Ack. I was following this topic for a while and didn't see anyone volunteer to organize, so I just stopped reading it. I'll set e-mail notification on this baby now, so I can see who replies back.
We could start by having someone make a 10-snake arena that has an average duration of 2 hours for 1 minute turns. You have to edit a text file to make the arena and put in characters that represent different elements for the starting condition.
Attached is the arena file for the Snakes to the Death contest. Here's a key of what the different elements are:
^ - wall
# - crate (jumpable wall)
(space) - empty floor
s - snake head facing south
a - snake head facing west
d - snake head facing east
w - snake head facing north
So here's how you figure out the dimension of the new arena:
2 hours x 1 minute between turns = 120 turns
120 turns x 10 snakes = 1200 squares to cover
34 tiles = square root of 1200 (about)
You could make a 34x34 grid and it would give most snakes a 2 hour playtime. Some snakes will die earlier, leaving more squares for the other snakes to cover, prolonging the game. Some squares will be obstacles or unreachable, shortening the game. Maybe someone has a better formula for calculating the ideal size of an arena, but I think this one works okay.
So step 1 is get a good 10-person arena. The people who played the game will likely have some design ideas, and it will be interesting to see what is made.
-Erik
____________________________
The Godkiller - Chapter 1 available now on Steam. It's a DROD-like puzzle adventure game.
dev journals |
twitch stream |
youtube archive (NSFW)
/dy
