Messing with dungeon generation

[Anvilfolk]

Java is an awesome language to program in, never you mind Krice I have to confess I don't like Java from a user's standpoint (as opposed to programmer's). You have to have a virtual machine, there's usually not an exe, speed issues... just little things that bother me. It's more of a quirk, really.

And yes, most games in Java aren't really very good - much like flash. The more mainstream a language is, the more people try doing stuff in it. The more people you have, and assuming 10% of all projects are decent and the rest suck, then yes, you'll see a lot more sucky projects. It's pretty obvious if you think about it.



In any case, I love your maps! They are really, really nice! I might not have played in them, but just form looking, I'm going to venture saying they are some of the best I've ever seen! I say this because you instantly get that idea that it was a dungeon, and that it's been left unatended for centuries, and so some parts have caved-in... none of it is perfect, it seems to have just the right amount of "abandon"!

As far as the cave level goes, it's also awesome! It reminds me of the first levels of Rune! I can imagine waterfalls in there, gloomy environments, mist from the dark, stale pools... very nice work! Congratulations! And the approach does indeed seem simple! I look forward to reading the more complete article!

Keep it up!

[JoshuaSmyth]

Underkeep tilted my firefox. No matter, Java-based games are always crap.

Will have to try fix, what version of firefox are you running? - The thing I don't like most about Java is that there are so many combinations of platforms that it runs on that to test it on everything is a real pain in the ass.

There are plenty of good and bad things I can say about Java from both a programmers and a users point of view. But I wanted to make a browser based game, my choices? Java or Flash (or Silverlight) in the end, ya just gotta pick one and roll

As far as the cave level goes, it's also awesome! It reminds me of the first levels of Rune! I can imagine waterfalls in there, gloomy environments, mist from the dark, stale pools... very nice work! Congratulations! And the approach does indeed seem simple! I look forward to reading the more complete article!

Thanks, I should really add more enviromental stuff to the game. However at this point I'm quite willing to just get Caverns finished and start working on a new game

[Slash]

@Krice: Not true, check out legerdemain and castlevaniaRL

@Anvil: Speed issues for a roguelike? Also... I strongly recommend you download a VM... the distribution schema of Java may appear a bit annoying at first, but it ensures games will live forever

Also, being Java doesnt affect how good/bad the game is, I can assure you C++ is much more mainstream than Java or Flash

@Joshua: Java was a good choice, have you tried Java Web Start? It may make some things easier...

[JoshuaSmyth]

@Joshua: Java was a good choice, have you tried Java Web Start? It may make some things easier...

No I haven't - I should probably look into it for the next game though. Thanks for reminding me.

[Anvilfolk]

Oh, most my classes are in Java, I'm pretty acquainted with the language. I've got the VM on both my OS's partitions. I still don't dislike it, especially applet stuff, but again, it's just a quirk of mine. I prefer unzipping and running an exe. *shrug*

And about the mainstream thing: in my opinion, Java is definitely more mainstream than C++ is. I'm sure C and C++ are still more widely used, but people that are learning programming will be starting with Java or even higher-level languages. First year student's on my course start with Java, and only get into C stuff in computer architecture / OS classes. Some random guy wanting to learn how to code will probably get recommendations to start with Java instead of C, C++. For gaming, Java has direct built-in graphical libraries while you need external ones (which are always a pain to configure your compiler with), it has Eclipse and other fantastic amazing IDE's that work out of the box, etc etc.

With Java, it's just easier. And flash even more. That's why you see tons of really crappy flash games

[Krice]

Browser-based games suck, that's actually what I wanted to say.

[Altefcat]

I've made a very simple dungeon generator for Lands of Elderlore, it is connected in one piece, but there can be some dead-ends. I've put stairs on the first two, then treasures on the following. Here are some samples :

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The code is in python in file "el_donjon.py", and it as less than 200 lines. I can provide it if you want.