Friday 13 November 2009

Dyson Logos' Marvellous Random Dungeon Maker

Dyson Logos: philanthropist, author of the superb Geodesic Gnomes, blogger and all round excellent fellow embarked on a mission to create a random map generation system using map tiles of discernible rooms. The idea would be for you roll on a table and produce the tile from a set of pre-cut tiles. A charming, bonkers idea that it simply has to work. I like big, bold ideas so much that I tend to throw a bit of myself at them. This time, I'm throwing a bit of myself at Dyson and, chances are I won't get arrested this time.

Forsooth! He's made software out of it

Yes! I've gone and taken all 12 tiles (so far) and performed some digital magic to turn them into a web page that will generate a dungeon for you. You can then print or take a screenshot. Or generate another. The possibilities are endless! Do be careful: changing the values in the boxes will create a new map!

I'm hosting it on a spare web host, so you might find that the location moves in the future (perhaps to Dyson's own blog) but I promise I will leave a forwarding device, so please do bookmark. I hope Dyson keeps going so I can keep adding more tiles to the page, it will look better and better each time. The overlap you see is to make the tiles line up a bit. As they are a little rough in size, you'll find that there can be a bit of overlap. I think it adds character to the result. If you can think of a feature you would like, please do comment.

With some mirth, I'm excited to announce that I haven't told Dyson I'm doing this. So, we all get to see the golden man's aghast internet persona when he discovers this. I see it as piling philanthropy onto philanthropy until we end up in an enormous philanthropic heap. It's a way of saying thank you.

Update

Top chap Jakob Bindslet has made his own version, which rotates the dungeon tiles too. A snacky feature that leads to less repetition and predictability. Nice one, Jakob!

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been following these posts on Dyson's blog, but what you've done is simply fantastic Rob. A big thanks to you both. :)

Will said...

This is...wonderful! I love Dyson's maps, and this makes for fantastic dungeons.

Rob Lang said...

I'm automatically not accepting any thanks or praise. I'm handing them on to Dyson. It only took me an hour, so I simply cannot accept any praise.

Thank you nonetheless.

misterecho said...

well done Dyson!!

no praise for rob.

:)

greywulf said...

Now that's just awe-inspiring brilliance from you both. Yes, even you Rob.

Excellent!

Anonymous said...

Very cool. Great work!

Restless said...

I hacked (and when I say hacked, I mean hacked) one together today once I saw this. Mine isn't pretty or do options, but it rotates the graphics to give more combinations.

VW: splathos - the pity evoked when you see someone splashed by a car going by.

satyre said...

Now this. This is awesome.

Rob Lang said...

@Everyone, thank you all! The best way to thank us is to follow Dyson's blog.

@Restless - I tried the link earlier and it worked a treat but now it is dead. Would you mind if I added the same functionality to my version? I'll give you props, naturally. Did you do it in JS or PHP on the backend?

Restless said...

Sure, it's no problem! I did it on the backend with PHP. It'd be less load on your host if you did it with Javascript, though. Like I said, I was spending an idle half hour hacking it together, and most of that was trimming the images down a bit in Photoshop.

Dyson Logos said...

Rob, you kick ass.

Restless, nice hack.

Dyson Logos said...

Wow, Rob. Great new look for the blog!

Rob Lang said...

Thanks, Dyson! Glad you like it. Have found a solution to the rotating images in javascript and will be giving it a go this coming week. :)

Anonymous said...

love the new layout, very swish!

Jakob Bindslet said...

Before I saw that others had already done the same, I threw together my own version of Rob Langs dungeon generator: http://www.pulven.net/randomdungeon/

This version is hardcoded to only show a 3x4 dungeon - whats different from Rob's version is that each tile is rotated randomly

Rob Lang said...

@Jakob, love your version. It's cool. Must get some of that rotating going on with the javascript version. I've updated the blog post to point it at yours too.

Unknown said...

Rob - I've started my own geomorph project over at the Risus Monkey (www.risusmonkey.com). I'm not up to Dyson standards, but I'm still having fun with it. Would you mind if I borrow some of your java script code to create my own generator?

Thanks,
Tim

Rob Lang said...

A the Risus Monkey! Hello! I have been following your site for some time. Please do wholesale use the javascript. I'm not proud. :)

If you need a host for your final geomorph map maker, and assuming it's free then let me know and I'll see if Our Glorious Benefactor on 1KM1KT will host it for you. I warn you that the bandwidth can be very high with all those images.

Unknown said...

Thanks Rob! I've got hosting. I was just looking for a shortcut in coming up with a generator. I'm juggling far too many projects to roll my own. :)

Tim

Unknown said...

The Risus Monkey Mapper is up at: http://www.velvet-edge.com/RisusMonkeyMap.html

Thanks once again for the html/java. It saved me a bunch of time.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rob,

So you dont mind then if others use your source code in their web pages? I will of course point back here and duly credit you if I use any of it.

Greg

Rob Lang said...

Hey Greg, please do! Make sure you credit the designers most of all.