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[baconman]

Alright. First thing to be clear; what I'm proposing here is a collab, not necessarily a dev-team. Seems like plenty of us are interested pet projects that, while to different ends, appears to share much of some similar means. Metvania-friendly platformer physics and/or Procedural-Generation, and some creativity and character in approaching them. Much of us also share some common barriers - mainly, having enough time and attention to devote to them; or being particularly challenged in one or two departments of development that others of us may be better in.

So link your projects/devlogs (if they aren't in your siggy), and let's get to discussing a few things - the big outcomes, the steps to those outcomes, and how our current projects contribute to them; maybe things like engines involved.

[Derakon]

Might as well list mine. I'm working on Jetblade, an open-source Metroidvania with procedurally-generated levels. The game runs in Python using PyGame and a homebrew physics engine, and is currently at the point of making fairly interesting terrain but not actually doing anything with it. You can control the protagonist and run and jump around the levels, but there's nothing to fight and nothing to collect.

The ultimate goal is not just to make a game, but to have that game be easily modifiable (in the sense of adding new creatures, new terrain, new powerups, etc.) so that people can use it as a springboard for getting into game development. Thus I've made certain as I go that everything that makes sense to be configurable is configurable. Of course, the entire thing's open-source too; that doesn't hurt any.

My current headache is porting the rendering system from PyGame to PyOpenGL -- specifically, right now I'm wrestling with font rendering. PyFTGL is being a royal pain to install. However, the performance gains of the switch to OpenGL are obvious and important for my future plans.

While I feel that I have most of the skills needed to complete Jetblade (barring sound effects and music composition), I made the project open-source for a reason. Ultimately I want to get as many people involved with it as possible. At the moment the game's not enough of a game to warrant much attention from non-developers, though, so I have a ways to go yet.

[Zaratustra]

how many procedural metroidvanias are people working on here

[baconman]

Well, I know of Gentrieve and JetBlade off the top of my head, at least. Gentrieve is currently in playable state (see Feedback forum). "The Creeper" is an up-and-coming Metvania appears to NOT be procedurally generated, but does contain complex problem-solving, a multi-form dynamic, and a distinctive "personality" about it.

And really, the primary difference in i.M.A.G.E. Zero is that the powers are issued off the top instead of collected, it contains other elements (fighting/musical play) and other PGC (Dynamic Music Creation - still a ways off from programmed BTW, interswappable/recolorized player characters) and variable objectives; but it also simplifies to a more Spelunky-influenced level-by-level, somewhat fragmented pace. I am going for a similar feel to the physics however, maybe a little higher on the horizontal speed.

A couple of users are making PGC worlds that aren't necessarily core Metroidvanias, too. nikki's working on "The Procedural Place To Be" while azagthoth has a similar concept simply titled "World Generator Development" (see DevLogs).

They're all distinct projects, and from a variety of sources/engines, though the same kind of compatible, mutually-creative vibe clearly exists within each of them. And while possibly not present, between hosting the site/forums and his open-source work - especially with Spelunky and Aquaria in particular - I personally consider that Derek and Alec already ARE part of this. (Which reminds me, I need to see if there's an update with Alec's WIP "Monocle Engine.")


Congrats on going semi-pro, btw. 

[baconman]

My current project, i.M.A.G.E. Zero is a precursive experiment to a game about gaming. Ultimately what I hope to produce is an RPG-like experience/interface about the ins and outs of various styles of gaming - imagine PokeMon, but instead of trainer gyms, you had arcades that hosted various kinds tournaments, and instead of the Poke's themselves, you had evolving series of titles.

This long-term goal (long story here), along with levels influenced with PGC similar to Spelunky is where this experimental "predevelopment project" of mine begins. Originally I was going with Platform Action (intact), Action-Adventure ala Zelda/Gauntlet, Arcade/NFSU-style Racing, Shmup along the lines of Radio Allergy/Radrigy with some R-Type influence (like force units), Musical Gaming, and Fighting. Admittedly, I also would like to take an "upper + lower body" kind of influence that Gentrieve uses, as well, though I'm not certain how I'd pull that off. I was thinking along the lines of "heads and bodies," but I figured I'd better get the gameplay/physics in place, and worry about graphical improvements later.

Presently, I've began going 2D with NGPC sprites (full-body to boot), mostly because of availability, familiarity, and versatility; and I've had to consider remolding the experiment to work within the restrictions of doing so for now (changing the Action-Adventure from Zelda/Gauntlet style to being more like Zelda II/Spelunky, for example). Much of the critters I speak of in my devlog are inspired between MegaMan, Kirby, and Donkey Kong Country's animal buddies; and somewhat coincide with a set of vehicles I chose to use for the racing game, condensed for simplicity (and again, changing that from a NFSU-style racing game to more of an Excitebike kind). At that point, I figured it wouldn't be unwise to streamline the Shmup along with it too, while I'm at it.

I'm also working on algorhythm designs for procedural music creation*, almost an endeavor all it's own. In fact, that's what nikki and I initially began discussing with one another. It's kind of fragmented in my DevLog, and not quite complete there yet, but when appropriate, I'll post the step-by-step of how I'm planning to code it - it's very logical and structured, but capable of some whimsy as well. It's the kind of thing that's fundamentally simple, there's just a lot of breadth to cover with it, and I still need to get ready for work tonight. It's potentially extraneous, and mostly to correspond with the musical gaming aspect of my project (but tuned to coincide as mood-appropriate BGM, too) but it does carry with it some nifty potential, too.

*I know the logic of pulling it off, it's just translating that to programming/scripting that's kicking me right now, along with not having the samplings to use - but lately that's been taking a back seat to getting tiles/sprites done. And I'm sure finding the samplings could be as easy is d/l'ing an appropriate music-production program (such as FruityLoops), anyways.


I have worked along with others in musical and fighting gamedev before, but this is my first endeavor in PGC, and most of these other styles of gaming (platforming with Metvania-esque abilities, especially). I'd once began a botched Duke Nukem homebrew episode and a quest for Zelda Classic before, due to hardware failure. So while unfinished, I'm not completely unfamiliar with systems/engines like that.

[phr00t]

I am the author working on Gentrieve (http://sites.google.com/site/gentrieve/), which is my procedural metroidvania game. It is fully playable with items, sound effects, music and action.

Baconman has been very helpful in giving me feedback, so I am sure he'd be a good guy to work with

I found JetBlade, and I wanted to try it out... but there were too many steps to get it running Is there an easy way you can compile it to a standalone EXE?

I'm also working on algorhythm designs for procedural music creation*

I also tried this one about a year ago by generating MIDI notes. It made for some interesting sounds (with rhythm), but I wouldn't call it music 

[Dustin Smith]

If I can remember correctly Gregory Weir is working on a procedural Metroidish title as well. You guys should like compare notes or something.

[Derakon]

I found JetBlade, and I wanted to try it out... but there were too many steps to get it running Is there an easy way you can compile it to a standalone EXE?

I'm glad you found it interesting; sorry about the roadblocks to getting it up and running. That's kinda how it is with open-source though -- you get to see it early, in exchange for having more work to do to get to see it at all.

Once I get the game to something that actually resembles gameplay (remaining steps: finish OpenGL port; implement a lock and associated powerup; implement 1 enemy), there'll be some value in providing prebuilt versions for download. py2app and py2exe are Python programs for generating standalone executables for OSX and Windows, respectively, that should work well here.

[baconman]

Presently trying to do some path-editing (in GM at the moment), and was wondering how I'm gonna pull something off...

I've got some intricate webs of paths in mind, and was going to use a trimming system, in conjunction with variables like moving platforms and/or pattern-based critters, by removing certain paths and setting a preferred rotation direction, and then having their movements based on the remaining paths; but I'm a bit stuck on how to pull that off.

For instance:

Code:

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(fig. 1)

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(fig.2)

Figure 1 illustrates the initial path-web; which begins with an object of interest (critter, platform, etc.) that travels in a primary direction (clockwise or counterclockwise). 5 sub-paths are then removed (randomly) to produce figure 2. The effect I'm hoping to achieve is for the object(s) of interest to then travel around the perimeter - so the things on the left will cycle around in a square kind of pattern, where the things on the right would "trace around the reversed C."

Anybody know how I might implement this kind of effect?

There's a few other kinds of verticies as well, such as 45-degree angles and interconnected circular pathways in more sophisticated patterns as well. (Like, take the "5" pattern on a die, make the circles fuller and evenly spaced, and interconnect the edges vertically and horizontally with each other, as well as diagonally through the central circle.)

[baconman]

n/m. I completely inverted the approach I took to this. Now, I'm making a grid of invisible, unsolid "blocks," removing 4 or so of them, and having the platforms trace the edges instead. I'm also looking into doing this kind of thing with circular and triangular "blocks" as well, to produce interesting angles and pathways; and basing an aerial foe or two on the same kind of movement patterns.