Tile Tests

I've done some tile tests. I guess I should be prototyping before drawing assets, but I'm not in the mood for that.

I like deterministic procgen maps, though mechanically they're more difficult to design. Still, I think I've gotten somewhat close. Basically, each unrevealed map block (6x6 tiles) is built from unrevealed stacks of smaller reference cards: Room, Doors, Furniture, Enemies. These can be in four rotated orientations too, so they'll have to be revealed in a consistent manner, i.e. flipped over upward.

Doors are placed only where possible (there is a wall). Then furniture is placed only where possible (some need to be against a wall). Lastly, enemy blips are placed where possible in reading order, from a prepared stack of blips as this needs to be deterministic.

The blips drift around randomly and are revealed upon LoS, becoming an Ork, Skeleton, etc, though some are just harmless vermin that can be ignored/removed. There could be minor and major blips giving the player some tactical challenges.

The side walls with doors between blocks could be big segments for that 3D feel, or just regular door stand-ups. I realised that these need to go between the tile blocks (an unrevealed block should still reveal its connecting doors).

Not sure how big the map should be, but perhaps 3x3 blocks is a realistic limit asset-wise, meaning I probably need to draw at least 9 blocks. I don't know if this style is working yet.

The difficulty of the game could be controlled by prepping the stacks with different tier things.

Deterministic hidden placed floor traps is more difficult. I guess they could be made using blips and plenty of false blips but it might clutter the floor. The player could walk around, waste time disarming, or take a chance by stepping onto. Or, traps could be associated with the loot-able furniture. The order of any loot cards must also be deterministic of course. Perhaps a card/chit could simply be placed under the furniture. Unfortunately these would have to be small and can't contain art and rules; they'd have to be references to a rules paragraph. Not very immersive. I could just use random chance, e.g. a roll (I don't like linear card draws out of principle)... there's also the enemy drops to deal with, and that could get messy.

There's also different tiers of furniture such as barrels, treasure chests and shrines. 

Speaking of furniture, I thought about the Diablo shrine and sarcophagus and had to draw those (and also a floor texture). Diablo started out as a TBS game. I think it would work well as a HeroQuest game.

I also drew some more character. Included a sheet I drew in the past with a slightly different mindset.