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[eigenbom]

Well good luck with your research. Doing a book chapter is a great way to get a chapter of your thesis done.

You can find my thesis and papers at http://bp.io/papers. The third one on the list is most specific about my work. The second one is the thesis which might be interesting for the literature survey. And the first one is an unpublished paper about a Lua-based procedural thing I wrote. I won the best infotech thesis award at my uni, which I'm pretty proud of, but I left academia 18 months ago to make moonman.

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Well good luck with your research. Doing a book chapter is a great way to get a chapter of your thesis done.

You can find my thesis and papers at http://bp.io/papers. The third one on the list is most specific about my work. The second one is the thesis which might be interesting for the literature survey. And the first one is an unpublished paper about a Lua-based procedural thing I wrote. I won the best infotech thesis award at my uni, which I'm pretty proud of, but I left academia 18 months ago to make moonman.

Very interesting stuff. I've read some of the thesis now, and it's pointing me in the direction of a subset of graphics/processes I never really knew anything about. Ah yes, Moonman! I've been lurk-watching Moonman for a bit, I love how it's shaping up. More proc gen can only be good. I think it'll be interesting over the next few years to see the extent to which RL mechanics infiltrate the mainstream...

MEANWHILE:

As people keep asking for some live coding, here you go! www.twitch.tv/maasbiolabs! Drop in, say hi, ask questions, and maybe see some secrets and spoilers if you hang around long enough...

[eigenbom]

Cheers, yeah I agree. The more people giving their own twist on proc gen (and RL emergent gameplay) the better. Good luck!

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Thanks! It's been hard the past few weeks as I've been pretty ill, but I've finally managed to get out another update, copied over from my blog:

Firstly, many thanks to everyone who responded to my consultation thoughts about permadeath.  Between here, Twitter, Facebook and a bunch of forums I had about fifty responses about the three-lives idea. Most people were against it, whilst a small number lamented the fact the game is gradually becoming less open world (more on this in a moment) and a few said the three-lives thing could work with some kind of story reasoning behind it. Quite a few also thought that a minute or two of rolling a new world – given that early-game death will be rare in URR, and that length of time is certainly nothing on DF – wasn’t too bad. I’ve tried to put as many of these comments as well as my own thoughts together, and I think I’ve found a good solution.

So, firstly, something about “open-world”. As I’ve been thinking about this, I’ve come to realize that there are perhaps two different things encapsulated in that term. On the one hand you have a world with a great degree of freedom – one you can move around in any direction you like (though with perhaps limits on certain buildings/dungeons early on) – and on the other hand you have a game that is “open world” in the sense of Dwarf Fortress. DF is open world in that first sense, but also in another sense – there’s no plot, no story, no objectives, etc. Maybe there are two distinct terms and I simply don’t know what they are, but I think it’s worth distinguishing between games where the world is open, and where the gameplay is… “undirected”? This puts me in mind of Mafia II – that had a wonderfully realized Goodfellas-esque “open world”, but because there was nothing to do except the main story missions, the gameplay was very linear (and the world was, I think, somewhat wasted).

Anyway, URR is most certainly staying an open world in the first sense of a planet with few restrictions on movement and exploration, and partly so in the second sense. I am keen to involve a story, but I do not want to fall into the Mafia II trap of having an impressive world with little do outside linear story missions. There’s a bunch of ways I’m navigating this – firstly, by simply making the plot a lot “wider” and requiring quite a lot of the world to be explored to complete. Secondly, obviously, the procedurally generated aspects mean more exploration of the world is required and there’s no way to know up front (except in quite broad parameters) what parts of the world will be involved. Thirdly, it’s not at all a linear story/plot, and will be playable in a large number of different orders and sequences (think Dark Souls if you have the Master Key). Fourthly, I plan for each area/challenge to be conquerable in a number of different ways depending on your character’s skill set, and the player’s preferences. There will also be a lot of optional activity which might make later activities easier – for example, if you need to move through a war zone, you don’t have to try and intercept some intelligence beforehand, but it’s probably going to help.

I am firmly fixed on the story idea. I have some ideas for that (I think!) are interesting, original, and can provide a lot of challenging gameplay. I therefore put out a consultation about lives and reloading. As above, most people didn’t like the three-lives idea, and I agree with most of the criticisms leveled at it. Thus, the model we’re going for is that of one life, permadeath, and you need to roll a new world upon death.

I was concerned about this system for one major reason – that it takes a minute or two to roll a new world. From talking to friends who don’t play RLs I have increasingly realized that my concern over three-second load times in-game and the like are maybe a little misplaced; however, a few minutes is still a chunk of time. However, I think this will be an acceptable solution for two reasons. Firstly, world generation does show you its progress, and once history generation is fully implemented, I intend to include counters and rapid updates showing you its progress. Based on my early experimentation of this, it looks pretty neat. But the second (and rather less trivial) reason is simply that although there is permadeath, and I intend to ensure there’s a lot out there that can kill you, there probably won’t be that many particularly early in the game. Unlike a lot of RLs which struggle from the problem of that early game being the hardest segment, I’ve been planning seriously to make sure this isn’t the case. A new player is unlikely to encounter rapid death both because they won’t necessarily be aware of where to travel and what to do, but also because the early game will be relatively (relatively) friendly. Having to reroll a world will be reasonably rare as a new player.

So that’s the model. I don’t think rolling a new world upon death will be too annoying as it should be relatively rare when you’re a new player, and as a more experienced player you should get much longer games before you do expire (if you do, that is). Also, due to the procedural generation, dying once after uncovering a small part of the plot will likely mean the next character in a new world might come across a different aspect of the story first. It will be interesting to see how players try to put components together, especially if they’re new to the game and only seeing small fragments of the plot with each character as they learn the game. I’m very much looking forward to this shift for the game – I think it’s a good way to meld the open-world I want to make, but also the narrative I want to write and maybe more importantly that sense of real progression you get from playing something like Crawl.

Lastly, a more general note. I’ve been very ill the last few weeks, and whilst I thought it had largely cleared up, it has un-cleared in the last week (hence why this update was so badly delayed). Once I feel better I think I’ll be able to get back on track, but I don’t know when that will be. Still aiming for an August release, but it’s probably going to be towards the end of August. Thanks everyone for keeping with me during this unusually long release – I do still aim for six month releases a maximum, and after this one and normality is restored in my non-URR existence, hopefully I’ll be able to stick to that.

[Games Inquirer]

That's a sweet door.

[Keops]

A game to dethrone Dwarf Fortress's incredible deep abyss of learning! This looks mouth watering-ly delicious! Consider me amazed! I'll be following this thread for all eternity.

[eigenbom]

Few people are going to worry about a length world-generation phase, especially the kind of people that will be attracted to this game. I'm going to have a long world-gen phase in Moonman too. One way to ameliorate this is to include a pre-generated small world for those few that are impatient.

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

That's a sweet door.

Why thank you. Wait 'til you see the stairs!

A game to dethrone Dwarf Fortress's incredible deep abyss of learning! This looks mouth watering-ly delicious! Consider me amazed! I'll be following this thread for all eternity.

Haha, thanks . That is pretty much the goal. And to add a weird metafictiony story into the mix, if at all possible.

Few people are going to worry about a length world-generation phase, especially the kind of people that will be attracted to this game. I'm going to have a long world-gen phase in Moonman too. One way to ameliorate this is to include a pre-generated small world for those few that are impatient.

I think you're 100% right. The small world idea is interesting; I'm considering, once there is some story, having some little story intros, or some mythological pictures, or similar, as well as or instead of the current animations. But yeah, the length of world gen definitely isn't something I think I need to overthink. It's so easy when one gets really deep into game design to second-guess your every move...

[eigenbom]

It's so easy when one gets really deep into game design to second-guess your every move...

True that. I think the trick as a solo developer is to try to innovate on just one thing, and not try to be awesome at everything. If the historical simulation and world building in URR is amazing, then I think people will be willing to wait.

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

It's so easy when one gets really deep into game design to second-guess your every move...

True that. I think the trick as a solo developer is to try to innovate on just one thing, and not try to be awesome at everything. If the historical simulation and world building in URR is amazing, then I think people will be willing to wait.

Yeah, definitely. Thanks, and I hope/think so! I've been doing a LOT of bug-fixing and playtesting today, and I'm really happy with how this version is looking. It's worth the world-gen wait!

MEANWHILE, here is a staircase for you, INTERNET PEOPLE:

[gimymblert]

From ascii to beautiful: an exercise of building awesome style

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

From ascii to beautiful: an exercise of building awesome style

Many thanks . Working on some basic mechanics for languages - for this release the player can read all languages, but here's an example of a generated inscription (with the translation hidden, for now!):

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

I've just uploaded a huge gameplay update on the blog - http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/2013/07/29/contiguous-world-maps/ - but here's a copy of the update:

Currently, all grids are contiguous on the human level. Which is to say the map continues scrolling as you walk to one side or another, and when you get close enough to a new map grid that grid is loaded. The @ stays centered in the screen at all times unless you reach the absolute edge of the map, in which case I believe it currently crashes, so please don’t test that and just take my word for it. Good. As of version 0.3 (due to be released in August!), this is changing. You will no longer be able to move contiguously between grids on on the human level, which is to say that when you choose a grid to load from the Travel screen, that grid and that grid only loads. When you reach the edge of a grid, it will cease to scroll and you will bump up against the edge of the map. If you try to move over it asks you if you want to go over, and if you say yes, it loads the next grid along, moves you to it and unspawns the one you’re on. You will therefore still be able to move across the entire world on foot rather than travelling, but it will be through distinct map grids. This is a significant change, but one with three causes. I hope to explain my reasoning as clearly as possible here, as I think this is a big positive move for the game.

1) Loading and memory. Loading times suck. People kept saying this about 0.2, and they were correct. Now that there are things to do in map grids loading zones are far rarer, but they’re still a pain and everyone hates them. This would hugely reduce the regularity and size of load times. Secondly, it would mean the same would take up a lot less RAM when running, as no more than a single map grid would be loaded. These aren’t the main factors (reason #3 is the major one), but I think they’re important nonetheless.

2) Contained player experiences. At the moment, if you encounter something that requires fighting (when there are things to fight), you’ll be able to keep fleeing and running across maps. And that’s ok… if you’re making a truly open-world game, and whilst URR is within an open world, it’s no longer so much an open-world game. I think there’s a definition issue here that could merit another blog entry where I ramble about what exactly these terms all mean, but back to the point – if you cannot leave the map grid that easily, then you are forced to deal with challenges within the map grid rather than simply fleeing from it. There is a place for fleeing, and I’ll  have to think about implementations, but I don’t want fleeing to be the automatic response. I also think there’s something to be said for making each area feel like a distinct area – you enter that area and explore that area. Open-world games have a very particular kind of exploration, but that’s not quite the kind I’m now after.

3) Doubling (!) the space of play. Weirdly, this change would actually give you over 50% more play on each grid without loading zones. ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN. Currently each grid (by which I mean one icon on the Travel map) is 200×200 tiles. When you enter that grid, you enter at a point appropriate for the direction from which you can in from. If you enter from the north, you appear at 100/50 – so in the middle of the northern edge (i.e. 100 squares in from the left, 50 squares in from the top). The south-east spawns you at 150/150, and so on. The trigger for loading neighbouring grids is the player being < 30 or > 170 on either axis, as the picture below shows:



In this image a ziggurat has spawned within the non-loading boundaries. If the player attempts to enter, for example, the pale green area on the right, it will load the grid on the right. Entering any of the light green corners would result in three full grids being loaded (which takes maybe 30 seconds). Believe it or not, this system actually means that less than 50% of a map grid can be explored without straying into a load zone! The grid is 40,000 squares, and a quick calculation shows that only 19600 of those squares are outside a loadzone. Whilst not perfectly accurate, the picture below demonstrates this to some extent. All four of the bars fit in, but if you were to fit in the corners, it would exceed the space in the central area:



When grids do not load and sew themselves together, all 40,000 tiles in a grid can be used for gameplay. Until now I haven’t wanted to spawn any buildings within the loading zones because it would be even more annoying if things starting loading whilst you were exploring! This way you will never get any loading zones once you first enter a map grid – which will itself be quick – and buildings can be placed in all kinds of areas, allowing for rather more interesting map grids:



…such as those which have multiple buildings that could brush up against the corners and the edges, and thereby doubling the amount of play per map grid by removing areas where I “cannot spawn buildings”. It also allows for a rather more interesting piece of gameplay for the player, from an experiential perspective – if you enter from the north, you now spawn at  the coordinates 100/0 – i.e. right at the top of the middle – and therefore can explore the entire grid and see what it contains, rather than the small size of the non-loading-zone forcing me to spawn the player basically right next to the ziggurat. From the playtesting I’ve done it’s lot more interesting to play when you don’t immediately see the grid’s contents. This will be taking effect this release, though I don’t yet know if multiple ziggurats will appear per grid or not, as that requires a rework of some code I implemented whilst assuming nothing like this would be the case. Either way, I think this is definitely the right move forward, but as ever let me know your thoughts in the comments. Next week: the final update before release?!

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

Getting very close to finishing bug-squashing now. Only 2 left, from a start of 100+! Meanwhile, here's a nice screenshot for you all:

[Games Inquirer]

That looks great.

[aberrantmind]

neato

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

That looks great.

neato

Thanks both .

[Games Inquirer]

I haven't read the whole thread, are you doing anything to make this more user friendly than your average roguelike? I love the idea of the genre but can't get past the interface and one with such depth, I hope I can play it...

[Panurge]

When I read 'Borges-inspired roguelike' in your signature I just had to check this out. I first imagined something set in an endless, procedurally generated library of Babel... With hindsight, however, that probably wouldn't work so well. This, on the other hand, does.  I love everything you're doing here.

[Ultima Ratio Regum]

I haven't read the whole thread, are you doing anything to make this more user friendly than your average roguelike? I love the idea of the genre but can't get past the interface and one with such depth, I hope I can play it...

UI has been a major goal since the project's inception. I personally don't find the UIs of other RLs tricky, but I know a lot of people do, so I've been doing a lot to try and deal with that. I've implemented several screens that describe mechanics and appropriate keys; try to always have prompts that tell you what keys to use (including a screen that only appears for new player and recommends some important controls), and tried to stick to a basic system for most menus (up, down, enter, etc). I've got a few friends playing the latest version at the moment to see how well these things have actually worked and how clear everything is. None are really versed in roguelikes at all, and feedback has been positive so far.

When I read 'Borges-inspired roguelike' in your signature I just had to check this out. I first imagined something set in an endless, procedurally generated library of Babel... With hindsight, however, that probably wouldn't work so well. This, on the other hand, does.  I love everything you're doing here.

Thanks . As it happens, I had a similar idea at the start - as you say, it might not work brilliantly as a game by itself (though would certainly be an interesting thing to code), but as a single area in a much larger game...