Random dungeons - which are pre-made

[benappo]

Hi all,

I have a quick question.

Would a game still be considered roguelike if instead of completely procedurally-generated dungeons/areas, the dungeons/areas were pre-made, but randomly loaded whenever a PC enters a dungeon location? (assuming all other roguelike characteristics are present, such as random mobs, items etc.)

I guess Spelunky has something like this feature, but I'm talking more about a situation where, say, 100 pre-drawn maps are made and any of them could be loaded, at random, when entering a dungeon.

I'm asking as I might want to implement this feature in a roguelike, as I find that procedurally-generated dungeons tend to be, well, boring, after a while, with no neat features.

[JollyRoger]

Well. I found, experimentally, that the best results come from combination of more then one procedural generators and premade clusters of dungeon.
Because, completely lego-like dungeon would become boring soon, even faster then standard procedural dungeon.
And only one type of procedural generator is boring also.
I think it is better to have few simple procedural generators, then one detailed one.

[Darren Grey]

Binding of Isaac does this. I find it a bit stale myself. You don't get that sense of something cool and unexpected.

Dredmor stitches pre-made rooms together. Again, this ends up samey after many playthroughs. Vicious Orcs has a similar stitching system, but it has a bit more variety to it so it works better.

Maybe the generators you're using are a bit boring? Or as Jo says maybe trying mixing elements of both approaches?

Don't worry about it not being called a roguelike. Making a fun game takes priority over making a rule-bound roguelike.

[zasvid]

Well, it would be more interesting if they were at least a bit randomised.

It's a lot of work though, getting some good procedural generation going might be easier and more fruitful anyway.

[Vanguard]

It's a perfectly valid design choice regardless of whether it's what the "real" roguelikes do.

[guest509]

Remember too it's not just the architecture that makes them fun and replayable. It's what's inside. The monsters and loots!

[Eben]

Hi all,

I have a quick question.

Would a game still be considered roguelike if instead of completely procedurally-generated dungeons/areas, the dungeons/areas were pre-made, but randomly loaded whenever a PC enters a dungeon location? (assuming all other roguelike characteristics are present, such as random mobs, items etc.)
...

Absolutely yes.

but like Darren said, make a fun game and then let people decide after that what kind of game it is

[Slash]

MegamanRL does this. Mainly because it's a bit complex to get transversable level for a sidescroller.

ZeldaRL has something similar, it has a high level structure generator which defines the class (and exits) of all rooms in the dungeons, then each room is assigned a detailed generator which varies things a bit into each room.