Temple of The Roguelike Forums
Announcements => Other Announcements => Topic started by: NON on May 18, 2012, 01:09:53 PM
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If anyone's interested, here's an email interview I did for Infra Arcana for a site called Pixelgush:
http://pixelgush.co.uk/post/22790570478/infra-arcana-interview (http://pixelgush.co.uk/post/22790570478/infra-arcana-interview)
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A good interview, I totally agree with the minimal graphics bit (they look great btw), its so important in roguelikes to use the imagination and I'm glad you feel that way.
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Very interesting read.
I have to say those graphics looks great.. a reason why I usually snob tiled versions of roguelike is because 90% of the time they are in "japanese cutey" which I hate.. fighting ghosts and dragon with permadeath is serious shit.
And also this of course: "They do give you a general suggestion of how things look, but they leave enough room for the individual player’s mind to fill in the rest, which is quite powerful.".. very important factor only the best writers and directors know.
As I like to say, the mediocre directors tells, the good director shows, the great director suggests.
Games, books.. but also life, love.. it's all about immersion, nothing else.
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a reason why I usually snob tiled versions of roguelike is because 90% of the time they are in "japanese cutey" which I hate.. fighting ghosts and dragon with permadeath is serious shit.
Couldn't agree more ;D
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I can't get below level 6 in this game. Really good game.
Last time I played Brown Jenkin chewed my face off.
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Thanks
Keep at it. Remember to use a lot of resources. There's no excuse to die with explosives in your inventory ;)
Today I wrote down some pretty wild goals for v13. It will be seriously awesome if I do it.
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Always in favor of wild goals! 8)
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I agree with how the graphics are shown in this game. Enough to suggest what's going on, but not enough to shut down your imagination. Excellent decision.
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I agree with Jo. .also that's one of my biggest fears that some director in hollywood will try to make a movie of one of lovecraft's stories.
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I agree with Jo. .also that's one of my biggest fears that some director in hollywood will try to make a movie of one of lovecraft's stories.
They already made one called Prometheus (Come on, don't tell me this isn't Mountains of Madness), it's pretty awesome actually ;D
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I agree with Jo. .also that's one of my biggest fears that some director in hollywood will try to make a movie of one of lovecraft's stories.
They already made one called Prometheus (Come on, don't tell me this isn't Mountains of Madness), it's pretty awesome actually ;D
haha i hadn't thought of it like that.
Coincidentally the roguelike I am taking a stab on right now is a sci-fi "survival horror" themed roguelike in which the aliens have a mix of characteristics of those from prometheus/alien, the shoggoth, the thing from the john carpenter movie of the same name, and the necromorphs in dead space. Sick gorey alien horrors.vI haven't made a roguelike before, so It won't be a "Great" roguelike, but there will be lots of nasty deaths. I wasn't planning to talk about it until I had something playable in place, I don't want to talk and not do the walk...but you forced my hand by citing both Mountains of Madness and Prometheus
PS I made it to level 8 in infra-arcana the other day. Deepest I have got. Thanks to being more wise with items/running away.
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Oh no I just got to level 11 or 12, really good run and I ran into fire vampires and blew them up with an incinerator then I saw Kephren (reference to Nephren Ka?) and tried to blow him up with the incinerator and the game crashed! OMG
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Coincidentally the roguelike I am taking a stab on right now is a sci-fi "survival horror" themed roguelike in which the aliens have a mix of characteristics of those from prometheus/alien, the shoggoth, the thing from the john carpenter movie of the same name, and the necromorphs in dead space. Sick gorey alien horrors.vI haven't made a roguelike before, so It won't be a "Great" roguelike, but there will be lots of nasty deaths.
That sounds awesome!.
@NON: Did you see prometheus in 3d or just regular? If in 3d, was it worth the extra doughnuts to see it in 3d? Was the 3d done well?
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Did you see prometheus in 3d or just regular? If in 3d, was it worth the extra doughnuts to see it in 3d? Was the 3d done well?
Saw it in good old fashioned 2d.
The movie has many many flaws by the way. But I highly appreciated it anyway thanks to the environments and concept.
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then I saw Kephren (reference to Nephren Ka?) and tried to blow him up with the incinerator and the game crashed! OMG
Kephren was a real Pharaoh.
That sucks that it crashed :(
I guess I'll have to fire incinerator shots at him until I reproduce it :(
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It might just be my laptop. I'll see if it happens again.
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It didn't happen again....
[spoiler]
(http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/846/trapezohedron.png)
[/spoiler]
Now I can get back to development! That is until I try another game (must not)...
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Woho, first win report! Now I'll turn up the difficulty a bit! ;D
By the way I found and fixed the bug. It was related to the explosion and not the monster.
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heh I didn't know I was the first. In fact I can't be, I guess the other winners must have stared too far into the trapezohedron and went mad.
If you want some critical feedback (ie I don't mention the overwhelming good things about the game but just ways, as a player, I think it could be improved)...
[spoiler]
The last few levels (last 10 or so?) starting from the "caves" level are too easy. I suspect they might just be placeholders but if not, they are too small and easy. The exit stairs are sometimes exactly where you start. There's very little in the cave levels, including monsters.
The hunting horrors levels after that are harder, but only in the sense that I had to learn not to engage them and instead sneak past them (I died first time because I tried attacking one, the second time because I tried to be clever and paralyse them and kill them for XP but stuck around too long and ran out of defenses...). Third time I just used potions of clairvoyance and potions of perfect stealth to avoid them and run straight to the stairs. Too easy.
Perhaps if there was something later and you needed to kill a few hunting horrors for XP it would have mattered.
The number of potions isn't a problem, I didn't find many I just stored them all knowing that Id need clairvoyance and stealth. I did find 7 scrolls of deep descent which is probably too much - but I saved them not realizing that once you get too deep they don't work.
I don't know if there's a boss or any monsters on the last floor, but if there is I missed it. I used clairvoyance and ran across the map to the only feature (the trapezohedron) and saw nothing else.
I think you have a lot of scope to make the game harder without making the existing monsters tougher or removing items. Like I said some of the "cave" levels seem quite empty and I can only imagine they are placeholders.
More special encounters like Keziah/brown jenkin and major lee would make things harder, especially in the later game. I am glad you didn't add cthulhu or any of the other gods like a lot of lovecraft games do as they are really too big (in multiple senses) to make sense in a dungeon. They don't acknowledge worship either so you can't even add them in the roguelike "god" sense. Maybe you could still add shrines to them though that have some effect? (like insanity)
A Shoggoth would be a very interesting enemy or perhaps a special encounter deeper in the dungeon. It would be hard to implement as I expect it would have to be a multi-tile creature (I think it was described as being the size of a subway train in mountains of madness), plus it is shapeless. I think something like that would be something you had to run from rather than something that can be killed (although I think lovecraft refers to energy weapons being used against them so tesla guns would probably work).
Also, and perhaps this is the biggest way it can be improved IMO, so don't know why I am mentioning it last - could the "dungeon" be stratified more and monsters distributed based on the environment rather than mixed? Ie just so it all makes more logical sense why things are arranged as they are.
For example it doesn't feel right that Deep Ones are wandering around dry corridors. Could they be placed near water logged rooms, or even have an "underground lake" level dedicated to them?
Also the top of the "dungeon" feels like it should be populated with a lot of acolytes and priests who are worshiping what is below plus defending from anyone who comes down from above. I guess the reanimated corpses are due to their hand, so it would be cool to have them directing them somehow.
Anyway just some thoughts, they might not work, I haven't made a roguelike before or played many so my opinion isn't authorative. The game is great as it is.
[/spoiler]
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Well you're at least the first one who TOLD me they won :)
Thanks for the feedback/ideas. Though most of it are things I already know, but just haven't done yet.