Development

Next Release: Roughshod (June 2017)

Description

The eventual game will be in Unity, but the plan is to keep the actual content open and editable via modular JSON files (so people can mod it with their own stories if they want!). This next release will be focused on getting authoring tools going, and a preliminary simulation of events to generate character histories.

Targeted Features
  • Prototype-level room generation and decoration, with interstitial rooms
  • Character generation
  • Memory authoring with generative space feedback

Long-view Roadmap

This list is not complete…it’s more here to keep me honest / cheer me up about what I’ve implemented. More detail will be added as things progress. Some of these single line items are months of work, some of them are a few hours.

gold text: slated for next release
strikethrough: completed

  • Authoring
    • initial test fae memories
    • 10 fae memories
    • 10 player memories
  • Substrate
    • determine ontology spec
    • literal connections
    • metaphorical connections
    • procedural hooks
    • create test entries
    • create rough diagnostics
    • Substrate Authoring Tool
      • visualization of ontology
      • sensible data presentation
      • object / room / layout / facade / character browser
    • form entry / save out to file
  • Tests / Content System Verification
    • Integrate Jasmine
      • write some tests for objects, rooms, layouts 
    • Integrate with Reductionist to intersect memory library with room generation library and provide memory instantiation feedback
  • Memory Authoring Tool
    • visualization of grammar expansions
  • Memory / actor generation
    • determine NPC spec
    • create data format
    • create sample specs
    • determine memory -> generative system mappings (1 per object? 1 per facade?)
    • determine NPC quality generation (NPC “distrustful” as aggregate of memory qualities “angry” and “suspicious”)
      • create data format
      • create entries
    • memory grammars
      • context-free grammars
      • casting by character
      • casting by role
      • casting by traits
    • character history simulation
      • determine initial list of events
      • write at least one grammar for each
      • character story arcs / fractal grammars (establish rough causality “dwarf grandpa” style)
    • theory of mind for other characters based on history / bias
      • create data structure usable by memory palace system to recursively render
    • Unity: character generator
      • appearance driven off semantic tags
  • Character dialogue
    • placeholder favors
    • prototype strategies for becoming Dominion / defending Dominion
    • placeholder topics / actions
  • Player character creation
    • Select memory / toggle between expansions
    • show potential object generation
    • show ontology reasoning
    • allow player to change ontology reasoning
  • Player cottage creation
    • 3D Unity prototype
    • Books for ontology source selection
    • source profiler
  • Memory palace facade generation
    • text description
    • 3D Unity prototype
  • Memory palace layout generation
    • text description
    • graph spec for room-to-room transitions / transitional spaces
    • 3D Unity prototype
  • Memory palace room generation
    • text description
    • 3D Unity prototype
  • Memory palace room decoration
    • text description
    • 3D Unity prototype
  • Memory palace object generation
    • create initial library of available objects
      • create data format
      • create text-description versions
    • placeholder 3D assets (models, textures, surfaceMods)
  • Player affordances
    • burn objects
    • break objects
    • transmute object materials
    • move objects between rooms