atraylor – Looking Outwards 06

For this blog post, I chose Ben Hemmendinger’s Wayfarer. This project is a randomly generated dungeon crawler game that is reminiscent of old text-based and 2D RPG games made with processing. This game is a blend of 2D and 3D graphics and is largely about exploration. There are items that you can find to defend yourself and attack monsters in the dungeons. I’m interested in this project because it’s simple and yet complex. There’s a certain charm in the 8 bit graphic style, top down projection (somewhat 0rthographic), and simple goals for simple ends. Unfortunately, my computer won’t let me play the game, but it seems from the Q&A page that the game is challenging. I also scanned the project website and I couldn’t find any specifics on the type of randomness used to produce the game, however you could make the assumption that the randomness needs to be limited for the game to be plausibly playable. Wayfarer is still under development, and I hope to see its end result. Even though it seems rudimentary, games like this show how simplicity can still be engaging.

Wayfarer wiki