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Category Archives: Dev Series: Procedural Maps

Map Prefabs, in Depth

An increasingly common approach to roguelike map development today is to have content partially determined by so-called “prefabs,” with layouts which are hand-made rather than fully procedurally generated. Doing so gives a designer more control over the experience, or portions of it at least, without completely supplanting the advantages of roguelike unpredictability. Prefabs are a […]

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Generating and Populating Caves

Before this point, the vast majority of Cogmind maps have fallen under the room-and-corridor style generation. The wide range of adjustable parameters, when combined with a variety of themed content (and prefabs!), give that one style plenty of potential to create a unique feel and gameplay for different areas of the world. That said, roguelikes […]

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Dungeon Prefabs

Procedurally generated maps are great, but even with variety factored into an algorithm it naturally won’t produce anything outside its parameters. This is good in that it keeps the style consistent, but individual areas sacrifice character as a result. Hand-crafted map pieces can restore some of that character where you really need it, be that […]

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Dungeon Metrics

Rarely will an algorithm produce a perfect procedurally generated map, and even if it does, some degree of post-processing will still be necessary to analyze the layout. When we look at a map produced by a generator, we can determine pretty quickly whether or not the layout is sufficient for our purposes; we can also […]

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Mapgen: Cellular Automata

Unlike the 7DRL, which only spanned a 10-level “main dungeon,” Cogmind will cover a much greater area. Naturally a larger world needs a greater diversity of regions to explore. Taking place underground, many of the outlying areas tend to be caves, and for that cellular automata are usually the best choice for generation. I say […]

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