Started at 11:30 and worked a few hours. Added random places/names, used a project-name-generator to get some honestly great (funny, silly) place-names generated.
Used a different npm package to generate people to be listed on tombstones. I copied the approach of Qud and made them silly, again. It's definitely easier. Under Covid, I wondered if this wasn't funny to do anymore. But I also think I'm looking for this kind of comedy now, even if it's only very juvenile.
Example output
Today: 2021-2-11 life: 18 Unarmed Ladybug Trading Post π²ππ²πποΈβΊπ²π²π²π²π²ππ²ππ³πππ³π³π² ποΈππππ³πβΊπ²ππππ²βΊππ²π²ππ³π²π³ π³π²π²π³οΌπ²ππ³π²π³π²π²π²π²π²π²π³π³π³π² π³πππ³π³ποΌ£β°οΈπ³π³ππ³π²π³ππ³π²πππ ππ²π³π²ππ§ππ²ππππ³π²π³π³π³π²π³π³π²
another:
Last movement: 2021-2-11 Today: 2021-2-11 life: 21 Bill Brekke Dissapeared investigating dying π²π³π²π²ππ²π²π²ποΈππππ²π³π²ππππ³π³ ππ³π²π²π²πππ²π²π²ποΈπ³π²π²π³ππππ³π π³π²π²π²π²π³π³ππ³ππ²πππΈπ²π³ππ³π²π³ π²πππ²π³ππ³π³π²ππ³π²π²π²βΊο½π²π²π²π³ πππ²ππ³ππ³ππ²βΊπ³π³ππ²ππππππ
A few things to note in the above. It does record when you last played, and each move you take it ticks down a life. That's a misidentified word. It's how long you have until you go to sleep. When you are 'asleep' you can't play any longer that day, until the next day or until you create a new game.
Still to come: can i translate this to blessed, the node.js curses-like library?
And what about a different tileset then?
What else should be added? Some actions? Monsters?
The to-do list is medium long but at least it's at a somewhat playable state now, at least in a minimal viable 2d dream walkabout "zen"-like.
SpindleyQ, webmaster of Glorious Trainwrecks (a community of frankly weird game-makers - yep I'm one of them) pointed me to his Fringe Games podcast episode with Leonard Richardson, creator of robotfinds kitten.
Fringe Games Ep. 5 - Leonard Richardson
From this discussion and the show notes I realized I had attended Roguelike Celebration 2017 when he spoke about the game but I had missed the talk! I would have loved it. Thankfully, it's preserved online.
Leonard Richardson - Robot Finds Kitten at Roguelike Celebration 2017
Leonard talks about the surprise, the discoverability, the quirkiness, and how rfk references things in the wider world. This game that he made in 3 days as he was a beginning programmer ignores some of the roguelike conventions (permadeath, inventory, what else?) and places an emphasis on the moment of discovery. What is this crazy thing? Ascii only added to the effect as you couldn't tell what the item was until you walked up to it and examined it. Noted.
Next I took a turn creating my own generator. I added a book generator and really had fun creating rules for deriving the title of the book. I used the project-name-generator npm package, combining it with my own lists of parts of descriptions and connecting words so that a very large and compelling, seemingly-infinite amount of books and simple descriptions can be generated. This part was really fun.
Lastly, I started reworking the terrain generator. I didn't want to sink too much time because I have a hunch I may switch to ASCII and Blessed tomorrow. There's a bug that I'll look into with fresh eyes. Mostly, I'm enjoying walking around and the discovery of books, items, tombstones. That was the goal, so now I just need to work on the play/nav/UI experience since this 'core mechanic' currently feels good.
Location: Beloved Dr. Michale Grimes Couldn't stop licking π²πππ³πππππ²βΊπ³π²π²π²π²ππ²ππβΊ ππ³πππ²πππ²π²πποΌπ³π³π²ππ²π²ππ³ π²π³π³π³π²πππ³ποΈπ²π²π²π³π³π²ποΈπ³ππ³ο½ π³πππ³π²ππππ²π³π³π²ππ²π³πππ³π²π³ ππβΊπ³π²ππ²π³π²π²π³πππ²ππ³π²ππ²ποΈ