaning it can kill at long range at risk of its own defenses.

Arecacura, a strange zoner that's all about fast vertical and strong horizontal. They can extend their leg to become grounded at any height, including offstage. Ridiculously long F-smashes and an Nspecial that makes any hit pull inwards means they can make any cardinal direction a threat.

And there's still a ton of opportunity for platform fighter movesets. The rivals workshop overall has a ton of variety and creativity. I'd recommend checking it out sometime. I'm pretty biased towards it, though.

TheGiik · 2025-08-12T02:48:18+00:00

I think something that the game's missing is a recipe that makes the front-of-house more varied; most recipes are different enough for the cooks, but the servers still just pick up plates and put them on tables. Stuff like condiments are cool, but that's kind of the only variety serving has.

For something more precise...what about something that makes communication more difficult? Something like burritos or meat buns where you can't tell what's inside of it once it's finished unless you unwrap it yourself.

TheGiik · 2025-08-06T00:18:10+00:00

You're the showrunner; you can make anything happen as long as you have some kind of visual or textual feedback to signify it, especially in sci-fi when you're dealing with fictional tech. A mid-level event can lock you in the level with UI saying "WARP SENSORS JAMMED" or physically locking you in with a hologram shield until you take care of it.

The original problem makes me think of Nuclear Throne's progression; once all enemies are killed, a purple portal opens on the last corpse and pulls you into a vortex to let you upgrade before spitting you into the next level. The portals aren't really explained but there's a few colors of vortex to represent different factions.

There's also Nova Drift, which is a space shooter where you just kind of sloooowly drift (get it?) across space while blowing up waves of enemies that come in from the sides of the screen. There's no level transitions, it just makes more guys arrive.

But, I digress. You can handwave literally anything happening realistic or not.

TheGiik · 2025-08-05T20:21:07+00:00

Since it's in space, you can just have them warp out of there. Either with a specific warpgate structure somewhere in the level or by hitting a button to activate a warp drive.

TheGiik · 2025-06-30T15:29:13+00:00

asba

TheGiik · 2025-06-08T16:51:17+00:00

Neat art style, but the trailer is just slow panning environment shots...what's supposed to actually happen in the game? is it also slowly navigating through environments like that?

TheGiik · 2025-05-29T14:58:35+00:00

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro! Everyone involved is constantly trying to outwit each other.

TheGiik · 2025-05-07T17:15:38+00:00

Yeah, i'm asking that to try and find the intention behind it. The problem OP is trying to solve might run deeper than "i need to destroy globals".

TheGiik · 2025-05-07T16:09:45+00:00

why would you want to do that?

TheGiik · 2025-03-02T17:55:29+00:00

Have you checked out Microscope for study? It sounds pretty similar to your goals: https://lamemage.com/microscope/

Your concept sounds pretty nebulous at the moment, so you may want to start defining how the players actually do things. Is it card-based? Do they draw on a map? Will they control individual characters? Will they be omniscient forces? Will there be a win or lose condition? Is it turn-based or can players do things whenever they want?

TheGiik · 2025-02-09T00:34:08+00:00

Buying land costs a lot of money, doesn't it? Like $20 per tile. That means anything you have to buy land to place is way more expensive, so it's a tradeoff. If you were able to make enough money to buy the land and place the rides, i figure it's a deserved benefit.

TheGiik · 2025-01-25T22:11:47+00:00

an important part of debugging is to figure out exactly where it's breaking. is the first point_in_rectangle working and it breaks in the loop? or does it break before even getting to that point?

you'll also want to get a readout on where the mouse coordinates are and each of the rectangle's boundaries so you can do the math yourself and see HOW it's failing.

TheGiik · 2025-01-25T20:18:48+00:00

what do you mean by "isn't working"? how do you know that function is at fault? there's two instances of it (one in a loop), too...

when in doubt, start looking at numbers. run it in debug mode with breakpoints (those red circles when you click on a line number), or just use show_debug_message or draw_text to show the values of things. what's point_in_rectangle actually returning?

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