Creating a World for my Indie Game (Procedural Generation) || Keeper Devlog 1

Keeper is a pixel art survival game. The initial idea is that you need to protect a fire and keep it from going out, while collecting materials to craft new tools to help you out. The world is procedurally generated using cellular automata, like a 2D version of Minecraft (thanks to Sebastian Lague for the tutorial).
This week I made some pixel art for the game in Aseprite. This was for the dinosaur, ghost, and slime NPC's/enemies. The game is made in the Unity game engine. I also made a simple AI for the enemies and NPC's.
This is the first game I've made after LD46 (Ludum Dare 46).
Join the Discord! discord.me/nextprogram

[@PretendCoding]

Dude! I never thought of using cellular automata for generation like that. It totally makes sense though, good job man.

[@nextProgram]

Yeah it's pretty cool! I did get the idea from Sebastian Lague, though

[@benowen8321]

@@nextProgram Try perlin noise if you can be bothered. it will generate more interesting map shapes.

[@torgnyandersson403]

@@nextProgram I've made interesting maps with cellular automatas by scaling the cellular grids every Nth generation and add some noise. That tends to create more large-scale shapes.

[@MrKohlenstoff]

I'm so used to people explaining the "I'm using this thing called Perlin Noise which generates a random heightmap which we can then use to translate the height data into which tiles to use" kind of approach that I was seriously surprised when you mentioned cellular automata. Great idea, and neat results!

[@nextProgram]

Thanks! Though it was Sebastian Lague's idea, not mine

[@kat5607]

OMG IKR

[@legendeca5535]

can you please give me the generation code

[@legendeca5535]

the map generation

[@legendeca5535]

can someone pls give me the map code :-:

[@rozvieta]

I love the fact you're admiting to your mistakes. It's immensly comforting to see that everyone struggle. :)

[@nextProgram]

Yeah the mistakes I show in the video are only the interesting ones, I make so many more

[@ron0gamingplayz102]

XD

[@revimfadli4666]

It also helps gaining insight to the development, compared to paranoid perfectionist coders...

[@teamdoodz]

I dunno if you will do this, but please make the camera more zoomed out by default. A survival game with this premise needs a better view of the world. Anyway, nice game!

[@nextProgram]

team doodz yep, I did that this week

[@69bruh]

Or just allow the player to choose default veiw...

[@Despacitoian]

Addikted Montage veiw?

[@69bruh]

The Despacitoian allow the player to choose if its zoomed out by default or not

[@tovi3280]

Addikted Montage that is a prolly unintentional oof right there

[@ysmqthlqyh]

Ok cool game and all but the bugs at 1:42 are absolutely hilarious

[@karai5082]

I love the fact that you didn’t use some form of Perrin noise, like everyone else does

[@Gomace]

I really liked how the procedural generation turned out :D

[@Atropos148]

OMG i love how you show the mistakes as well :D its nice to see someone admit everything that goes into the process of making a game, you just earned a sub from me

[@tiziocaio7115]

Love the video! Just a little piece of advice: your tile update function should look at a static snapshot of the grid taken before updating it. Otherwise your tiles will look at the neighbours you just changed, which they shouldn't. You can see this is the case because your maps have a strong bias towards generating bottom-left-to-top-right diagonals. I'm saying this because I implemented thid algorithm before. I actually like this kind of pattern, but I think you should know the reason for it.

[@arsam3292]

Cant wait to play this game, looks good rn

[@nextProgram]

Thanks! It will hopefully be done in at least a few weeks, but we'll see how far I want to go with it

[@mutater7578]

I just saw this, and I wanted to say this game looks absolutely amazing so far! You've also given me a good idea for my game too! Thank you :)

[@nextProgram]

Glad I could help, let me know how it goes!

[@rubendw2487]

Wow! This game looks amazing! I'm working on an rpg myself in which I implemented precedural island generation this week. This video was really inspiring thanks!

[@nextProgram]

Ruben DW awesome, good to hear!

[@tejasagarkar2478]

Great work in 1 week!!!🙏👍

[@mateocsaba8801]

So, I just found this channel and I'm loving your videos, you're great man, keep it up!

[@nextProgram]

Mateo thank you, that means a lot!!

[@loganpetri7005]

This is really cool. You are very good at making game and I really like your art! I was surprised to see you have less than 1000 subs. Keep up the good work man

[@nextProgram]

Logan Petri thank you, I appreciate it!

[@brub8175]

Just found the video and I’m already intrigued

[@thegamerecommender3917]

I’ve seen up to episode three of the devlog now and I’ve gotta say, this game looks impressive and definitely has potential. I can’t wait to see how big it gets in the future :D

[@nextProgram]

Thanks!

[@abdel4455]

A game built on the concept of keeping a fire alive... dude that's a really cool example of making something interesting out of a simple idea. It inspires me to try something like that with my own idea. Great video and can't wait to see where it goes!

[@nextProgram]

Thanks, good luck!

[@cameronfrankish3264]

Looks really neat. Can’t wait to follow your development journey further.

[@nextProgram]

Thanks, hope you stick around!

[@squid4658]

This video is rich with great information and also very entertaining! Awesome job man!

[@nextProgram]

Thank you, good to hear!

[@RetrovoiD]

This looks so awesome! Super excited to follow this games journey

[@nextProgram]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@peluk1999]

Can't wait to see more of this! Looks super nice, keep up the good work! greetings from Argentina.

[@nextProgram]

Gracias por el apoyo, saludos desde Canadá :)

[@PeterMilko]

Interested in a collab of sorts? Id love to do the art for your game and advertise it.

[@frogballoon]

Hey, I'm a big fan! You inspired me to do pixelart :D I don't really think he's going to be checking the comments for this video anymore, though...

[@nextProgram]

Frogballoon I do still check all my comments haha. Pete and I talked about it on Twitter :)

[@DevDrawer]

Dude, your videos get better and better each. Good job. I am interested to see what you have next. This looks like the start to a cool game.

[@nextProgram]

Hello again, thanks I appreciate it! Also, weird thing, it seems like KZbin sometimes marks your comments as spam? No idea why, and it seems like it's only the comments you make.

[@DevDrawer]

@@nextProgram Well, that sucks. I don't comment much since I only follow a few people so I don't know where that comes from. I don't think I am doing anything that would cause it but I wouldn't even know who I would reach out to about it. Regardless, great work.

[@nextProgram]

DevDrawer yeah I just thought I’d let you know. A lot of other comments I get are marked as spam even when they’re clearly not. Something wrong with the system I guess? But anyway thanks again!

[@jordan_private]

I just have to thank you for leading me to Sebastian Lague's videos on cellular automata. Even though you didn't go to technical here, the comments on his videos helped by fix some key issues with using cellular automata for generating islands.

[@nextProgram]

Jordan - Private Glad I could help!

[@TheLeeZen]

Looks great mate! love the generation, and look of the island/islands. Theres two things that bug me visually though, first is the lack of outline on your main character, which you mention your self, and the second one is that the trees are way more detailed, makes them feel like they are way higher resolution, id say either up the amount of shading/coloring on everything else, or stick to your simple style and remove one or two layers of lighting on the trees!

[@jadepatterson6326]

This would definitely be my go to game. Awesome creation btw.

[@nextProgram]

Thank you!

[@chloec4127]

KZbin has recommended me these videoes I think I’m trying to create my own video game called Lyre in my spare time. I’m happy because its also 2D in Unity, but I think I’m gonna try 32 bit. This video is really interesting and I can’t wait to watch more!

[@FuelledByCaffeine]

I like the art style, the slime is so cute :D

[@nextProgram]

Thank you! The slimes took a while to get right haha

[@KindagoodAtguitar]

Super cool channel! You deserve more recognition! Keep up the good work!

[@nextProgram]

Thanks, will do!

[@rorycormack7577]

I love how this game looks already and I am looking forward to the next video

[@nextProgram]

Rory Cormack awesome! I’m working on it right now

[@Aydwn]

This looks great so far! It would be cool to see a bunch of different dinosaur variants

[@nextProgram]

Werewolf Plays That can be done!

[@dr__nite]

Seems cool, good luck!

[@nextProgram]

Илья Смирнов спасибо ;)

[@Hoijof]

Damn that's a good video. Great job! :D

[@nextProgram]

Thanks!

[@DonBoczini]

wow, this already looks cool !

[@daichi_devs]

Really loving the vibe. Look forward to more of your videos!

[@nextProgram]

Thanks, I appreciate it! It's hard to find the motivation sometimes but comments like this keep me going

[@daichi_devs]

@@nextProgram are you kidding me! you make great stuff, and you can also tell from the other comments that you've got lots of fans!

[@Carrotgold]

This is awesome. Looking foward for the next :)

[@nextProgram]

Derp_ thanks, it’ll be posted early tomorrow!

[@appleclip1]

this is awesome i really like the 16 x 16 art style its really nice on the eyes

[@vy_productions]

I didn't even know what cellular automata was until seeing this, but I apparently have already used it to generate terrain. It just seemed like the most logical thing to do when tiles were surrounded by similar tiles.

[@nextProgram]

That's pretty cool

[@floko7444]

exciting project!! gonna scroll on ur channel for updates ;3

[@freljord2433]

cool idea keep it up man!

[@nextProgram]

Freljord thanks!

[@skelecats1701]

Looks great! Defenlutely going to be a good.

[@nextProgram]

Hope so haha

[@Tantandev]

That proceduall world generation is bonkers!

[@kyle.nguyen]

Looks cool!

[@nextProgram]

Kyle Nguyen Thanks!

[@NeatGames]

*Subscribed* Dang I love the pixelart style!. The island generator is crazy cool!! Will this be a rogue like survival game? Keep it up and super entertaining devlog, I just started doing them too :D

[@nextProgram]

Thanks! It probably won't be a roguelike

[@mathantasticproductions4992]

Nice work man

[@nextProgram]

Appreciate it!

[@edgarallandough9480]

Sweet game! Love the art!

[@nextProgram]

Thanks!

[@zillaquazar]

I have subscribed, I like the cute dinosaurs they gave me some yoshi vibes

[@realcolby]

You should add a warped circle mask for the islands by lerping between some perlin noise and a circle to make the islands have less obvious edges

[@dominatoryprograms7296]

Haven't watched or anything as yet but the idea sounds fun n the thumbnail looks promising so I'ma sub n try keep up w it. Here is support from one indie game dev to another! I'm also working on a game got dev logs on my channel also but for the 3DS for now when completed I'ma port it to android and pc.

[@Hades948]

This is pretty dope!

[@TheLegendsOfTynedale]

I like your presentation style. Nice one 🙂

[@nextProgram]

The Legends of Tynedale good to hear!!

[@SimulationWithDaniel]

This looks so cool! I also want to make a game like that, but I've only got limited coding skills (Gamemaker) and I'm shit at pixelart. Keep it up, love your videos

[@nextProgram]

Thanks! Keep it up, I was terrible a couple years ago but I just kept working at it!

[@batallasolari]

Cool work 👍

[@nextProgram]

Thanks 👍

[@trafficface]

Smiling, very good!

[@nextProgram]

:)

[@turkialashiekh]

Great video.

[@batcat2338]

AWESOME VIDEO, thank you.

[@nextProgram]

Glad you liked it!

[@nerdingfreak4667]

lovely concept, keep at it :D

[@nextProgram]

Thanks, will do!

[@sketchyscotch2869]

Seems like a really cool game

[@matejminar7373]

Looks nice! You will have to make sure to be consistend with your outlines( none or everywhere or only all enemys,...)

[@nextProgram]

Matej Minar yep, like I said I’m going to outline the player!

[@garyordog]

Good Job!

[@metawarp7446]

Got me subscribed only with one video!

[@blekcode1416]

underrated

[@brandons2501]

I reallyyyyyyyy like this :) subbed

[@blendergamedevelopment1030]

Looks awesome! Have a good day :)

[@nextProgram]

Thanks! You too!

[@paulblart7378]

Awesome, been following the development since this came out, can't wait to get the completed game! Quick question for my own game dev purposes, how did you handle the enemy roaming AI? Is it anything more complicated than "pick a random spot within a given distance every x seconds and move directly towards it"? What if there's an object in the way? What about enemies that chase the player? However you did it here looks very natural, though I'm not sure how you'll be handling chasing without pathfinding or something. Thanks in advance!

[@vespirbelmont3131]

Overall it's looking really nice dood!

[@nextProgram]

Thanks!

[@ashton_stubbie]

I love that paper mario style player animation

[@nextProgram]

Glad someone noticed haha

[@zacattack8123]

Love the video

[@falxie_]

Your character is just hoppin'

[@christianloizou4463]

Nice implementation, gave me an idea for generation for a 2D tile game i’m working on as a mini project. Just so you know, there aren’t an infinite number of maps. There are a finite number before the cellular automaton is applied and that actually decreases the number possible. Still a very large number though 😊

[@nextProgram]

Christian Loizou There are effectively an “infinite” number since the map can be arbitrarily large, though obviously there will be an upper bound on what a computer can generate in a reasonable time :)

[@rattt.]

im trying to make a game my self (that was my dream) and you have really cool ideas. So... i subbed

[@nextProgram]

That was my dream too, go for it!

[@VuVuuKaeGore]

this some real gamer shit, looks great!

[@VanillaMidgetSSBM]

One of the things you can do to make this more interesting is using Seeded RNG since you start the Cellular Automata with Random distribution. Seeded RNG would allow you to Save level seeds so that you can come back to a world or even more, you can share seed information with other players when creating a new world.

[@batcat2338]

AMAZING

[@junielovesu]

This looks so cute

[@ron0gamingplayz102]

the art style looks just like that of the game "worldbox!"

[@UnrealEngineTutorials]

Looks awesome. How do you draw and record like that?

[@isto_inc]

I love the dinosaurs. They remind me of the google dinosaur from the Chrome game :)

[@nextProgram]

True haha. Thanks for stopping by!

[@rakshasharma6656]

I think the water is too much, maybe make more larger land as the dude looks way bigger that the land, btw awesome

[@clydemarindo3177]

awesome man, but i recommend you to use perlin noise rather than cellular autometa for a genaration with more variation and can be used for infinite generation(only a suggestion).

[@canfieldlim8114]

So this is how the world generated.

[@tiskolin]

Please check out Unity 2d-extras if you haven't already, it makes your life a thousand times easier when working with rule tiles in tilemaps.

[@nextProgram]

Yep, that's what I'm using

[@BlueGooGames]

Cool! Thank you youtube for suggesting this devlog:) we also have pcg level generation and it’s very interesting:) do you have any logic to fill the world with interesting items, plants etc or is it just random?

[@nextProgram]

Thanks! As of right now it's just random

[@siege4130]

The game looks good rn..I hope I can play this when you finish the game....

[@nextProgram]

Siege yep, stick around!

[@yeahyeahdevs8203]

Awesome vid

[@nextProgram]

YeahYeahDevs thanks!

[@yeahyeahdevs8203]

Your Underappreciated

[@casualdutchman]

Love the devlog, very nice style! Love that you show your idea and prototyping phase before showing the end result! Just a word of advice. If you want to make the word infinite at some point, using tilemaps will be such a pain.

[@nextProgram]

Casual_Dutchman Thanks for the feedback! Why would tilemaps not work well for that?

[@casualdutchman]

@@nextProgram because the tilemap is intended to be either made before the game is build or generated at the start, since the SetTiles functions is not optimized to work well with runtime adjustments

[@nextProgram]

Casual_Dutchman huh, I didn’t know that. What would you recommend instead?

[@casualdutchman]

@@nextProgram if you want an infinite procedural terrain system, I would suggest you make a chuck class, which holds and array of spriterenderers. This allows you to control how it spawns, gets re-used and how it looks

[@nextProgram]

Casual_Dutchman thanks, I’ll look into that. What exactly is a chuck class, though? I couldn’t find anything online

[@OwlBeats58]

This will be awsome, really inspiering

[@evolvedustry5510]

Quick question, why did you use Cellular Automata instead of something like Perlin noise? For my game, which is also a 2d survival game (found on channel), I use Perlin noise to generate all the terrain and has the added benefit of being able to respawn worlds on different systems and can procedurally generate nearly infinite worlds. The automata method looks just as good! Good luck with your project and the project looks awesome!

[@jipdepretparkbouwer]

Such a awesome game! It has a really charming art style. Do you have any recommendations for a game engine I could use to really start creating games?

[@nextProgram]

Unity!

[@AnirudhIsOnline]

Nice 😃

[@nextProgram]

Anirudh Is Online thanks!

[@truth8483]

dude your video is hilrarious

[@shiina011]

Hi I just discover your channel and you're doing amazing with the rule tiling! How do you make it? I'm using Cellular Automata too and I just found that a simple tileset is not good because there are many possibilities needed. Does every possibility only come from your tileset in 1:10 ?

[@CraigHinrichs]

Very cool, following.

[@nextProgram]

Craig Hinrichs awesome, hope to see you around!

[@maxthegermanshepherd8942]

Maybe you could add a base building aspect, and a " Technology level " aspect? That would be super cool. And the fire would be at the center of the colony? Also, the NPC's or enemies would die in the light of the fire, is you would have to get wood to keep the fire going, so that the enemies would not come and kill you. And also, could the size of the base be determined by the fire?

[@artyway2131]

Hey, how did u make the terrain generator to wark in 2d... I mean I tried 3 different things but every single time the terrain generation is inversed, it goes in z axis not in y axis.... would be cool if you explain in a video how did you make that

[@SamuelJFord]

Nice

[@nextProgram]

Thanks!

[@levis6579]

What software do you use for your artwork? Also i'm just beginning to pick up game design and I've started out on python arcade. Should I stick with that for now or not bother and just switch to unity? Great videos btw I've watched them all in the past day.

[@levis6579]

Also is it fine to do art work with a mouse? Or is it worth investing in a drawing pad? I'm an awful artist btw.

[@nextProgram]

Cool! I use Aseprite for art and I currently just use a mouse. I’d recommend using a game engine like Unity if you want to make games. They cut out a ton of tedious work and let you get to a product much, much faster

[@levis6579]

@@nextProgram Thank you so much. I currently switched to learning c# so I can eventually make game in unity. Thank you for the advice and keep up the good work. All of your videos are a joy.

[@dgamer5405]

this seems like it has a lot of potential great work. also pleasemake the dinos hostile but tamable and ridable with food from cows or smthn idk

[@nextProgram]

D GAMER Good idea! I should do that

[@itsafish4600]

Wow

[@nextProgram]

Wow