Ludum Dare game: Loch Ness

Hi,

I participated in this weekend’s Ludum Dare Compo, whose topic was “You are the monster”. I made a procedural egamebook.

The game is playable here and the Ludum Dare page of it is here (I don’t think you can vote or anything unless you also made a Ludum Dare game during the weekend, but I think you can comment).

The game was created from scratch, solo, in less than 48 hours. There are bugs and it’s not as fun as it could be. There is no end game. I’m posting it here because some of you were interested in my egamebook.com concept. This game is running on the (incomplete) egamebook engine. It takes the idea of egamebook to heart: simple on the outside (just choices), complex on the inside (world simulation, AI, fuzzy logic — needless to say I was busy during the weekend).

The source code is available. The egb file is super simple for such a procedural game. The meat of the simulation is in world.dart (and initialization here). As you might expect for a 48 hour sprint, the code is in a horrible state, but if you’re into programming, you might like skimming through.

The features the game is ready for that I wasn’t able to implement in time (but I might get to it, so: SPOILER ALERT):

• Many more actions, including eating people (heals monster), establishing lairs, etc.
• A hatchling can grow up to be a full size monster. The code that allows them to act independently is there. Mating would be an option.
• Arrival of “human monsters”, such as Silvester Stallone.
• Arrival of (possibly allied) factions, such as Mothmen, the Bigfoots, etc.

Anyways, I hope you’ll enjoy the game even in its current state.

I applaud your idea but fuzzy logic and AI can be very, very confusing.

I was fooling around, taking cities and butchering people when SUDDENLY…

What.

Also some nitpicks you already show know by now:

• the map is left at the top of the page and the game scrolls down and down and down. I reckon your game engine doesn’t allow to make the map sticky?
• Screw the map, at least a table would be really, really helpful. How many units do I have in this city? How many enemies are there? A map image cannot answer that.

Full playthrough is under spoiler tag.

[spoiler]In their posession, you find this map of the area. It could prove useful.

You attack Abriachan. There is no resistance. With glee, you butcher a couple of terrified locals. Abriachan is now under your control.

5 commandos have arrived in Lochend.

You lay your 10 eggs near Urquhart Castle.

The eggs near Urquhart Castle have hatched into 10 cute little monsters. The hatchlings quickly spread into the neigborhood. They will feed on the local populace. The 10 hatchlings at Urquhart Castle (pop 12) are starving. There is not enough people there to eat. A third of them die, so there is now only 7 of them.

You can feel inside your belly that new eggs are ready.

You lay your 10 eggs near Abriachan.

The eggs near Abriachan have hatched into 10 cute little monsters. The hatchlings quickly spread into the neigborhood. They will feed on the local populace. The 7 hatchlings at Urquhart Castle (pop 12) are starving. There is not enough people there to eat. A third of them die, so there is now only 5 of them.

You attack Lochend. You are joined by 10 hatchlings from Abriachan. You encounter some resistance. Humans lose 5 commandos. After a bit of additional stomping and destruction, you realize you win. Lochend is now under your control.

The 5 hatchlings at Urquhart Castle (pop 12) are starving. There is not enough people there to eat. A third of them die, so there is now only 3 of them.

You attack Drumnadrochit. You are joined by 13 hatchlings from Urquhart Castle and Abriachan. You encounter some resistance. Nessie monsters lose 3 hatchlings. Humans lose 8 police officers. After a bit of additional stomping and destruction, you realize you win. Drumnadrochit is now under your control.

6 hunters from Dochgarroch attack Lochend. There is no resistance. The attackers move in. They start cleaning up the area of filth. Lochend is now under their control.

You attack Invermoriston. There is no resistance. With glee, you butcher a couple of terrified locals. Invermoriston is now under your control.

6 police officers have arrived in Tomich.

You attack Fort Augustus. There is no resistance. With glee, you butcher a couple of terrified locals. Fort Augustus is now under your control.

You attack Tomich. You encounter some resistance. Humans lose 6 police officers. After a bit of additional stomping and destruction, you realize you win. Tomich is now under your control.

You can feel inside your belly that new eggs are ready.

You lay your 10 eggs near Drumnadrochit.

The eggs near Drumnadrochit have hatched into 10 cute little monsters. The hatchlings quickly spread into the neigborhood. They will feed on the local populace.

You attack Cannich. There is no resistance. With glee, you butcher a couple of terrified locals. Cannich is now under your control.

You attack Struy. There is no resistance. With glee, you butcher a couple of terrified locals. Struy is now under your control.

6 hunters from Lochend attack Abriachan. They encounter heavy resistance. They lose 4 hunters. After a while, they decide to retreat.

You attack Lochend. You are joined by 8 hatchlings from Abriachan. You encounter some resistance. Humans lose 2 hunters. After a bit of additional stomping and destruction, you realize you win. Lochend is now under your control.

You attack Kilmorack. There is no resistance. With glee, you butcher a couple of terrified locals. Kilmorack is now under your control.

You attack Beauly. There is no resistance. With glee, you butcher a couple of terrified locals. Beauly is now under your control.

6 police officers have arrived in Dochgarroch.

You attack Kirkhill. There is no resistance. With glee, you butcher a couple of terrified locals. Kirkhill is now under your control.

You can feel inside your belly that new eggs are ready.

You lay your 10 eggs near Abriachan.

You attack Bunchrew. There is no resistance. With glee, you butcher a couple of terrified locals. Bunchrew is now under your control.

56 police officers from Inverness Center and Dochgarroch attack Bunchrew. They encounter some resistance. They lose 9 police officers. You receive 10 serious blows. The attackers secure the area. Bunchrew is now under their control.

You die from the battle wounds.

The end.[/spoiler]

Thanks Oreolek for playing and for the report.

I’m sorry you had a bad experience. I know about the issue with the map and many other usability issues. There’s also many bugs. The generated prose is repetitive and sometimes embarrassing (“You receive 1 blows.”) My excuse is that it was made in a 2-day sprint. There’s a lot of things I had to just leave be. Now I am required not to touch the game for another 2 weeks of voting. (And frankly, I don’t even have the time now.)

I know the generated prose is horrible, but what happened was that the police officers from Inverness Center and Dochgarroch (2 locations) attack you at Inverness Center. There’s “some resistance” (that would be you). There’s a battle and they lose 9 officers, you receive 10 blows. (56 officers is a sizable army in the game, especially if you are facing them alone.) You die. They secure the area.

So if this was just a little bit finished game:

• attack Bunchrew => “attack you at Bunchrew”
• encounter some resistance => nothing in this case
• you receive 10 serious blows => some kind of prose explaining that you were overwhelmed and died

Unless I’m missing something, this has nothing to do with fuzzy logic (it was actually clever to attack you when you were alone, joining forces from 2 locations) and everything to do with the generated prose and the lack of clarity where everything is in the game (including you). This will take work, but it’s “just” about having the time to polish the text output.

Loch Ness, like most other Ludum Dare compo games, is a tech demo. I’m (overly) excited about the fact that it even works (and can be fun to play at times). Sorry for not being clear about this in the original post.

Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed my stint as the monster until the police converged on me. (And I had my eye on Inverness South, too…)