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Frame from IRDC US 2015 - Brian Bucklew, Data-Driven Engines of Qud and Sproggiwood Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

IRDC US 2015 - Brian Bucklew, Data-Driven Engines of Qud and Sproggiwood

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1 HN user recommended this talk1 month2022–2024 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN points to it for insight into how the Caves of Qud developer thinks about game engines.

Brian Bucklew of Freehold Games discusses design decisions behind Caves of Qud and Sproggiwood at IRDC 2015. The talk centers on data-driven, event-driven engine design.

“If you're interested in how Brian thinks take a look at this video” (HN, 2023)

1 recommendations · 2 citations · Talks · intermediate

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@and0 Apr 2022 Cites it
on HN thread OpenMW becomes a general-purpose engine for isometric RPGs
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I'm pretty far into a project to create a Typescript framework for turn and tile-based (think roguelikes) client/server games: [link] . Mix of entity-component and event-driven design (inspired by Brian Bucklew [this video] and Thomas Biksup [link] , though looking now I'm surprised I landed on a similar but imo more robust event system as I was only looking at EC pattern at the time). Typescript means entity factories and their components can be fully written in the language rather than XML per the videos above, and people can for example distribute a package that is basically DnD5e or Pathfinder rulesets, custom world generators, or anything else to be plugged into a published game. Typical Minecraft "infinite" world data structure, handles binding up event system to component listeners automatically, (will soon) handles serialization, listeners are async generators ala Redux Saga for neat inversion of control and advanced patterns as needed. It doesn't have any specific frontends or clients (APIs and react hooks+utils exist but not super advanced yet, and a small WebGL renderer + react component), it's more a collection of objects that recursively process state updates in response to a user input until it finishes (like a classic console roguelike), and produce a serialized stream of events clients of any kind can listen to, completely agnostic to how any client may choose to represent it, so you could easily make a DM interface vs an interface for players connected to the same
Talk on data-driven, event-driven engine design in Caves of Qud.
@cdiamand Dec 2024 Cites it
on HN thread Mapping all 13.8 gigapixels of the Caves of Qud world map
I come back to it from time to time and play for a week. It looks like it's been getting more accessible over time, with a new UI update having been rolled out recently. There's definitely a certain mindset that helps make it more enjoyable. Imagination being key! From the technical side, the developers have peeled back the curtain on how they've created parts of the game: [this video] [link]
Developers explain technical design behind Caves of Qud.

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