Uncategorized – Merry Prankster Games

December 15, 2021

The Accursed Crown of the Giant King Beta Test

Merry Prankster Games need beta testers! My game “The Accursed Crown of the Giant King” is just about ready to go. I just need some folks to play though it and make sure everything is working OK.

“The Accursed Crown of the Giant King” is an old-school single-player RPG. In it you control a party of heroes through an epic fantasy adventure. Gameplay is real-time with pause, emphasizing a deep RPG system, and combining open-ended exploration with an over-arching main quest. You can find more information, including a gameplay trailer, on the ACotGK website:

https://prankster.com/acotgk

ACotGK is currently in beta-test for Windows. Chapter 1 is free for download; send me feedback and I’ll send you chapters 2-4. Full information on the beta test page:

https://www.prankster.com/wp/acotgk/beta/

I’m working on getting Mac and iOS betas going, as well. Stay tuned if you are interested in those platforms.

Thank you for any help you can give with this test!

March 23, 2020

The Problem With Apple

I got an email from them:

Your app, Temple of the Abyssal Winds, app Apple ID: 816495128, does not follow one or more of the App Store Review Guidelines.

Turns out there isn’t a problem with my app, it just hasn’t been compiled and submitted “recently”. So now I have to think about whether it is worth the trouble of digging out the old code , getting it to work with the new compiler (and dependencies), and go through submission again. It would probably take me a week to get through all that.

Is this really a problem? I guess not; it’s probably a good thing for users to ensure that apps are maintained and kept up to date.

December 13, 2019

Procedural Generation is Not So Easy Part 791

I really like procedurally generating levels. As a programmer, if I can design a level by hand once, I’d much rather just take those rules that I used to design the level, put them in a program, and then I can generate a bunch of levels automatically!

Of course it isn’t so easy. Putting all my design rules into code turns out to be a lot of work! Here’s an example.

Part of making dungeon levels, particularly at high levels, involves adding secret doors. In this case, sometimes I will add a secret door hiding an exit from a level. Like this:

But wait, if you walk down the stairs to this level, you will immediately be faced with a blank wall! In fact, I’m not even sure that the party placement logic will properly handle placing the player characters in this situation; some might end up on one side of the wall, and others on the other side!

The fix is “easy”, of course; don’t create a secret door at the level exit. But just a reminder that the rules to create a dungeon are not as simple as you might imagine. Here’s the fixed version: