New Game?: Dungeon Crawl

I haven’t uploaded this to a Blink yet. I guess we’ll find out if the Blinks simulator in my head is any good. At least it compiles. :crazy_face:

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Oh so close. Just a small for loop index bug. Bug fixed. Plus a few more improvements.

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I had a similar game idea but am not a software developer. Maybe we collab on the design to flesh it out into a full game?

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Sure thing, let me know what you have in mind.

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I just change the control scheme. Now the player single clicks the tile adjacent to the avatar to attempt to move the avatar to that tile. This reveals the tile. If the revealed tile is a path the avatar is moved to it and the previous tile becomes an empty path. If the revealed tile is a wall the avatar stays where it was.

Clicking to rotate the avatar was unnecessary complexity.

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Looks like the mechanic is working, loaded it up on 12 Blinks, then 24 to get a feel for a larger terrain. Feels like the start of something :slight_smile:

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Yep, this sounds very close, perhaps exactly like my initial idea. I didn’t have time til today to really mock it up, but here’s basically where I got:

blinks-dungeon-start-v01

I color-coded the blinks to make them easier to reference when talking about them. The center (black) blink is the player (or avatar). Pictured here, they have 6 hit points, no shields, and are carrying nothing, so it’s a full hex with all 6 segments lit up red. Surrounding the player are 3 walls (brown), and three unlocked doors (blue, with a green center to indicate it can be opened).

blinks-dungeon-first_move-v01

This represents the result of the player’s first move, in this case, they selected the upper right door (orange blink). The door they went through is represented by a blank blink down and to the left. And in front of them they find a locked door, requiring the yellow key.

Somewhere in the procedurally-generated map the player can find 3 different color keys, and other useful items to help them survive monsters. The trade-off is, every item the player picks up consumes a hitpoint spot on their avatar. This can be bad, but this can also be good… a health potion could be used by double-clicking the avatar blink (for example), which restores them to full health (or some number of segments), or they could pickup armor which might change some number of red segments to another color, and might absorb more than one point of damage per segment where red segments can only take one point of damage each. So you want to find items, but you also want to use keys to unlock doors so you can regain the hitpoints you lost while carrying them.

You win by finding all three keys, finding all three matching doors, and unlocking them all without dying.

You lose if at any point you take too much damage and run out of armor and all red hitpoint segments.

Three things I’m still working out:

  1. How to indicate a monster is nearby. I think adjacent blinks that are open (empty) can have a segment light up a certain color to indicate a monster is in the next room.
  2. Opening a door without auto-moving into it. I think perhaps single-clicking on a door will open it, but you won’t move into it. Double-clicking is a blind open-and-move combo. You might do this if a monster approaches from an adjacent tile and you don’t want to stick around and fight it. But if you do, you’re stuck with the consequences. The room might contain a key (which you pick up automatically, reducing your HP by segment), or the room might contain yet another monster, which you fight automatically (it’s HP vs. yours, the one with HP left over wins, and is left with that number of HP).
  3. How to indicate an item is in an adjacent room. I think this would work the same as adjacent monsters. But for that matter how do you show you’re in combat and being attacked? I think I have a solution for this too. I’ll mock those up next and share.

Thoughts?

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Monster approaches (currently in the adjacent blink):

  • 2 HP monster (perhaps monsters can also wear armor using yet another specific color? This would allow for monsters with more than 3 HP)

blinks-dungeon-monster-approaches-v01

Player in combat:

  • Monster is now directly next to the player, and the player will begin taking 1pt of damage per turn they remain adjacent until either they kill the monster or they flee.
  • In this case, the player is unable to flee because the monster is blocking their only exit! :slight_smile:
  • Players and Monsters trade blows 1 for 1, one HP per turn until either one is defeated.
  • F indicates the segments are flashing.

blinks-dungeon-in_combat-v01

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Finally, here’s an idea for showing adjacent items. In this case, the yellow key:

blinks-dungeon-item_adjacent_yellowkey-v01

As before, the F indicates the segment is flashing. This would happen after the player single-clicked the bottom door (pink blink). This would open the door without immediately also entering that space, which would reveal the key located in the adjacent location.

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Lots of good ideas here. I have some more base mechanic issues to hammer out before I get to this higher level play.

Happy to help work through those with you, if you’d like. :slight_smile:

Hurrah! In a few years when blinks are in all stores we will have the Blinks equivelent of Brogue or a Slaves to Anorak: God of Blood Chapter 3: Dwarf Fortress for blinks that is awesome and utterly esoteric

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