Test

For the next test i've created a world with both horizontal and vertical movement.

For now I've only used clouds and stuff like that. I will add land, sea and other things later, but first I want to be able to get images from a external folder so I can add images external and i don't have to put them into the source itself. This makes it easier later on to make the graphics nicer and to put in more graphics. It also works better for making categories of worldtypes (land, sea, air, etc).

test

I've added seaworld to the last test.
When you approach a shore the computer knows that the following sprites will have to be sea sprites (and the other way around).

Test

For the next test i've created a wolrd which is build up random. If you go to the right you will always see a random piece of land, if you go back (or left) the land has a totally different configuration. So you will always have a unique travel.

Test 05

Test 04

Did a little spacing...

Test 4

Interesting?

some guys have started the lucidgaming group and claim to have found a way how you can play games in your dreams. They are currently beta testing tic-tac-toe...

http://www.dirtymechanism.com/lgg/aboutlgg.htm

Idea for worldbuild and user generated content

Ok, this could get a bit vague, but I will try to explain it as clear as possible:

Keep the grid system in mind. Untill now I have gone through a series of thought on how the world is going to be build:

1. First I thought that every gridsquare would be random until you approach/enter it. This meant that every grid was different. There was no cohesion.

2. Then I thought that every gridsquare should be more static when you gave it more attention, but still there was no cohesion. (see test 02).

3. Then I decided there should be intermediate forms between two (or more) random gridsquares. (see test 03)

But if you think from the perspective of 'gridsquare A' then the surounding random gridsquares (B, C and D) should only be random within a range of things that in somehow relate to 'gridsquare A'.

This could be called cognition, because the computer would only link things that relate to eachother. This is also what happens when you dream. In this way very strange things can be rendered. Example: in you dream your dad is also your teacher, because they are both a man.

So, for this you would need a giant database in wich everything has information of things that relate to itself. You could think of tagbased databases like flickr.com.
Some good friends of mine are currently working on a database called live.on.line. This system is a user generated symantic web of information.
In this system the user can travel through the information, generate new links and vote if they are correct or not. The system can also calculate which things are probably connected to eachother.
This 'thinking' can be seen as dreaming and the user response (the voting) as a dubble check to see if a connection is right.

This web of information can be traveld in billions of ways. It is multilinear, but the travel itself is always linear and from the perspective of the user...

-to be continued-

Test 03

I've made a little test based on the last test. In this test I tried to make a more consistent random world. The outer 4 squares are a random color, the rest is an average between these colors.

I you give attention to the 4 outer squares they will become more static.





Sadly enough I had to program each square appart. The next test will be totally generic I hope, so I can build a bigger world, or a world that expands when you move to the edge.

Rogue

Rogue: a key and lock game that creates random dungeons with random enemies. The player doesn't have any inluence on the game world. He/she can only explore.

Old games suck, but actually they rule.

Mojoworld

mmm, mojoworld's procedural generated landscapes are nice, but not very helpfull. One thing is certain: These types of procedural landscapes are too complicated for a realtime rendering... So I wonder what the current limits are.

Key and Lock Puzzles in procedural gameplay.

While researching through the references of the Case Study on Charbitat I found this paper. It is great. it describes how key and lock puzzles can be played in a procedural game world.

" Abstract:
This project is an attempt to model and simulate key and lock puzzles in the style of Shigeru Miyamoto games, specifically the Zelda and Metroid series. Much of the gameplay in these titles is oriented around encountering obstacles, and then locating an item that allows the player to circumvent the obstacle. The project is built on top of Charbitat, another project built on Unreal Tournament 2004, which produces procedurally generated space in response to the player's actions. " (source)

Mojoworld

I did some ressearch on mojoworld and it seems a great technology to do some tests. Here's a short movie a found. Looks very dreamy.

Idea for braintraining excercises

Last night I came up with an idea for the brain training part of my game concept:

At first I had the idea of doing this exercises with a computer program on your PC, but I got inspired by a little game on my mobile phone called 'braintraining'. It is a 'Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training' copy.
This game gives you daily exercises that can only be played once a day. It also keeps track of your progress and saves the data in a calender.

I would like to use this kind of program for a few things:

-Training (reality check, prospective memory)
-Keeping track of ones sleeping schedule (by entering when you go to bed and with an alarm function which wakes you up. Also the use of the snooze function can be tracked.
-Using the sleeping schedule data for the stimulation of ‘mnemonic induction of lucid dreaming’.
-Giving the user the option to record his dreams (with sound or text) immediately after waking up.

The data of the program will be user specific. The program will generate codes(passwords) based on the user information and the progress he/she made. These codes can then be entered in the PC game to unlock new abilities.

In this way your mobile phone will keep you aware of the game and your dreams and will be a tool to help you get lucid dreams.

I think that this program should also work as a stand-alone program. People can download/order and play it. This could work as an advertisement for the game.

Kawashimas Brain Training:

Connection

These are two schematics. The first is a schematic of how a dream is build. The second is an adaptation of how a game could use the first schematic.

idea for controlling dreamspace

I have been pondering about how the player can influence his/her dreamworld. If the player has achieved a totaly lucid state (so, if the player has 'total control') he/she might click on an item - let's say a tree- and move a slider. This slider will influence the total of trees on that particular grid square.
The player should also have the ability to move the items.

Test

As promised, a little test. a random world that is more static near you:





Note: if you give a certain spot more attention it is more likely to stay that color. Try making the 'world' as red as possible.

Concept update

Recently I have been working on my concept. there are a few things that I've decided.
The game will consist of two main elements:

1. A virtual environment that simulates a dream environment. This environment will consist of static, semi-static and random elements that are influenced by the player.
2. 'Braintraining'-like exercises that will influence the players influence in the virtual environment.

The virtual environment:
This part can be seperated in a few elements; The world structure, the players influence on the world structure, and the actual gameplay.

The worldstructure is the basis for the other two. The world is build up on a grid. every square of the grid is build up randomly. The square with the current location of the player is semi-static. If the player moves to a new grid this grid will become semi-static. The previous post with the test shows a possible way how this can be done. All the items and NPC's on the grid square will work in the same way.
The more attention a player gives to a certain place or object, the more likely it is to stay static.

The player will have to search for certain places to do a mission. The mission square will be at a certain distance. this distance is measured in 'number of grid squares passed' and not in an actual distance (like metres or miles). In this way it is possible a player returns to the starting grid to perform the mission. Of course this square will look totaly different. The mission square is also placed random.
If a player succeeds in doing the mission this mission square is more likely to stay in this place.

The excercises
There are a few different types of exercises that will be described here. These exercises will give the player more power. This will result in a less random world. Places that need to be reaced can eventually be reached directly, objects will stay static for a longer time, etc. also the player will gain other powers like flying, walking trough walls, creating elements of the world, shaping the worldmap, etc.

I will try to make a little test that simulates the worldstructure, so this can be tested and explained easier.

Test

I've made a simple test. I tried to recreate what happens if you have a random shape that gets more static when you approach it. Imagine a world that consists of these types of shapes.



In my opinion everything in a dream is random untill you look at it. It is a bit as with quantum mechanics. An electron decides what form it takes at the moment it has interaction.

progress

I've made an RSS feed available for this blog:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Lucidgame

So it's easier to keep track of my progress

Program

Mojo world, create procedural worlds

Progress

The best thing I can do at this point is to treat a lucid dream and all its components as a game or game features. There are a few different aspects that can be used:

-The techniques for getting a lucid dream. (Can this be implemented in a certain gameplay?)
-The functioning of dreams. (Can this aspect of the human brain be simulated by a computer?)

I already have many thoughts on this and I will try to summarize these over here.
Every time I have something new I will update the file and post to this blog.