Developing Lorebound's new game prototype.

Work is now beginning on Lorebound's new rogue-like prototype. This is going to be a regular series detailing what's going on with the project, and what in particular we are working on and doing deep dives into the design and development process.

For a brief primer on the thoughts behind the concept of the game, click here.

Now for the prototyping phase, it's all about getting the most basic framework systems functional. No art, no sound, just primitive objects showing a system is functional. Thinks colored cubes and lines. So how do we begin? We're honestly not sure what style the game is going to be. Will the core gameplay loop be first person, third person, or top down? Turn-based or real-time strategy? Or even more ambitious, some kind of FPS or third person action game? We will be doing quick and dirty prototypes of all of these at some point to test feasibility and the fun factor, but for now, let's focus on system's that are core to the setting and gameplay experience that we know will be needed know matter which direction we go.

These are the simulation elements. We know we need a city map, procedurally generated, with at minimum abstracted zones of control showing what faction owns what and what resources are where. We need a system for spawning enemy factions and units from portals. We need a resource system (which we can start with an abstracted one) that at minimum shows what is available in what areas and allows factions to harvest, store, and use them somehow. We need AI behaviors for these factions so they gather resources, use them, and attack and defend zones to try to expand. We need a system for tracking time, days especially, and lastly, an Event System to track factors like mana levels that rise over time and trigger events based on it.

These systems form the simulation layer. The stuff that happens in the background when the player isn't looking that directly effect the state of the world. Yet none of them are player focused. Because of that, they are the systems that need the least iteration to find the 'fun factor', but at the same time are systems that can be fleshed out to provide a world framework for the player systems to interact with.

Each of these systems can be incredibly complex, but during the prototyping phase, the goal is going to be getting simple versions of them functional. Ideally, in a way that leaves it easy to expand on them and add features later.

So, where do we start? Well, the randomized map generation is something many of the other features require, and itself doesn't have another feature it needs to function, so let's start there. Getting that started is going to be the focus of the next blog. Tune in and see how it goes!