Month: April 2017

So, for the current branch of changes, I’m working on level layout, design metrics, and baseline functionality.  What does all of that mean?

In the above photo, I have a nearly perfect layout.  The spanning tree options have kept the start (blue dot – bottom right) and end (red dot – center) pretty far apart.  The blue dot is the actual portal where the player would enter the level.  The red dot is just a red colored portal, but that portal is a marker for where the boss room will eventually be.

Of course, since everything is randomly generated, no two levels will be completely alike.  Unfortunately, that means as I change things up or even hit a seed I don’t like, things can go south.

The above shot is with a bit more weight on the spanning tree node.  There’s still a nice long path between start and end, but there are also long hallways that loop too far around (for my taste, at least).  Actually, the above example isn’t awful, but these images are the same seed, the first with 0.05 spanning and the second with 0.15.  While the spanning value may be static on all levels, there may be some small fuzziness around those as well.  Trying to find boundaries is more of a balance than I expected.

Other than basic parameters, I’m trying to prevent barrels from spawning inside of walls:

Or in large groups that get in the way:

I’ll be working on better “torch flicker” – right now it’s a bit stuttery looking, and I’d like it to be smoother and look more like an actual torch.  Then a few more mobs, the boss spawn, and some more decoration for the level.