The Citadel - sci-fi rougelike retro FPS

Hi, Citadel is an FPS set in space tombs, called Citadels. Graphic is a 3D pixelart, softcore PSX style with AO, specular, bump, dynamic light etc. Levels are is intended to be generated randomly, every tomb as a one level with multiple ways to end it. For now i mainly work on level assets, trying to make it as modular as possible.







More info:
https://www.facebook.com/citadelthegame/
or:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/0rG-bB

What do you think? Is it even possible to make good randomly generated levels in 3D?

 

i dont understand why u make models with ao, bump and specular and then put an effect on it to make it pixelated(it looks like an image effect).
why not get rid of the pixelating? it looks ok but i think it will also work without it and even better. i would go for "retro" in model designs and textures.

as for random generated levels;
its ok but will never be as good as a hand designed level. but i dont really know how advanced the level generators are these days so i can be wrong

i would like to see some of the weapon designs.
and what are the gameplay elements? run and gun, a story?

 

Of course it possible many of my games had randomly generated levels. But you need to be carefull and set really strich parameters so thing dont get out of control or get boring. So lets say you have a hallway tile which has te purpose to connect two interesting rooms but this tile itself has nothing interesting in it. Now if you give the generator all the power to do what it wants it might generate a level with only that boring tile. So really its all about finding a balance between random generated stuff and thing you do by hand.

What I also highly recommend is to create a tool that generates level like lets say a 1000 and takes screenshots of the level so you can review it quickly now this is only need if generating a level takes a minute or longer. If its almost instant you dont really need it. But i found it help full since you can scroll really fast through pictures.

An other thing to keep in mind is that you cannot optimize aswell when generating stuff at run time. Like you obviously can calculate lightmaps or things like that.

Other than that I'd say go for it! It really gives a fun spin to the game.

 

Mister D, this is all true, and while screen seems ok then real gameplay can hurt eyes But this happens cause present games are good looking and we used to it. I think it can be some new experience, since games with that resolution (PSX) didn't have ao and speculars. But i agree, this can be wrong way, i'll post some higher resolution and maybe some dithering. I don't have any weapon designs yet, but will do and post.

StarGamess, thank you for sharing I didn't even start working on level generator, and i have no experience, so every knowledge is valuable. Levels can be boring, even made by designer, but especially when generated, and not to mention it can have bugs (red key to room locked by the red key). My plan for levels is: quite big, random events (random but prepared, simple ex. 3 randomly set switches to open main door), elevator in the centre (since every time player enters from top and goes down), short-time jetpack (for unexpected situations). This is gonna be a difficult part

 

Little update: