Simple Dungeon Map Generation | Hacker News Reader

Simple Dungeon Map Generation

smoldungeon.com

121 pointskris-s17 comments

If you want some actual info on Procedural Generation, then watch the talks from Roguelike Celebration. It's a convention focusing on roguelikes, which seem to attract those more interested in the programmatic side of game development. Its got a ton of great technical talks. I haven't watched the remote sessions, but the older in persons are great.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKv_QzXft4mD6TXmQBZtzIA/fea...

My favorite from that collection on map generation is by Herbert Wolverson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlLIOgWYVpI He goes over 5 or 6 different techniques that are easy to implement.

He's the Rusty roguelike king, I worked through this awesome book when I was learning Rust.

https://bfnightly.bracketproductions.com

Neat, there is a whole section on dungeon generation in there too!

If you are more of a text than video person, this survey paper might be interesting as a starting point:

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/3144605.3144638

In addition there is the Roguelike Radio Podcast that has a ton of good content. Sadly it seems to be on hiatus for a while now.

But the last episode is on the Roguelike Celebration event: http://www.roguelikeradio.com/2020/09/episode-156-roguelike-...

For a different article on dungeon map generation that's a bit more detailed: http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2014/12/21/rooms-and-mazes...

Found via this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/godot/comments/m6mmka/finished_my_t...

That's an awesome article, I'll add a link to it.

The classic source for dungeon generators is RogueBasin, with this being a good starting point:

http://roguebasin.com/index.php/Articles#Map

That Bob Nyquist has a pretty cool roguelike on github called Hauberk written in Dart, amongst a number of other good related dev articles and best practices on his blog.

https://github.com/munificent/hauberk

Edit: I realized the link to Hauberk is at the top of his article, but it's worth checking out; mostly complete, good ideas, cool use of color.

This article really doesn't provide any insights into map generation or explain any interesting implementation details.

Fantasy city generator:

https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator

The dungeon generation shown is the same as Brian Sawyer's 'Dungeon' game from 1979:

http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2013/02/game-85-dungeon-1979....

Not sure if Brian Sawyer is the original designer of this approach though?

The problem with most of these generators is that you end up with insane looking dungeons. I wonder whether a different approach which took into account the kind of dungeon it was supposed to be, and what features should be located in it, could lead to better results.

I think the usual method is to do a few things:

1. Different generators for different "environments" -- e.g. cellular automata for more open areas / caves, BSP for rooms, etc

2. Smash them together to create the map, with the different algorithms for different sections (or even applied on top of each other)

3. Add "templates" to have some more intelligently designed areas -- rooms designed by hand, possibly multiple variants for the same location. Use this for special rooms, boss areas, etc. DCSS has tons of these, both for important areas, treasure trove gimmick things and also just for flavor.

4. Change algorithm/template choices per topical area, to make them more distinct. DCSS uses different strategies per branch, giving them each a very distinct feel

Made me want to play ADOM again... Just not this GUI nonsense, the real ADOM.

Reminds me of Guild of Dungeoneering

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