This month in Legends of Rahnok my focus has been on improving the dungeon experience. Adventurers will discover that the dungeons have more variation and are now populated with various assets such as barrels, kegs, and crates. A sharp eye will spot potions and other loot hidden amongst the clutter. A new UI has been created and a basic inventory management system has been implemented so the player can store and use the loot that they discover.

Fine-tuning the dungeon algorithm

The basic algorithm used to generate the dungeons in Legends of Rahnok is a fairly simple Binary partition tree-based algorithm. This leads to dungeons with a fairly generic layout of rooms connected by one or two corridors. More algorithms are planned for the future in order to create caves and other structures but I decided the current implementation could use some fine tuning with some very simple techniques. I have updated the algorithm so that when a room is above a certain size, it may randomly create an inner rectangle which is then filled with dungeon walls. This leads to some rooms turning into wide corridor-style spaces, while others become a mazelike passageway. This is just the beginning of an upgrade to the dungeon generation which will include multiple techniques to create variety and replayability.

Populating the dungeon with clutter

In order to make dungeon exploration more interesting the dungeon rooms are now populated with various objects such as crates, barrels, kegs, and casks. Different objects are placed against the dungeon walls while others form corridors through the center of rooms. There are currently two types of rooms that will dictate what types of items are contained within. These are the storeroom and Cellar which fit into the theme of a city underground. Future updates will include armories castle dungeons and sewer systems.

Loot and inventory

Four lootable items have been added in this update including a large and small health potion, a rage potion that maxes out the player's combo points, and some bottles of cheap wine. The mechanic for consuming potions and other looted items took a little bit of balancing to get right. I wanted the player to sheath their weapon to drink and consume items and avoid the player madly clicking on inventory slots. I implemented a quick slot bar so that items could be quickly pulled out using SHIFT + 1, 2, 3, or 4. A drinking animation plays when consuming a potion before the player redraws their main weapon.

A New User Interface

With the addition of the quick slot bar and player inventory, I decided to give the UI a splash of new paint. I repurposed this asset from Open Game Art with a touch of editing. And I think the result is starting to look quite good!

Next steps

The next milestone for Legends of Rahnok is to introduce some player progression. This will likely span a couple of patches and will include:

• A way for the player to increase base stats such as strength agility and dexterity.
• Expand the inventory system to include weapons. New weapons will be introduced with different ranges of quality.
• Fine-tuning the spawning of loot to enable better loot the further into a dungeon the player adventures.
• Introduce treasure chests.
• Different enemy types that increase in difficulty.
• Dungeons further from cities are harder and contain better loot.

Please give the update a play and feel free to leave any feedback you have in the comments 🙂

Until next time!