It’s been a while since my last post so thanks for your patience! This year I'll make an effort to post more often, which will be easier as I get closer to launching Blabyrinth and have more to show. Soon I can also start showing real art from the game because I now have an artist! I’ll make an official introduction next time and showcase some of the work so far.
For now, in the game (and these blog posts) all the art is still placeholder.
The Level Generator is now building “complete" levels with all the critical components: treasure, an exit, secret sections behind locked doors, main puzzles, side puzzles, decorations, traps, and meta-game elements. There are still only a few examples of each thing. eg. ~6 puzzle types, a handful of decorations, etc. and at the moment the levels are quite convoluted and random, but it’s enough to start testing the game as a whole so I can make sure it's a strong foundation on which to flesh out the details.
Here’s the kind of content it’s generating now, presented as an abridged walkthrough.
Overhead map of the whole level, which won’t be seen by the players:
You start in the central room with the four torches.
Scattered throughout the level are a set of mysterious stone crosses with musical instruments engraved on them.
You also find a door with a keypad, with musical symbols on the buttons. Could they be related? … Yes, they could.
For this particular puzzle you need to count the number of symbols on all the crosses together and you’ll get:
The numbers correspond to the order of symbols in the keypad code, so the final sequence that will open the door is:
Behind the locked door you find more symbols on the floor and a fragment of a larger clue:
Combining this with other fragments hidden around the level will reveal the complete clue, “Two must walk North South North East from The Sigma”.
Phrasing is a bit awkward but the idea is that if two players move together in these directions in sequence, a hidden door will unlock. In this case "The Sigma” refers to a greek letter engraved into the floor of another room.
The hidden door leads you to the Treasure Room! But you still need to find the Exit and escape.
Elsewhere you find a lever that opens a portcullis (requiring two players to work together) and a red key that unlocks a red door.
Behind the red door is another clue:
Again this is badly worded. I’m experimenting with generated clues that sound “poetic”. But hopefully you get the idea. This clue refers to four jewelled items that can be found in the level and “Flower Sun Leaf Trees” indicates the four symbols on the floor found earlier. If you place a jewelled item on each symbol then another secret door will open: the Exit!
Now you all have to work as a team to carry the Treasure (which is very heavy) to the Exit and freedom. This will trigger the “end" of the game.
The whole process takes 5 or 10 minutes but the puzzles are pretty bare bones right now. Even so, tasks that seem simple can suddenly get a lot more complex when you have three or four people trying to coordinate while lost in a maze :)
Set Pieces
One of the ways I’m making the levels more interesting is by adding a few partially-handcrafted “set pieces” made up of scenery in preset arrangements. So instead of having a room with a random bookshelf in it, the room might become a Library. More examples from the level above:
- An underground oasis
- A throne room
- A henge
- A bridge over a chasm (which is only considered if the room has exactly two opposite doorways)
These elements can still seem out of place so the next step is to tie things together thematically by making the entire level feel more like a temple or a cave or a castle, or with some other unifying theme. And then if the items and clues can also tie into the theme then the levels should be much more coherent.
Family Playtest
Over the holidays I prepared a build to play with my family. There are still a lot of bugs so they only got through one full playthrough from beginning to end without anything going wrong. But they had several partial game sessions and I got a lot of good feedback. It’s clear that I need even more cooperative elements or it’s too easy for one player to act like an "alpha gamer” and boss the other players around. Or, just as bad, for two experienced players to go off on their own and leave someone behind with nothing to do. I already had a lot of planned mechanics to encourage cooperation but it seems like I should be forcing it in more places.
Random Gifts
In the spirit of the holidays I have few random game codes to give away to the first people to claim them! I didn’t work on any of these games but they’re all made by friends or local Montreal studios. If you’d like one just try redeeming it and if it works (ie. it hasn’t been taken) maybe make a post to let people know. And please be courteous and don’t take more than one!
- GNOG (on PS4): 8CHF-4TNA-4J9P
- Flinthook (on Steam): QCZAH-YXGWF-HGMYQ
- Toto Temple Deluxe (on Steam): 8JMLN-7RKHZ-BQJ4Z
- Leap of Fate (on Steam): BC5XE-CVVEL-5G7JH
- Big Action Mega Fight (on Steam): 5K7KW-WCD3L-5FHVT or 3FWJL-3096B-I4YCT
Happy New Year spacefriends!
~ Henry