Rouge-like super level
Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 4:47 pm
Hi!
Keep in mind that this is kind of a "let's see if it can be done" kind of project. I can't work on this for a few weeks, but... I hope to dedicate a few weekends to this. This is largely inspired by Alon Bond's Zelda and Zelda II games/levels. Though both of these are incredibly impressive, I have a few critiques.
First, both Zelda and Zelda II have elements of resources management; Zelda II has limited ammo, while both have have limited health. However, the HP of the first game and the ammo of the second tend to feel meaningless; I remember always having way more than I ever needed. (Though Zelda II's HP cap does curb this effect.)
My second critique is just that things feel very samey. Zelda II definitely improved on this by having a few unique mechanics (like the ice). It also helps that the rooms are carefully tailored, unlike most of Zelda's rooms which followed fairly forgettable blueprints. However, combat gets kind of dull. No matter what weapon you have, the strategy is the same: you get enemies at some choke point, shoot for a little while, and then go to a new choke point. (Or, in the case of the first game, run circles around them so that you get more space to shoot them.)
I'd like to experiment with a different approach. Rather than having pre-built levels, I want to create a pseudo-random level generator. I want to experiment with making each play-through unique by having items that have variable appearance (e.g. potions from Nethack). And, rather than giving players a lot of resources, I want to try giving players a very small amount of resources. On top of this, I hope to try creating at least a few variations of the enemies, rather than making them all chase the player (or just move randomly).
I'll be using this thread to post the various strategies I have to actually implementing all this stuff. I may have questions from time to time, but I'll make those in separate threads.
If you're curious, I'll be keeping the WIP version on Github.
Keep in mind that this is kind of a "let's see if it can be done" kind of project. I can't work on this for a few weeks, but... I hope to dedicate a few weekends to this. This is largely inspired by Alon Bond's Zelda and Zelda II games/levels. Though both of these are incredibly impressive, I have a few critiques.
First, both Zelda and Zelda II have elements of resources management; Zelda II has limited ammo, while both have have limited health. However, the HP of the first game and the ammo of the second tend to feel meaningless; I remember always having way more than I ever needed. (Though Zelda II's HP cap does curb this effect.)
My second critique is just that things feel very samey. Zelda II definitely improved on this by having a few unique mechanics (like the ice). It also helps that the rooms are carefully tailored, unlike most of Zelda's rooms which followed fairly forgettable blueprints. However, combat gets kind of dull. No matter what weapon you have, the strategy is the same: you get enemies at some choke point, shoot for a little while, and then go to a new choke point. (Or, in the case of the first game, run circles around them so that you get more space to shoot them.)
I'd like to experiment with a different approach. Rather than having pre-built levels, I want to create a pseudo-random level generator. I want to experiment with making each play-through unique by having items that have variable appearance (e.g. potions from Nethack). And, rather than giving players a lot of resources, I want to try giving players a very small amount of resources. On top of this, I hope to try creating at least a few variations of the enemies, rather than making them all chase the player (or just move randomly).
I'll be using this thread to post the various strategies I have to actually implementing all this stuff. I may have questions from time to time, but I'll make those in separate threads.
If you're curious, I'll be keeping the WIP version on Github.