Hello everyone! Since its judging day, it would be a good time to post information about our game "Cubic explorer" and MaruGen You can check the game here, along with the source code and more! Any kind of ratings/comments are very welcome: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/cubic-explorer

Introduction to MaruGen: MAchinations RUleset GENerator

I created this framework for my master's thesis in computer science, works on the Unity Engine and it takes the basic ideas from the Mission/Space and machinations frameworks, created by Joris Dormans.

You can check more of his work in these free documents in which I based the main points: http://www.jorisdormans.nl/article.php?ref=engineering_emergence

https://github.com/vrozen/MM-Lib/blob/master/mm/doc/fdg2014paper34.pdf

But is no use to have a framework without proving it. That is why this game was created. Taking advantage of the Ludumdare Contest, I decided to make a game with the help of @okuroy.

How MaruGen works

MaruGen is based on the idea of "basic rules" of designing spaces and mechanics. Say, for example, you have a simple place (a cube in Cubic Explorer)

And now you can define two special rules on how your space grows. First there is an extension rule from the first place: And then a bifurcation rule:

These rules are good with your game design, you have tested them and you know work well. So what happens if we mix them, and iterate a random number of times? We may get these kinds of graph, with only two rules!

This is the core work for MaruGen, the idea of getting simple rules to make complex results. In more precise terms, these are called "L-Systems". These are also used for mechanics and inner rules in the game.

You can play our game and check out MaruGen in the link at the top!