Hello friends! There is so much work I’ve done on 0.9 already I cannot wait to share with you all, but I haven’t yet finished the “0.9 Dev Announcement” blog post, so in the meantime, here is procedural book generation. I am… incredibly happy with this. Books can be religious books, cult books, philosophy books, novels, history books, records of deaths, language books, and in the future we’ll add two more, nature books and fighting technique books. The colours on the side show the flag colours of the nation of origin (if they are compressed it’s a nomadic nation, if they are separate it is a feudal nation), the books also vary in width and depth and page colours, and the colours are generally informed by the nation’s flags but also sometimes other things. Quality is also reflected (low, medium, high) in various ways; a bookmark shows a scholarly nation; and a line on the spine shows an aesthetic nation. There are billions of permutations. They will appear as items in 0.9 (well on-track for a late 2021 release), and will be readable in 0.10 (aiming for late 2022 release). All (well, most, anyway!) will potentially contain some information about the world and / the hidden items you are looking for, whether explicitly, or through metaphor, or in some other way. Enjoy!

And another sixteen…

12 Comments

    • All those books to read…! Must be magical. (Universities are actually one of the final buildings / areas I intend to add at some point soon!)

  • Wow! Are there plans to make people’s reactions to the player’s books and knowledge in the future? And what about emotions like in Dwarf Fortress?

    • Thanks Denox! Yes, absolutely, 0.10 (2022) will feature a rehaul of the conversation system to allow for this type of stuff :). (Or possibly 0.9 in 2021 but let’s not get too ambitious…!)

  • I don’t think I’m supposed to judge a book by its cover… but these are awesome!
    I really like the little details you added like the bookmarkers and the colors on the bindings too.

    • Haha, thank you! Yes, a line on the binding means the nation has the “aesthetics” cultural choice and a bookmark means they have the “scholarship” one :).

  • As a librarian, this update delights me immensely! The generated codices look like they’re fairly crackling with hidden secrets. I’m also interested in how the books “will potentially contain some information about the world and / the hidden items you are looking for.” Will you tell us more about the planned URR quest(s) in a future dev update? I seem to recall the original idea having the player investigate some sort of conspiracy that had altered knowledge of the world’s history.

    • Yes, definitely! 0.9 is well on track for a 2019 release, then I’m hoping for 0.10 in 2020… and then maybe 1.0 straight after that?! But yes, more on this soon. That’s still basically the plan, you’re searching out items relating to this conspiracy hidden across the world, and books will be a central part of it :).

  • Hey Mark! Great update, thanks! Very impressive, scrolls and maps next?
    I just wanted to make sure – are you still planning to release 0.8.3 or you will work on it and hold the release until 0.9 is done? Last time you mentioned that you were working on 0.8.3 and 0.9 simultaneously.

    • Thanks Pavel! Oh yes, I have some amazing generated treasure maps to show off :). Yeah, I’m just going to hold 0.8.3 now and call it the earliest dev on 0.9. I’ll be doing a proper 0.9 announcement post either this coming week or the week after, hopefully, then updates about progress. Aiming to release last thing this year!

  • Wow, you’re actually gonna aim for these to be readable? Just having these generate like this is amazing as it is.

    • Oh heck yes! 0.9 is about trade, currencies, and travel, so “for now” they’re just trade goods; next year all texts will be generated!

Leave a Reply to Mark R Johnson Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *