ADVENTURE CRAFT: testing procedural maps and a look at an early goblin camp news

Each day that I work on Adventure Craft involves tweaking our procedural map generation, adjusting the current biomes and creating variations of the biomes. So I thought I would show you guys a little bit on how it works.

On the most basic level, each of the biomes is created using a set of tiles that determines what sort of ground that the biome will have. Grass, dirt water etc. Then a set of objects that belong to these terrain types is layered on top of that.

We adjust different values and probabilities for the numerous elements of both these layers. This is how we control things like the density of objects, number of trees and enemies, or how much dirt there is a grassy area.

Then the tools generates a block of terrain based on those values.

Here is a zoomed out shot of one of the grassy biome squares about 7-9 screens big. I generated the block three times in this example to see how each block differs. Once I am happy with that I can use the block to create different experiences by making adjustments and adding different objects.

Here's a shot of the tile map creator. The tool that I use to adjust the values of a biome square. The lists on the left expand to contain fields for the values and stuff!

Generating the tile maps is only part of the fun though. It's the relationships of the creatures in a biome square and how they interact with the player and the world around them that brings the game to life!

Right now I am working on an early "Goblin Camp" I created it but setting values that kept the dirt in the center of the square, and surrounding it by forest. Torches and skulls on spikes are set to be on the edges to let the player know that they are entering a dangerous area. After setting the initial values I generate the map over and over to make sure that this area of land will give me the experience I am trying to create.

Here's a closer shot. Once I start playtesting, the goblins start coming out of their spawners and begin wandering around their home. Goblins attack humans on sight so I spend a lot of time running when I am testing an area like this. They also horde meat treasure and other valuable resources so exploring a goblin camp is dangerous but rewarding. Note the captured boar! If you free him all hell breaks loose!

Thanks for reading! Any feedback that you would like to leave in the comment section below is appreciated. If you wanna ask me anything about Adventure Craft or just want to say hello, you can follow me on Twitter @iENDERi I post updates there regularly and love talking to people about gaming and game development!