Roguelike Dungeon Spotlight
Ohayooh!
As mentioned in the previous article I thought finishing the random dungeon was crucial too releasing a public demo that would entice players.
So today I'll be highlighting the roguelike dungeon in Setting Sun.
The dungeon
The random dungeon I'm adding will be a tile based system.
The tiles, or rooms, get placed randomly around each other forming a main path to the bosses.
Aside from the main path the dungeon can also branch out forming dead ends so you have to explore to find your way too the end.
The dungeon I was using before was a premade dungeon to test my gameplay elements in but from a player's perspective running the same path every time was a bit dull.
So I basically have too convert these premade areas into rooms that the dungeon generator can use.
Luckily The Caves archetype was already made with a room based design in mind but the bamboo forest will be some more work because the bamboo forest was a big static map as you can see here.
Disclaimer: It goes without saying that all pics and videos linked here are still a work in progress and need to be updated with a lot more detail and better graphics but my main focus currently is making sure all systems work before refining the looks.
Dungeon Rooms
Currently the dungeon consists of 2 archetypes: the Bamboo Forest and The Caves.
When entering the dungeon you start in the bamboo forest and you fight your way through too the caves.
When traversing the dungeon you can encounter several types of rooms.
The first type of room is a basic entrance room to indicate a different archtype.
Here you can see the cave's entrance containing a portal back to the bamboo forest should you want to backtrack.
Ofcourse the shogun is not gonna let you waltz your way through the dungeon without issue.
So when entering a new room there's a chance that the room contains enemies.
If a room has an objective like slaying enemies, the room becomes locked and you need to clear the objective to continue onward.
Aside from that each room also has randomly placed obstacles, like rocks to reduce repetitiveness and increase the difficulty.
At the end of the dungeon is also a boss room which is indicated by the bossdoor.
Rooms like the boss and the dragonshrine have a unique door so you always know those rooms will be appear next but others will be a gamble.
This gives you the option to explore other rooms first and get upgrades or heal yourself before engaging the boss.
To help the player there's also several beneficial rooms you can encounter.
Firstly there is the dragonshrine room indicated with the dragonshrine door.
This room gives you the option to alter your abilities making each play through unique.
It allows you to create a "build" for the duration of the dungeon.
You can focus on only improving a certain ability of your class or just mixing and matching all your abilities in general.
Secondly there is the healing room which heals your player back to full health.
Healing is pretty scarce so finding this room will be pretty important.
Because this is a roguelike game dying will send you back to town and you will have to create a new dungeon without being handicapped.
Next you have a town upgrade room.
These are rooms that unlock new features in town for the player to improve himself further.
Some of these will always be encountered and some will have a rare chance of spawning each run.
For example the blacksmith allows you to find patterns to craft stronger gear and weapons.
Or the dojo gives you the ability to unlock some new abilities to play with a different loadout which in turn also have their own blessings attached to them.
There's also treasure rooms to encounter because you'll need ryo and patterns to buy/craft upgrades when you're back in town.
Finally there's also a teleportation room which serves as a "Checkpoint" if you find it.
Like I said previously dying sends you back to town but you don't necessarily have to create an entire new dungeon.
You also have the option to continue in the existing dungeon but doing so will currently reduce your currency gain by 75%.
If you re-enter the same dungeon you can use the Torii shrines to travel back to the last shrine you discovered.
This is just the start of course more types of rooms will be added but this is what's currently planned for the demo.
Minimap
When traversing the dungeon you have a minimap to keep track of your travels.
Each time you enter a room you can see a hint of the surrounding rooms.
If the room is undiscovered it will show as grey on the minimap otherwise it will just have color.
This will make it easier to see which areas you still need to explore.
Currently the cave archetype is fully working and creates a randomized layout.
Here you can see a example of a generated dungeon.
So now I'm working on converting the bamboo forest to a tile based system.
This will be some more work like I said but the first room is already finished which is the bamboo forest entrance tile.
And that about wraps it up.
I hope you enjoyed it and let me know what you think.
Sayonara!
