A little off the top

 

 

The hard part is probably deciding the level of pixel graphics that looks both complex and artistic, yet visually pops from the background. I’m not trying to recreate handheld titles such as Link’s Awakening or Four Swords, but I am making a game that will probably end up looking a lot like them.

Since the Dullahan will often be without a head – the largest and most notable part of any sprite – I will have to be careful to make the rest of the body stand out against the background. The shield will provide the most distinction, so I will probably need to iterate on its size and color.

 

I quite enjoy mechanics that cause characters to gain or loose graphical parts, so I’d like to make the Dulla head toss as useful as possible.

Retro Aesthetic or Obsolete Sensibility

As happy as I am to be working on sprites, I keep needing to remind myself that they weren’t considered novel back when I had a GBC – they were simply the only graphics the system could manage. Experiments with resolution, Photoshop filters and layer styles have pushed me to re-imagine a bit of what my childhood could have looked like without resolution and memory constraints that plagued handheld systems.

 

It’ll take some more work, but I hope to both acknowledge the old masters at Nintendo, while managing to also show what I saw while I played those old games – Link’s Awakening, Metroid, Castlevania and WarioLand to name just a few. I think I’ll stick to 16 bit though, there are lot of good memories confined to that resolution.

Down to the Pixel

 

I’ve spent most of my adult life editing, remixing and touching up files in Photoshop. Throughout that time, I have done certain fine art pieces with the help of tablets, but it was always in place of pen and paper. Now, I’m turning to Photoshop to accomplish art that only a computer can do : pixel graphics.

Excuse for a minute – let me extol the virtues of nearest neighbor interpolation and the Offset filter. These two settings alone have really opened my eyes to the wide variety of projects Photoshop can naturally be used for. In addition to cutting away ivy, smoothing out wrinkles and blending pimples, Photoshop is helping me make my own little nostalgia trip. I made both of this little sprite concepts at 16p x 16p, and can scale them to whatever resolution I want, without all that nasty anti-aliasing and Bicubic weirdness. And that’s pretty cool for me.

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Unity

It certainly seems to be the new game maker buzzword. Going through the latest group of 7drl.org‘s posts, there are a good many that take advantage of the engine’s simplicity. Have muddled my way through Flash during high school (which is the reason I’m in digital imaging and not animation), Unity manages with ease what took ages to learn in Flash. Perhaps its because I know C++ and C# better now than I knew ActionScript back then. Maybe its just because I’m in a better place to start work on programming pet projects. I think I’ll start plugging away at some of Unity’s tutorials.

A Sad End for Some Trolls

Unfortunately, I was struck by a series of BIOs issues and lost a fair share of my idle modding due to a reformat.

Seeing as how the possibility of a new Dwarf Fortress release is rounding the bend, I suppose I’ll dig once again into my pesudo-code once that hits the net.

This Troll Was Not Born A Weaver

Numbers Are Super Great And Frustrating

The majority of Dwarf Fortress overhauls use the concept of Caste or Sub-Race within the dwarves that you start with and immigrate to your fortress. This is a neat, in-world solution… to artificial problems. As Dwarf Fortress currently stands (Release 0.34.11), its pretty hard for uneducated player to tell if a certain Dwarf is particularly good at a job that you assign them. Without taking the actual skill level into account – a level 3 Miner is objectively better than a level 2 Miner – there are a large number of factors that affect the speed at which a Dwarf will learn a certain group of skills, and some of them make more sense than well… Kinesthetic Sense. To the “uneducated player” (which I realize is a bit silly – because they care enough TO think about how stats affect the productivity of a single Dwarf), more of a stat is always better than less of that stat. It breaks down when you’re thinking to yourself, “What is the trade-off between a Dwarf that is “Very Slow To Tire” (avg 1500-1749) or another Dwarf that is “Very Quick To Tire” (avg 251-500) but “Extremely Agile” (avg 1650-1899)?”. Add in the “Soul Attributes” – like Kinesthetic Sense, Willpower and Social Awareness – and this process starts to become more painful than it needs to be.

The concept of min-maxing is certainly not unique to any genre or personality type, especially if there are noticeable benefits to spending the extra time engaging in the process. Role Playing Games, specifically MMORPGS, carter to that audience  – giving min-maxers open forums in which to unveil their discoveries. This is also true in Roguelikes, but mostly with those that have little to no randomly generated starting “characters”. It is very possible to generate a character that is numerically worse than another character, even if both characters have the “same” chance of achieving their goal through RNG. Dwarf Fortress is no exception – it is entirely possible to generate a truly terrible Dwarf – one that has the lowest end of each possible stat line for the Dwarf Race. Conversely, you may also end up with a true Uber-Dwarf, with every numerical string at the height of Dwarf perfection. Of course, both are extreme statistical outliers. Most Dwarfs you get end up being kind of gray scale, and the truly exciting ones are only made so by favorable RNG that takes place outside of their stat scores. Propensity to knocking goblins down deep chasms and beating back armies with backpacks aren’t really something that will be displayed during the casual v-z-enter.

Bigotry In ASCII

I return to the concept of Castes and Sub-Race. Mod authors simplify the clunky but quaint special-snowflake model of Dwarf Fortress’ Dwarf generation by making templates within the “Dwarf” race that make them savants in certain categories, and possibly worse in others (very, very rarely). This makes sense for Dwarfs, and immigrating Dwarfs to boot – Smith-Caste Dwarfs are trained smiths – they learn the trade faster regardless of their physical and mental attributes, even faster than Dwarfs that would normally make great Smiths (High Endurance, Strength, Creativity and whatnot). The Smith Dwarf goes into the smithy hole, the Craftdwarf Dwarf goes into the crafting hole, the Brewer Dwarf has a great little life, and so on. There is basically no reason to look at a Dwarf and have a tough decision of what they’ll do – if you have enough Dwarfs, that is.

So as to not weigh certain Castes too much, there is usually a pretty good chance for every and any Dwarf to immigrate to your fortress. This leads to the obvious problem of getting a billion Fisher Caste Dwarfs  in a desert fortress. Not super useful, and doesn’t make much sense a gameplay-wise, unless your Fortress’ marketing team is really incompetent. But, don’t worry though – while those Fisher Caste Dwarfs may be objectively better at fishing, they aren’t particularly bad at everything else, so you force them into a life of sand removal and go on with your merry little fortress.

That scenario is terrible on two levels. Firstly, it takes a poorly implemented mechanic and disappoints you – what about your seaside Fortress that wanted Fisher Caste Dwarfs and only got Lumberjacks? Secondly, and most importantly, it doesn’t promote storytelling. As to get Caste immigrants, you assign them the jobs they’re good at, and forget them unless you are truly desperate for a Weaver Dwarf. What you end up with is essentially a 4X game –  in which you amass resources and wealth, and see your population as a means to an end. While I have no problem with that genre of gameplay, and I by no means condemn players that pursue that style of play, I firmly believe that it is out of the scope of Dwarf Fortress.

Jötunheimr: ToDF And Storyline

After I spent so much time bashing Caste systems, I’ll say it – the Trollkin will be separated into Castes. That said, each variation of Trollkin will have their own unique stats on top of skill preference, and there won’t be so many as to cover every single skill – and some skills might not even be covered at all. Trollkin in general aren’t especially noted for their farming prowess, for example. On the whole, they’re pretty terrible at a plethora of trade-skills, which will give the player a unique experience while handling their Troll settlement – instead of simply applying the same Dwarf logic to every problem your Trolls face. For example, Trolls will not dig stone – only sand and dirt. They will be able to “quarry” stone, but by bribing other creatures to mine for them (kobolds, knockers and other such earth sprites). They will lack basically all farming skills, instead relying on primitive hunting, gathering and fishing, in addition to a herding mechanic which will be their sustainable food source (I’ll cover the Trollox in a future post). The greatest change is that Trollkin are incredibly strong and hardy individuals – even the smallest Trolls have hard, sturdy skin and bones, and are able to survive and kill ambushers.

Overall the goal for Jötunheimr: Tales of Dwarf Fortress is to promote the longevity of its characters, and limit the amount of actors that the player interacts with, so as to form real bonds with each one of their Trolls. This includes the hope that I’ll be able to properly implement the “quarrying mechanic”, so as to invite players to make much larger embarks than the standard 3×3 (hopefully 6×6 or 8×8!) because there won’t be any digging to FPS breaking layers like the Caverns and Magma. Just imagine – a whole moorland or forest jealously guarded by a tribe of Trolls, or a rocky mountain range with a crude wooden hillfort!

-Sándor Csontos

Trolls Do Not Live Underground.

Trolls aren’t underground creatures. Sure, they don’t enjoy sunlight. Yes, in many traditions they react violently to direct sunlight, which is why they lurk in deep forests or sheltered mountain ranges. Some of the more specialized Trollkin hide under the surface of lakes, ponds and swamps.

This isn’t to say they never set foot in a cave, much like primitive man, Trolls may retreat into natural cave systems when threatened by climate or other external forces. Caves are quite hard to find, however, especially habitable ones (that are large enough for the Troll, even!). So, cave dwelling Trolls are actually living in luxury.

Trolls are not architects. They build, perhaps a hovel, possibly a bridge – but they do not plan nor check for safety. All traits that are pretty important for a race meant to live their entire life underground. I discussed the fundamental differences between Dwarfs and Trollkin in my last post, that industry and organization are some of the many things that Trolls have no interest or use for. Dwarfs enjoy the safety and security, while Trolls are about the strongest things out there. They are also incredibly dim, hungry, ugly and reactionary creatures – much like a solitary bear rather than a pack animal like a lion or wolf. Less personal space, no doubt, would also probably lead to infighting between Trolls, who would be designed with a hair trigger in mind. From a player’s point of view, it would be nicer if a Troll took out its frustrations of getting wet in the rain on its crude bed, rather than the face of the tiny River Troll to his left.

-Sándor Csontos

Blog 0.5 And Jötunheimr: Tales of Dwarf Fortress

I imagine it’s customary to declare something in your first post, even on a blog meant to be a temporary home for your URL. Well, I won’t be one to break this apocryphal assertion!

Allow me to introduce you to a pet project with which I hope to take up a bit of my time between now, and my hopeful entry to graduate school. This should read primarily as a PSD for my venture I’d like to call:

Jötunheimr: Tales of Dwarf Fortress

What Is “Dwarf Fortress”?

Simply put, it’s an ASCII-Roguelike Management Sim. You start with 7 little Dwarfs, and through indirect guidance you build your own little kingdom. There is no victory condition – which naturally means that there are infinite loss conditions. But, that’s part of the fun!

I spent a good month or so of my free time sophomore year of college teaching myself how to play Dwarf Fortress. Besides the High Fantasy setting of the narrative and the beauty of its procedural generation, I was awestruck at just how easy it was to modify the raw files. User generated content is part of Dwarf Fortress’ underground success story, so much so that it’s creator, Tarn Adams, admits that the modders often know more about the raws than he himself does. Which is where this venture comes in…

So, What Is “Jötunheimr”, Then?

I’ve always enjoyed Norwegian and Scandinavian involving Giants and Trolls, much as I enjoy stories about Dwarfs. Trolls and Giants exist as kind of a antithesis to Dwarfs, however. Where Dwarfs are industrious, secluded and traditional, Giants and Trolls are malicious, wandering plunderers. At least, many of them were. Accounts vary from source to source, which is why I’m differentiating “Giants” and “Trolls” in the first place.

The name Jötunheimr breaks down roughly into the place where most Giants were forcefully banished or forced to by the Æsir – the Nordic Pantheon, headed by Odin or Woden or Woten… you get the picture.

In keeping with the spirit of Dwarf Fortress, however, I will not be touching the magical High Fantasy where the Æsir are often portrayed. Instead, I will be focusing on the day to day life and survival of…

The Jötun

I’ve been skipping back and forth between Jötun, Giant, Troll for a bit now, which is – etymologically speaking – pointless. The images they invoke, are of course, different, but they are functionally the same creatures in the regional folklore. Personally, I prefer Troll – the term helps differentiate the creatures from similar beings worldwide. The Japanese Oni, the Irish Fomorian or Fir Bolg, and the Hungarian Guta to name only a fraction of these wild, often bloodthirsty, usually towering “proto-Human” or demonic beings. Also, Troll doesn’t include umlauts.

For this project, the Trollkin that will be featured will be as varied as they are represented in myth. Indeed, Trolls can range from cat-size, to actual mountains (when reclining!). Of course, mountain-size and multi-tile creatures are a bit out of reach in Dwarf Fortress’ current release, so I will content myself with merely enormous for the time being. The most important part of my design will to represent “Trollkin” as a culture, rather than a physical description.

The Heimr

I spent a bit going over how Trollkin are a bit of chaotic species, so how do I go about justifying the main point of Dwarf Fortress – namely, survival through planning and micromanagement. I’d like to point out that Trolls, while generally brutish and uncooperative, aren’t all as dumb as our general perception leads us to believe. Some were noted as very old and wise, for example, the character Mimir, who gave Odin knowledge of magic and runes (writing), is often portrayed as a Jötun.

This isn’t to say that it is easy to organize Trollkin, for even the intelligent and wise ones lead solitary existences in tales. Part of the successful implementation of “Jötunheimr: Tales of Dwarf Fortress” would to be the functional implementation of a primal, disorganized settlement. Where Dwarf Fortress welcome and rewards order and planning, “Jötunheimr” should frown on this behavior, and while not outright condemning it, there should be gameplay reasons to embrace a sort of “functioning entropy”.

My initial plans to implement this gameplay mechanic lies in the Trollkin themselves. Since you get 7 starting settlers, there should be enough variance in the Troll race so as to make those 7 Trolls as different and useful as possible. Emphasis on the useful – we’re not talking small, communal Dwarfs or average, mundane Humans here – Trolls are resilient, sturdy creatures, and even the weakest among them achieved great acts of physical power and fortitude before their coming of age year. Their strength comes from the nature world and its primal forces, and they embody aspects of the world around them. Mountain Trolls have tough, craggy bodies, and are capable of mitigating strikes that would cut lesser creatures to pieces. Forest trolls have skin and bodies not unlike the deep woods in which they dwell, allowing them to continuously grow and regenerate hewn limbs effortlessly. In contrast, River Trolls are natural sneaks, adept at concealment under bridges, for example. They are natural swimmers, and extremely dangerous in their natural habitat.

Every Troll, An Island

One thing that unites all Trollkin is their unending life spans, and immense ability to survive even the most mortal of wounds. Unlike the Dwarfs in Dwarf Fortress, Trolls are enduring creatures, who are able to take on small armies alone, carry bone-crushing loads, survive on nearly no food. Of course, they are not without flaws, and each one of these comes with terrible drawbacks – both in gameplay and my own modification process.

Trolls are nearly always portrayed as great gluttons – and while this is a benefit in that they are by no means picky when it comes to dinner, they eat as continuously as Dwarfs drink. Their diet extends to mushrooms and plants, much like Dwarfs, but they prize meat and bones above all. They move and work more quickly and happily with full bellies, which leads to obvious problems should their food supply be less than amble.

Regeneration is a cornerstone of Trollkin mythology, and while the Dwarf Fortress engine allows for the regrowth of lost limbs, it is by no means elegant. To dip into coding speak, there must be a “workshop” which has a reaction that will allow a entity to completely regrow a severed body part.  This will take some work to make it feel authentic and not simply a Arm-Regrowing-Station.

Finally, the physical strength of each individual Troll is a bit of a sticky point. Would it be better to never tire, or to effortlessly lift any load? The latter has the drawback that a entity with that amount of strength would be able to literally blow apart any opposition with a flick of their Superman-like pinky finger – not the most balanced mechanic, and also leads to very boring stories.

The First Step

So begins my little pet project. I hope to post again soon, either with pseudo-code or some artistic renditions of my Trollkin concept. At any rate – Stay Tuned!

-Sándor Csontos