Procedural Level Design in Eldritch
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- čas přidán 24. 06. 2017
- In this 2015 GDC talk, Minor Key Games' David Pittman explains how and why he used procedural level generation while making Eldritch and provides general reasons why procedural algorithms might be embraced by level designers.
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Great talk. I think the important thing to rescue is that procedural generation is not excluded from design. And while it's a different type of approach, the game design principles are the same and just as valid.
I also agree that procedural generation is very specific to the game and feel you want. A random number or seed, you can get that from the simplest base libraries of a programming language, the importance of design lies in the way you use that variable to power your own procedural machine and achieve your game's objectives.
Thanks for awaring me on Prim's algorithm. It's so simple I don't know why I didn't think of it.
Good relatively simple indie algorithms for PCG, thanks!
Eldritch is a fantastic game, still playing in 2019 ⭐️👉
2020 too!
Playin in 2022
Using it to expand a handcrafted campaign is kind of what games like Diablo 3 or PoE do to some extend, with "missions" or "maps" to the end of the game. Kinda neat.
Ok explain what will drive the creation of a new region. The camera moves at a constant rate or the player moves the main character forward? How do you bring those voxel pieces into the code? Prima algorithm tells you where to lay them down? How do you reference a voxel wall in code? Where do you store the boxes? Json file? Or an actual jpg or PNG file or obj. 😊
Guy barely in the frame is like a heckler from the silent movie era.
howl abilout the billattle?
I'd love to get my hands on the Unity project file for this.
I think they've made their code public on github.
Check github.com/MinorKeyGames/Eldritch out.
That's amazing. I'm trying to build a similar game, and having a working code base really helps with development.
Yep, it's open source! But not made in Unity, it's in his own custom engine.
Can anyone identify his accent?
John Carmack
I was trying to figure it out the entire time.
Midwestern, sounds vaguely Minnesotan and he attended UNebraska.
@@Bloodyshinta1 Nope, Tim Sweeney of Epic. Exact same speech impediment(s). Carmack also has the "constricted throat" part but not the jumbled pronunciation and Southern accent.
Tim Sweeney if he was an indie dev.
I didnt search for it but, is there any way to see the recent gdc talks ? this one is from 2015
Yea just go to www.gdcvault.com/ and all of the GDC videos should be there. A lot of cool stuff there as well.
I suspect this game was influenced by Ken's Labyrinth
Damn it! You've got the music from the first level playing in my head again!
6:40 there is a game that does that: bloodborne
Hannibal was this short before the video was released? Because this video was release a few months after the game
I don't know to what extent it's PCG but I believe Torchlight did this with it's infinite dungeon unlocked after beating the final boss.
All videos are shot before released except for ones that are streamed live... But yes this was shot long before it was uploaded on youtube.
"No Man's Sky was a bad game therefore procedural generation sucks" should be acknowledged as a formal religion in the United States at this point
Established in the great schism with the "Minecraft is great therefore procedural generation rules" religion.
I'd join but i'm too busy denouncing venice.
The pope will hear of this denouncement and march in them in the spring.
Binding of Isaac, Civilization? They suck too?
PG is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Aged like milk
"Person hours". Good god.
Triggered?
To me, level generation seems like a treat for the developers and not something other players generally care about. Of course that all depends on the game. As a game developer, creating level generation makes the game new for you whereas static maps are completely known to you, but other players don't know any better either way. Diablo III boasts level generation and its amazing from a programming perspective, but as a player a few set designed maps would be crafted better.
Level generation is my favorite things to make (since its for me), but it yields the most poorly designed areas since it can't compete with intentional design.
It heavily depends on a game. For example, Cataclysm DDA would be pretty dull with handcrafted levels. One of the main reasons is perma-death and it doesn't go well with handcrafted levels. Fun in Eldritch, is getting further and further on each run, if levels would be the same it would get frustrating pretty fast. And procedural levels can elevate particularly hard bits of the game which some players just can't beat. Getting the other side of the stick is neither an issue as your next run will be different.
Check the xcom 2 procedural map talk
One thing to consider from the past is that the registered version of Rise Of The Triad (1994) came with a program called RANDROTT that could generate a set of levels. Many user-made maps that were available for download on various FTP sites started life with someone trying out some RANDROTT levels and thinking "Hmm, this one's pretty good, but with a few tweaks it could be even better.", then loading it up in a level editor and making those changes.
You're overlooking the fact that the underlying source of entertainment in games is how they are learning experiences. That may seem odd but look at how boredem sets in primarally from something becoming too familiar or requiring less effort. For procgen you also see that you often see the main critism being noticable repetition which underlines this point of players wanting to be continually learning something new even if that is an introduction to a new aesthetic.
Consequently procgen is a fantasic tool for creating entertainment but very difficult to use when needing to create depth to the gameplay because although players enjoy learning new things they get the greatest satisfaction from applying that knowledge. But without careful planning and testing you cannot create those opportunities in an environment that is the result of math rather than creative design. As such these hybrids of procgen and curated content are the most successful implementation.