Devlog #4 - Generating the city

Attention Fortuna citizens!

Programmer Mehrdad is here to talk about our inspirations for designing the large Constantinople-inspired city and the tools we are using to accomplish such a task. Watch the full video on the Kitfox Youtube:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The city of Fortuna is not a complete recreation of Constantinople but we’ve studied its design closely. Historically, Constantinople had a main road called the “Mese” (Greek for “middle”) that ran from the Palace to the Golden Gate. The mese famously went through many Plazas that were large structures that host various important locations, marketplaces and gathering areas such as the famous Hippodrome.

Reference image: "The Mese" by Antoine Helbert

In Streets of Fortuna, we started building the city using the mese as a starting point, adding plazas, roads and other features surrounding it. We want players to be able to explore or (exploit) the bustling mese while also being aware of the winding, maze-like side streets to retreat to. Maybe there’s a popular fruit vendor on the mese that can be distracted while you run away with a handful of apples!

Some of you commented on our last devlog about the lack of curves in the city. To make gameplay easier to program, we are currently generating the city using streets with only 90 degree angles but we have the capacity for 45 degree angles. You will see more road variety in the final build.

Mapping the city starting with the mese, then placing the plazas and then braching roads off of them.

There is much more to say about city generation but we’ll leave it at that for now. Mehrdad had a lot of fun making this devlog and definitely wants to come back for another!

Right now we’ve actually turned our attention away from city generation to more fully tackle gameplay — hungor, vigour, health, money, death, dialogue… plus creating locations, items, characters… there’s so much to do. What are some things you’re looking forward to doing most in the city? The devs are always hanging out in the Streets of Fortuna Discord to answer your questions.

Till next time,

Alexandra, Mehrdad and the rest of the Streets of Fortuna team