Tag: development

RPG In A Box

Lots of players are also armchair designers, so we like to present interesting tools as they appear. One that recently went up on Steam is the voxel-oriented RPG In A Box ($29.99). It has that interesting 3D-yet-8-bit vibe that make the Dragon Quest Builder games so appealing.

There are a lot of interesting tools out there for a variety of skillsets, and greatly differing levels of flexibility. Some considering are RPG Maker MZ and MV (who knows what the letters are meant to stand for), Zelda Classic for action games, and for more flexible tools it might be worth checking out Godot, or maybe creating something with Python and Pygame.

Pangur

Pangur is a text processing system that works entirely through visual code. People familiar with systems such as Scratch or Nintendo’s Game Builder Garage should be at home with it. Its workings are adjusted by creating and connecting a number of nodes, with both input and output connections. You can try it out directly in your browser (Firefox and Chrome are known to be supported), or read the guide to learn how to use it.

A Map Randomizer Denounces Map Randomization

Keith’s Gem Wizards Tactics

I’ve known and spoken with Keith Burgun for over a decade now, and his early hit 100 Rogues for iOS was featured back on @Play. (It’s sadly now unplayable because of a combination of rights issues and Apple’s upgrade policy that makes old iOS software impossible to use.)

Many of Keith’s games made heavy use of randomization. 100 Rogues was a roguelike, Auro was a single-character puzzle/tactics game with randomized maps, and his current Gem Wizards Tactics (Steam, Switch, Xbox, Android) uses random maps.

But Keith is always reexamining his ideas. A while back he decided he didn’t want to keep making roguelikes, taking the ideas from it he liked and leaving the rest behind. And now he’s questioning his use of randomization as well.

He’s written an essay on his blog, titled “Space Narratives: A Map Randomizer Denounces Map Randomization.” It’s got some very interesting points, and he draws in the awesome Ocarina of Time Randomizer project in his discussion, as a way to have benefits of randomness without having to randomize the map itself. It’s good food for thought for developers interested in procedural content!