01 · Capcom · PlayStation, 1999
Resident Evil 3: Last Escape
The retail disc already changes item spawns, gunpowder and puzzle solutions between runs. And Nemesis follows you through doors, which still feels unfair today.
~/beyond / games
Games
Once you know where every key is, survival horror stops being horror. So I shuffle it.
- 1.4M+seeds generated
- 60,000+players
- 80%came back for a second seed
Era
1996–2000 survival horror
Tooling
RE Engine randomizers & graph solvers
Also playing
Metroidvanias & indie horror
Resident Evil · Capcom, 1996
Every run different, every run finishable
I build them in C#, Python, Lua and Go.
Shuffle the map
These games only work while you do not know what is behind the door. My tools move the keys, the items and the enemies, and I am lost in a map I know by heart.
Prove every seed is finishable
The worst bug a randomizer can have is a key locked behind its own door, because the player finds out two hours in. So my solver walks the whole map before it lets a seed out.
Patch the scene archives
This is where the day job helps. RE Engine keeps every room in
scn.19andpfb.16archives, and Capcom does not document them. I read them the way I read malware, then rewrite the objects inside.
Resident Evil · Graph Solver
Lock & Key Reachability Check
A small version of that solver. Shuffle the items, swap two rooms yourself, or break it on purpose and watch it refuse the seed.
Click two rooms, or press Enter on them, to swap their items.
What I build for
Resident Evil 2 RemakeRandomizer
Resident Evil VillageRandomizer
Onimusha Way of the SwordRandomizer
Resident Evil 1, 2 and 3REviewer: live timer, inventory and enemy tracking
Game art belongs to Capcom and Koei Tecmo. Resident Evil and Onimusha are their trademarks. See them on the Work page.
Why 1996 still works
Resident Evil had 2 MB of RAM. Almost everything I like about it comes from that limit.
The PlayStation could not light a detailed room in real time. So every room is a painting, and only the characters are 3D. Even the door animation is a trick: it hides the disc loading the next room.
People complain about tank controls. I think they are the only scheme that survives a camera cut, because up always means forward. Walk the corridor below and you will feel it.
Interactive · Spencer Corridor
canvas · tank controlsOne corridor, three fixed lenses
Step 0 of 6 to first camera cut · Camera 1 of 3
Camera 1 sits behind you and watches the west end of the hall. Tap the arrows to step, or hold to walk. With a keyboard, focus the map and use the arrow keys. Up always walks forward, wherever the camera points.
Capcom shipped randomizers first
I did not invent anything. Two official releases already shuffled their own items in 1999.
02 · Angel Studios & Factor 5 · N64, 1999
1.2 GB on a 64 MB cartridge
Two PlayStation CDs of Resident Evil 2 squeezed onto one Nintendo 64 cartridge, video included. It should not have been possible. It also shipped with an official item randomizer.
Read the SUPERJUMP article ↗