 [](https://codecov.io/gh/ndouglas/hornvale)
# Hornvale
Hornvale[ð](https://ndouglas.github.io/hornvale/) is an experimental, idiosyncratic game written in Rust. I was referring to it as a "prose-based roguelike", but now I'm thinking it might be more like "open-world interactive fiction".
I don't know if this is stupid or not. It's a more personal project than I typically throw on GitHub, and I'm making it up as I go.
For more (a lot more) on my approach to the project, check out the [book](https://ndouglas.github.io/hornvale/), which is pretty much what's going to serve as documentation.
## Major Ideas
The main thing I want to play with, that ties this to the roguelike tradition, is procedural content generation. But I'm also deeply embedded in interactive (and non-interactive) fiction, and MUDs, both of which tend to be intentionally authored experiences. The former is deeply invested in a notion of efficient storytelling, the latter in a more open-world concept with multiple narratives. I'd like to explore this area and figure out what sort of messes I can cause.
This is likely to be an incredible amount of work, and frankly, I don't really have a good history with regard to actually completing personal projects, so feel free to just cruise right by this one. Also, the fact that I've Unlicensed this is probably a good indicator of how much general appeal this project has.
But maybe this will be something that grows over time into something worth looking at.
## Prior Incarnation
A previous iteration, purely exploratory, can be found [here](https://github.com/ndouglas/hornvale-rust/). It was/is mostly just investigatory, figuring out what was possible, and whether I could bear to do it in Rust.
## Hornvale Subprojects
- [𧎠Biology](./src/biology/README.md) ðī: Biological, taxonomy and related subjects.
- [ðŧ Scripting Language](./src/scripting_language/README.md) ðĄ: Embedded programming language (based on [Lox](https://www.craftinginterpreters.com/)) and domain-specific library.
- [ðĶ Economics](./src/economics/README.md) ðī: Economic system, merchants, resources, scarcity.
- [âïļ Downdelving](./src/downdelving/README.md) ðī: Dungeons, mining, and the Underdark.
- [ð§ââïļ Anatomy](./src/anatomy/README.md) ðī: Anatomy and physiology, health, damage, poison, and regeneration.
- [ð Mythopoetics](./src/mythopoetics/README.md) ðī: Narrative/mythopoetic procedural content generation and tools.
- [ð The Book](https://ndouglas.github.io/hornvale/) ð : The book that I'm writing alongside this and using to guide my thoughts and ideas, etc.
- [ðŋ User Interface](./src/ui/README.md) ðī: Frontend and connective logic. As little as possible.
- [ðŠĶ Combat](./src/combat/README.md) ðī: Combat system, some closely related topics.
- [ðŽ Linguistics](./src/linguistics/README.md) ðī: Linguistics system permitting communication, bidirectional translation, etc.
- [ð§ Goal-Oriented Action Planning](./src/goap/README.md) ð : Part of psychology and Artificial Intelligence.
- [ðŧ Supernatural](./src/supernatural/README.md) ðī: Supernatural and metaphysical concepts, the thermodynamics of spirit.
- [ðŦ Astronomy](./src/astronomy/README.md) ð : Astronomical sciences, from the galaxy to the moon.
- [ð Geology](./src/geology/README.md) ðī: Geology and physical geography, for terrain generation at a macro and local scale.
- [ð§âðĪâð§ Sociology](./src/sociology/README.md) ðī: Social psychology and sociology, individual and group behavior.
**Status**: These indicators' meanings are subject to change as I progress.
- ðī: I haven't even started.
- ð : I've laid the groundwork, or at least taken some initial steps.
- ðĄ: It's serving some purpose, though far from complete.
- ðĒ: Working, although I'll never really consider it "feature complete".
- ðĩ: A vast radiant beach and cool jeweled moon, etc. Some evenings I just watch the test suites as they run.
## FAQ
#### Why are you generating stellar neighborhoods for an interactive fiction project?
Because I'm an idiot, most likely.
#### Is this singleplayer or multiplayer?
Singleplayer. A lot of this is informed by MUDs, but their nature (being multiplayer and easy to join) forces some design decisions on MUDs that I don't think I want to follow. For instance, I want to largely avoid grinding. Incredible levels of grinding can be required in MUDs because of Massively Online players, and I don't think that farming XP or skills is the experience I want to create.
#### Are you really calling this _Hornvale_? What does that even mean?
I use castle names from George R. R. Martin's _A Song of Ice and Fire_ for project names. Gives me something interesting and at least semi-evocative, but also narrows my choices so I don't spend all damned day bikeshedding the project name.
So "Hornvale" might be a codename, it might be the name of the game for all eternity, I might rename this at some point to _Seymour Butts in the Festival of Massacres II: Revenge of the Soulslurpers_. No idea. I just don't care. I already spend too much time naming things.
#### Do you have any code coverage eyecandy?
Uh, yeah, sure. Oddly specific.
