DeepWorlds

Concept

An RPG where players explore worlds with each other, battle monsters, gather gear, currency, and solve puzzles. Players can interact with NPCs to uncover clues to hidden dungeons or even other worlds and engage with cozy farming or gathering activities to create consumables that boost their stats. Persistent data storage allows players to save their progress and encourages them to continue playing to reach higher levels and explore more difficult, unique worlds.

Features

Custom animated monsters to battle
Levelling, gear and currency collecting to unlock better gear
Keyboard to silently talk with NPCs allowing players who prefer not to speak to engage with dynamic content
Unique worlds to explore
Hidden dungeons and puzzles

Challenges we ran into

AI mesh generation usually has a high vertex count so I had to export to blender to reduce the number of vertexes which enabled me to create a highly detailed world with a lot of environment variability.

Persisting data, particularly items like gear was difficult and I still need to find a better way that doesn't require spawning multiple items into the game.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Custom animated NPCs and monsters make this world have a unique experience compared to other worlds and a game loop that encourages players to keep returning to grow their character and explore.

What we learned

The Horizon AI is a powerful tool especially with sound and mesh generation. Even the AI scripts frequently helped create a solid script that I could expand later myself.

What's next for Deepworlds

Expanding the world with more places to explore and enabling players to farm and create food dishes will give them a larger playground. Eventually I plan to add additional, more challenging, worlds that players can travel to when they feel strong enough.