Hello dream prisoners, this is the first of our periodic posts updating you on our progress and highlights.
Internal demo v3.01 has been released to our testers and with it: we started work on the first of the six dungeons in Dream-Prison Wanderer: the unique and bone-chilling Blood Bog! Though it still lacks its iconic semi-submerged terrain, you can already see its spacious, outdoorsy appearance take shape. This dungeon is unique for having few long hallways, and in its place, rooms that take up larger than half of an entire floor section!
A screen still of most of a random dungeon floor from a bird's eye view. Missing chunks are shown in-game as places too dark to see. Room-shape differs from place to place.
Floor sections have yet to be connected, but player movement returns and is tweaked to have taller walls which will help sell the feeling of being surrounded by a thick tapestry of old swamp trees. What you see is simple and humble but programmed with extreme care! Floors generate without error each and every time, always connecting all rooms together (within each section) and never taking a long time to generate despite the nuanced procedures of generation.
The play testers like the dungeon so far and report that it is tricky to navigate like a haunted forest ought to be. Dungeon floors often generate with paths that loop in on themselves, but this dungeon is especially large and light on landmarks which makes it quite the labyrinth.
A screen still of the Blood Bog, as it was originally designed in a "proof of concept" prototype. The elevation you see here is similar to the planned 3D tile system to be expected in future versions.
The code written for this first dungeon is actually a fourth iteration, as the game has been in development for four years already! This dungeon is specially built to generate quickly, never getting stuck in a loop of discarding and trying again. Its overall shape takes inspiration from roguelikes/ dungeon crawlers as far ranging as The Binding Of Isaac, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and Ancient Domains of Mystery. Not pictured are the rare long hallways that can connect isolated rooms to the main cluster of each floor section.
That's all I have to say this month, sadly. I am feeling very sick this week and therefore struggled to get this post out on time. Wish me well, friends.
