Chen Aoxuan, a student of the Department of Digital and Additive Technologies at St. Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design, has developed a computer game in the roglike genre with basic random card generation, random rewards and paths.
The mission of the Chinese student's pixel game character is to purify books distorted by external forces and eliminate enemies that should not originally be in the texts. In case of failure, the character does not die, but gets the opportunity to restart the level. The players here face different choices each time and use different combinations to complete the boss challenges.
The characteristic features of the classic roglike game are randomly generated levels, turn—based approach and the irreversibility of the character's death — in case of his death, the player cannot download the game and must start it over. Such games are set in an epic fantasy setting strongly influenced by tabletop role-playing games.
The most important aspect of the project's game design, according to Chen Aoxuan, is the logic of the game itself and its code. He developed the design of characters and maps through numerous comparisons and selections using elements and tools in a special program. The game is made in animation and pixel style and is casual, that is, with simple mechanics and clear gameplay, designed for a wide audience. Such games do not require deep knowledge or skills to master, they are suitable for playing on the go.
The implementation of the project was divided by the developer into two main parts: code implementation and animation matching.
"Among the functionality of the code, there are many aspects, the most complex of which are the system of procedural generation and the relationship of character states with the interface. Writing the code took up a significant part of the entire project. As for animation, using the functionality of the engine itself, the animations I created were visually compared with the code, after which debugging was carried out," says Chen Aoxuan.