MeanderGall

by ACWraith
MeanderGall
Explore, combat and collect before time runs out.
ID:112827
 
The Pall threatens us all.
Victory lies with The Squall.
There's conflict between the thralls.

Haul, thrall.
Become The Squall.
Defeat The Pall.


My health kept distracting me from finishing StarScurrier. (I'll have to return to it later.) I released some libraries and was getting back on track. Last week, however, my progress began to slow. I might as well announce my current game as a Get Something Done project.

It's named MeanderGall. It started as a way to test my procedural generation libraries. When the game boots up, a hundred rooms are created. They use Prim BSP mazes to form the walls and Prim Grid mazes (with a mask) to give texture to the floors. I wanted something reasonably abstract without looking too trendy. I think it resembles a neo-retro scan of my brain.



A test, an art game or a propaganda piece? Maybe all three.
(As usual, click to enlarge.)


At the beginning of each game, some of those rooms are arranged into a grid with wrapping cells. Each player then gets their own maze connecting the rooms (again via Prim Grid). Players are known as thralls. Each is displayed as a gray being in the room and as a white arrow on one's minimap.

Inside each room are goal objects represented by question marks. They always spawn out of view and the amount per room varies. Players can only see one goal at a time. Normally, they will only see their own goals. Players who form alliances will never know whose goal they are seeing.

Collecting all of the goals shall be known as The Haul. The goals respawn after every lap through the rooms. The first to complete a lap will become The Squall. The Squall can be demoted/replaced as thralls complete their own laps.

The meter at the top of the screen starts half-full. It will decrease over time. If it becomes empty, the game will be over and everyone will lose to The Pall. When The Squall completes a goal collection lap, the meter will increase. When the meter is filled, the game is over and The Squall is credited with defeating The Pall.

Inside each room is a respawning incarnation of The Pall whose demise must be witnessed at least once per lap. Players who leave a room before doing so will have their maximum health (displayed below the room) decreased. The more they ignore their problems, the more weak they will become.

In the above screenshot, I started in the room in the lower-right corner of the minimap. I went north, collected my goals and then exited to the west without destroying the incarnation of The Pall. My next goal was spinning towards the southwest of the room. An incarnation of The Pall was standing behind it. (I still need to work on the AI.)



Combat is in flux.

I had a what I thought was a decent system of randomized weapon generation. While players managed charge/overheating, each weapon would fire a mix of mines and bullets in up to 8 directions. Each projectile had varying splash damage and wall penetration. There was a HUD to display the gist of each weapon with meters providing comparisons. The arsenal grew with each player's death and various hotkeys helped to navigate it. Subscribers would be able to add a custom weapon to avoid some randomness, but every player would gain access to what they submitted.

Unfortunately, I began to find it too complicated compared to what I think players will actually notice. I'm now thinking that I'll have a "maul" for melee combat and a single-shot "bawl" for ranged combat. There will be some balanced variation between each player. Subscribers will be able to change their settings between games.
I'll yea you because the generated map looks awesome, but I'd be lying if I said I understood any of what I just read.

Looking at it for a third time, I'm thinking the grey lines are actually more like rails (marking the path you CAN walk) than walls? Are the green lines just for decoration?
And here I feared being too on the nose. ;)

The bright gradients are walls. The flat swiggles are just texture. (Though I did toy with having weapons travel along them at one point.)
Ah, that was my second thought. Should have stuck with that one... It's just, all the objects line up perfectly with those squiggles.

Ok, so the green lines delineate the specific room the player is in, and the 3x3 grid is the minimap of the rooms of the larger maze you are moving through. That makes more sense.
when can i play this i love anything with high ammounts of random in it