Initial concept
For this project I want to explore procedural generation. Specifically the procedural generation of weird and uncanny spaces. This will be a navigable space in first person with a focus on the environment.
The context is that the player is exploring a hotel trying to find the exit.
Each level will be procedurally generated, the consequence of this is to incur the feeling of the uncanny, there will also be some hand-crafted rooms. What will be procedurally generated are the connecting spaces between these rooms. This will be accomplished using liminal spaces.
For this project I define liminal space as a transitory space between destinations. For example, a hallway or stairwells. An effect of these spaces is to trigger autophobia, the fear of being alone. As such the game will not feature any NPC, the only presence will be the player.
Gameplay loop
The player will begin in the starting space, they are tasked to navigate the space to find a key and then to find a door that the key will open. Upon opening this door, the player will enter the same starting space, this time the space will be different, the position of the key will be different and so will the door. The player is challenged to navigate a changing space.
Approach to procedural generation for a prototype
Every level will be have the layout of the figure of 8. Upon reaching the end the level will be regenerated with some changes.
Every level will use a grid system to procedurally generate a level. There will be three hand-crafted rooms, this being the start, the middle and the end. These will be distributed across the grid, then the connecting spaces will be generated to connect these spaces.
Rules for room placement
- Room types-There will be two types of rooms. One type is the main room, these being the Start, Middle and End room. The other type is the connecting room, they will be several different rooms that are hallways that connect the main rooms. For now these will have one single entrance and exit.
- Rules for main rooms-Because the main rooms all have two entrances/exits they cannot be placed on cells on the edge of the grid, these rooms must be placed with cells on both sides. The Start room must be placed on the bottom row of the grid, the End room must be placed on the top row. The Middle room can be placed in any centre cell so long as it has cells on both sides of the cell it has been placed on.
- Rules for connecting rooms-Every room will have a possible entrance and exit on any of the top, bottom, left or right sides. This excludes the main rooms. These connecting rooms will be authored.
I will first attempt a prototype to develop this procedural generation method. The focus of this will be to achieve the above plans, that is:
- Produce two different sets of authored rooms to generate. These being the start, middle and end rooms as well as the connecting rooms.
- Design a grid/cell system where a single room will occupy each cell.
- Design the PCG to first instantiate the three main rooms, then these rooms must be joined with connecting rooms.