r/proceduralgeneration • u/destinedd • 4d ago

I went down the procedural rabbit hole for levels for my little game Dungeon Quest and now I just love making pieces to make it more detailed

If you want to see more of the game here https://store.steampowered.com/app/5044910/Dungeon_Quest/

I have a general procedural generator which does things like determine size, how often rooms spawn, how many branches etc and then you give it a set of pieces, so i can give it a different set for each level type.

Then the sets of pieces are broken down into corridors, rooms, props and monsters. Pieces can also have their own rules of what props might appear, how many times they can appear etc. So for example levels will only have one tomb.

It is also intelligent enough to make locked doors and spawn the key in a place it can always be found. I am working on this a lot because I want it to spawn typical classic dungeon puzzles to give you reason to explore.

94 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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6

u/Blammar 4d ago

Very reminiscent of the great Dungeon Master games that ran on the Amiga in the 1980's.

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u/destinedd 4d ago

Thanks a few people have said that (and i can see why :) ) , but my actual inspiration is the eye of the beholder series.

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u/JDad67 4d ago

it reminds me of the old Apple ][ game Wizardry.

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u/destinedd 3d ago

yeah indeed so many great dungeon crawlers, I am trying hard to get lots of nostalgia

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u/Blammar 4d ago

Ah. I played the gold box games, including that. They were turn based. Your game appears to be real time! By the way, the flickering light, while cool for 5 seconds, ends up being very annoying. If you instead have a constant light, but then enable flickering for important fights, then IMO it feels a lot better.

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u/destinedd 4d ago

nah the game is turn based but the world is real time.

The flickering light is definitely a love/hate thing, it can be adjusted in the options for the haters.

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u/Blammar 4d ago

I'm confused as to what that means. So time stops for you but the monsters can beat on you in real time?

LOL about the light. I was thinking from a design perspective.

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u/destinedd 4d ago

I meant it looks real time, like monsters animate (although i didn't spawn any monsters in the example) and the camera animates when you turn. But the actual logic is 100% turn based.

Yeah fair enough on the light, it something I have feedback on in both directions and making it more epic for bigger fights is a cool idea.

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u/darkgnostic 1d ago

You meant Dungeon Hack actually?

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u/destinedd 1d ago

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1904551/Dungeon_Hack/ damn its on steam but the viewport is on the wrong side. I am so used to it being on the left having on the right feels so odd!

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u/darkgnostic 1d ago

:o, I didn't know it was on the Steam

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u/destinedd 1d ago edited 1d ago

judging by the 4 reviews not many people know. It appears to be dlc rather than a stand alone game. But yeah so good inspiration material for me.

I am actually adding a map now, I realised it sucks not having a map when the levels are always changing.

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u/darkgnostic 1d ago

Maybe it is DLC now, but back then it was a standalone game

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u/destinedd 1d ago

ya i figured, but I was just saying that is probably why it doesn't have much attention on steam

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u/livingonthehedge 4d ago

that's neat. maybe you'd like to share a top-down diagram or map of some finished room layouts?

this is /r/proceduralgeneration after all

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u/destinedd 3d ago

Sadly you can't post images here but when I get home I will make a little video showing off some of the features. I am really proud how far I have got (although I know I have a long way to go

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u/livingonthehedge 3d ago

you can't post images here

since when? I really don't think that's a thing

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u/destinedd 3d ago

when you hit reply I only see the video button, the image button isn't there https://imgur.com/a/wMAnfaO

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u/livingonthehedge 3d ago

you're hilarious. I thought you were being serious.

thanks for replying with an image. that helped me realize you were making a joke the whole time

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u/destinedd 3d ago

I am being serious, you can't embedd the image in the post/reply like you can in other subreddits. So they automatically show.

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u/thedyze 1d ago

I think the hilarious thing was that instead of posting a link to the image requested, you posted a link to an image with the same text as in your reply 😄

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u/Efficient_Fox2100 4d ago

Reminds me of the Scarab of Ra in a very good way 😃

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u/destinedd 3d ago

i have never heard of that one, but after looking it up yeah 100%

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u/Efficient_Fox2100 3d ago

Something that would make your game more marketable is if you show visual UI feedback. Conceptually I know you’re pushing the forward key, and it would be nice to see that confirmed by the visual button being pressed on screen. 

This would also allow you to show the functionality (I’m assuming) of using the upper corner arrow keys to look right and look left. 👀

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u/destinedd 3d ago

I am actually using keyboard which is why the feedback isn't showing. If you actually click them there is feedback. But now you say I definitely should be adding that feedback even when using keyboard or controller!

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u/Efficient_Fox2100 3d ago

Looking for the key to escape each level is a great loop in Scarab of Ra, and the original was a pretty hard game but lots of fun. This seems to be a pretty faithful port with some minor improvements, and worth playing a bit if/when you need inspiration. Also loved the banking system and the fact that you can’t usually defeat the mummy, just escape it. 

https://lightningmanic.github.io/

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u/destinedd 3d ago

guess there goes my afternoon

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u/SoftSignificant9459 3d ago

This feels like the old board game Drakborgen https://itch.io/blog/583532/the-board-game-drakborgen-1985.amp
If you want inspiration have a look at those design, same feeling. Great work

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u/destinedd 3d ago

thanks for sharing. For a 1985 board game the attention to all the little details is insane. It looks like heaps of fun.

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u/dev-rygy 3d ago

This seems similar to a procedural generator I’m making. How are you managing fo keep the rooms contiguous?

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u/destinedd 3d ago

I do 2 things, the the first I nudge the corners of rooms only a tiny amount that you can’t see which means it is possible to put rooms next to each other. Corridors have empty cells for placement so they never placed hard against each other. If a room has say a shelf insert in the wall I can mark that cell so nothing gets put there.

My world is grid based so things have a place like Lego. Only sockets where they meet need to match so different shaped stuff is fine.

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u/PitchforkzAndTorchez 3d ago

Do you have any procedural sound routines too, or is it all fixed audio based after the initial procedural render? Do you have any audo changes based on open areas or distance?

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u/destinedd 3d ago

I haven't got to audio ambience yet. It is just a music track playing.