DevLog 30 - Dice & Melon

by tobi Paul

cover image It’s 40°C outside, and here I am once again writing in the Paul Diary.Hello, I’m Tobi. Every week I write about the development process of our game Paul. Paul combines turn-based combat, dungeon crawling and exploring in a hand-designed world. The DevLog is for me to reflect on and document production stages, but of course also for all those who are interested in how Paul’s world gradually takes shape.

Alongside some animation work and a few code fixes, the main focus lately has been upgrades. The idea behind the upgrade system is to let players experiment with different upgrade combinations throughout a run, each of which can have a significant impact on how the game is played. Do you prefer to keep your distance and make enemies disappear from afar? Should luck play a major role in combat, or do you favor complete predictability? These considerations all influence which upgrades a player chooses. Figuring out where and when those upgrades become available is what currently occupies my thoughts. Which brings me to the next topic:

Linearity and Predictability

As a former animator, I’m used to telling stories in a linear fashion: from A to B. This mindset tends to find its way into my game design as well. Randomness rarely plays a major role, and paths are often carefully laid out in advance. This often makes everything feel too predictable, causing the game world to seem rigid and lifeless. It’s missing a touch of chaos, so to speak.

The Problem with the Dice

There have been attempts to let Paul move through completely or partially procedurally generated levels. In these generated worlds, an invisible dice would decide which room came next. Unfortunately, this resulted in an experience that felt too uniform and lacked memorable highs and lows. In the end, the worlds felt exactly like they were created: stitched together by a dice.

Away with the Dice

So I decided to handcraft the level structure, at least for now. The goal was to create an engaging linear progression with a satisfying gameplay rhythm. Randomness is kept to a minimum, and nearly everything is predictable.

Dice, Come Back In!

Now that I have a solid linear foundation, I’m gradually reintroducing procedural elements and giving randomness another chance. Branching paths are being added, some objects may appear or not depending on the run, enemy positions are randomized, and, bringing us back to upgrades, the upgrade shops now feature randomized inventories.

That’s the battle I’m fighting at the moment, but I’m feeling optimistic about it. For now, I’m off to grab a melon from the fridge.
Have a great week and enjoy the summer (if it happens to be summer where you are).
Best,
Tobi alt text

Try out an early Version of Paul