Hey guys,

I was thinking of a game idea I would like to design on, a roguelike set in outerspace in which you control a spaceship and you can move freely throughout the map. It would have most traditional roguelike elements, e.g. permadeath, but unlike a traditional roguelike, would not have confined spaces/mazes due to the outerspace theme.

What do you think would be the best map/gamespace design for this type of game and why?

I was thinking of two possibilities:

1. Floors: Have each level be limited in width/height. You can still move freely within the level, but there would be an invisible boundary preventing you from going outside the level. The player can get to new levels by going through wormholes, analogous to stairs or portals in traditional roguelikes. Similarily, you could have special levels, e.g. one with a puzzle where you move asteroids around to get to a special item.

2. Open-ended: The world is just one huge map, e.g. GTA or Elder Scrolls. You would have different areas, e.g. an area with allies and shops, an area with asteroids and environmental dangers, an area with an enemy faction, a puzzle area.

Thanks,

David

Would probably be more dependant on what needs to be accomplished for "end game".

Floor type seems the most logical, but instead of fixating a boundary, you could simply have a territorial marker line, and if you went past that random encounters out of depth could easily occur. Adds both risk and possible reward if you want to try to push thing a bit.

With the floor type you could build system clusters of varying difficulty with mini bosses and other challenges in each cluster. This would also make procedural generation and difficulty a pretty easy thing to tweak and adjust. Would also fit the roguelike theme of multiple dungeons till you find the UTATBOTPYNTK (Ugly thing at the bottom of the pit you need to kill) to win the game. This is why you need to know the "end game" early.

Little example...

Starter Cluster - Home base, main space dock, all shop types, portal to return to it when needed (like the recall type scrolls in many fantasy versions), etc.

Basic cluster information would be needed, but easily made through templates so it could be quickly handled. This would make it easier to force static ones you want to always show up and still allow the randomness expected in a roguelike.

Cluster

-number of planetary systems (which would be your basic rooms)

-player level (how close to the players progress, most likely hidden or just hinted at)

-difficulty (modifier to adjust encounter types to make the cluster easy or difficult)

-warp gate density (how easy it is to get from one system to another, unless you want then to fly to and from each system)

-special items (special gates to open the next cluster, fabled pirate flag needed for nice quest reward, etc.)

-friendlys (any possibility of having a friendly ally or shop in the cluster, could even be a list of types available)

Planetary System

-number of planets and objects

-player level (as above)

-difficulty (as above)

-warp gates (which systems can you move to or from in this system)

-special items (as above)

-enemies (space critters, pirates, enemy ships, etc. all things that can cause damage to you)

-shops or starbases

...

How much templated information in each depends on the complexity of the game.

Just a few thoughts to consider.

There's an obvious counterpart to the traditional RL level structure of dungeon levels linked by stairs: solar systems where you fly around and some kind of "stargate" (which can require the same kind of searching and strategic combat as dungeon stairs) allows passage to a similar stargate in another system. Already done very well, with free movement rather than a grid, in Transcendence.

Your idea reminds me of Approaching Infinity, which is a pretty new game, but I don't think it's that well known. https://ibol17.wordpress.com/the-game/

Would probably be more dependant on what needs to be accomplished for "end game".

Thanks for the ideas. I will probably go with the traditional "Floor" design with portals to move between them since it would be easier to develop, and have each floor be a large map so the player gets the open-ended feeling from being in outer-space. The game will probably feature a large boss, but the player can keep playing in the current world as long as they want after they beat it, e.g. maybe by having infinite procedurally generated quests.

Already done very well, with free movement rather than a grid, in Transcendence

I've been trying to find the name of this game since working on this idea. I played Transcendence a lot around 3 years ago and it will have a big influence on my game, especially the portal system and how shops work.

Your idea reminds me of Approaching Infinity, which is a pretty new game, but I don't think it's that well known. https://ibol17.wordpress.com/the-game/

I've never heard of this game before, but I'll have to play it. From looking at the overview, it has a lot of similar features to what I would want to implement in my game such as the crew skill system. My game won't be anywhere near the scope of Approaching Infinity, since I'll probably forego the planet exploration gameplay and focus on space exploration.