Maze of Multi Playus

When the game starts, it generates a random maze. You start in the center, with as many people as you like, and only one goal: get out.

You win if you manage to get out of the maze in time.
You lose if you run out of time or run out of some common good? (Like “oxygen” if you’re in space or underwater. Or you have a common resource of lives, and you lose if all of them are gone.)

Tagline: In the multiplayer maze, there is only one way out … or is there?

Should find a better tagline/title than “multiplayer maze”. Something like “the escape maze” or some made-up myth like “Myria Maze”, “Maze of Myria”. Or tongue-in-cheek like “Maze of Multi Playus”

People can drop in/out of the game however they like. (This would require a common goal. Because, if players can die, you can just “rejoin” and all is well.)

When you drop into the game, you get your own character with a unique ability. The level generator takes this into account and will, from now on, add stuff that matches your ability. Each character only has 1 or 2 keys. (So you can even play with everyone on the same keyboard.)
When you drop out, your character disappears, and the generator will stop adding stuff your character can interact with.

What’s the appeal?

Local multiplayer for 1-10 players! No need for expensive setups. If needed, everyone can play on the same keyboard, or share controllers.
Cooperative.
Drop in/drop out at any time.
Simple, cartoony, family friendly game.
Randomly generated levels make each round different. Unique character abilities ( + random characters) make each round even MORE different.
Quick start and restart.

Ideas for character abilities

I have this idea that the maze is on a grid. Every player or block is exactly rectangular.

I also have this idea about a rotating grid. So perhaps gravity is always down, and you must rotate to get to certain places.

Most importantly: none of the characters can actually freely move/walk around!

How do you move?

It’s your special ability
Another character helps you (by dragging/pushing/removing something)
By rotating the maze
By using special stuff commonly found in the maze: ropes, conveyor belts, teleporters, moving platforms, etc.

Problem: if characters can fall/move fluently, then grid-based stuff is quite hard to do? (The Jon-Blow-Sokoban problem.) Two solutions:

Make stuff move in turn.
Make them teleport/move instantly
Make the whole game real-time and fluent. (Would allow more wonky physics stuff, which could be fun, but also a nightmare if you can’t freely move.)
Actually solve the problem the way Jon Blow did. (Watch that video, understand it. He starts explaining from roughly 02:20 onwards.)

What are the characters?

Character 1: break stuff (that is breakable)
- Combine this with the jumper? You break something by jumping on it at full speed?
Character 2: open doors/locks/special passages
Exploder: can explode itself or from a distance, taking other players or objects with it. NOTE: All explodable objects use collision layer 2!
- “E”: explode
- “W”: ?? second button ??
Jumper: jump/teleport/go through walls
- “Up”: jump upwards
- “Down”: slam downwards
MazeRotater: rotate the full maze
- “R”: to rotate clockwise
- “T”: to rotate counterclockwise
Supporter: drag/push/lift other players
- “S”: hold it to support players around you
- "?": what’s the second button?
Character 6: collect stuff; each maze has a different recipe/secret key, by collecting the right stuff, you can unlock doors/get a bonus/extend timer
Character 8: shoot themselves or other players over a distance.
Character 9: ??
Character 10: ??

How to generate the maze?

Original Ideas

Look up maze generation algorithms to ensure there is a path to the exit.

Or use the idea of “walkers” from Nuclear Throne. Just don’t terminate before one walker has reached far enough from the start, call that the “exit”.

Then use noise (Perlin/OpenSimplex) to randomly place objects, stuff to interact with, etc.

Maybe pre-design rooms (blocks of 5x5 or something)? And then concatenate them?
Add ability to switch between characters (if you have few players), to ensure people can always use everything in the level?

Maybe start with a default maze algorithm:

Second answer lists 12 Algorithms: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38502/whats-a-good-algorithm-to-generate-a-maze
The Eller’s algorithm seems to be the fasted: http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2010/12/29/maze-generation-eller-s-algorithm

FIRST PROTOTYPE: Implement maze, start in center, randomly block stuff (that can be broken/solved by the players, see if it’s any fun. (Either use lights and a darker atmosphere, or use really bright colors and cartoony graphics.)

Yes, I think that is the best way!

Players always start at the center.
In an outward spiral, place blocks of pre-designed rooms.
Each room has entrances/exists at multiple sides. I rotate/change the room to make sure it fits.
During generation, I keep track of possible paths. Once the world is large enough, I stop.
Now I have a generated world and a list with all the paths. I choose one as the “final path” and place an exit at the end. The other paths get randomly blocked by tiles on their route.

IDEA: A way to move the exit. Or a way that it can be blocked/unblocked. Or maybe it moves by default, or there’s a riddle involved.

Why do I think this? Because otherwise, you have a 25% of just randomly running into the exit, as it’s at only one of the four outer walls. If you reach the end, but you get a clue, or a bonus, or you can move the exit there, that still feels rewarding!

Refined Ideas

IDEA/PLAN: Perhaps first create a very simple 2D mobile game with a maze, with everything as a blocky thingy.

Use Eller’s algorithm to get a maze.
Player is a (rounded) cube, just slightly smaller.
All movement happens on a GRID (even though it might look fluent)
You can rotate the whole maze. (However, you can only do so in right angles, and everything freezes whilst you rotate.)
You start with only ONE type of player. The others must be RESCUED, as they are scattered throughout the maze.
- Just like the original idea, each player type has special powers.
- You get some interface/method for switching between them. (A “spell cycle” like in Lego Harry Potter? Or simply a next/previous button? Or simply whenever you CLICK on one of them?)
- Multiplayer is available. In that case, you start with two player characters, and both players get their own interface for controlling it. (Well, touching/clicking would stop working, so maybe that needs something extra => first tap a button “switch character” and then click?)
Players encounter locked doors, traps, gold/treasure, monsters, puzzles, etc.

URL: Nicest resource I’ve found on maze algorithms: http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2011/1/3/maze-generation-kruskal-s-algorithm

TO DO: Find the most optimal way to work with SETS in Python/GDScript => how to create and merge/join them efficiently, because that’s where I lose time.

Use a tree structure. Check my Data Structures course notes about that??
What the website says:
Using trees to represent the sets is much faster, allowing you to merge sets efficiently simply by adding one tree as a subtree of the other. Testing whether two cells share a set is done by comparing the roots of their corresponding trees.

GREAT IDEA: A class of items you can just drop at your current location, and it will stay there, no matter what. You only have a (very) limited supply. Why is this useful? Because it helps you remember where you’ve already been! (In large mazes this becomes CRUCIAL.)

GREAT IDEA: For more varied mazes:

Generate perfect maze.
Find path from one corner to the other.
Now randomly block passages, add rooms (just block out a 3x3 square or something), etc. throughout the maze => but NOT on the path!
On the path itself, place a varied collection of items. Doors, monsters, breakable blocks, etc. => the important thing is that the maze stays solvable.
- Of course, necessary items/keys should be somewhat close to where they are needed.
- Maybe implement A* pathfinding to ensure there’s a path?
Finally, start the players somewhere on this path, near the center of the maze. Reward them for reaching either end (although the exit is only on one end?)

Better Physics For Maze Rotation

IDEA: Instead of rotating the maze container, I think physics likes this are more stable:

Rotate the gravity direction
Rotate the camera (in the opposite direction) to keep gravity pointing downward.
PROBLEM: All player controls would need adaptation too.
- However, this shouldn’t be a huge issue.
- For example:
  - The wall climber can use gravity_vector.rotated(PI) to move left/right AND to raycast in those directions
  - I’d need to just add whatever input velocity I get to my current velocity. (Should change “x-component” but keep “y” intact for gravity.)
  - And then, when climbing walls, I can just use the normal of the collision to be able to climb any wall!
- Same for jumper: just jump opposite to gravity vector
- Lastly, all players will need to rotate to stay upright.
WHY IS THIS BETTER? No physics glitches, because I’m not “violating” physics rules by rotating a bunch of static bodies.

IDEA: When players have an item, they literally hold it above their head. Their arms+thing are attached (with loose joints) to their body, which hopefully leads to a cartoony feel and more physics fun.

IDEA: Gusts of wind (or something like that) that will blow a player in a certain direction in mid-air

IDEA: Maybe players CAN die, but they still come back as a ghost and can do some things. (It adds some tension and story element, like sacrificing yourself for the group.)

Research

Jason Roher: “Create infinite unique situation generators” => Because press is dead, games don’t sell their most units on launch day, and YouTube and streamers are responsible for keeping your game alive.

Research: the same people that were behind A Night in the Woods, now doing some other stuff: https://twitter.com/theglorysociety

Research: Dungeoncore, nice looking game, Nuclear Throne-like: https://talismanic.itch.io/dungeoncore

Research: giant design document from professional on Level Design: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fAlf2MwEFTwePwzbP3try1H0aYa9kpVBHPBkyIq-caY/edit

Research: of course, you can also just write an HTML5 game (Phaser) and wrap it using Cordova or Electron: https://gamedevacademy.org/creating-mobile-games-with-phaser-3-and-cordova/

(In time? Or can you simply be killed by stuff?)

When the game starts, it generates a random maze. You start in the center, with as many people as you like, and only one goal: **get out**. * **You win** if you manage to get out of the maze in time. * **You lose** if you run out of time *or* run out of some common good? (Like "oxygen" if you're in space or underwater. Or you have a common resource of lives, and you lose if all of them are gone.) Tagline: **In the multiplayer maze, there is only one way out ... or is there?** > Should find a better tagline/title than "multiplayer maze". Something like "the escape maze" or some made-up myth like "Myria Maze", "Maze of Myria". Or tongue-in-cheek like "Maze of Multi Playus" People can drop in/out of the game however they like. (This would require a common goal. Because, if players can die, you can just "rejoin" and all is well.) - When you drop into the game, you get your own character with a unique ability. The level generator takes this into account and will, from now on, add stuff that matches your ability. Each character only has 1 or 2 keys. (So you can even play with everyone on the same keyboard.) - When you drop out, your character disappears, and the generator will stop adding stuff your character can interact with. What's the appeal? - Local multiplayer for 1-10 players! No need for expensive setups. If needed, everyone can play on the same keyboard, or share controllers. - Cooperative. - Drop in/drop out at any time. - Simple, cartoony, family friendly game. - Randomly generated levels make each round different. Unique character abilities ( + random characters) make each round even MORE different. - Quick start and restart. ## Ideas for character abilities I have this idea that the maze is on a grid. Every player or block is exactly rectangular. I also have this idea about a *rotating* grid. So perhaps gravity is always *down*, and you must rotate to get to certain places. **Most importantly**: none of the characters can actually freely move/walk around! How do you move? - It's your special ability - Another character helps you (by dragging/pushing/removing something) - By rotating the maze - By using special stuff commonly found in the maze: ropes, conveyor belts, teleporters, moving platforms, etc. **Problem**: if characters can fall/move fluently, then grid-based stuff is quite hard to do? (The Jon-Blow-Sokoban problem.) Two solutions: - Make stuff move in turn. - Make them teleport/move instantly - Make the whole game real-time and fluent. (Would allow more wonky physics stuff, which could be fun, but also a nightmare if you can't freely move.) - Actually solve the problem the way Jon Blow did. (Watch that video, understand it. He starts explaining from roughly 02:20 onwards.) ### What are the characters? 1. **Character 1**: break stuff (that is breakable) * Combine this with the jumper? You break something by jumping on it at full speed? 2. **Character 2**: open doors/locks/special passages 3. **Exploder**: can explode itself or from a distance, taking other players or objects with it. NOTE: All explodable objects use collision layer 2! * **"E":** explode * **"W":** ?? second button ?? 4. **Jumper**: jump/teleport/go through walls * **"Up":** jump upwards * **"Down":** slam downwards 5. **MazeRotater**: rotate the full maze * **"R"**: to rotate clockwise * **"T"**: to rotate counterclockwise 6. **Supporter**: drag/push/lift other players * **"S":** hold it to support players around you * **"?**": what's the second button? 7. **Character 6**: collect stuff; each maze has a different recipe/secret key, by collecting the right stuff, you can unlock doors/get a bonus/extend timer 8. **Character 8**: shoot themselves or other players over a distance. 9. **Character 9**: ?? 10. **Character 10**: ?? ## How to generate the maze? ### Original Ideas Look up maze generation algorithms to ensure there is a path to the exit. Or use the idea of "walkers" from _Nuclear Throne_. Just don't terminate before one walker has reached far enough from the start, call that the "exit". Then use noise (Perlin/OpenSimplex) to randomly place objects, stuff to interact with, etc. - Maybe **pre-design rooms** (blocks of 5x5 or something)? And then concatenate them? - Add ability to **switch between characters** (if you have few players), to ensure people can always use everything in the level? Maybe start with a default maze algorithm: - Second answer lists 12 Algorithms: <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/38502/whats-a-good-algorithm-to-generate-a-maze> - The Eller's algorithm seems to be the fasted: <http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2010/12/29/maze-generation-eller-s-algorithm> **FIRST PROTOTYPE:** Implement maze, start in center, randomly block stuff (that can be broken/solved by the players, see if it's any fun. (Either use lights and a darker atmosphere, or use really bright colors and cartoony graphics.) Yes, I think that is the best way! - Players always start at the center. - In an outward spiral, place blocks of pre-designed rooms. - Each room has entrances/exists at multiple sides. I rotate/change the room to make sure it fits. - During generation, I keep track of possible paths. Once the world is large enough, I stop. - Now I have a generated world and a list with all the paths. I choose one as the "final path" and place an exit at the end. The other paths get randomly blocked by tiles on their route. **IDEA:** A way to _move the exit_. Or a way that it can be blocked/unblocked. Or maybe it moves by default, or there's a riddle involved. > Why do I think this? Because otherwise, you have a 25% of just randomly running into the exit, as it's at only one of the four outer walls. If you reach the end, but you get a clue, or a bonus, or you can move the exit there, that still feels rewarding! ### Refined Ideas **IDEA/PLAN:** Perhaps first create a very simple 2D mobile game with a maze, with everything as a blocky thingy. - Use Eller's algorithm to get a maze. - Player is a (rounded) cube, just slightly smaller. - All movement happens on a GRID (even though it might look fluent) - You can rotate the whole maze. (However, you can only do so in right angles, and everything freezes whilst you rotate.) - You start with only ONE type of player. The others must be RESCUED, as they are scattered throughout the maze. - Just like the original idea, each player type has special powers. - You get some interface/method for switching between them. (A "spell cycle" like in Lego Harry Potter? Or simply a next/previous button? Or simply whenever you CLICK on one of them?) - **Multiplayer** is available. In that case, you start with two player characters, and both players get their own interface for controlling it. (Well, touching/clicking would stop working, so maybe that needs something extra => first tap a button "switch character" and then click?) - Players encounter locked doors, traps, gold/treasure, monsters, puzzles, etc. **URL:** Nicest resource I've found on maze algorithms: <http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2011/1/3/maze-generation-kruskal-s-algorithm> **TO DO:** Find the most optimal way to work with SETS in Python/GDScript => how to create and merge/join them efficiently, because that's where I lose time. > Use a tree structure. Check my Data Structures course notes about that?? > > What the website says: > > *Using trees to represent the sets is much faster, allowing you to merge sets efficiently simply by adding one tree as a subtree of the other. Testing whether two cells share a set is done by comparing the roots of their corresponding trees.* **GREAT IDEA:** A class of items you can just *drop* at your current location, and it will stay there, no matter what. You only have a (very) limited supply. Why is this useful? Because it helps you remember where you've already been! (In large mazes this becomes CRUCIAL.) **GREAT IDEA:** For more varied mazes: - Generate perfect maze. - Find path from one corner to the other. - Now randomly block passages, add rooms (just block out a 3x3 square or something), etc. throughout the maze => but NOT on the path! - On the path itself, place a varied collection of items. Doors, monsters, breakable blocks, etc. => the important thing is that the maze stays *solvable*. - Of course, necessary items/keys should be *somewhat* close to where they are needed. - Maybe implement A\* pathfinding to ensure there's a path? - Finally, start the players somewhere on this path, near the center of the maze. Reward them for reaching either end (although the exit is only on one end?) ## Better Physics For Maze Rotation **IDEA:** Instead of rotating the maze container, I think physics likes this are more stable: - Rotate the *gravity direction* - Rotate the camera (in the *opposite direction*) to keep gravity pointing downward. - **PROBLEM:** All player controls would need adaptation too. - **However,** this shouldn't be a huge issue. - **For example:** - The wall climber can use gravity_vector.rotated(PI) to move left/right AND to raycast in those directions - I'd need to just add whatever input velocity I get to my current velocity. (Should change "x-component" but keep "y" intact for gravity.) - And then, when climbing walls, I can just use the *normal* of the collision to be able to climb any wall! - **Same for jumper:** just jump opposite to gravity vector - **Lastly, all players will need to *rotate* to stay upright**. - **WHY IS THIS BETTER?** No physics glitches, because I'm not "violating" physics rules by rotating a bunch of static bodies. **IDEA:** When players have an item, they literally hold it above their head. Their arms+thing are attached (with loose joints) to their body, which hopefully leads to a cartoony feel and more physics fun. **IDEA:** Gusts of wind (or something like that) that will *blow* a player in a certain direction in mid-air **IDEA:** Maybe players CAN die, but they still come back as a ghost and can do *some* things. (It adds some tension and story element, like sacrificing yourself for the group.) ## Research > *Jason Roher:* "Create infinite unique situation generators" => Because press is dead, games don't sell their most units on launch day, and YouTube and streamers are responsible for keeping your game alive. **Research:** the same people that were behind A Night in the Woods, now doing some other stuff: <https://twitter.com/theglorysociety> **Research:** Dungeoncore, nice looking game, Nuclear Throne-like: <https://talismanic.itch.io/dungeoncore> **Research:** giant design document from professional on Level Design: <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fAlf2MwEFTwePwzbP3try1H0aYa9kpVBHPBkyIq-caY/edit> **Research:** of course, you can also just write an HTML5 game (Phaser) and wrap it using Cordova or Electron: <https://gamedevacademy.org/creating-mobile-games-with-phaser-3-and-cordova/> (In time? Or can you simply be killed by stuff?)