Book Image

Procedural Content Generation for C++ Game Development

By : Dale Green
Book Image

Procedural Content Generation for C++ Game Development

By: Dale Green

Overview of this book

Procedural generation is a growing trend in game development. It allows developers to create games that are bigger and more dynamic, giving the games a higher level of replayability. Procedural generation isn’t just one technique, it’s a collection of techniques and approaches that are used together to create dynamic systems and objects. C++ is the industry-standard programming language to write computer games. It’s at the heart of most engines, and is incredibly powerful. SFML is an easy-to-use, cross-platform, and open-source multimedia library. Access to computer hardware is broken into succinct modules, making it a great choice if you want to develop cross-platform games with ease. Using C++ and SFML technologies, this book will guide you through the techniques and approaches used to generate content procedurally within game development. Throughout the course of this book, we’ll look at examples of these technologies, starting with setting up a roguelike project using the C++ template. We’ll then move on to using RNG with C++ data types and randomly scattering objects within a game map. We will create simple console examples to implement in a real game by creating unique and randomised game items, dynamic sprites, and effects, and procedurally generating game events. Then we will walk you through generating random game maps. At the end, we will have a retrospective look at the project. By the end of the book, not only will you have a solid understanding of procedural generation, but you’ll also have a working roguelike game that you will have extended using the examples provided.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Procedural Content Generation for C++ Game Development
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgment
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Chapter 9. Procedural Dungeon Generation

Perhaps the most iconic and defining feature of roguelike games is their procedurally generated levels. This is one of the main features that contributes to the replayability that the genre is renowned for having. It keeps the game fresh and challenging and the players on their toes.

Throughout the course of this book, we've progressed from the simple generation of single numbers to the implementation of complex procedural behavior, such as path finding. It's time for our pièce de résistance: procedurally generating our levels. In addition to this, we'll also work on making levels more distinct using the functions that we created in Chapter 6, Procedurally Generating Art.

In this chapter, we'll cover the following topics:

  • The benefits of procedurally designing levels

  • Maze generation

  • Room generation

  • Tile mapping