nullpointer

I’ve modified the roguelike dungeon generator from teh previous post into a system that builds procedural castle-like structures. It basically fills in the gaps of the dungeon style layout with various tower block items. The system then randomly swops out a number of hard cube edges with customised ‘broken’ ones. It also optimises the mesh [...]

I recently replayed spore in order to review is for my research. Aside from my critical opinion of the game itself (perhaps more on this later) I was particularly intrigued by the procedurally generated worlds that feature most prominently in the ‘space stage’. Having already examined the various methods of generating planetary type spheres (tesellation, [...]

Although this interview should really be accompanied by a little more contextual content (as a case study) Tarn Adams was such an eloquent respondent that the interview itself covers most of the points I wanted to address. Dwarf Fortress is a emergent world sim built on the heritage of rogue-likes. The graphical interface is a [...]

As part of my research into procedural and generative processes in games I have been carrying out a number of ‘case studies’ of prominent games and their designers. Usually this takes the form of an overview/analysis of the methods used, coupled with an associated interview. In this case I was lucky enough to grab hold [...]

Over the summer i have been experimenting with the design of different world structures for an interactive game based on generative/emergent systems. I’ve basically implemented three different spacial formats, exploring different aspects of scale/dimension and extendability. Unfortunately, at present none of the systems seems to fulfil the requirements I have for a base structural format. [...]

As part of my current research I have been examining different techniques for world generation. The traditional approach to heightmap creation consists of using procedural texture functions to build a greyscale map that is then used to make the vertex mesh. Common functions are octaved perlin noise, midpoint displacement, voronoi maps, fault displacements and circle [...]

Well, I have finally managed to find the appropriate academic context for my continual research interest in gaming. Over the next three (yes I am going to try!) years I will be studying for a practice based phd in the area of digital games as a performative framework. Just to outline a little more of [...]

A year or so ago I wrote a game in C++/OpenGL as part of a little prototyping experiment we ran in the 8453 collective. My entry was a greyscale pixel-art platform puzzler. The gameplay was sort of a cross between chu chu rocket and lemmings. The general flow and interaction was really quite fun and [...]

Another quick commercial break. In the last few months I’ve been working along with odessadesign on a microsite for the V&A museum for their current exhibition Telling Tales. We were really pleased to be chosen (up against some good competition) and we managed to incorporate some intriguing navigation ideas and a fun interactive exquisite corpse [...]

This post contains some brief notes that I have nowhere else to keep for the time being. They will hopefully form part of a longer research idea. What is entropy? Noun 1. Formal lack of pattern or organization “entropy increases as matter and energy in the universe degrade to an ultimate state of inert uniformity” [...]