I know I've probably asked this somewhere else before, but I really want to make a dungeon crawler type game. Any ideas on where to get started? Maybe even an example or two?
Hello!
We had a similar conversation here: https://itch.io/t/2839532/how-does-one-roguelike-a-bitsy.
I think that Bitsy is quite suitable for making simple dungeon-crawling games. It all depends on your particular design vision and the scope of your ambitions, of course. Like, it's pretty easy to make room-to-room movement and even some sort of randomization, but I don't see how you can make combat or inventory management without some extensive hacking.
As I see it, it depends on whether you would like to make it real-time or not. If we're talking about Adventure's level of simplicity, you can go the easy way and just check when the player approaches the monster if they have a weapon or not. You can even add some probability to determining whether the strike will hit or miss, and make a simple hit points system. However, it might get a bit more complicated and messy, as you will be dealing with a lot of branching lists within branching lists.
I would say that if you want to use any autonomous movement to the NPC, you will have to use hacks.
I've made basic RPG-type fighting in Bitsy using only super super basic coding knowledge I got from learning the BASIC programming language for about 2 days. All you really have to program is:
- Set player health, player level / strength, enemy health , enemy level / strength as global variables.
- Upon contact with enemy, set random number (you may have to write extra code to set up a faked random number as real random numbers may not be supported - I can't remember what I did). Add your strength or level number to this random number. Subtract that from enemy health.
- If health is less than 0, game over. If enemy health is less than 0, enemy disappears (and you gain 10 exp or whatever). If you reach xx exp, add a point to strength or whatever.
My code did not use any special graphics for when you attack, or have the enemy chase and attack you first, or anything like that. As I said, I figured out how to do it in 2 days of learning BASIC and didn't know any other coding languages, so it is definitely not an advanced thing. You really only need to know if / then statements, variables, global variables, and basic math.
Hi, Akaki. Just like to add a link here that you could've used to help with your project:
https://github.com/david-c14/BitsyTrix/wiki/RPG-Fight
I have other useful links concerning Bitsy, as well, but that should help give even more insight into making Bitsy RPGs. :D
Wow, cool technique! Gives me some ideas for new games instantly :)
Really appreciate your wiki, btw. I think it's a really good way to organize knowledge on different Bitsy tricks. Do you consider accepting contributions from other people? I would gladly share some of the techniques I've developed for my games!
Hi, Valeriy. Deepest apologies. I'm not david-c14, it's just 1 of a few links I'd found while doing more research on Bitsy awhile back. Wish I could take the credit, but my knowledge is more limited when it comes to variables and such, and certainly not as good as yours, Akaki's, Andrew Yolland, etc, not even as knowledgable as Adam's, the man himself. I've learned a fair amount about Bitsy via searches when looking for workarounds and such, but still not spent as much time in Bitsy as I'd like, 'til I can devote more time to it. In the meantime, I really appreci8 all u guys and the others who've imparted their own Bitsy wisdom over the past few years, and I seek to learn even more. Once again, sorry if u thot I was him, IDK that could be how my post was read or interpreted. :)