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7:33pm - I've been telling a lot of people "I haven't been working much for the last couple weeks" and it's been wearing on me, so I thought I'd do a bit of work. However, I'm not entirely confident in my choice to make a 3D character creator. I'm worried it was a spur of the moment decision to do ANYTHING interesting to me other than my last project. But I'm worried about that for every project I do.
Lately I've been thinking I should do something to spread my ideals into the world, but I'm not really sure how to do that.
I'm thinking part of my problem is how ill defined my own ideals are, and how insecure I am with them. I like to push a socialist agenda, but to what end? What comes post-capitalism, and how do we get there? I'm not really sure.
I'm sort of out of touch with what most people call "Reality", and it's partly because of that, that I want to change what "Reality" is. I'm not sure how much support I could get though, being so abnormal. I don't just want to live my ideals in seclusion, I want the world to share my ideals. That probably can't be universal without breaking those self-same ideals, but it would be nice to spread them further.
Is that why I'm so drawn to economic and social simulations?
Still, I'm not sure what to do with them.
Like one idea that comes to mind is to make a game with a story based around living up to my ideals. But that might seem a little too forced? On the other hand, that's what one of my childhood idols, Richard Garriott de Cayeux did with his Ultima games from the fourth onward...
Still that takes me back to the problem of defining and refining my own ideals and values into a distributable package. Not an easy task.
I don't know, maybe I'm just not a 'Shepherd of Men' as they say. But then what do I want to do?
If I'm not trying to change the world, and the people living in it, then what am I trying to accomplish?
Maybe it's just about pleasing the self. In that case, what would please me the most?
Should I be working on adult games? Should I just do whatever interests me at the time, and keep dropping projects? I'm not sure.
I suppose given those options I should just keep working on what I'm working on now, and not worry about if it's a spur of the moment decision.
Or I could go with my latest spur of the moment feelings and try to make a procgen zeldalike. XD
It'd certainly be easier than doing all that marching cubes stuff.
Hmm... Now that I think of it, I don't think I can study and implement the marching cubes with all the distractions going on around me right now, but I could do some work on a Procgen Zeldalike game, and work on the Character Creator when I can concentrate more...
Hee hee. Compromise.
8:24pm - Just updating the time stamp. I've been writing/thinking for a while.
So let's open a new project file.
I think I'll do this one in OneNote instead of .txt files on the HDD. I tried OneNote the other day for some campaign work on my tabletop RPG and it was pretty handy.
8:38pm - Okay I've got a section set up in OneNote for it. I'll be updating that with what I come up with here.
So first off, I'm taking some inspiration from Unexplored's cyclic level generation, but I want to put it towards a more room-based layout than the freeform seeming roguelike dungeons of Unexplored. I also want to use their interesting view on alternative key based level structure.
Now, I'm not entirely sure what I want to do in the long term. Like, do I want to make something that generates a whole Zeldalike game, or just a Zeldalike dungeon? Do I want to give the player all the tools to start, or have them gather one 'key' tool from each dungeon, like the best Zelda games do?
Well, when I think about it, it would be more ambitious to make a generator for a whole game. I'm not 100% sure it would be fun for the player though? Having to go through a whole generated game each time they played it... I mean, it would be a whole Zeldalike game each time so that could be fun, but to generate enough unique, meaningful content for each one would be quite challenging. ^.^;;
9:07pm - The trouble I'm having with the decision is, I can't just say I'll start with making the dungeon generator, because that depends on the 'key' tools that the player gets, either at the start or in the dungeon, and that depends on if I start the player with all the tools or in a dungeon with all the tools, or start them in a world with dungeons that have a tool each and become more advanced as the game goes on.
Ideally I'd like for the tools to come in a semi-random order, so that the world becomes more explorable as time goes on.
9:41pm - Geez, I glanced away and now it's a half hour later. o.o;;
Anyways I think what I want is to make a whole-game generator, with a procgen story, characters, overworld and dungeons. But the 'key' tools will be premade.
I wonder if every playthrough should have all the tools? I don't know if I can make enough unique tools. I suppose I could reskin the tools to make them look different on different playthroughs though.
Let's look at the 'key' tools from Zelda 3 and 4 to see how they might be useful for copying.
Boomerang - A simple reusable projectile that triggers distant switches and stuns enemies, a Zelda staple. I could give the player a boomerang, or something else that was merely boomerangey, like a magic spell.
Bow - A weapon-tool that is better at range than the Boomerang but does mostly the same job as the boomerang, triggering switches.
Bombs - Opens paths both obvious and secret, and useful as a weapon.
Obstacale Lifting Tools - I think this is a good one. They had gloves or bracelets that let you pick up obstacles and throw them.
Swimming Tools - Usually flippers, a swimming tool opens up a new form of movement. A good inclusion.
The Hookshot - It's like the boomerang but in a straight line, and pulls you to the destination. That makes three tools that can hit a distant switch. Huh. I hadn't noticed that before. I've been thinking I might use a grappling hook you can swing in a circle before firing instead of a standard hookshot.
Fire Rod - This is a pretty basic fire attack wand plus lighting things on fire.
Ice Rod - Likewise but ice and freezing things.
Lantern - Makes light and a little fire.
Hammer - Useful as a weapon or for hammering things down or for slamming the ground to flip things.
Shovel - Dig holes! Realistically you could use it as a lever to move those heavy obstacles but eh.
Instrument - Usually a recorder or ocarina, it tweets and does magic sometimes?
The Cane of Somaria - It makes blocks! I could probably see something like that being replicated, but I'm not sure I ever liked it.
Mirror Shield - It reflects beams. Potentially you can use it to participate in laser puzzles.
Pegasus Boots - Charge forward.
Roc's Feather - Jump. Was only available in Link's Awakening but added a lot, especially combined with the Pegasus Boots.
Bottle - The Bottle is a tool with tons of potential contents.
11:32pm - I'd like to continue but The Call is on with The Guys and I want to participate in that, so I'll leave this for now.
Lately I've been thinking I should do something to spread my ideals into the world, but I'm not really sure how to do that.
I'm thinking part of my problem is how ill defined my own ideals are, and how insecure I am with them. I like to push a socialist agenda, but to what end? What comes post-capitalism, and how do we get there? I'm not really sure.
I'm sort of out of touch with what most people call "Reality", and it's partly because of that, that I want to change what "Reality" is. I'm not sure how much support I could get though, being so abnormal. I don't just want to live my ideals in seclusion, I want the world to share my ideals. That probably can't be universal without breaking those self-same ideals, but it would be nice to spread them further.
Is that why I'm so drawn to economic and social simulations?
Still, I'm not sure what to do with them.
Like one idea that comes to mind is to make a game with a story based around living up to my ideals. But that might seem a little too forced? On the other hand, that's what one of my childhood idols, Richard Garriott de Cayeux did with his Ultima games from the fourth onward...
Still that takes me back to the problem of defining and refining my own ideals and values into a distributable package. Not an easy task.
I don't know, maybe I'm just not a 'Shepherd of Men' as they say. But then what do I want to do?
If I'm not trying to change the world, and the people living in it, then what am I trying to accomplish?
Maybe it's just about pleasing the self. In that case, what would please me the most?
Should I be working on adult games? Should I just do whatever interests me at the time, and keep dropping projects? I'm not sure.
I suppose given those options I should just keep working on what I'm working on now, and not worry about if it's a spur of the moment decision.
Or I could go with my latest spur of the moment feelings and try to make a procgen zeldalike. XD
It'd certainly be easier than doing all that marching cubes stuff.
Hmm... Now that I think of it, I don't think I can study and implement the marching cubes with all the distractions going on around me right now, but I could do some work on a Procgen Zeldalike game, and work on the Character Creator when I can concentrate more...
Hee hee. Compromise.
8:24pm - Just updating the time stamp. I've been writing/thinking for a while.
So let's open a new project file.
I think I'll do this one in OneNote instead of .txt files on the HDD. I tried OneNote the other day for some campaign work on my tabletop RPG and it was pretty handy.
8:38pm - Okay I've got a section set up in OneNote for it. I'll be updating that with what I come up with here.
So first off, I'm taking some inspiration from Unexplored's cyclic level generation, but I want to put it towards a more room-based layout than the freeform seeming roguelike dungeons of Unexplored. I also want to use their interesting view on alternative key based level structure.
Now, I'm not entirely sure what I want to do in the long term. Like, do I want to make something that generates a whole Zeldalike game, or just a Zeldalike dungeon? Do I want to give the player all the tools to start, or have them gather one 'key' tool from each dungeon, like the best Zelda games do?
Well, when I think about it, it would be more ambitious to make a generator for a whole game. I'm not 100% sure it would be fun for the player though? Having to go through a whole generated game each time they played it... I mean, it would be a whole Zeldalike game each time so that could be fun, but to generate enough unique, meaningful content for each one would be quite challenging. ^.^;;
9:07pm - The trouble I'm having with the decision is, I can't just say I'll start with making the dungeon generator, because that depends on the 'key' tools that the player gets, either at the start or in the dungeon, and that depends on if I start the player with all the tools or in a dungeon with all the tools, or start them in a world with dungeons that have a tool each and become more advanced as the game goes on.
Ideally I'd like for the tools to come in a semi-random order, so that the world becomes more explorable as time goes on.
9:41pm - Geez, I glanced away and now it's a half hour later. o.o;;
Anyways I think what I want is to make a whole-game generator, with a procgen story, characters, overworld and dungeons. But the 'key' tools will be premade.
I wonder if every playthrough should have all the tools? I don't know if I can make enough unique tools. I suppose I could reskin the tools to make them look different on different playthroughs though.
Let's look at the 'key' tools from Zelda 3 and 4 to see how they might be useful for copying.
Boomerang - A simple reusable projectile that triggers distant switches and stuns enemies, a Zelda staple. I could give the player a boomerang, or something else that was merely boomerangey, like a magic spell.
Bow - A weapon-tool that is better at range than the Boomerang but does mostly the same job as the boomerang, triggering switches.
Bombs - Opens paths both obvious and secret, and useful as a weapon.
Obstacale Lifting Tools - I think this is a good one. They had gloves or bracelets that let you pick up obstacles and throw them.
Swimming Tools - Usually flippers, a swimming tool opens up a new form of movement. A good inclusion.
The Hookshot - It's like the boomerang but in a straight line, and pulls you to the destination. That makes three tools that can hit a distant switch. Huh. I hadn't noticed that before. I've been thinking I might use a grappling hook you can swing in a circle before firing instead of a standard hookshot.
Fire Rod - This is a pretty basic fire attack wand plus lighting things on fire.
Ice Rod - Likewise but ice and freezing things.
Lantern - Makes light and a little fire.
Hammer - Useful as a weapon or for hammering things down or for slamming the ground to flip things.
Shovel - Dig holes! Realistically you could use it as a lever to move those heavy obstacles but eh.
Instrument - Usually a recorder or ocarina, it tweets and does magic sometimes?
The Cane of Somaria - It makes blocks! I could probably see something like that being replicated, but I'm not sure I ever liked it.
Mirror Shield - It reflects beams. Potentially you can use it to participate in laser puzzles.
Pegasus Boots - Charge forward.
Roc's Feather - Jump. Was only available in Link's Awakening but added a lot, especially combined with the Pegasus Boots.
Bottle - The Bottle is a tool with tons of potential contents.
11:32pm - I'd like to continue but The Call is on with The Guys and I want to participate in that, so I'll leave this for now.
