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[Swifty]

About

Dungeon Core is going to be a 4 player co-op (online/lan) rogue-like dungeon crawler that will feature live action combat, deadly traps, puzzles and more! On top of this I will be developing a detailed Map Editor for usersto build their own dungeons to conquer!

Design & Technical
Category: Co-op Action Adventure RPG
Target Platform: Windows & Mac (for now)
Trello To-do List: https://trello.com/b/lwWxhlow/dungeon-core-art-assets
Software: Game Maker: Studio

Screenshots






The Knight


The Wizard


The Archer


The Rogue


The Shapeshifter

[Swifty]

Day 2:

It's been a long day, but I've managed quite a bit! I've been working on the Random Dungeon Generator, I have to admit, originally I wasn't planning on creating one, which was mostly due to the fact that I'd never done one before, and the thought seemed quite overwhelming.

I have however made loads of progress!



It may not look like much, but it sure feels like it. I have: Creating a set number of rooms within the dungeon bounds, with a minimum width and height setting that is randomly picked between to create the width and height of the room.

After that the rooms will try to create a random number of 'exits' or 'doors', up to a maximum value (set to 4 atm).

These doors are checked against the corners of other rooms, room boundary's that would block them. On top of that the doors won't be placed side-by side, they must be at least one block apart.


Next I will be working on hall generation using A* (once I get that working) and connecting the Start and End points in the dungeon.

[Swifty]

Day 3:

The hall generation of the Random Dungeon Generator is probably what has had me stumped the most. However after a long time contemplating the best way to do it, I stumbled upon a very simple method to achieve it.

I devised a mockup image to help me break the whole process down:

The Purple lines show the connected rooms.
The Black lines show the hallways, connecting to the rooms.
The Yellow circles show random breakoff points on the hallways.

Through this, I managed my thought-process breakdown of the order of events:
Step 0: Populate the dungeon area with filled 'chunks' - this will aid in breaking up the path-finding so it's not so linear.
Step 1: Place all the room ids in a list, randomise it, and sort through it sequentially picking the first room, and the one next in the stack.
Step 2: Pick a random exit from the first and second room, and generate the path-finding between them.
Step 3: Repeat until all rooms have been connected.
Step 4: Go through rooms with exits still available.
Step 5: Connect rooms to random rooms(able to pick self). Or have it create a dead-end.

Here is where I got the pathfinding working:


And with some tweaking, I've managed to adapt it to my Random Dungeon Generator:


Next I'm going to re-do the Door placement of the rooms so it meshes easier with the hall generation, then I'll add random 'chunks' into the level to break the pathfinding up!

[Swifty]

Day 3:

I've unfortunately run into a snag with the random dungeon generator, so I've decided to leave it and resume work on the core game.



Added in an inventory system. I've made it very customisable, so I may change the width of it so it's not hogging so much of the screen.
Added in item tool-tips, so you can view stats of items.

[matriax]

Day 3:

I've unfortunately run into a snag with the random dungeon generator, so I've decided to leave it and resume work on the core game.



Added in an inventory system. I've made it very customisable, so I may change the width of it so it's not hogging so much of the screen.
Added in item tool-tips, so you can view stats of items.

Start to looks interesting in the last screenshot, congratulations! 

I see "Stats to assign when levelling up", also consider an "improvement tree" is always welcomed.

[SrKen]

Looks really nice, good work.

[Swifty]

Thanks matriax, glad you like it I'm definitely going to be doing a skill/improvement tree of some sort, I haven't done the design there so i'm not completely sure how it will be.

Thanks SrKen! I'd definitely be interested in adding some music in the game, I'll shoot you an email when I get the chance.

Day 4:

Been a bit busy today but I've done the design of the Garmakai an ancient race of Stone-Golems:


And how he looks thrown(quickly) into the game:


I've also started brainstorming some of the puzzles the players will have to face! Ideas are more than welcome

[happymonster]

Golum looks nice!

[Swifty]

Thanks happymonster

Day 5:

Today was a lot of learning.. and minimal results. I spent most of my time learning Spriter, only to find out that the .png rendering isn't really that great, I had to do some workarounds to get it so I could render an animation (adding manual keyframes for every frame). After that it was rendering some odd frames at the start and end.

If anyone has much experience with Spriter I'd love to know the fastest workflow to getting results with a .png sequence

Anywho, I also split up the Stone Golem into all its pieces so I could animate it, with a rough idle I have here:



I guess the process will only get faster, so hopefully more results soon!

[Swifty]

Day 6:

Got the Rat enemy made:


And here's it's idle:


Animations left for the Rat: Running, Attacking, Death

[Swifty]

Okay I haven't updated in a while, but there's definitely been a lot going on! Firstly, I've settled with a name: Dungeon Masters. I've also done a big redesign of the design document.

I wasn't happy with the direction the project was taking, it was straying from my original envision, so I've gone back to the chalkboard so to speak and have been hard at work on the design document. I want this game to play like an RPG Boardgame, those familiar with Heroquest will have an understanding.

The big thing I've been working on, is the Level Editor, or - Dungeon Forger! The Dungeon Forger is going to allow players to craft their own set of dungeon. Populate it with monsters, hidden treasure, traps and all that good stuff!

Here's a picture of it in WIP:


Another Feature I'll be working on to tie into the Dungeon Forger is the Monster Forge. Allowing players to create their own Monsters, set stats, names, special abilities and import their own monster graphics or use pre-made ones!

There's a lot going on, so stay tuned for more updates!

[Inanimate]

A PCRPG, inspired by board games, with in-depth editors to craft your own adventures? Sign me up!

The graphics and details so far have been tantalizing, and I can't wait to see more from this project. You have a lot of talent, and this project a lot of potential! Best of luck, man.

[Craig Stern]

I think this game looks quite promising, so please take the following criticism in the spirit of me trying to help you out.

I've settled with a name: Dungeon Masters.

Please don't choose that name.

• First: it's super generic.
• Second: there is already a super-famous RPG out there called Dungeon Master and a movie called The Dungeon Masters. This means your game is going to get absolutely buried on Google--people interested in this game will have a very hard time looking for it.
• Third: you are just begging for trademark problems because of the second issue. You will not only have a hard time trademarking this name, you can actually get sued over it.

Advice: pick something unique, and search Google first to verify that it's not already being used.

[Swifty]

A PCRPG, inspired by board games, with in-depth editors to craft your own adventures? Sign me up!

The graphics and details so far have been tantalizing, and I can't wait to see more from this project. You have a lot of talent, and this project a lot of potential! Best of luck, man.

Thanks Inanimate! One of my main goals is to make it very customisable to the user.

I think this game looks quite promising, so please take the following criticism in the spirit of me trying to help you out.

I've settled with a name: Dungeon Masters.

Please don't choose that name.

• First: it's super generic.
• Second: there is already a super-famous RPG out there called Dungeon Master and a movie called The Dungeon Masters. This means your game is going to get absolutely buried on Google--people interested in this game will have a very hard time looking for it.
• Third: you are just begging for trademark problems because of the second issue. You will not only have a hard time trademarking this name, you can actually get sued over it.

Advice: pick something unique, and search Google first to verify that it's not already being used.

Cheers Craig Stern, I'm always open to CC. You're right on the name, the hassle with trademarks means I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board for the name.

I'm open to suggestions guys! 

[BleakProspects]

A lot of games like this use the term "Dungeon" that can be good, as it gets people who like D&D and rougelikes interested, but it can also get you lost in a sea of similarly titled things. Why not use another aspect of D&D or rougelikes in your title?

[wccrawford]

No suggestions for a name, sorry.

But I wanted to say that that rat looks amazing!  It's almost a shame that it's going to be so small and people won't really get to see all the detail you put into it.

[Swifty]

A lot of games like this use the term "Dungeon" that can be good, as it gets people who like D&D and rougelikes interested, but it can also get you lost in a sea of similarly titled things. Why not use another aspect of D&D or rougelikes in your title?

Thanks BleakProspects, that's a good suggestion I'll definitely look into some more D&D & Rougelikes to try and get a name that appeals to my target audience - while not being boring.

No suggestions for a name, sorry.

But I wanted to say that that rat looks amazing!  It's almost a shame that it's going to be so small and people won't really get to see all the detail you put into it.

Cheers, I'm glad you like it It's unfortunate that I won't even be able to use that art due to the graphic style changes I'll be making, they'll need to be more 3/4 view - Doh! 

I've been sick for like the last week and it's been bloody awful, however I believe I'm finally getting over it so progress is picking back up!

Just thought I'd share a .gif of me playing around in the Dungeon Editor:

(It's a little big, so wait around for it to load! It's worth it )

[wccrawford]

That's pretty slick!

[BleakProspects]

That would actually be nice to create D&D maps....

[Swifty]

@wccrawford
Thanks!

@BleakProspects
Haha if it had a bunch more tiles

@Gabriel Verdon
Thanks man, have to say Archer is what made me find tigsource, and your rougelike is looking damn amazing!

I've actually been experimenting with the tiles, I might make the switch to a 3/4 view.

I've also done some animations for the Knight:

Idle 1:


Idle 2:


Idle 3: