Sunday, October 30, 2011

Randomized metroidvania 04: map keys and locks

It took a few hours and I had to rewrite the code for doors, but I've got keys and locks working. A major part of any metroidvania is exploring new areas and finding some kind of impassable barrier -  a wide pit, a wall of metal blocks, a force field, etc. It's only later when you find some new ability or item - double jump, rocket launcher, field disabler, etc - that you can go past the barrier to a new region. You can abstract this idea of obstacles and items as "locks" and matching "keys". In one game the "red locks" and "red key" might represent actual locked doors and a key, in another game they might be security cameras and a disguise, and in another game they might be tall walls and the ability to climb walls.

You can see the locks and keys in my latest update. The icons are ugly and hard to distinguish, but it's just for example and will be redone many times before the project is over. Consider this the "alpha version" artwork.



[I just noticed that sometimes the first room in a region doesn't connect to the other rooms. A bug I just fixed when I redid that code for my latest work.]

when visiting a region for locks and keys:
    place an unused key
    put the matching lock on one door to each unvisited adjacent region
    any unlocked doors to adjacent regions are added to a "to do" list
    visit each unvisited adjacent region

after visiting all regions for locks and keys:
    for each unlocked door on the "to do" list, put a random used lock

This ensures that each region has a key that you need to proceed to the neighboring regions. Although; since each region can connect with its neighboring regions multiple times, it's theoretically possible that getting the first key would be enough to explore all regions.

2 comments:

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