I have been working on learning more about generating content in Unity. My long time habit is to also hide in my cave until I have something I want to show off. To help counter that here is a very early version of maze generation. It is based on a tutorial I am learning from. I am not even done with the tutorial yet... but I want to put a note up here.

Seeing the maze generate is amazingly neat, and each time I get to see the generation improve excites me and brings me closer to my goal. I am excited to make more.
check out the rough version tucked away over here ~>
http://unity.drachis.com/Prototypes/Maze//01/Maze.html

Defining a minimal viable product ahead of building a game is an interesting challenge. For the last few nights this week I have been working on reducing a design from huge epic proportions that I dreamed up in middle school to something I think I can get done in a month. That has been hard, cutting down that idea which has been bouncing around in my head for so long into something I can create is a difficult task. The dream of the epic has to be remembered as I progress through, but I'm not sure when I will reach it.

So what goes into an MVP? The question I ask my self if what is needed to make this idea into something fun. I ask that question over and over stripping away anything that doesn't look like it will be fun from a high level, then a mid level and then a micro level. The idea I had was half adventure game and half chao garden. You have a dragon at home and you have to go out into the world to find things to feed it. Based on what you feed it you grow it into a different monster. I've been inspired by games like Viva Pinata and the Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Both those games have a lot of content and as a single developer I don't think I can make  that much content in a reasonable timeframe. So here is where determining what to make is most important. I think the fun in my idea is that getting a dragon for finding treasure. There are two elements in that "getting a dragon" and "finding treasure". I enjoy playing Diablo and seeing what pops out of a loot pinata each time I kill something. They have that down to a very precise art, if I make a loot system I will be working from what I know about their game, and reward systems in other games. That isn't what makes my idea unique. Getting a monster for taking particular actions is covered very well in games like Pokémon and Viva Pinata. In each there is a particular way that you have to go about the game to successfully get a critter. This is where I have a different idea. I want it to be a single monster that each thing you give it shapes it. In Black&White each action you took near your creature had an effect on how it interacted with the world. The queue from Black and White is that you also gained an advantage for each thing you taught your creature. I'm not sure what advantage you gain from raising the dragon. Some games are able to skinner box and raising creatures into a fun game.  Seeing those I want to focus in on raising the dragon and making that fun first.


my notes coming into this were
 remember MVP
 single room, some wandering monsters that level up when presented with an object.
 levels are elemental,
 monster behavior can be improved.
 basic game loop is
 explore, return with an item, present item, monster levels
 can be simplified to rolls for exploration (no zones just a roll to see what you find if anything) one leveling tree (single element) and the behavior is attract / flee, two monster stages egg and walking.
core loop, in a room, pick an adventure return with thing
thing changes the characters in the room / ones given the item
this is the core mechanic
give item to character, changes character
growing the dragon using items found in the world
What will be fun about that?
I don't know but I want it - and I can make it. lets make it happen!
Two parts,
 raising the dragon
  requires a dragon, two growth variants.
 finding items in a world,
  this can be simulated in first pass
  Two items, one that causes each variant

This feels a bit haphazard and half composed but I'm posting it to build momentum.

Makn' Bacon Pancakes

We have been working on and off on making Bacon Pancakes Mobile over the last year and are starting to get to the point where having a place to toss up some insight into how things are going will be helpful. This is our development blog to help us think through, talk about and rerecord our exploits. If you ever have any questions or ideas about the progress feel free to jump in.

Our working name comes from;