That looks awesome Zerovirus!

#19   Graphics   4.46
#319   Humor   2.84
#374   Overall   3.36
#380   Theme   3.46
#548   Audio   2.79
#587   Mood   2.95
#758   Fun   2.79
#1066   Innovation   2.32

I did really good in graphics this time, but because I spent so much time on them the actual game part was kinda incomplete...

Made a game about mining for gold beneath the surface.  Only really got the basics done, I didn't have much time to add manny challenges or items to buy.  Maybe I'll expand on it in the future.



http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-29/?action=preview&uid=10737

I'm gunna do it (hopefully), only working on bigger stuff so it should be nice to finish a game quick.  It's my 5^th Ludum Dare this time.

That looks really nice Cellusious!

[Random Dungeon Generation in Alienoid Core]

Random Dungeon Generation in Alienoid Core
Here is just the basic process I use to generate the dungeons.


Here are some maps it generated, they are a lot more spread out than the ones used in the game but still a good example of what it does (A better example would be the map on the debug screen a few posts back).

First I decide on the dimensions of the map I want to make in tiles and then create a 2D array to hold the map info.  This map will be filled with true and false vales, with true being the floor and false being empty space in the end.

Second I randomly put down a bunch of rectangles within a certain size range. If a rectangle is placed so that it intersects another rectangle, it is scraped and a new rectangle is created.  This process continues until a predetermined number of rectangles are on the map.  All these rectangles are filled with the true value or floor.

Third I go through the rectangles again and draw a line of floor from the centre of every rectangle to the centre of the next one on the list.  This connects all the rectangles so they aren't a bunch of separate floating islands.

Lastly I place floors randomly in all the empty spaces and then use cellular automata to smooth the floor into a round shape without too many small clumps or protrusions floating out in the middle of nowhere. A good tutorial on making caves with cellular automata is here.  Really, Cellular automata is what makes the level look all smooth and natural, I think it's a great tool for level generation.

The level generation process in the game is not done, there are still many things for me to do, like using the flood fill algorithm to make sure all parts of the map are accessible to the player, before it's complete.

Sorry for the huge text dump with no pictures or diagrams, hope you can understand it because I wrote it up really quick. I'll try and add in some pictures outlining the process and expand on it with specifics later.

Debug mode! Its mainly for gun generation to make it easier.


retrostark, thanks for the huge write-up with all those tips, actually bookmarked this page so I don't forget where it is. I'm trying to keep gun generation kind of simple so the game doesn't take forever. I won't be able to do everything, but the write-up was really helpful and has a lot of great ideas I never would have though of, like random sounds and your ideas for bullets. 
Thanks a bunch!

Working on random gun generation again!

It was in the game before I started to redo everything if you read the start of the devlog, but it didn't feel very good and it was very messy, so I haven't gotten around to adding it back in until now. I've been making the whole shooting system with random guns in mind, so it shouldn't be too hard to add.  Also made bullets look better.



If anyone has ever tried some type of random gun generation before (or if you just have some ideas), advice would be appreciated.

what on earth is going on there

It looks weirder in motion...

It was while I was trying to do something like the heat effect in this:
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=24101.msg988630#msg988630

Its developed in AS3 using a cool game creation library called FlashPunk.
I don't know whether I'm going to add co-op or not, it would be cool.

All I can say is maybe you should lighten the floor tiles because I think they might be to dark. 

I'm too lazy to post a screenshot now, but I tried brighter floors and they look better.  Thanks for the advice.

Just added an icon to the top to show how many teleports you have left, and made a few variations of the floor tiles to make it look more interesting. Also figured I just haven't posted a screenshot for a while, so why not?

I thought these looked pretty cool...

Shoot, haven't posted for a while.  This projects not dead, I've actually slowly made a bunch of changes since I last posted.

Being indecisive, I've gone back to using a purely random levels again, here's a few of the levels that the game generated.  The're a lot nicer than the original levels it used to make.


I've also made bullets look nicer and added in particle effects, which are used for enemy dying smoke puffs.  Still thinking of other things I could add to the bullets to make them look more flashy and nice.


Also fixed a few things that let the game run faster.

This new style is looking great.  I really like all the different variations in the bricks and wood, makes it interesting to look at.

That tongues thing looks pretty amazing.

I gave it a try, emailed it to you.

Cool contest idea.