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[switchfox]

Welcome everyone! This is a game dev log for a open-world RPG that I'm working on. The end goal of this log is to document my progress, get feedback, and motivate myself in the process.

The aim of the project is to create an open-world RPG that is procedurally generated. So far it has been a labor of love, and I expect that to continue. My hope is to make a simply-made game(read: one-man) that is also deep and fun to play. I also hope to use this project as a way for me to explore/learn more about the technical aspects of game development, including graphics, modeling, animation, sound, game AI, and procedural generation. Considering my day job is working as a researcher for a silicon company, you might imagine learning technical stuff is what gets me up in the morning .

[switchfox]

Recently I've been playing around with the idea of volumetric terrain. I've tried playing around with voxels and really wasn't happy with that. So, I'm currently been working on creating surface meshes, with the ability to handle overhangs/caves. I've written up a simple height map generator to test this out, with simple random noise generation with bicubic interpolation. So far, I'm fairly pleased with the result.

[FranklinCosgrove]

It strangely already looks quite nice. Do you think you'll stick with the "low poly" aesthetic? Seems like a good choice if you ask me. Interested in seeing a gif/video of it procedurally changing!

[switchfox]

It strangely already looks quite nice. Do you think you'll stick with the "low poly" aesthetic? Seems like a good choice if you ask me.

Thanks for your question! I plan on sticking with "low-poly". There's a few reasons for that. One, lower poly counts means I can draw more characters, buildings, terrain, etc to the screen at one time. Second, I feel that low-poly and pixel art allow a lot of room for creativity, and will let me create a unique look for the game. Third, I'll be able to hack things into the game more quickly as it will take me much less time to create models.

Interested in seeing a gif/video of it procedurally changing!

Sure! I'll see if I can figure out how to generate gifs and I'll start posting those instead.

[bithead]

Good stuff.

Not sure what others use, but I've been using ScreenToGif (screentogif.codeplex.com). Pretty easy to use, I've found.

[Superb Joe]

Project P.R.O.J.E.C.T: The Project Project

[switchfox]

Good stuff.

Not sure what others use, but I've been using ScreenToGif (screentogif.codeplex.com). Pretty easy to use, I've found.

Thanks! I'll check that out.

[switchfox]

Project P.R.O.J.E.C.T: The Project Project

Nice.

How about something recursive: P.R.O.J.E.C.T. (P.R.O.J.E.C.T. Really Original, Just Extremely Confused Technically)


Seriously though, it's really difficult to come up with working names for games...

[switchfox]

Interested in seeing a gif/video of it procedurally changing!

Here's an attempt at a scaled-down gif (these files are huge!)

[switchfox]

A bunch of code refactoring tonight... I'm segmenting out different phases of map generation so that it's more modular (and easier to read as well). I'll be working towards taking a rudimentary 2D biome generator I've got (land/water) and integrating it into the heightmap generator. I'm not sure if I'll keep the style in the pic, but I can plug a different one in later if need be.

[jamesflanaganmusic]

Seems intriguing! Please make sure that Khan has a cameo.  Wait, you haven't seen Star Trek II?

Alternate names: Earthborn, Spirescape, Born of xxx (fictional planet name)...

[switchfox]

Seems intriguing! Please make sure that Khan has a cameo.  Wait, you haven't seen Star Trek II?

Alternate names: Earthborn, Spirescape, Born of xxx (fictional planet name)...

Khan!!!!!!

I'll add those names to the list I have, thanks!

[Superb Joe]

Project P.R.O.J.E.C.T: The Project Project

Nice.

How about something recursive: P.R.O.J.E.C.T. (P.R.O.J.E.C.T. Really Original, Just Extremely Confused Technically)


Seriously though, it's really difficult to come up with working names for games...

your game's working title is now Michael Jackson's Partytropolis: Collaborative Dance Engine

[switchfox]

Small update: Still working on integrating/porting code. The land mass generation code works, but I need to iron out some visual bugs related to volumetric terrain. Pics when I've got that ironed out.

[FranklinCosgrove]

Interested in seeing a gif/video of it procedurally changing!

Here's an attempt at a scaled-down gif (these files are huge!)

Is the land moving? It's hard for me to tell but it doesn't seem like it is. But at the same time it looks like theres multiple land formations in that gif? Maybe it's late and I'm just seeing things.

Looking good though. Interested to see how it goes once you apply the code to the landmass at large.

[switchfox]

Here's an attempt at a scaled-down gif (these files are huge!)

Is the land moving? It's hard for me to tell but it doesn't seem like it is. But at the same time it looks like theres multiple land formations in that gif? Maybe it's late and I'm just seeing things.

It generates 3 different terrains in the gif, but you're right, it all kinda looks the same. No worries, I hope to have some new gifs up soon.

[switchfox]

Here's a sample test with the new code I've written up to generate land masses and some elevation. In the gif you can see three different maps being generated. The video stutters when the CPU is generating the new map, but it take very little time to generate each map. It's still quite rough, but I like the direction it's headed.



Notes: Headed to PAX East tomorrow! Should be fun!

Also, does anyone have suggestions on where to host images? I'd like to have persistent storage and be able to post largish gifs (30 megs or so).

[switchfox]

Had a great time at PAX East last weekend. Played a lots of games and talked to devs. I learned a few things from playing all these games:

- Do something different.
- Gameplay trumps art.
- Gameplay/controls should be intuitive.


Now my question for all of you. I've been playing with a base world size of 4096m x 4096m. Right now my estimate is that when creating a new game world it will take about ~1 minute wait time before play can start, including procedurally generating terrain, caves/overhangs, vegetation, cities, NPCs, animals, etc. That estimate also includes any optimizations (parallelization). This is a conservative estimate, it very well could be 30secs or less.

Question: Is 1 minute too long? Is this a deal breaker?

[Archendrus]

Looks neat!  A one minute load time isn't horrible I think.  Especially if it's the only load time. My $.02

[switchfox]

Looks neat!  A one minute load time isn't horrible I think.  Especially if it's the only load time. My $.02

Thanks for the feedback! To clarify, the ~1 minute is for generating a new world from scratch when the player creates a new game. Load times should be much less I think.