Maerchen Media Updates Thread

Everynow and then there are little things that you feel oh-so-proud of, but don't want to risk of humiliation by posting it as news, and people not being impressed. Considering that I'm fairly new to pixel-art, and Maerchen is all pixel art, I've decided to start a thread for the stuff that I think is cool, but isn't quite news-worthy. To start, here are some sprites that I made today:

Feel free to comment/ask questions!

Well, the dark pinkish background doesn't really make it look all that good, but it looks nice

I think it looks pretty good, the only one the jurry is out on is the grass and thats because its not tiled.

Kaurto- The pink is for transparency (they're sprites...)

Looks great if your just starting, I want to see that stump on grass soon though, in fact I cant wait for any ingame shot.

yeah it looks sweet... I used to make stuff like this for Soldat... nice work

Oh, the reason that the grass is that way, is that rather than using a tileset, I'm doing something new, and will use a texture for the BG, and have grass sprites on top of it, so that when you walk around, the grass can swing in the "breeze" (through some animations), and will seem to be almost 3D.

Yeah, pink is my transparency color

Check out the profile for this game at Moddb.com , for in-game screenshots of the snow level. Soon (i.e. either tomorrow, or the day after), I'll post some in-game screenshots of a forest level.

Thanks for the compliments guys
~Sangye

Not really a media update, but an update nonetheless..

After some reviewing of what I had planned for Maerchen in terms of gameplay and exploration, I decided that it really needed a makeover. So, I'm about 50% through coding a system that will make it's size larger than any game out (to my limited knowledge), but still only take up less than 100mb. How? It will be random! Now, before you say "yuuuuuck! random!?", consider this: It will only be pseudo-random, meaning that the geography makes sense. Desert will never border tundra, etc. Before this will make any sense, I should probably give some background on the other decisions for Maerchen that I made today.

First, when you start a new game, a 256x256 integer array will be filled with the numbers 0-9, corresponding to major realm types (including villages, forests, deserts, hell, etc.) Using a very complex algorithm that I designed today, the game world will seem very realistic. Each number will correspond to a 16,000x16,000 pixel realm. Each realm, with the exception of villages of cities, will be filled with random enemies, foliage, quests, etc. The cities will use a VERY complex randomized algorithm that I haven't written yet, but I promise that the cities will seem very realistic, in the way that they are layed out. Anyway, you are free to explore the whole game world at will, engage in quests, and basically do whatever you want. However, some realms will be filled with higher level enemies, so be careful. Once you go to the top of one realm, you'll travel to the bottom of the next realm. This way, it can be assured that their is plenty of variety, but nothing will seem out of place.

Because of this randomized goodness, Maerchen can be thought of as NetHack, but with real graphics, and on a MUCH larger scale. Speaking of size, I though I'd share with you some statistics on the size of one randomly generated game world:

12.8 pixels = 1m
16000x16000 (256 mil) pixels per realm
1.25 x 1.25 (1.56km^2) kilometers per realm
256x256 (65536) Realms per game world
320 x 320 (102400km^2) kilometers per world
Total Game World Size: 102,400 sq. km

Size of Ireland: 68,000 sq. km
Size of Czech Republic: 78,000 sq. km
Size of Greece: 130,000 sq. km

As you can see, this is a huge gameworld, and this isn't just some promise. I've already tested the sizing code, and there is NO lag. I ran it at 80fps on a 1.0ghz computer at school Also, the game world of this game isn't scaled. Nothing is smaller relative to the player than it would be in real life. Finally, I can expand the game world at will. The only reason that I set the array size to 256x256 is to accomodate for lower-memory computers. I could easily make a "mod" that would expand the game world to 20 million square kilometers, larger than the former U.S.S.R., more than half the size of Asia, and it could still run fine on computers with 384mb RAM and up.

Edited by (in order): San-J, San-J

Ohh, sounds interesting.

Frosty ought to love it, didn't Daggerfal have a random realm system?

It reminds me a lot actually of a modern engine of what lucas arts used for Yoda Stories and Desktop Adventures (They are modable btw.)

Look at information on the actual virtual square kilometers of the game world that I edited into my above post Oh, and I forgot to mention that there won't be any loading screens

I haven't heard of those games that you mentioned, but I'll take a lookie at them .

ooooh no loading screens,

Just a thought, would it be possible to NOT have the dynamic generation in a mod for it?

You mean make premade levels? Absolutely! Since the biggest part of the game will be the dynamic / pseudo-randomly generated world, I don't think I'll make a pretty map editor, but I'll definately add compatibility for text-generated levels.

With map sizes like that I doubt we'll be using notpad for editing though!

(64k limit)

Alright, I'm totally rewriting my games code, for better performance, and to allow for easier modifying. In this new code, I'm going to include the realm system, and I intend to release an alpha by Christmas. It won't include combat or quest systems, but you'll be able to explore all of the realms.

I've also decided how to handle the entering of houses in my game: A background image of the interior of the house will come up, a long with a menu of things that can be done in it, from eating and sleeping, to gambling and talking.

Heh, that sounds awesome, san-j It'd be pretty cool to see how flexible your game could be. Is it just one big Adventure game on the vein of a game like Myst?

Not at all! It's far closer to a combination of NetHack, Diablo, and some other RPG.

Thanks for the compliment though