Temple of The Roguelike Forums
Announcements => Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) => Topic started by: eclectocrat on July 24, 2011, 11:33:51 PM
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Hello!
NEW! 1.8 is out for Mac and Windows at www.mysteriouscastle.com (http://www.mysteriouscastle.com) Also available for iOS! Tons of changes!
Hi there roguelike fans! I have an announcement and a question. The announcement is for Mysterious Castle (http://www.mysteriouscastle.com) Beta 1.3, my graphical party based roguelike. It's a game heavily inspired by Tactics Ogre and the Avernum Series. In this version I've added a randomly generated town, much improved AI, new spell, storyline features, and larger world.
Here's a battle taking place with a party of angry Kobolds.
(http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc407/eclectocrat/mysteriouscastle.png)
My question surrounds the often discussed 'what is a roguelike?' It's been asked to death so I'm reframing it as 'what is NOT a roguelike?' I like my game, I think it's a roguelike, but how far can I go before it's no longer in that category?
Right now the features that my game posses that make it a roguelike are few:
-Randomly generated terrain
-Randomly generated/placed monsters/npc's
-Turn based (of course)
-Line of sight/field of vision
-Permadeath
-High challenge level with death being the reward for reckless play
-...?
Is this a roguelike? I don't see too many party based roguelikes out there, I've already blasphemed with the graphics vs ascii and mouse interface bits, so... whatcha think?
PS: Gameplay Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWSdRB9h5To)
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Awesome graphics!
Who's providing them?
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Those are classic David Gervais 54x54 isometric tiles from Dungeon Odyssey, now free for use with attribution. That Mr. D. Gervais is a swell guy! Golly!
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Wow dude! Looks pretty. Love turn-based party tactics. Right up my alley. I'll download this as soon as there's a version that works for the most popular OS in the world.
Random terrain, random monsters, and permadeath definitely seem to be the big 3 for Roguelikeness.
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Yes, it looks to be a Roguelike---worry not what some people get too wound up about in terms of taxonomy. It has the the spirit in mind alongside some attributes, so all is well. Besides, there are a few party-capable/based Roguelikes out there.
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I'm not a big fan of tiles/graphics but I have to say that's a very appealing screenshot!
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Hey!
I have an experimental build for 32bit Windows up now! It's got no sound, and a fullscreen bug that may or may not crash the game, but it's a start!
Please try it out! www.mysteriouscastle.com (http://www.mysteriouscastle.com)
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Nice work on the start of getting Windows builds tamed! 8)
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I takes a lot of hits to kill those kobolds!
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Nice work on the start of getting Windows builds tamed! 8)
Yeah, I was using SDL 1.3 with mingw and DirectX so there was some untangling to do. Actually stumbled on a couple of nasty, obscure bugs, one involving the Floating Point Unit causing crashes in code that had nothing to do with floating point math (on the surface). Sigh.
I takes a lot of hits to kill those kobolds!
Yeah, there aren't meant to be any 'easy' creatures in the game. I'm still experimenting with balance, let me know what you think of it. To make battles a little quicker I recommend having an archer stand back and 'snipe' targets (use the snipe option, next round don't move anywhere and use the 'shoot' option), and have a spellcaster with high intelligence use 'bolt' spells.
The game is lacking documentation, yet another TODO.
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Roguelike-ism isn't binary, it's a percentage value. :)
I'd say this game is more Roguelike than not.
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Yay, I get to play it!
*20 minutes later*
You are clearly someone with a lot of work to do between now and version 1.0!
You are also definitely a person of serious talent to have offered this upcoming gem out of nowhere. I sincerely hope it goes places. It shows incredible promise and is already a joy to play. I look forward to your progress, and urge folks who can afford it to donate.
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Yay, I get to play it!
*20 minutes later*
You are clearly someone with a lot of work to do between now and version 1.0!
You are also definitely a person of serious talent to have offered this upcoming gem out of nowhere. I sincerely hope it goes places. It shows incredible promise and is already a joy to play. I look forward to your progress, and urge folks who can afford it to donate.
I'd like to thank you for your kind words and let you know that encouragement like that means a lot to an isolated developer, and really motivates me to work hard. I'm glad someone else sees the potential that I do. You're right that I have a lot of work to do, but I'm enthusiastic and full of ideas, so I'm sure that the game will evolve and get better all the time!
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You're not isolated, eclectocrat. You've got a whole community ready to lavish praise, and maybe even money, upon your efforts. Plus, there's a rogue right behind you, lining up for that backstab.
If you wouldn't mind adding my 2c to the long wish list, one of the things I find most engaging about turn-based tactics games is clever use of the environment in order to even the odds.... ideally I would eventually like to kick over tables to block the incoming hail of arrows, throw someone out the window, climb up to the rooftop... jackie chan / xena / x-com type stuff. Eagerly awaiting your next release. Great work.
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Hey!
www.mysteriouscastle.com (http://www.mysteriouscastle.com)
I've just released 1.4 for intel Macs, the Win32 version will follow shortly. The changelog is really long, some of the most important new features include:
- Saving and loading
- 4 new player races: halfelf, gnome, gnoll, and troll
- Deeper cave levels
- Sneaking + Sneak attack
- Two weapon fighting
- Flanking
- Environmental ambient sounds
- F1 toggles a help screen
- Wands
- Roads lead from the town to a few sites
- Treasure maps
It's a big step for the game. Saving and loading is a long time coming, but it's still a beta so two things to keep in mind: it worked for me, it might break for some lucky chap, and permadeath is not implemented. This one is tricky because it requires me to keep track of whenever a party member is killed and then silently and quickly modify the old savefile to eliminate them. Or I could just force overwrite the old savefile on game exit, but you could force quit the application to get around that. Right now you just need to be disciplined if you want to simulate permadeath.
In this version the tactics have become much more prominent, with the inclusion of flanking, sneak attack, and two weapon fighting, many more tactical possibilites arise. I've included a player guide with the download, as well as put one up at www.mysteriouscastle.com/playerguide (http://www.mysteriouscastle.com/playerguide).
Hope you have fun, and please report bugs. Windows users: thanks for your patience.
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Hooray! Mysterious Castle (http://www.mysteriouscastle.com) is available for iOS as "support indie games" ware! Anyone who has donated can contact me for a promo code for a free download from the App Store. Yay! You can also check out the trailer on the website.
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Woo hoo! Congrats on landing the expanded distribution with full iOS powers. 8) Hopefully you get a nice, ongoing assortment of support from folks!
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Woo hoo! Congrats on landing the expanded distribution with full iOS powers. 8) Hopefully you get a nice, ongoing assortment of support from folks!
Thanks for the always positive comments getter77. My hope is to make enough money to buy a copy of Windows 7 and and Android phone so I can port it there too. I want to keep the desktop version free forever but I don't have the spare cash to invest in all the systems I need to do it.
BTW, does anyone have a legal spare copy of Windows laying around? Windows 7 would be best but XP would be fine as long as it's SP3. I refuse to install Vista :P The sooner I get Windows, the sooner I port Mysterious Castle!
Cheers.
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1.6 on the iOS App Store, 1.7 for Intel Macs on IndieDB.
www.mysteriouscastle.com
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Looks like some excellent progress is being made. 8)
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Hey! I've finally put out a new Windows version!
Please download it and let me know what you think! www.mysteriouscastle.com (http://www.mysteriouscastle.com)
(http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc407/eclectocrat/Elementals.jpg)
Here is the complete changelog from version 1.7.
GENERAL:
* Totally new world generation algorithms. Forests and caves
are now more mazelike and intertwined, with hidden glades
only accessible through caves. Towns are layed out
differently.
* Wonderful new music!
INTERFACE:
* Inventory panel redesigned to streamline item management
and switch between party members.
* Added option for one-click actions, vs. select-confirm
actions. This should help speed up the pace of games on
PC's, but is a lttle too error prone for touchscreens.
* To avoid the tedium of checking every corpse for
interesting things, creatures that die while carrying
inventory will show a little notifier saying 'dropped
items!'
* You can now "take all" on corpses.
* Combat now ends immediately after all enemies have been
killed. If combat continues then there is another party
member hiding behind the bushes somewhere.
* Items with powers now show much more data in the info
panel.
* You can now interact with objects that you're standing
on, so you can loot corpses and chests without stepping
off of them.
* Chests now change sprites and play sounds when opened or
closed.
* Added a button to the options pane that reloads the last
saved game.
RULES CHANGES:
* Reduced base armor class by 2, everything is now a fair
bit easier to hit, including your party members.
* Targeting creatures follows a formula that considers
light, darkvision, spot, and sneak skills. This means
that you can no longer just shoot at dark shadows in
the night.
* Adjacent enemies can't be targeted with ranged weapons
anymore.
* Creatures are now a little more tolerant of friendly
fire from others of the same race. Fights can still
break out, but not over one lousy web spell placement.
* Mushrooms now grow in caves.
* Sneaking now reduces your movement a little.
* Flanking now deals bonus damage.
* The 'blast' spell has been reduced in power.
* The 'control' spell has been renamed 'charm' and now
has a chance of confusing targets that pass their
saving throw.
* The 'portal' spell always works, but monsters can
resist and reduce the distance of random teleports.
* The 'heal' spell now heals movement damage.
* The 'acid' wand is now an area effect ability.
* Many creatures have gained various immunities.
ADDITIONS:
* New attack type 'power strike', takes a full round
and gives a bonus to attack and damage.
* Added 'curse' the final level 3 spell.
* New monster types, including angels, elementals,
and gryphons.
* New monsters, orc champion, orc lord, and ettin.
* New weapon power 'bane' deals extra damage to a
specific race.
* New weapon power 'penetrate' bypasses a certain
amount of damage resist.
* New item power 'immunity', grants immunity against
certain effects such as 'web' or 'portal'.
* Various new items added.
* Some creatures turn into ghosts when killed.
* Some creatures carry a little loot, which allows
for...
* You can now pick pocket creatures that you're
friendly with (town guards) and monsters that
haven't noticed you (when you're sneaking).
TECHNICAL/BUGFIXES:
* New save format to allow for future map size
increases. Old save files are incompatible.
* You can no longer select and target entities that
are not visible on screen.
* Added a save backup mechanism that can restore
the previous save, in case a bug ruins your saved
game.
* Implemented dynamic framerate adjustment for much
improved heat generation and battery usage.
* Fixed a bug that broke saved games in which a
character was sneaking.
* Fixed a nasty bug that broke the game when you
saved a reincarnated character.
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Yay for multiplatform goodness and meaty changelogs! 8)
Congrats on all the hard work.
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just tried the latest windows build. Seemed to have an issue with the mouse pointer not "pointing" where it should be. I click on something to move or attack or select something and it "clicks" someplace further off. Seemed to work fine during the start and character select screens, but when I started the game and switched to full screen, this is when it started. Using windows xp btw.
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just tried the latest windows build. Seemed to have an issue with the mouse pointer not "pointing" where it should be. I click on something to move or attack or select something and it "clicks" someplace further off. Seemed to work fine during the start and character select screens, but when I started the game and switched to full screen, this is when it started. Using windows xp btw.
Sorry, Windows support is spotty because I only have a MacBook to test on. I'll try to address the problem in a small patch soon. Once again, sorry for the trouble.
The iOS 1.8 version is now on the App Store. It's a recommended update for all users, but it will break your old savegames. Still I think the improvements are worth starting from the beginning!