Nikolaos Chatzigeorgiadis

“Second Hand” by apalade (@NikolasX).

“Survive the horrors of the junkyard!”

SVEN was always a tiny fellow. Even as a kid he would get picked on and made fun of because of  his height. Stubborn that he was though, he would always retaliate and start fights but in the end he would get beaten easily by the other kids, all of them bigger than him. This made him avoid fights and be quicker than the others at running away and getting by unseen.

As he grew up he began to use his ability to sneak past unnoticed for some shady characters in the big port cities. He became an efficient thief and managed to get his hands on small but valuable loot. But who says that there is honor among thieves probably never met one and he was left for dead by the so called “partners” in crime. Captured and faced with two choices, being imprisoned or joining the military, he made a call that will set him on the path to glory.

SVEN trained to fight alongside the warriors of the land but everybody laughed at the sight of him. Even the smallest armors they had would be loose on his shoulders and he found it hard to land a hit. At first he would get beaten easily but he never quit getting up again. Every time a punch would sweep him off his feet he would get up and continue fighting.

In time he embraced his size and learned that even though it wouldn’t allow him to fight like the others, he could use it to his advantage. Soon after that, no warrior, no matter how big, couldn’t compete with Sven’s swift dodges and smart use surroundings and agility. He would disappear by the time others took a swing with the sword and appear in a blink of an eye behind them, charging them or swinging an axe with all his might to target the unprotected weak spots of his adversaries.

He would live to fight many battles and even though his enemies would laugh at the sight of him, soon after, he would be the one victorious at the end of the day.

In the end, SVEN sacrificed himself to save a burning village from Hellheim’s spawns, where his bravery is commemorated with a giant statue in the square to remind everybody that a warrior’s worth is not measured in feet but rather in courage and determination.

As he was carried towards Valhalla on the golden wings of the Valkyries, the Gods of Asgard offered him the honor becoming part of the Asgard Watch and stand proud in defense of the sky realms.

Join SVEN in his adventures in Asgard Run.

This story is part of the Asgard Run Chronicles.

Introduction

This is a tutorial on how to make your own random dungeon generator. Since I’ve been working with procedural dungeon generation for my game Veldor a lot, I decided to make a tutorial. I will go over the basics of how to make it and also some more specific code sections for the Game Maker language in which you will also learn how to spawn objects inside your rooms.

How It Works

This section is about how it works in general. No code, nothing specific, just the basic idea. Let’s go! So what we need is some empty space and an object. The object is our generator that moves around in the space and places paths and rooms on its way.

Like this:

What’s happening? 1. It decides randomly how long the next path (red) should be 2. Now a random direction gets chosen (left, right, up or down) 3. It moves the amount of pixels and places a path for every step 4. Pick a random room size (in this case I have either small or large) 5. Eventually place a room (white) 6. Go back to step 1 and repeat as often as you want

That way we still have some control over the dunegon, like its size, the room sizes, the path lengths etc.

Here some examples of how your dungeons could look like:

The Code

The first thing we need is a 2D array (ds_grid for Game Maker language) and we fill it completely with a number like 0. Think of the 2D array like slots of an inventory, an empty chart or well, a room editor. First everything is empty, we only have our number 0 written into every single tile.

Now we need a for loop for how many rooms we want. And also chose a path length, just pick a random number between two values, like:

Now that we have decided on a length, we only need a direction:

Alright! Now lets move the object one pixel each step until the path length is reached. For every step we need to write a number into our 2D array, like ‘1′, so that we know later where there should be a path tile.

After that we can finally place the first room. This should be at the end of the for loop. So just fill a small region of the array with your number ‘1′.

Now that the first room is made, the for loop ends and therefore it starts again from the beginning. So again, a path length is chosen, a direction too, then the path is made, write numbers into your array etc. over and over until your loop reached its end.

That’s it? Kinda. You should now have an array filled with 0s and some 1s!

But I’m sure you also want walls. So, what we need for that is another for loop. Another loop that goes through the entire array and checks whether there is any floors around its current position. If so place a wall (aka a new number like ‘2′):

(Note: This image is only for understanding)

So what we have now: 0s = nothingness 1s = floors 2s = walls

Yay! So now you only need to draw the whole thing because it’s still just a huge 2D array with numbers in it. What you could do is make another for loop, go through the whole array again and now check for the 1s and 2s, if true, place either a floor tile for the 1s or a wall tile + collision box for the 2s.

Game Maker

Now some things specifically for Game Maker.

First thing. Instead of a 2D array use a ds_grid and make it the same size as your room (divided by your tile size):

And also filling your grid or a certain region (for rooms) is pretty easy by using ds_grid_set_region.

For the whole generator just make an object and move its x and y position.

Spawning Objects Inside Your Rooms

It works like this:

Right in the last part of the for loop where your rooms are placed, you just need one line (instance_create) and maybe a condition before so not every room spawns an object. You can also move the object around a little by changing its x and y coordinates.

You can also get my fully commented Dungeon Generator asset on the marketplace here, it includes everything you need for a dungeon game, like sprite alignment and lighting.

Any questions? Feel free to contact me: eMail: [email protected] Skype: wuptodev Twitter: @flobster

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