Spooky Action at a Distance Games

This post talks about 2d maps created in Tiled, and how we implemented walls and
Y-order. You may think about it as Z-order, but as our maps are flat, we only need to arrange things by their Y coordinate.

On thin walls in Tiled

How do I know which tile in Tiled is passable, and which is not?

Especially that we have such a luxury as thin walls.

My answer is Tiled feature – Terrains (https://doc.mapeditor.org/en/stable/manual/terrain/),
AKA Wang tiles (a good article for gamedevs: https://dev.to/joestrout/wang-2-corner-tiles-544k).

If a side of a tile has a terrain named “wall”, it’s not passable – as simple as that.

This way, our level designers don’t have to mark up the map – the walls are already in the tileset.

On Y-order

So, our objects (and object layers in Tiled) do have Y coordinate, so we know in what order
to draw them.

But what about tiles on a map?

What if our maps have multiple complex layers, maybe even a tree of layers?

What if these layers have similar objects with different Y coordinates, like multiple trees
or pillars or whatever?

Shall the level designer split each object into a separate layer and assign it a Y-order property?
This sounds like too much manual work, prone to error.

Our answer is – automatically split layers into “island” segments, and internally set
each segment’s Y-order according to the lowest tile (with the highest Y).

3 segments for 3 trees on a single layer, with a different Y-order

The next step is to only assign Y-order to segments based on the walls
assigned to tiles of that segment. The engine reasonably assumes that
a wall is on a floor level, and everything above it is fluff – tree top,
wall bottom, and so on.

Think of a door mat:

This is more precise, because sometimes our wall tiles have tiles
both above and below them.

Made from this spritesheet:

{
    "name": "Vertical door, 2-tile",
    "door": {
        "walls": [
            {"offset": [-1, 0], "wall": "east"},
            {"offset": [-1, 1], "wall": "east"}
        ]
    },
    "multitile": {
        "tileset": "ArthurVista-dors-4export-v1.0",
        "static_tiles": [
            {
                "name": "opened",
                "fragments": [
                    {"offset": [-1,-1], "id": 34},
                    {"offset": [0,-1], "id": 35},
                    {"offset": [-1,0], "id": 44},
                    {"offset": [0,0], "id": 45},
                    {"offset": [-1,0], "id": 96},
                    {"offset": [0,0], "id": 97},
                    {"offset": [-1,1], "id": 54},
                    {"offset": [0,1], "id": 55},
                    {"offset": [-1,2], "id": 64},
                    {"offset": [0,2], "id": 65}
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "closed",
                "fragments": [
                    {"offset": [-1,-1], "id": 34},
                    {"offset": [0,-1], "id": 35},
                    {"offset": [-1,0], "id": 44},
                    {"offset": [0,0], "id": 45},
                    {"offset": [-1,0], "id": 70},
                    {"offset": [0,0], "id": 71},
                    {"offset": [-1,1], "id": 54},
                    {"offset": [0,1], "id": 55},
                    {"offset": [-1,2], "id": 64},
                    {"offset": [0,2], "id": 65},
                    {"offset": [-1,1], "id": 74},
                    {"offset": [0,1], "id": 75}
                ]
            }
            
        ],
        "animations": [
            {
                "name": "open",
                "fragments": [
                    {"offset": [-1,0], "name": "door-v-open-upper-nw"},
                    {"offset": [0,0], "name": "door-v-open-upper-ne"},
                    {"offset": [-1,1], "name": "door-v-open-upper-sw"},
                    {"offset": [0,1], "name": "door-v-open-upper-se"},
                    {"offset": [-1,1], "name": "door-v-open-lower-w"},
                    {"offset": [0,1], "name": "door-v-open-lower-e"}
                ]
            },
            {
                "name": "close",
                "fragments": [
                    {"offset": [-1,0], "name": "door-v-close-upper-nw"},
                    {"offset": [0,0], "name": "door-v-close-upper-ne"},
                    {"offset": [-1,1], "name": "door-v-close-upper-sw"},
                    {"offset": [0,1], "name": "door-v-close-upper-se"},
                    {"offset": [-1,1], "name": "door-v-close-lower-w"},
                    {"offset": [0,1], "name": "door-v-close-lower-e"}
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
}

My programming language of choice, Rust, allows you to write code in independent libraries of modules, called “crates”. Other languages do it too, it’s nothing new, but in Rust it’s seriously easier, and the benefits are immediately usable.

This has this effect on our progress: a programmer can work on independent crate for months, without a visible effect on the main project. It happened when we worked on crates for:

• Shadowcasting (for visibility and projectiles) – credit to Maria;
• Tiled (tile map editor) integration with graphics framework;
• Animations engine – credit to Maria;
• Talk (our dialogue engine);
• UI – credit to Maria;
• “Buff/debuff” – an engine for effects like “10% to speed, Speed gives extra +15% Dodge”;
• and lately – Thin Walls.

Now I can declare that Thin Walls are officially ready for beta testing.

Wait, what Thin Walls?

In short, this is one of my bad decisions that prolong development for months and lead to overengineering. It is a gimmick – I wanted to have not only traditional roguelike full-tile walls, but also walls between tiles.

This broke a cascade of things:

• Shadowcasting;
• Pathfinding;
• Map loader;
• Tiled maps.

But now it’s usable in the game engine. Thanks to this, I have the map from an earlier post running in the engine. Green lines are a debug tool for actual walls, red circles are tile visibility.

Now, next crate I’m creating is – finally – Combat

I’m finally working on something that resembles a game. This something is an example for Combat crate. In Rust, again, there is an out-of-box mechanism with which you can create examples for each crate, for documentation, demonstration or learning purpose. I also use them to try out my code design for this crate.

In this crate, that depends on Thin Walls above, you actually control a character, and, tada! you have a team of enemies that can attack you with melee or ranged attacks. This crate is about creating the dumbest AI that I could think of.

It’s still blocked by the lack of pathfinding and some features in visibility on Thin Walls, but hey, I’m getting close to that.

Here is the Combat crate example. Looks a bit like LaserTag room, isn’t it?

Some of Snorri’s new animations and ArthurVista’s environment. Slightly NSFW… well, not really. We just need the naked base to start animating different clothes on top of it.

A feature that was long due, integration with Tiled editor.

It uses so called Wang tiles to mark up the walls on the map, so the editor can design not only visuals, but also a topology of the map. In future, we will expand the number of tile kinds that game engine “understands” in the map.

It’s still rough around the edges, rendering order needs to be improved, but it’s the beginning.

Temporary character credit: body/female/reptiles/red_winged.png: by Nila122, Johannes Sjölund (wulax), Stephen Challener (Redshrike) on OpenGameArt one two three.

Hello everyone. It’s been a while since we posted on this blog, so I felt like we should do a little re-introduction about our studio and the project we’re working on. 

For the past several years, we’ve been working on a role-playing video game called “Stepsons of the Universe”. It is a game, in which you explore a strange anachronistic sci-fi world, where humanity has split itself into communities, each mirroring a specific part of the real-world history. 

You begin your journey in a rural area, where tribes of people live as if the Neolithic period has never ended. You’ll have to find a way to survive in these harsh conditions, as well as take part in local conflicts. As you venture further into the world, your surroundings change, almost as if you’re going forward in time. You’ll find places that are stuck in the Medieval era, or in a Renaissance era, or maybe a series of settlements engaged in a miniature version of the Cold War (though, do keep in mind that the specific historical eras, that are going to be featured in the game, are not currently set in stone). 

A mock-up image using in-game assets of how the game is potentially going to look. Not the final product

As you progress, you’ll learn new skills, acquire new equipment, and complete various main and side quests. Along the way, you’ll have to interact with an AI named SHTURO and share information with it, as you both attempt to find out what happened to humankind in this universe and how to stop an incoming world-ending cataclysmic event. 

Our ultimate goal is to create a unique role-playing experience with an engrossing narrative, a fast-paced dynamic combat system, as well a distinct visual style. We want to make a game inspired by the classics that we grew up with, such as the original Fallout, Rogue, Chrono Trigger, Ultima IV, and many others. 

Players will be able to craft their own character, with a certain set of skills and stats, each of which will affect their future play style and unlock certain branches of the storyline, some of which are only available to characters with specific stats. 

The game will feature a turn-based tactical combat, inspired by the likes of Jupiter Hell and All walls must fall. Both the player and the NPCs make their turns at the same time, so when a player takes a shot from a gun the enemy does so as well, and bullets, projectiles and other types of attack all take time either determined by a specific animation, or a speed of projectile. So as the enemy shoots at you, you have a chance to dodge or take cover, as the bullet takes time to reach its target. It’s a much faster, more aggressive style of combat than the ones we usually see in turn-based RPGs, where in crowded battles you can spend a lot of time just waiting for all enemies to take their turns.
What’s unique about our combat system is that the players will have a choice to either take a combat action, or a speaking action. Instead of swinging away at the enemy or shooting from a bow or a gun, you can try talking to them mid-battle, persuading them to stop fighting, betray their comrades, or maybe intimidate them into surrender. This action will also take time, so you’ll have to choose between fighting and talking. Not all battles can be resolved with words though, so be careful. This particular aspect is inspired by tabletop role-playing games, where there is always an option to talk as a secondary action during your turn. This part of role-playing experience has been historically very overlooked when it comes to translating tabletop rules into the medium of video games.

A few words about our team

As of now, we’re a small and humble bunch. We call our team “Spooky Action at A Distance”, or SaaaD for short, which is a cheeky reference to the fact that most of us live quite far from each other and have never met in person.

I’ll start with myself. My name is Snorri, and I’m the narrative lead on the game. I’m the one writing the story, and the dialogue, I design and plan all the quests, and, as of recently, I am also making animations for the game (gotta use that Animator’s degree for something). Before coming onto this project, I’ve been mostly writing TV Shows and feature films. My short film, “Hyperion: a scholar’s tale” has also been featured in an International animation festival Animator in Poznan. 

Next up is @HughHoyland, who is the project founder as well as the lead programmer. “Stepsons of the Universe” is an old dream project of his that he originally started with some of his friends. He has brought me onboard in 2021 and we’ve been working ever since.

The art of our game has been so far mostly done by the talented arthur_vista (you can find more of their work here). They make our sci-fi nonsense look extremely pretty and appealing to the eye. We are extremely lucky to have them.

There is also Maria, a Senior Researcher in Ukrainian Centre of Marine Ecology. Decided to switch her career to software development and is now making great progress in Rust, because marine research in Ukraine will be hazardous until the total demining of the Black Sea.

It’s about now that I should also point out that all members of our team are from Ukraine, and most of us are still living there despite the 2022 invasion. We’re making good progress on the game, but as you might understand, working while under constant threat of bombing raids, blackouts, and other hazards is quite tough. We have already lost at least one member of our team to this war, and we can’t know for sure what will happen to us next. So while we’re committed to finishing this thing, there will most certainly be setbacks and maybe even bigger problems. Please, be patient with us.

As of now, we have a functional game prototype, over 250 pages of written dialogue and quest descriptions, and some very nice pixel-art character models and assets.
I’m hoping to give you more updates in the future, and starting from now I will try to write more development updates on this page.