7 Day Roguelike 2023: Bootstrapping, Boat Gameplay, Vision

It’s the end of my first day of hacking on this year’s 7DRL. My game will be called “Boat Journey”. It’s about driving a boat along a river with the goal of reaching the ocean without running out of fuel or otherwise becoming stranded, while picking up passengers who give you additional abilities.

Screenshot of gameplay showing the player standing on a boat adjacent to a small island

I’m intentionally going for a very minimal graphical style this year since the past few years I’ve found I spend more time on fancy graphics than I would like, and less time working on gameplay features.

I spent most of the day getting basic boat gameplay working. You can drive around in the boat, turning it in intervals of 45 degrees, toggle between driving the boat and walking around, and you can drive the boat slightly over walkable tiles which causes the edge of the boat to become walkable (denoted by a ‘=’ tile), allowing you to leave the boat. This is shown in the screenshot below.

Screenshot of gameplay showing the boat docked to the small island

I also spent some time on basic bootstrapping, getting doors to work, a visible area detection system, rendering and a subtle mist effect.