The focus for the past few weeks has been world generation. I'm going with this idea where you play on isolated islands. To generate the island I'm using the Accidental Noise Library to generate the shape and establish the depths you can descend. I'm also using it to establish a few levels of caves that you would go adventuring in.
I have a video of what I got so far that I'll try to attach it here (haven't done this before). It doesn't seem to come up when I view this post but the video is in my gallery if you click on where it should be. If anyone can tell me how to fix this, please let me know.
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But... um...
I do think there is a bit of an awkward thing to mention though. The plan I've had for this game seems remarkably similar to a couple posts I've read here lately. I know that given the same idea, two people are unlikely to come up with the same result. Especially if you're working on a solo project. But I hate to give any sort of sense that I might be stealing someone's idea. I've actually had this idea for some time now and it so happens that this is the time that I have anything to show. I wanted to do a journal post where I could show a video with a character running around on the island surface and descend into the caves. But I figured maybe writing now might be the better way to go.
The Game Idea
The main direction of the game is magic and its discovery. I was initially thinking a rougelike sort of a thing where you'd have to figure out how to put together randomized recipes for potions and randomized rune combinations for casting spells. You would find and collect the various componants and through experimentation and by periodicly revealing clues to recipies, the player discovers spells and they are then available for memorization and use while exploring.
I'm also planning to include some survival and construction elements. Yeah, I know, who isn't these days? But I'm hoping to use both resource collection and their use as driving factors in the game. I think scarcity is an interesting element and I want to use it as a driving factor in the game. I'm hoping that I'll have something where it will get more interesting as the player seeks to become more powerful. There will likly be a way to leave your starting island to seek additional resources but it will probably be expensive and have defensive drawbacks.
Anyways, that's the basic plan for the next while. If none of it comes to be, I hope at least I'll end up with various elements that will be useful for future projects. The next step is to have a character that you can have running around the island. Then I think need the beginnings of an item system which I'll use to get some landscaping in. Where things are likly to go wrong would be that I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. I have an idea of how I want the magic system to work but I'm much less sure about the spells themselves. And though survival is planned to be a driving element, I'm sure I'm going to need something that can be thought of an end.
