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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogs[Zeldalike/Platformer 2in1] Power of Love
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Author Topic: [Zeldalike/Platformer 2in1] Power of Love  (Read 6691 times)
baconman
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« on: February 18, 2012, 01:41:05 PM »

Here, I'm attempting to create a project twice - once as a 4-directional bird's eye view Zeldalike, and once as a sidescrolling platformer, and the level design of each will change a bit to reflect that. They're both otherwise identical in premise, although they may each grow some gameplay elements independently of one another.

So far, I'm using stock Game Maker assets, and some of Antiferea's RPGesque sprites from OpenGameArt.org, as the number of humanistic roles is roughly equal to the number of character class-types produced in it. So I can shuffle an array to mix up appearances, and give every adventure the chance to keep players on their toes. Ideally, I would love to use sidescroller rolling animations as well, but it's doable without them.

THE WORLD

The majority of the gameplay world will be made up of 9 biomes, interconnected through specific passages between them, which house bonfires. The bonfires don't make savegames, but they will restore your health/condition in addition to respawning food, enemies besides bosses/minibosses or important NPCs, and finally, a "Hometown" screen off to the left where you begin, and a "Temple of Judgement" off to the right where your journey may end.

The biomes themselves also comprise themselves of shuffling "level chunker" content, with each type of screen geared to alternate between three focus points: combat, navigational challenges, and traps. Additionally, I'm planning for each biome to have a monstrously bad boss creature, that you should probably avoid for awhile until you're powered up a bit, at least one Mystery Container that you can apply to your choice of three meters, and seven hidden "Gemeralds" which will open the Temple of Judgement. Each biome will also determine what gameplay elements are generated within it.

It's a rather open-world game, and while the biomes may have an order of natural progression about them, if you want to take them on out of order, you're completely within your rights and abilities to. Ideally, you'll be capable of navigating about 3 biomes every 10 minutes, and depending on the player's decision at the end, you should be able to win a game by going through it once or twice (making for convenient 30 or 60-minute adventures).

THE PLAYER

You begin in your "Hometown" square where you acquire your starting equipment, and a few Mystery Containers to build your starting character with. As forementioned, Mystery Containers will add one point to any of your three main bars:

-Vitality hearts are basically your HP.

-Stamina (anvils?) recover over time, and basically define your attacking and blocking power.

-Magical stars determine your magical projectile attack ammo.

I may make these two points apiece, depending on how balance plays out. They can all be cursed, and brought to half their max power, and toggling 1 and 2 point values may be one method of doing so.

There's also a food timer, which encourages the player to move around in pursuit of food. It's 2 minutes long, and will reset at the cost of 1 HP if you somehow fail to consume any. It's another shuffling array with only one bad outcome type, which is to drain your stars and stamina, the others' effects are somewhat various but always good. This is also placed in the areas manually, enemies don't drop food, so you can't farm enemies in hopes of scoring some, but usually you'll find more within 3 screens or so.

Movement will be momentum-based, somewhere between Mario and Sonic level. Fast enough that you can traverse upward curves at higher speeds (in the platforming sense), but managable. This will also involve navigational curvature in the Zeldalike, and there will be some momentum play in that too.

Your character can equip and toggle any two weapons or magics at bonfires, or upon discovering one in the world, you can swap out a current weapon slot for the newer one.

Weapons come in 4 varieties, each with their own attacking tactics and tool-like usefulness, as well as carring an effectiveness against certain brands of enemies. Each type is scripted with 8 attacks (similar to fighting game specials), although each *instance* will be capable of executing two of them (and maybe a basic strike?), openly comboable, with more powerful moves simply requiring more stamina to fuel them.

-Swords cut stuff (this is taken into consideration in other gameplay elements too), and thus do more damage against fleshy enemies. Their moves have a bit more mobility about them to make up for their shorter range.

-AxeHammers can smash obstructions that only bombs would otherwise, and are effective against more solid enemies, like steel or stone. They're all about incurring extreme hit reactions too, making enemies more jugglable.

-Whips are more about tying down enemies' mobility, and have good range that's balanced with a fair bit of windup and/or cooldown. They're also effective against undead (yes that is a deliberate homage), and can be used to swing or grapple around the environment.

-Spears and staffs are geared more at zoning, and can be used for vaulting, which is basically a form of double-jumping (vault first, jump second). They incur double the stamina-draining against blockers, too.


The different magics are simply geared towards projectile variations, and various effects upon connecting - wind attacks incur more knockback (blocking or not), or electromagnetic will drain stamina in proportion to damage, for instance. And like weapons, more powerful techniques will drain more stars. But stars don't recharge by idling, they must be replenished with food, bonfires, etc. So use them with discretion.

THE GOAL

In the beginning, your Hometown square gears you up, and then is attacked by the big bads (the 9 boss monsters), and your Love is taken/missing. Your mission is to recover the 7 Gemeralds, and travel to the Temple of Judgement, where your fate is to be decided.

SPOILERS!!

Once you make it to the Temple of Judgement, there's an upper and lower cell, each with triggers that will react in the other. Below is your Love, which you can rescue and end your game somewhat victoriously, although your Hometown is torn asunder, and the two of you must begin your lives anew.

Above is the ancient symbol of power, the Quake quad-damage powerup, with which you can gain the power to vanquish the 9 demons of your world and bring back peace to your Hometown. But at the cost of sacrificing your Love to the Pit of Eternal Despair (C), who will leave but a minute reminder of their once-endearing presence. At that point, it becomes your goal to do just that, destroy the 9 beasts, and return to your Hometown as a hero, and perhaps find a new Love.

Secret outcome #3:

What choice is left to make? You'd ALREADY beaten the beasts 35 minutes ago! Cue "inform the president" joke, as you walk over to victoriously claim your Love. It starts off all "happily ever after" ...until she gets you somewhere secluded, and quickly turns ecchi. They get about halfway through their second act, and their dad shows up.

Love then pulls a concealed gun from their boot, fires a warning shot, points it at Daddy, and tells him "DO NOT RUIN THIS MOMENT FOR ME!!" Daddy gives the "I'll be outside, get me when you're done" thing... and Hero wonders why Love didn't just do that during the abduction instead. Love gives a cheeky "don't worry about that now" look and continues molesting Hero.

Yes, it turns out the entire thing was constructed by Love to score with Hero.

Secret outcome #4!! (and 5?!):

So you kicked all the bosses' butts, and you're at the Temple of Judgement. Maybe you make this move out of curiosity, maybe error, or maybe you just KNOW that in spite of Hero's feelings, that Love is behind this calamity. So even though you've cleaned up the world, you take the Amulet of Power anyways...

Love is then sacrificed to the Pit of Eternal Despair (C). Lighting crashes, and the world shakes - as something is now very, VERY WRONG!!

Level Chunker scripts kick into second gear - the world is no longer stable, it becomes more akin to the Doc Robot levels from MegaMan 3. Every biome is now repopulated with TWO boss monsters, and once-miniboss enemies populate the landscape quite regularly now. Trap combos change, and the effects of some of them become absolutely sadistic. Boulder traps, for instance, now drop boulder-sized bombs that can REALLY wreck your day - in addition to their expanded blast radius, they also shoot off shrapnel everywhere too.

At this point, it's all about racing back to Hometown, while there's still one left to get to. And once you do, like a bat out of Hell - Love explodes back out of the Pit of Eternal Despair. And they are PISSED. One epic showdown with them - perhaps like a 3-round Touhou or something (not totally solid/sold on that), and then a final race with them *back* to the Temple of Judgement. Beat your Love there, and you'll get one (the stellar) ending, if they beat you there, you get another.

____________________

Well, that's the pitch so far. What do you think? Reasonable scope? Worthy concept? Think it can work in both sidescroller and Zeldalike perspective? Ideas, suggestions, influences? Catchier title(s), even?

Speaking of, I do want to include some kind of geometry play (like Yoshi Eggs) and factors like Koopa Shells in the mix, too. Doing so with level designs that include curvature factors could be quite fun!
« Last Edit: March 21, 2012, 07:18:02 AM by baconman » Logged

baconman
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« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2012, 05:19:37 AM »

Core level chunker code is in place and functional, along with a collision mask tileset that compliments the 48x48 tilegrid I'm going with...



...no pretty tile art yet, because I'm still considering the biome potential; and that's one thing that may really change between the two games. Some ideas I've been throwing around for biomes:

Northern/Upper Regions (Harder difficulty):

-Mountains
-Airship
-Summit Sanctuary (reimagining of Sky Sanctuary Zone)
-Alien Spaceship
-Floating Island
-Inverse Castlevania?

**Temple of Judgement will likely be to the East of these.

Central/Ground-Level Regions (Easier difficulty):

-Grassy Hills
-Jungle/Swamp/Foresty wilderness
-Medieval Castle
-Haunted Mansion
-Eastern Architecture
-Modern Urban/Suburban Town
-Desert/Arabian Architecture
-Greco-Roman Architecture

** Hometown will likely be to the West of these.

Southern/Underground Regions (Moderate difficulty):

-Lava Reef/Volcanic Rush
-Chemical Sewer
-Sea Floor
-Ocean Palace
-Ancient Ruins
-Mines/Caverns


Yes, even using 9 biomes per game, why not have the entire world be possibly different every playthrough? :D Either that, or three would work for the platformer, and three for the adventure version; which will help each remain kind of distinctive. And hey, why not try a better variety of settings than "ice level, fire level, electric level?"

Ideas? Suggestions? Any adventurey settings you think I should consider, especially on the Northern/Upper regions?
« Last Edit: March 21, 2012, 07:31:48 AM by baconman » Logged

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« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2012, 05:31:36 AM »

Not to be detractive or anything, but there is a lot of text here and I among a lot of other people would be much happier for a concise description to go along with the in-detail pitch. If the concise version sounds interesting we would be much more inclined to read on, especially without any images or anything else to break up the wall of text.

Just saying! I know you have some cool ideas sometimes but I don't want to have to slog though all this to find them! Smiley
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baconman
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« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2012, 03:31:14 PM »

A quick summary would be a good thing, yes. Once I find how to describe this that briefly. "Adventure game with randomizing factors" is already a wide net, and being action-oriented rather than turn-based - while probably the more distinctive factor - still puts it within 10% of all the titles playing with the idea. And I don't want people thinking I'm making a Terraria-like, which is still both over my head right now, and not exactly what I'm going with where level design is concerned here.

"A Roguelike Soniclike Metroidvania and Zeldalike with DarkSoulslike stamina system using MvClike combat moves and spells, with a Terrarialike biome system that uses Spelunkylike level generation and RPGlike multiple endings?"

Cheesy That's not a game pitch, it's a pipe dream! At least until you explain how it all fits, anyways. Would you take that brief description seriously?
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baconman
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« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2012, 01:23:41 AM »

Okay. Regarding biomes and level generation, I've got 50% of the design schemes charted out on graph paper now, along with hotspots for spawning stuff like enemies, traps, widgets, and treasures; and I'm about to work on scripting them into the engine.

I've also got the twist I'm eager to add to the level producer - a checkerboard-style system that alternates layouts so that every other one produces an open area where you can decide to go from one opening to any other, and the ones in-between them make more direct pathways between each of the other ones. So maybe you'll see something nifty in one of the corridor screens that'll make you detour through a neighboring "open" screen to get to.

The screen size per chunk so far is 15 tiles wide by 10 tall; and the two biome-types I've finished have respective, consistent openings of (usually) 2 and 3 tiles wide. The other two I'm brainstorming designs for will be one that's tighter compact (mostly 1-tile widths), and really open - like to the point where it may take some alternative gravitation to work in the platforming sense, or just be really sparse in the adventuring style.

For that matter, half-slash-water gravity, wall-clinging ala Strider, invertable gravity, and zero-G where jumps take you until you hit another surface are all ideas I'm throwing around with how to navigate in that kind of "super-open" area. I guess deciding on the different ways I can/plan to use that kind of openness should naturally factor in before they get totally design-whipped, right?

In the meantime, I'll get to coding the layouts and elements I do have down, and hopefully produce something testable soon; at least a generated world you can roam around and collect stuff in and some physics to test drive. I'd like to get that done by the end of the month.

So yup. This week I get to start bridging the gap between intermediate GML coding and expert-level stuff.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2012, 09:08:06 AM by baconman » Logged

baconman
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« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2012, 07:17:20 AM »

Okay. Got the fundamental level-encoding scripts working. Smiley

Digging a little bit deeper into the fundamental designs, rather than going with "biomes," what I'm gonna do here is generate and interconnect 9-12 different areamaps (shorter vs. longer games), each from a shuffled set of themes. 3 of them for "high" terrain settings, 3 for ground-level, and 3 for underground. I'm also aiming to give each area a kind of gameplay focus/design, so as to prevent copypaste syndrome, and to sprinkle gameplay mechanics and elements as appropriate to these settings.

It's a little bit uneven still, so far. In retrospect, I'm admittedly trying to skip typical "Green Hills," although that's not totally out of the question - trick is how to make that interesting from a gameplay perspective. Might make it a static/tutorial area to the left of the start. But more importantly, what other interesting settings would work? In particular, imagining more high-altitude ones is a little perplexing.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2012, 07:32:54 AM by baconman » Logged

baconman
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« Reply #6 on: March 31, 2012, 09:58:47 PM »

Filling in some remaining gaps in level design right now. Going for 2 gameplay mechanics, 2 distinctive (and somewhat intersecting) trap types, and a boss monster for each area, and I've finally consolidated the level themes I'm going for.

The concepts so far:

[Grassy Hills]
Basic, static tutorial level.

[New Urban City]
Huh?
Huh?
Car-launcher traps
Collapsing ground
x MAC the Truck

[Arabian Rave Night]
Ziplines
Huh?
Blackout traps (darken the scene by powering off lights)
Torchlight traps (ignite the ground, reversing darkness; flames trace ground)
x Knives the Genie

[Carnival Casino]
Pinball Elements
Slot Machines
Cannons
Punch-in-the-box traps
Huh?
x Three-Ring Circus Crew (a trio of acrobatic/collaborative clowns)

[Winding Wilderness]
Swing lifts
Huh?
Bear Traps (limits movement 7 seconds or so, and bears spawn from bushes around you)
Dart/Lasso Traps (limits movement 2 seconds, and shoots a volley of shots at you that must be ducked or dodged to the side somehow)
x Huh? (some kind of dinosaur derivation? But not a Megazord, too obvious!)

[Industrial Evolution]
Conveyors
Screw Lifts
Sawblade Traps
Electrical timed traps
x Huh? (Dr. Wily/Robotnik influence?)

[Frozen Ruins]
Snowboard
Huh?
Slipslides (traps?)
Boulder Traps
Huh?
x Bigfoot's Mummy

[Ocean Palace]
Watery areas
Bubble lifts
Huh?
Waterfall traps (wash you down through present platform by temporarily disabling collision detection unless it's the far bottom)
Huh?
x Fetal Fantasy LXXXVI

[Subterrainian Sea]
Watery areas, obviously.
Huh?
Huh?
Waterfall traps
Scrolling walls/barriers (think "Mystic Cave Zone's" moving walls)
x Tentacle Beast

[Chemical Sewer]
Slides
Pipelines
Flood traps (each one triggered raises water level half a screen)
Huh?
x Sewer Serpent

[Magma Kingdom] (mashing "castle" and "volcanic" themes)
Catapults
Huh?
Vertical/Swinging Guillotines
Boulder traps
x Dragon Knight (a dragon with armor and sword/shield)

[Airadise Island]
Bounce Flowers
Huh?
Beehive traps
Log traps
x Angel the Mermaid (she's an angel, a mermaid, and a French Maid, all in one)

[Steampunk Air Pirateship] (added pirates theme to Steampunk Airship)
Balloons
Cannons
Steam Blasters/Shooters
Plank traps (like Castlevania's spinning dropthrough platforms, but they slap and stun you)
Rolling barrels
x Huh? (interesting twist on Captain Hook/Blackbeard, but what?)

[Starship Roppongi]
Gravity Inversion
Low-Gravity areas?
Laser Traps (ala QuickMan, but not instakill)
Launch Floor/Roof (ala Wacky Workbench - but the roof can launch you down too!)
x Mello Devil (yeah, like the MegaMan fort boss)

[SkyWorld Sanctuary]
Bouncy Clouds (and moving formations thereof)
Spinning Top lists...
Invisible Ground (/snow that reveals it?)
Huh?
x (Storm Eagle? TenguMan? CloudMan? Patra? I'm going for something like that...)

[Inverted Mansion]
Gravity Inversion
Huh?
Thwomps (and ones that go upwards, too!)
Coffins/Graves that spawn enemies or weapon shots?
x Dracula's Punisher (as Drac himself is bound and vulnerable)
« Last Edit: April 01, 2012, 09:56:42 PM by baconman » Logged

EddieBytes
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« Reply #7 on: April 07, 2012, 12:25:43 AM »

Hehe, this really sounds like a great game! :D
Oh, btw, go a bit easier on the walls, or if that's not an option, at least style the important text differently (italic, bold, whatnot)  Cheesy
I didn't actually read everything I just skimmed it  Embarrassed
Still, pretty cool, can't wait for the actual game :D I'd throw my money at the screen
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ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)
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« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2012, 04:38:52 AM »

side note: it's funny to me that people often blame the amount of writing, and not their own inability to read (often brought on by sub-par schools) for that problem. it's as if they accept their own disability (even if it is very common -- only 13% of people read regularly, and a majority of people in the US are functionally illiterate) as a limiting factor over others

anyway, for the topic: i don't like the idea of giving two different endings based merely on skill. i think endings should best be determined by choices made throughout the game, not just whether you can beat the final boss or not. that part struck me as a bad idea. the rest of what you wrote seems okay though
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EddieBytes
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« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2012, 04:42:34 AM »

side note: it's funny to me that people often blame the amount of writing, and not their own inability to read (often brought on by sub-par schools) for that problem. it's as if they accept their own disability (even if it is very common -- only 13% of people read regularly, and a majority of people in the US are functionally illiterate) as a limiting factor over others
Well that was totally uncalled for Roll Eyes
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ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)
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« Reply #10 on: April 08, 2012, 04:56:17 AM »

i think it was of pressing necessity, actually. if you're going to comment in someone's thread about their game, do so with more than "i didn't read it, i think you should write less stuff in this thread about your game" -- basically, if you lack the attention span to read what someone wrote, that's your problem, not theirs
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EddieBytes
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« Reply #11 on: April 08, 2012, 05:20:48 AM »

@baconman
I do apologize if my comment seemed disrespectful in any way, Mr. RinkuTroll here certainly likes to present it that way. I'll read it thoroughly after I finish with whatever it is I'm doing right now Smiley
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ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)
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« Reply #12 on: April 08, 2012, 05:28:23 AM »

posting an insulting comment about how someone should write less stuff in their own devlog: not trolling

defending someone's right to post whatever amount of material they want in their own devlog: trolling
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« Reply #13 on: April 08, 2012, 10:34:32 AM »

posting an insulting comment about how someone should write less stuff in their own devlog: not trolling

defending someone's right to post whatever amount of material they want in their own devlog: trolling

Jeez, all he said was there was a lot of text and that a lot of people aren't going to want to read that much. You're the one that accused him of a mental disability.
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baconman
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« Reply #14 on: April 24, 2012, 12:10:51 AM »

Ladies, ladies! The game!

Decided to take the preliminary idea and run with the sidescroller perspective first, come back to the bird's-eye adventure edition later on.

Finally finished wrapping up my level concept charts, so I'm going back and editing in the extra details, and there's a number of idle critters I think I'm gonna add in, with the distinct ability to hop 'n' bop (in the sidescroller version). Humanoid enemies, you'll still have to slug it out toe-to-toe with, but critters can be hop 'n' bopped because it adds a distinct sense of comboable athleticism that isn't easily captured without that kind of gameplay in place. Imagine how different Zelda II would be if you could downward thrust from the beginning, but it didn't affect taller/biped enemies.

Still plugging along the level design, but now it should be easier to make sensible outputs based on the gameplay elements involved in each area. And also, focusing on one type of gameplay over the other makes it simpler to just hammer out. Now to get some actual assets in play, too.
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Squid Party
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« Reply #15 on: May 20, 2012, 05:59:33 AM »

posting an insulting comment about how someone should write less stuff in their own devlog: not trolling

defending someone's right to post whatever amount of material they want in their own devlog: trolling

Jeez, all he said was there was a lot of text and that a lot of people aren't going to want to read that much. You're the one that accused him of a mental disability.


I think Paul is having trouble removing the stick from his arse Smiley
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« Reply #16 on: May 20, 2012, 07:03:25 AM »

Just want to follow this - it sounds pretty interesting.
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« Reply #17 on: May 20, 2012, 08:13:30 AM »

I am confused as to why the game will be made two different times, why not just pick the one, and make that one amazing?
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« Reply #18 on: July 28, 2012, 07:03:13 AM »

Well, it's progress towards developing overhead adventure *and* platformer games, both of which I'm admittedly fresh to programming for. Kind of a stepping stone project/concept towards the eventual "game about gaming" I want to make.

I've got a fair amount of assets together, along with my tile-laying code that creates the chunks, and a good grip of the chunks coded, although in particular, I'm stumbling upon designing "trap themed" rooms that are open once on each axis (IE: to the top and left, etc.)... bearing in mind that these will be neighboring combat and navigation zones, not other trap zones.

Also kind of debating on whether or not I should minimize the design - focus entirely on one weapon type and bombs exclusively; make other items all have passive effects. It's a tough call, because I really want a project I can hammer out in a few months, not a couple of years...
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baconman
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« Reply #19 on: October 28, 2012, 04:57:56 AM »

Churning out level chunker code. To some... interesting results.



WTF It's certainly some kind of something, alright.


EDIT: At least the baseline generator, sans tile-laying engine, is producing some promising results!
« Last Edit: October 28, 2012, 09:15:58 AM by baconman » Logged

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