Joris Dormans

The creature is called a Remnant Herald and it is going to feature in the upcoming demo of Bane. #gamedev #indiedev

Wishlist on Steam to stay updated!

Catacombs of the Black Dragon by Sersa Victory Dark fantasy reimagining of Hunt the Wumpus and the D&D handheld game

Sersa Victory posted a free, small, simple dungeon crawling game that will have you exploring like it is 1981. Pencils and graph paper not included... #indiedev

sersavictory.itch.io/catacombs-of...

Sometimes bugs are hilarious. I added 'slug meat', and edible item to the inventory of a big slug so they would drop it when you defeat them. This one decided to have a nibble during the fight and it "Tasted much better then you expected." lol

The second part is definitely new for me!

Today I fell into the rabbit hole of making the rumor system. More control over enemies gives you better opportunities to provide rumors even before the levels are generated. Here's me doing a bit of adventure crafting and learning finding out about those levels. #gamedev #procgen #indiedev

Addendum: I am also moving more and more away of typical Zeldaesque dungeon design, which was great for Unexplored 1 and 2, but which simply does not fly as well for multiplayer, turn-based games. I should write about that as well, one of these days.

The result is levels where I can control the number of enemies much better, foreshadow their number and 'exact' location, and whose placement should feel narratively more coherent. At least that's what I am shooting for! 8/8

There is still room form enemies as hazards now and then. But this is relegated to critters that naturally infest certain places, or enemies whose presence is bound to specific functions or features found in a level. 7/8

Assigning groups as obstacles for specific rooms.

When the actual floor is generated the generator looks for opportunities to place groups that haven't been assigned to a specific room yet. The further they are away from their factions camp, lair, or point of entry, the greater the chance they might have gotten themselves in trouble... 6/8

The spread groups module is responsible for distributing enemies over the different floors.

The reason I can now do this, is because Bane, in contrast to UE2, actually generates level plans from scratch, and the all level plan data is available to stage that generates each each individual floor. Groups can be assigned to floors or specific rooms in floors during the planning stage. 5/8

They now can be camping, guarding, exploring, raiding, or being wiped out because they stumbled into something more lethal than themselves. More importantly I can now add rumors to a level that indicate roughly how many foes the players might expect, which is a great plus. 4/8

Generator rule that adds groups to an invading raiders faction.

So I started building a roster system, as is commonly advised for ttrpgs, where an active faction is allotted a number of enemy groups beforehand and these are distributed over the levels starting from their camp, lair, or point of entry, what ever is appropriate for the faction in question. 3/8

The problem is that it becomes very hard to control how many enemies actually appear in the entire adventure, and they might pop-up in all the wrong places. There is little sophistication or planning to their placement other than selecting which types of enemies can appear somewhere in the level.2/8

A few enemies in a cave in Bane

I am always looking for ways to improve my #procgen. Bane is no exception. Today I found myself rethinking enemy placement. Previously I using enemies mostly as hazards: a room needs content, a specific type of enemy is present so the generator is allowed to place them there. #gamedev #indiedev 1/8

Expanding Bane's enemy roster. This is a naga...
#gamedev #indiedev

We haven't ironed all out the details regarding class and levels just yet, but character progression is tied to the silver you collect from loot and completing missions. Very much following the OSR ttrpg tradition. Likely you'll get an extra ability each level. (4/4)

Other than that your character is defined by a bunch of abilities. Abilities add advantage or disadvantage to a roll, make special verbs available (spells for example), or provide ways to regain your core stats during an adventure. (3/4)

You can also spend (and regain) core stats to use special abilities and are recover from negative status effects. Armor class is derived from your equipment and your current Sleight. (2/4)

So we've finally settled on the first draft for the core mechanics for Bane. The system is going to be very simple: you have 3 core stats: Resolve, Sleight, and Insight. Their values are added a D20 roll when make a skill check. (1/4) #gamedev #indiedev

Well look at that! I did manage to finish the whole thing. Now I'm itching to find a moment to run it. Might be doable as a one-shot in a lean #ttrpg system. A few details still only exist in my head, though. Such as the chasm is filled with ice cold water that somehow always reflects the nightsky.

I have find a better way to do lettering/keying in a way I am not writing everything in pencil though. That is just too laborious.

Not completely finished yet. But made good progress in creating this adventure I called 'The Hall of Midnight'. The cards really helped fleshing things out and generating ideas. So I am pretty happy with that! But now I have to rest my poor hand. Not used to draw this much. #ttrpg #gamedev

Printed myself a set of adventure idea cards based on videos by The Red Quills. Gonna use them to flesh out an idea for a #ttrpg adventure set in the Hall of Midnight that I rolled up earlier using my offline generator 'Places of Adventure' If it looks like something I'll share some pics tomorrow!

Do I know somebody nearby that owns a 8bitdo Ultimate controller that I can borrow for an afternoon?

Introducing Bane's version of snap root trees. A staple from Unexplored 2. The challenge was to translate UE2's real-time mechanics to fit the turn-based systems. This could work? Especially when the trees are combined with with other hazards you don't want to stumble into. #gamedev #indiedev

Bane on Steam Control a group of heroes or join a party of friends online in this old-school, turn-based, procedurally generated RPG. Be clever and careful while exploring ancient sites. Cooperate to survive traps,...

Steam page: store.steampowered.com/app/3194460/...

Discord: discord.gg/hFXbFNpgg8

Today I started on cave levels for Bane. I quickly discovered that a minimalist approach works best. The walls are mostly suggested by the few details that light up from you torch.
#gamedev #indiedev #procgen

You can wishlist Bane on Steam or discuss its development on our discord server!

They look amazing!

Our outside lighting was very flat, especially compared to underground areas lit by multiple dynamic light sources. So I have tweaked the ambient settings a little to create more atmosphere and more depth.
#indiedev #gamedev #godot

Congratulations!