ProD now and ProD in the future!

When there's more time I'm hoping to explain the details of the actual algorithms but at the moment I'll fill in some of the new functionalities I'm already working on for the next version:

1 - Using your own prefabs:

• Package has: Currently you can only use one kind of prefab/model in the package. I supplied the users with one Cell prefab that has a flat plane with minimum amount of triangles. Even though there's only one prefab, the code uses different materials for each cell type. In other words you can have the same tile shape everywhere, but you get to assign whatever texture you want on the tiles through materials. This allows you to create the basic visuals for your roguelike.

• Package will have: For this one, I'm hoping to bring the functionality of having multiple prefabs/models/textures for each cell type. I'm currently working with the Editor class in Unity so users will benefit from easy manipulation of these parameters. You will be able to assign whatever prefab to whichever cell type you want to. For example, if you want to have door prefabs with actual 3-D modeled doors in your dungeon and you want to have 4 different kinds of these door prefabs, you will be able to assign them in Unity's Inspector. Once you populate the prefabs in inspector, the game will be able replace the previously simple tiles with the prefabs you assigned.

Of course you may write your own scripts and use only the map data, but I'm hoping make a script that does it for you anyhow.

2 - Other supportive roguelike scripts:

• Package has: ProD has a few supportive scripts. Some of these scripts help you generate a player character in the map and move him using the numpad and the cursor keys. It's a really simple collection of algorithms at the moment but it suffices for what the package is.

• Package will have: There's a big collection of extra scripts I'd like to send out with ProD. I'd like the users to be able to not only create random dungeons but also enjoy a wide variety of simple scripts on purchase. Here are some of the additions I'm working on:
• Fog of war that will shade the non-visible parts of the map.
• Spawner for creatures, chests and other items. This may need a nice variety of algorithms to distinguish between rooms, corridors and where they should most likely spawn. 
• Auto-movement in case you want to advance to the next unexplored area on the map.
• Simple fighting and leveling system.
• Simple AI to fight back, chase and hunt you.

3 - Variety in procedural generation:

• Package has: You are supplied with dungeon, cavern and maze generation and can get a wide variety of maps by tweaking values the scripts present you with. You can even watch how the dungeon generation happens step by step with the help of a visualizer code in ProD. I tried to comment extensively so you can decipher the generator with ease.

• Package will have: There's a big variety of dungeon generation algorithms out there. I don't want to leave users with only few types. My aim is to broaden the package with more ways of making dungeons. Soon I will make another post explaining in detail how the algorithms work and expand more on what other ways of generation I want to include.

Cheers!

Tunc