Random dungeon generation [SOLVED]

[south.shadowforge]

Hello everyone!

I'm fairly new to Unity and brand new to PlayMaker.  I'm currently working on an isometric action rpg and would love to be able to randomize some dungeon content similarly to Diablo 1-3.  I've been researching for a few hours now and haven't been able to find any documentation or tutorials on how to achieve this and wondered if anyone had any experience making a roguelike or dungeon crawler with randomized levels and would be willing to point me in the right direction.  I don't have any desire to make this purely procedural like Minecraft or StarForge.  I simply want to be able to design a system that takes my game objects and creates a randomized level with them.  Thanks in advance for any advice/tutorials/help. 

[jeanfabre]

Hi,

 that's already some advance features. not trying to put you off, but if you are starting with Unity and PlayMaker, I would ifrst build static levels using some frameworks that you will find in the asset store. When you will be comfortable, you can then start bringing the element of randomness in your levels.

bye,

 Jean

[south.shadowforge]

Jean,

Well I'm not THAT much of a beginner.    I have a good amount of experience with UDK and so I'm finding the transition over to Unity to be very simple.  As far as understanding Unity methods, gameobjects, importing assets and creating prefabs I'm very comfortable.  I've done some simple C# scripting as well for my camera and player controllers and built static levels with the assets I have.  I'm at the point where I'm ready to start researching methods for accomplishing randomized dungeons I just can't seem to find very much in the way of documentation.

[blackant]

your project is very interresting, but like said jean, you should first be familiar with playmaker, cause you will learn more by exploring by yourself the right way you need to control any variables.

[jeanfabre]

Hi,

 Thanks for giving us a background, I'll switch gear then

-- Database or xml if the way to go, Xml will give you a quicker overview and faster editing/ease because it's all plain text and plain english. DataBase will scale better if you have REALLY big levels and expectations.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/#/content/4334


Database: use one of the asset store kit that will give you access to sqlite, some have playmaker support, so you are covered.

Xml. I have a pending framework in my drawer, that will soon be released on the user wiki, pm me, and I'll share it with you. It will give you raw power to perform xpath queries and extract anything from our xml, and it's very efficient.

Now, that part covers your "assets" that you will want to randomize, in terms of implementation IN your game, you will likely have to define the various places where you expect randomization. If you want the level to have different walls placement and all, then that randomization will have to be as a first pass, not as an on going ( tho it's possible, but likely giving more trouble to implement).

Could you elaborate on what you want to randomize? I'll then be able to point you in few directions for practical implementation.

Bye,

 Jean

[south.shadowforge]

Jean,
Thanks for the post.  I would love to experiment with both methods you mentioned.  I'll pm you right after this.  You're very generous to share your xml framework with us! 

As far as actual randomization, I'm actually not looking to go crazy with this.  I basically want the ability to have the path of certain dungeons and game areas get randomized on load based on the tileset of prefabs for that dungeon.  Loot throughout the game will need to be randomized withing a certain set of parameters of course so this will all tie together.