Category: Uncategorized

Well, it was really rough this time but I finished. My original idea was kind of neat, I thought. I planned on having a construction system, starting from the tiniest world (quarks and gluons and neutrons, oh my!) and using them to build atoms, and using those to build cells, and using cells to build parts for bugs. Then those bugs could be sent out to solve puzzles to escape from a maze out into the big world.

I didn’t get close to making that! So halfway through Saturday I decided to take the atom idea and recalibrate…and make it so you blow stuff up. I guess that’s my destiny.

So the actual game output for Ludum Dare 23 is Atomic Bug, where you combine atoms to make weapons to kill a bunch of bugs. This is a tower-defense like game, but I didn’t really get to finish it. The obvious thing missing is more than one combination of atoms to make weapons. I wanted to add lots more enemies, and weapons that can block the lane. I will flesh this out over the next few days though and try out those ideas. I think this game could be fun!

My entry is here: http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=7213.

You can play Atomic Bug here.

Procedural generation of content is neat, but I wonder if its not better to just make it by hand! There are a lot of wrinkles to consider, but I wanted to focus on the labyrinth type. I had to try out a bunch of different methods, but this one seems to get the result I want. Basically, the maze generator test program generates a tightly packed series of rooms connected with twisty corridors. I hope that all the rooms connect!

I have more to add to this test program, like a BSP tree room generator, a cavern generator, and adding canned rooms to a randomly generated map.  But most of that is done…this is the last bit of technology I need to finish testing before moving on to actually putting it all together in a game!

So try out the MazeTest!