Good day, Ellarians!
Over the last two weeks, we took a tour of the world of Ellaria. First, we visited some of its most gorgeous landscapes and took a look at how the cities of its world will look like. But we also took our time showing indoor spaces such as houses, palaces or dungeons. This week we want to take a different look at Ellaria’s world and how the dev team has worked to make it procedurally generated so it always looks unique to our players.
Let’s start talking about the world map. Ellaria is huge and we wanted every region to have a unique flavor. How we managed to accomplish that? We have a set of map templates and a smart slot system that can fill that region with villagers, goblins, bandit camps, or other elements according to the faction that rules that area. This way, every location you visit will look different from the ones at other locations. This also means that you will find unique generated resources or enemies.
To make the world of Ellaria a unique place we had to design a system so each house was different from each other. We have worked on a system that changes its appearance on both the inside and the outside. Each house is connected to the biome it’s built, so when the map generates it, it also adds grass or flowers around it. Houses can have small, medium, or large sizes, and their insides are also procedurally generated. Each one has its own set of furniture and every piece of furniture also generates its items. For example, a bookshelf will have candlelights or books you can read. A cupboard will have cutlery and accessories that you can grab and trade in the market or the blacksmith to get some iron.
We have also worked to have unique dungeons in Ellaria’s world. They work similarly to our houses. We have a set of around 15 templates but each one of them generates different enemies, chests, and random resources so you won’t find two that look like the same. Speaking of resources, Ellaria is a good place to look and gather them. Resources can be useful if you want to trade them in the market and can also be used for other purposes, such as crafting weapons or armors. Lumber, gold, iron, stone, or food can be collected around Ellaria and you will have to find them at locations where they are supposed to be. So, look for stony structures to get stone or look for gold in bandit camps. You can also mine, chop, and farm to help boost your kingdom’s resources.
There’s one last item that we wanted to talk about today: rift stones. These magical stones are very rare, have great power, and give you very precious resources. You can trade them for gold, for research or to boost your kingdom’s production. But you can also use them to buy golems, activate portals, or craft special weapons. How you use their special power will be up to you… just remember to use it wisely!
That’s all for today. Ellaria’s world will be full of interesting places to discover and interact with, hidden caves, and interesting people to meet.
We hope you will be having as much fun exploring every corner of it as we are having while designing it!