Need simple maps for audio-only game Created 11 years ago2012-04-25 19:41:52 UTC by Daubster

As part of my uni coursework, I had the task of creating an audio-only game, i.e. the gameplay in it has to be 100% audio-based. I've more-or-less finalized the game itself, but I'm still struggling with the level design.

The lecturer for this module is blind, so the game absolutely must be playable w/o any visual data (apart from a text-based readme or something), and I'm worried that the level I've made is too complex to finish without actually seeing it.

This is where you come in. The game is 2D, tile-based and reads its level data from a bitmap with various colors representing different tiles. So if you're bored or up for a little challenge, it would be awesome if you tried designing a level for it.

Download here (4Mb)

[m]Premise[/m]
The whole thing is meant to be set in a spaceship, which has been attacked by <insert generic alien>, causing the main power to shut down, as well as causing general damage to the ship. The player is stranded in a pitch dark room and has to get to the escape pods, which are on the opposite end of the starting area.
The room itself is not a straight shape and there are two kinds of obstacles you must navigate through (spilled chemicals & dangling electric cables). Luckily you also have a <insert plot convenience device>, which beeps more frequently the closer you get to the escape pods.

[m]How to play[/m]
There are four directions of movement, each controlled by the W/S/A/D keys respectively. Note that moving in any direction will make your character face that direction. I wanted to keep the movement as simple as possible for this one.

The closer you get to the escape pods, the more frequent the beeps will become.

Also the obstacles (chemicals & electric cables) are solid (impossible to pass through), so note that if you hear yourself being fried by toxic waste, you're just pushing against the obstacle w/o actually going anywhere.

Finally, your health will regenerate slowly, so don't worry about running into obstacles too much.

[m]How you could help[/m]

• Download & test the current build of the game with my level (without looking at the level bitmap). Post whether or not you managed to finish it, and the time it took you to do so (displayed ingame once you finish it).

• After doing the aforementioned, you can fire up MS Paint and try creating your own level. Keep in mind this is ultimately geared to be played by a blind person, so the difficulty must reflect that.

[m]Level design guide[/m]
Open up c0a0.bmp in the Levels folder first to get a rough idea on what the simple format is. Below is a more detailed description:

• Each pixel represents a single 2D tile in-game. Every object including the player is 1x1 big (think Minecraft)

• The size of a level/bitmap is not limited to any particular dimensions, but note that any level must have a 2-thick white border around its edges to prevent crashing (lazy collision detection system)

• To launch a custom level, open the "custom_level_example.bat" file and change "sample.bmp" with the name of your level. All levels will be loaded from the "Levels" folder.

• Each obstacle, escape pod, and engine sound tile emits sound.

• If you want to simulate a pool of chemicals, you really only need to draw its outline (see c0a0.bmp for multiple examples). That will use up less resources, as each tile plays its own sound.

[m]RGB Colors used by the tiles ingame:[/m]

Solid
White (255, 255, 255) - Wall
Red (255, 0, 0) - Escape Pods
Cyan (0, 255, 255) - Electric tile
Pink (236, 0, 140) - Chemical tile

Non-solid
Green (0, 255, 0) - Player Spawn
Yellow (255, 255, 0) - Emits ambient engine sound
Black or any other color (0, 0, 0) - Non-solid floor tile

That's about it.
I know I'm kind of asking you to do a part of my coursework for me, but I figured it'd be an interesting enough challenge to post up.

If you don't have the time to design levels, do give the actual game a shot.

If you have any questions, post 'em here. Looking forward to your feedback & levels!
GL & HF!

I've done my bit. Share the love people.

Took me 362 seconds. Hah! Though I caught a glimpse of the thumbnail of the level accidentally.

The idea is really good and simple. I like it.

Urby's made a really well-designed map for this. The room itself has a much more interesting shape & the obstacles were placed in a much smarter fashion.

SpaG: That's a pretty good time, most of the folk who tried it earlier couldn't finish at all. Thanks for giving this a shot & for the feedback!

Link be broken sir. You've got a line break tag on the end.

Fixed -D

I think you need a bit cleaner sounds, especially the wall bump one. The controls are a bit hard to get, I'm still not sure which way you're facing when walking sideways.

135 seconds.
Downloading Urby's now.

109 for urby's.

Good job, daubeh!

I'm still not sure which way you're facing when walking sideways.

You always face the direction you are moving. There is no strafing. That threw me at first but I quickly picked it up.

Doom like mouse look would work great if it's possible. So you could stand and spin around and try to orient where you are.

Uhm... My antivirus killed the exe.

Edit: crashed my desktop computer. Fuck it, not sharing the love.

Anyway, I did manage to play it some. The direction changing is bothersome since i want to believe that i am always facing one direction. also, i also believed that each step sound of the player was stepping one tile and I couldn't figure out if that was true, or how big something was or how far I've gone.

I thought about it a bit. Since the sound is really the only thing that defines the environment you're in, I think it would be great to add more audio feedback from movements and the environment.
Say whenever you are closing in to a wall (not ram into it), the sound from your footsteps would indicate that. Same with room size - be it an echo of some sorts or whatever.
It would give you a better understanding about your environment, and what to expect from it.

Also, it would probably be a good idea to note how many tiles away you start hearing sounds from fire/chemicals.

Edit:
I felt it was quite hard to know whether you are surrounded by obstacles, if you are in front of one. The sound from in front of you kills the one that's to your side.

Yeah, since you only provide one sense - sound, you better make it good. Because even in real world pure sound is hardly enough, since we have other senses like touch/pressure. So, like SpaG mentioned, some basic sound physics (single axis/plane, 2D or whatever, I assume) would add a lot.

Thanks for the feedback & testing, guys!

I really like the idea of adding in sound physics. I could mess with reverb or something to signify the size of a room. Might give it a shot if I have the time over my other coursework.
Still though, you really are meant to be bumping into stuff in this one. It's the only way to understand your environment and the mechanics are built to facilitate that. You can easily tank a ton of damage before you die, plus your health regenerates. I should have made it clearer in the intro though, I've noticed a lot of the testers felt uncomfortable about it.

For the controls I wanted it as simplistic as possible. I think that if the game had free character rotation, it would be far too easy to forget which direction you're facing in the end. Do you think limiting the player to 4 directions is actually game-ruining, or is it a matter of adjusting to it?

As for not knowing how far you've gone, the beeper/detector/plot convenience device is meant to show how close you are to the pods.

443 Seconds. That was hard! Good job

It'd be fun if you could see the route you took projected on top of the BMP map after you finished the game

Thanks for playing!
The BMP trace sounds interesting, but this one must be audio-only I'm afraid.

I think it's game-ruining.

Edit: Daub, in my opinion free rotation would oppositely allow for better perception of where the sound is coming from. Like in real world, you could move as fast and as slow as you want, gradually etc. Just experiment, I hope it's not that hard to implement...

Sorry I can't be much help, been trying to finish up the semester. If this is still going on when i'm done with school I will try to help if I can This is such a weird but cool idea.

C0a0 pwned me, took me 501 seconds to get through D:

As mentioned before, it definitely needs more work in the sound department. For me, the confusing thing was the beeping and humming, that was supposed to help in orientation. As far as I can tell, the more frequent beeping only kicked in when I was half-way through the level. Perhaps it could get more frequent earlier?

And I guess the elecrical wires so close to each other at the very end could get frustrating. I couldn't really differentiate when I'm directly facing them, and when I'm between them. Maybe that could be fixed, if there's an even number between the wires, and also between them and the surrounding wall. This way, the player can't be exactly in the middle of them - so you could hear the slight difference between the left and right audio channel. I hope you get what I mean

But anyway, I'll also try to throw a map together