An NPC Dev @npcdev@mastodon.gamedev.place

I am a #gamedev, and now I've started a Ph.D. on #GameAI and #PCG. Being an #NPC, to me, means that I should support designers and players. My goal is to aid character growth and enrich the story. But an NPC isn't a void; we can and should use our views and morals to push the main characters to do better. With my #research, I especially want to support marginalized devs and players. You can learn more about my work at npc.codes

Which didn't matter until I recently tried to use DuplicateObject on the parent, and apparently it only does a deep-copy on objects that are parented properly. *The More You Know*

Today in gamedev: fixing a crash due to a mistake I made in setting an Unreal object's parent wrong in code I wrote over a year ago, which I thought might be wrong at the time but ignored...

A (test) text representation of a procedurally generated train car. It has a water spigot (s), obstacles (#), machines (m), and plants (p)

This builds on the idea of "Gardening Games," by Max Kreminski: https://mkremins.itch.io/gardening-games-zine - you are tending and growing things sustainably, not mining resources to bring back to your plants.

Very excited about our #GGJ20 design: growing plants to reclaim cars in a nigh-infinite futuristic train (think Snowpiercer) by repurposing wasteful machines to collect water.

Some very parallel grid-like tunnels, opening into a larger cavern.

Some almost circuit-like tunnels...

Here's a few more cool patterns.

The parameters to get output like this are:

--tileset=tilesets/calciumtrice-outdoor/larger-tileset-purple.json --failureMillis=5000 --size=15 --optimizationMillis=5000 --optimizationScreens=0

(Requires latest code from https://gitlab.com/NPC-Dev/groundcollapse)

Expanding the demo tileset for GroundCollapse, my constraint-driven procgen tool. It can create some very strange patterns when generating larger chunks!

In the demo, you can move through an infinite landscape, and the constraint solver guarantees that every tile will fit with its surroundings.

But if you return to where you were, you may find that the landscape is not how you remember it.

The tool could be very flexible. You can add constraints and optimization rules, change tilesets, different visualizations, etc. Code: https://gitlab.com/NPC-Dev/groundcollapse

For #procjam, I made a tool and demo for generating infinite 2D terrain in a dreamlike, ever-changing landscape. It uses constraint solving based on Wave Function Collapse! It's now open-source and free to download from: https://npcdev.itch.io/groundcollapse

This work is based on Wave Function Collapse by @ExUtumno@twitter.com, and also based on papers by @isaackarth and @rndmcnlly (https://adamsmith.as/papers/wfc_is_constraint_solving_in_the_wild.pdf) and @mjn (http://pcgbook.com/wp-content/uploads/chapter08.pdf)

For #ScreenshotSaturday - work-in-progress generated terrain, using constraint solving inspired by Wave Function Collapse, for #procjam

I finally got to just code for a few days! Feels great to create new things again. Much more immediate than other games research work I do.