B E H I N D   T H E   S C E N E S

Here are screenshots of some of the tools used to create and test Zorbus.

Click on a picture to open it in real size. The screenshots are big (taken from a 2560x1600 screen).

There are also a couple of downloads available.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

The main game window is in the upper left corner. Below it is a full size debug window with a debug minimap and several logs. Everything is keyboard controlled. There are several hotkeys to help testing.

The debug minimap shows area numbers, monsters and items. The minimap is updated during gameplay showing how monsters move. If you target a monster in the game, the debug minimap shows its pathfind path.

A wizard window with several commands. You can list the areas, items and creatures from the level and quickly jump to one of them.

COMPLETE LEVEL automatically kills all hostile beings from the level (rewarding the player with xp from them) and dumps all valuable loot from the level to the player's location. COMPLETE UNTIL LEVEL does the same going from dungeon level to dungeon level until wanted depth is reached. This is very useful as you can balance midgame or endgame without actually playing from the start again and again.

AUTOPLAY sets the player to AI control and plays the game over and over, logging possible errors etc. Very useful for catching bugs.

FORCE CONTENT forces wanted content to current area. Useful for testing special handcrafted areas.

In the game's target mode you can select a creature, move it to a place, force it to pathfind to an area etc. You can also manipulate map blocks, add traps etc. Makes it easier to create scenarios for testing. The debug minimap shows the creature's pathfind path in yellow.

Effect list in the upper right corner. AI log in the bottom right corner. The second log on the right is for errors. The third log on the right is for miscellaneous debug output, currently showing audio related info. Debug minimap shows noise.

Map tester. This is a separate tool for debugging dungeon creation. Everything is logged. Seeds can be used to recreate problematic maps.

A downloadable random dungeon generator is available at dungeon.zorbus.net.

The dungeon builder can be run step-by-step. This has been a very useful feature.

Vault Editor. 1151 prefabs and counting. These are just map templates. The actual room content is not tied to a certain prefab but the area is randomly picked during map generation. The contents are described in text files.

Download the prefab maps in ASCII format: zorbus_vaults.zip (free to use, CC0 Creative Commons License).

Tile Studio makes it easier to build the tileset. Can do some basic image manipulation.

Brick & Mortar is a tool for creating wall and floor tiles for games with tile graphics. Download Brick & Mortar: bm.zip.

A downloadable random dungeon generator is available at dungeon.zorbus.net.