Temple of The Roguelike Forums
Game Discussion => Early Dev => Topic started by: jere on April 22, 2015, 11:38:43 AM
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Hello, my precious @s.
Golden Krone Hotel is a roguelike about switching between human and vampire forms (analogous to mage and brawler classes), killing vampires with sunlight, and sneaking around by manipulating torches. You can play the game in your browser here (http://humbit.com/gkh/).
The game started as a 7DRL, but is now on Steam Greenlight and you could make my fricking day by voting for it right now (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=428549630). I'm not just throwing it out there as is. I have a lot planned: content, polish, and trying to make the gameplay more deep.
One of the main things is making the game simply look better by adding a 2.5D effect. I made a short post (http://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/32yhsu/sharing_saturday_46/cqgksia?context=3) in /r/roguelikedev about this change and overcoming the resulting performance issues. Here's the new look:
(http://i.imgur.com/UIssNo6.png)
I've already added fog of war and increased the number of visible tiles. And here's an overview of some other things I'm thinking about:
- Improve level generation, so there are fewer dead ends, floating hallways, and other weirdness.
- More items and reworking the inventory system to consist of 2 kinds of items instead of just 1. Putting this on the UI without additional menus and adding nice icons for each.
- Full dialogue/story rewrite. Yea, the stuff I added at 4am the last night of 7DRL isn't going to cut it.
- A real tutorial
- Explicit damage types and resistances. More statuses like confusion.
- More branches, so the game is longer and there is an optional extended endgame. Planned so far: LAB, FACTORY, GRAVEYARD, GROTTO, DEEP CAVES, UNDERGROUND RIVER, MAELSTROM, UNDERWORLD
- Lava and water tiles (vampires can't cross water at all).
- Giving vampires collectible abilities, so the vampire combat is more interesting than just bump everything.
- About a dozen more spells and an additional spell slot. Books will offer the choice to learn 1 of 2 spells.
- New monsters: toadstools, skeletons, demons, and more.
Let me know your ideas. To be perfectly honest, I'll be valuing what I see here a little more than the ideas that pop on Steam.
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I've made a new trailer. https://youtu.be/_X8yQiEU2Bo
It shows off several elements of the latest graphical tweaks. Also, it's got a much better music and production quality (I'd like to believe) than the original and voice overs too.
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v0.2.0 released (http://jere.itch.io/golden-krone-hotel-super-secret-alpha?secret=YR0TbJhUShZ4Kyr7lTjWgZfY2Do) as part of ARRP. Changelog:
- New potion system: each unidentified potion is known to actually be 1 of 3 possibilities. Thus, potions are *usually* identified on first quaff,.
- Primers let you pick a potion to identify instead of being random
- You can now light torches when adjacent to them and no oil is required!
- A slew of graphical changes: smooth movement, animated effects, torch animation, vignetting
- View radius increased from 5->7
- Previously seen tiles are now drawn
- Full HUD makeover
- Previously seen monsters show up on minimap
- Damage types and resistance systems added
- Removed tutorial hallway
- Collapsed several actions into same contextual action button (reading, stairs, etc)
- Mana added. Enemies have mana too.
- Accuracy and evasion derived stats added.
- Dexterity no longer affects speed (you were right, Vanguard)
- Moonlight added (related mechanics to come)
- Vampire eyes now seen in the dark
- Added an extra spell slot
- Fixed stair following issues, so monsters follow more often
- Golems now block light and visibility
- Removed individual monster visibility. Each monster can either see in darkness or not.
- Better darkness rendering to make the mechanics more clear.
- Tons of technical housekeeping, particularly around graphics, performance, and making the player an instance of the monster object
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Ouh, you made standalone build? IIRC 7DRL release was available to play via browser only?
So, I tried your game and I like it. Very good coffebreak (?) with simple but interesting mechanics - first thoughts after three runs.
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Thank you!
Re: the standalone thing. Well yea, it's a browser game, but I am offering (and did offer at 7drl) downloads of the game... which still requires a browser locally. My goal is to use a tool called nw.js to make true standalones. I think it'll work, but I am running into some stumbling blocks.
Coffeebreak? Sure. I'm shooting for about ~1-2 hours playtime and definitely aiming for streamlined, pick up and play style.
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I just tried to run it in Firefox, with poor results - sometimes it hangs on "loading" and when it doesn`t there are gfx glitches (though game is playable). I hope Google Chrome is not really a requirement?
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For now, Chrome is a requirement, but as soon as I can get nw.js figured out, I should be able to support Windows/Mac/Linux. I was working on that this weekend and having some bizarre issues (permissions issues on Mac for one).
What's your OS? Linux I presume? I'd love to have people help me test this part. I've got a Ubuntu VM but that's it.
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Nah, I`m on Win XP/8.1
Having your game playable in only one browser is pretty limiting - especially if you`re trying to Greenlit.... Hope you can make this pesky node biznizz behaving nicely soon...game looks interesting (like the sunlight and general vibe but didn`t play much).
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Let me try to get some standalones up on itch tonight. The win64 one seems to be working fine and I think I got the Mac/Linux issues sorted (had to just chmod some stuff..... why the tool I'm using could do that, I have no idea).
You actually can't release browser based games on Steam. They have to be standalones, so yea that was part of the plan.
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OK. I've got some builds here:
Windows 32 bit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/133s5ofix3oxmp3/gkh-v0.2.0-windows-x32.zip?dl=0
Windows 64 bit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wibvx6lovbg7jyq/gkh-v0.2.0-windows-x64.zip?dl=0
Linux 64 bit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9w24uwnx4aqkkzq/gkh-v0.2.0-linux-x64.zip?dl=0
They're working for me, but please let me know if you run into any issues! Still working on the performance (I take a hit when going from web to standalone).
I've confirmed a bug with hanging on the 'loading' screen after dying and returning to the main menu. Working on it...
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I've confirmed a bug with hanging on the 'loading' screen after dying and returning to the main menu. Working on it...
It's sounds like quite annoying bug, so I'm going to try it more extensive when you fix it ;) But I must say that I'm very glad to see true standalone builds, I didn't expect them in so quickly time ;)
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Here you go. I fixed the bug and released all standalones. Please let me know what you think.
Download (http://jere.itch.io/golden-krone-hotel-super-secret-alpha?secret=YR0TbJhUShZ4Kyr7lTjWgZfY2Do)
Sharing Saturday post (https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/3mddzg/sharing_saturday_69/cvegrwi)
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Just to say the x64 version works fine now...no glitching or loading problems, nice work. Only played briefly so can`t say anything about gameplay yet...
...but why are there beds in middle of long corridors? Hmph :P
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Good to know; archive downloaded, I will check it in next days.
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...but why are there beds in middle of long corridors? Hmph :P
The answer is laziness. Proper placement of obstacles is on the list. :)
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I wrote a blog post about implementing/optimizing the newer graphics: Tightening up the Graphics on Dungeon Floor 3 (http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wordpress/2015/10/10/tightening-up-the-graphics-on-dungeon-floor-3/)
Not too much in the way of features, but anyway here is the latest build v0.2.2 (http://jere.itch.io/golden-krone-hotel-super-secret-alpha?secret=YR0TbJhUShZ4Kyr7lTjWgZfY2Do).
- Focusing on performance issues. The most noticeable change should be that resting is really quick now.
- Preventing obstacles from spawning in hallways (though I just realized they can still spawn IN FRONT of hallways)
- Added music back in by default. Feel free to turn the music off.
- Added options menu back in.
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Made a release for Halloween. Full details here: http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/halloween/
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(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmAUGAfXIAADVZ0.jpg)
New blog post: Project Update and Conversation Display (http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wordpress/2016/07/02/project-update-and-conversation-display/)
Maybe I should just dump the full text of blog posts in here like URR does. Hmm.
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(http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/title3.gif)
New blog post: Making a Title Screen (http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wordpress/2016/09/02/making-a-title-screen/)
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(http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/title3.gif)
New blog post: Making a Title Screen (http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wordpress/2016/09/02/making-a-title-screen/)
You say you don't consider yourself an artist ... but that is some beautiful title art!
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:D Thanks!
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That's some nice title screen!
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After slowly chipping away at the game for nearly two years, I'm proud to announce:
Golden Krone Hotel launches on Steam Early Access on October 25th.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/497800
Let me say that working with a musician is a night and day difference for making a trailer. :)
I've been doing some small scale testing and testers have pointed out a few usability issues that I've fixed. Other than that, I haven't seen many bugs. The game is missing a lot of what will be in the full release, but that's why it's going into EA (it's still totally playable of course).
Also of note is that Rogueliker has just started another small video series: https://youtu.be/SeHouNYnhik
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Well, this is super cool. Got a writeup in Rock Paper Shotgun: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/10/14/golden-krone-hotel-vampire-roguelike/
8) ;D
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Congratulations!
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^Thanks!!
Golden Krone Hotel comes out in one week.
Here's a final set of changes that have been pushed (excluding any major bugs that come up in the next few days):
- Better game over screen. You now get tips about things you might have forgotten to do. Also, "Amazing Plan" (the hilarious silent film track) has been brought back for this.
- High level spellcasters have been toned down significantly (particularly, there should be less chance to have repeated chains of damaging magic)
- Noise now travels half as far in Easy mode, which should make it far less likely to get surrounded
- Jack o'lantern torches have been added back as an option.
- Added tooltip to the books icon that appears when you pick up books as a vampire
- Water damage has been toned down in Easy mode, which just barely removes the only instakill potion
- Fixed some bugs with tooltips staying after the game ended
- Shift tab fixed (I think)
- Fixed a bug with duplicated music
- Fixed a rare bug with rebinding keys
- Revolver wasn't making noise on a miss, but this has been fixed
- Pressing Escape on the screens after the title screen takes you back to the title screen
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvDPwydWIAAZeD_.jpg:large)
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Game releases in 3 days.
Rogueliker is doing a giveaway of 4 keys.
https://youtu.be/qFGbdQrxKX8
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Bought it, played it, loved it! It's cool seeing how far this has come from the 7DRL all those years ago. My best run so far has been as a scholar focusing on magic - got 3/4 rings but then got slaughtered in the library because my vampire-fu was weak. Is there a way to aggro humans while in human form? I managed to turn one of them into a werewolf though not entirely sure how. (Magic + moonlight?)
Come across a couple of minor interface bugs:
- When selecting a spell to learn using the A or D keys, you also move.
- I once turned back into a human and was killed the same turn, but the spell-learning interface from the grimoires I'd been carrying still came up instead of the game over message.
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Thanks Paul! I'll look into those bugs. I usually have a bunch of weird edge cases crop up around death.
About 20% of humans will turn into werewolves when hit with beams of moonlight.
There's no way to aggro humans as a human. It does seem like the Princess is consistently an outlier in terms of difficulty, despite my efforts to tone her down. I'm guessing you didn't turn out all the torches nearby before engaging? Even then, it's still a challenging fight. If you focused intelligence (makes sense as a scholar), vampire is just going to be one of your weak points.
Good to hear the feedback. Let me know if you find anything else.
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I did douse the lights, but it didn't help much since her lightning bolt attacks were illuminating the area, which let the seven-odd other humans she had around her spot me and clobber me to death. To be honest, it's probably a good thing she was difficult, since the 19-intelligence-and-L3-lightning build I had was letting me blast through most other enemies without issues (provided I could stay human and find food). Hmm... maybe next time I'll try the same build but take Swap as another one of my magic slots and use it to pull her away from her bodyguards into a side-room somewhere before vamping out...
The vamps-ignore-vamps and humans-ignore-humans mechanics don't really make sense and seem a bit artificial and ridiculous when you are murdering their supposed allies right in front of them or switch from one to the other mid-fight (and receive their immediate forgiveness), plus of course there shouldn't really be anything stopping me as the player attacking others of my own kind if I wanted to... but it does lead to some interesting gameplay trying to work around that system, so I'm not too sure what to suggest there.
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Yea, the game is built around each form not attacking its own kind. It's definitely something people point out a lot. At this point, I'll do what I can to handwave it away with plot reasons, but it's core to the gameplay.
In particular, the idea of having neutral monsters that you can attack is directly opposed to streamlining the UI. Because then I have to have some weird button combination that lets you attack neutral monsters.
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Well, I didn't see anything about it elsewhere on the forums, so here's a bit about STHC:
Stop the Hunger Clock
- Donate $10 locally in the next couple days
- Send in proof
- Get a key for a sweet roguelike (or several)
Awesome idea for a charity event. Please consider pitching in. If you haven't already picked up GKH, it'd be a good opportunity to grab it along with two other games.
http://dungeonmans.com/hungerclock/
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cx1RFT_W8AAunPR.jpg:large)
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The first big update for Golden Krone Hotel has been released! Version 0.6 includes several content additions, control enhancements, and a save system.
(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26549830/fe72db0b1f206f0e144d40dfddc0ea38e2c6a0b9.png)
Changelog
- Save system added
- Renown System added - Unlock disguises (classes) by leveling up your renown level
- The game is now fully playable with mouse: mouse can be used for all actions including movement and selecting magic directions
- Sharpshooter class added
- New branch: The Grotto. Stairs to this branch will appear much earlier than others.
- Two new monsters: Electric Eel and Crocodile
- Auto-run has been added. Hold down shift and a direction to move up to 7 tiles.
- Mouse movement and auto-running is cancelled when taking damage or when first seeing a monster
- All magic damage has been toned down by about 15%
- Fire damage now has a chance to cause Burning
- Monsters now attempt to get closer even if they don't have a direct path to the player
- Reduced the number of gold coins and bullets generated
- Clicking outside of a menu closes it
- The class table has been refactored to prevent erroneous descriptions and several typos were fixed as a result
- Death menu improved
- Fixed the issue where the last few seconds of your death weren't shown
- Fixed a bug with the throw ability
- Fixed an issue with 0 damage attacks not being logged
- Fixed an issue with the tile selector flickering
- Added some additional error handling functionality
A note on the save system:
It was quite complex to write, so there's currently no bells and whistles. You're allowed one save at a time, for now. Given how complex the code is, there may be bugs lurking in there. If you want to totally avoid the system, then don't save or exit a run before it ends. If you run into any problems with loading a current save, there's a button to delete your save in the options menu.
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Version 0.7 is here! There's a tutorial, a new branch (the Gallery), new monsters, a new boss, and level generation has been rewritten completely.
(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26549830/e0ad6af8f3645805f06858ea6fe9c41d490f981b.png)
Changelog
- A tutorial has been added.
- New branch: The Gallery.
- Gorgons have been added. Their combination of GAZE and BLAST is quite deadly....
- A new boss, the Gorgon Queen. There's now 5 rings to collect, meaning one is optional.
- New class: warp mage
- The level generation system has support for "prefabs" (hand drawn templates that are combined procedurally) - each branch now feels a lot more unique and the regular floors are more interesting too. Hopefully fewer pointless loops and wacky dead ends.
- Pits. They can be a great escape, but be careful not to fall into them accidentally
- Since spells were still quite overpowered (and too safe), spell failure has been added. Failing to cast a spell can cost both HP and MP
- Double doors that open simultaneously
- Monsters refuse to swap places with you if doing so would hurt them
- The summoning ability of the Strigoi has been reworked to use mana, so that he can't endlessly summon enemies
- Fixed a bug with eels climbing stairs (thanks bozar!)
- Water is brighter on the mini map, chests now show up as green
- Minimap rendering has been optimized
- Jack 'o lanterns have been turned off for now. In several Let's Plays, it seemed that people had confusedly started with them on even though they were intended to be off by default.
- Soul elixir wording clarified
- Compressed saves were removed as there was a major bug with them and they were quite slow anyway
- Some more music for different branches
- Fixed a game ruining bug that could happen if a boss died in water
(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26549830/310deafe882459c6c241354de2ae5845bd142f07.png)
The tutorial was a challenge. Hard to script all those events without anything built in the engine yet to do it. As a prerequisite, I decided the entire level generation needed to be rewritten to handle prefabs. That would make it easier to construct the tutorial levels precisely. We'll see how well it actually teaches people the game. It's supposed to briefly touch on resting, walking around, bump combat, magic, potions (and food), sneaking, and sunlight.
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Due to popular demand, Golden Krone Hotel now has morgue files and an online leaderboard. This update also brings 3 new monsters, a new class and branch as usual, and... bounciness?!?
(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26549830/dac8b94cce5ca13370353513632dd6b996350016.png)
While testing some jumping behavior for the Toad, I realized the animation looks a lot more lively by having all characters bounce around like they're all on pogo sticks. This is something you see in games like Crypt of the Necrodancer, but it makes a lot more sense there. Even so, other games like Dungeonmans have used it in place of a walk animation. It seems to work well with a game that doesn't take itself too seriously... and my certainly doesn't.
I've made the "bounciness factor" an option, but by default I'm going to add in at least a little bounce. It'll be interesting to see how people like it!
(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26549830/d78ed5c1a6ad44864842eef143b320422a973945.gif)
The River should be an interesting challenge, since it's completely dark and mostly water filled. The darkness obviously poses an issue for humans but in vampire form, water is your biggest enemy. For now, there's not much reason to go to this branch. Eventually it'll lead to the Maelstrom and then the Underworld, which will be the hardest branch in the game.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C95NXRPXgAA2iKy.jpg)
Changelog:
- Morgue files have been added, which can (optionally) be uploaded to http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/morgue.php (http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/morgue.php), shared with friends, and ranked acording to score.
- A new branch: The River, which sits below the Grotto.
- A new disguise: Alchemist. Start as a vampire holding several unread books.
- Three new monsters: Wolves hunt in packs, Toads jump around and attack from range, and Goblins are a plain old monster.
- Monsters have been reshuffled to make the first floor much easier and less annoying! The standard monsters on Floor 1 are now Grunts (weak vampire), Rats, Bats, and Goblins. Baby Spiders should be less common.
- Bounciness. All characters bounce around. This can be increased or turned off completely in the Options menu.
- All characters also have shadows. This can also be turned off if desired.
- Pharmacopoeia and Mausoleum have each been extended to 2 floors.
- Some late game bosses and monsters have increased in difficulty to match the extra XP now available.
- The Varcolac is now always in werewolf form at night.
- Moroi were way too weak. They now have a ranged attack, which can't be dodged. It can't reduce you below 50% health though.
- Wooden wall sprites have been redrawn and darkened to enhance contrast and readability.
- Potion tooltips added to unidentified potions in Primer and Hawker menus.
- Book sprites have been made clearer to distinguish.
- Options menu now remembers your previous spot.
- Pressing escape during the logo/title screen jumps straight to the Start menu.
- Fix a bug that allowed you to save after death and then walk around like an invisible ghost spraying blood everywhere.
- Credits and Help moved to Options menu to reduce title screen clutter
- Fixed a scrolling issue with some screens like the Disguise menu.
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Golden Krone Hotel now has 14 achievements (http://steamcommunity.com/stats/497800/achievements). There's an achievement for beating the game with each disguise and an achievement for killing each boss. I might add a few more over time.
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Here we go with a pretty huge update!
(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26549830/8f404c97857570ad8dd90494f150b52e14b4bbf1.gif)
The newest branch is THE MAELSTROM, an everchanging dimension that spawns portals to random locations throughout the Hotel. Frankly, this branch is heavily inspired by DCSS's Abyss. There's several ways to get to the Maelstrom and not all of them are voluntary...
The Merchant was added, a new disguise that starts with 4 unidentified potions.
(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26549830/30af32290094eace660ecbf6f940d066253e30d2.png)
Five monsters have been created including Goblin Anarchists, Prismatic Masses, and three kinds of Toadstools (wandering mushrooms that shoot various types of poison).
And there were plenty of small changes. This month, I reviewed dozens of old (and new) Let's Plays with a more critical eye. Polish has been added with the goal of making mechanics easier to learn, easier to understand, and simply more fun.
Changelog:
- The tutorial has been improved with some handholding removed and "blended" right into the game itself.
- A Hints system has been implemented to help explain several crucial mechanics.
- Blue, Yellow, and Red Toadstools added. Green Men turn into "Husks" when dying, which can transform into Toadstools at night.
- Prismatic Masses added. They do all 10 kinds of damage and can only be found in the Maelstrom.
- Goblin Anarchists added
- Merchant disguise and achievement added.
- THE MAELSTROM is the new branch, reachable from the River. It uses a kludgy cellular automata to reorganize itself.
- Monster generation has been corrected. With the introduction of wolves last patch, waaaayy too many monsters were getting spawned. Woops!
- Bats, toads, and baby spiders have all been made a bit less annoying.
- The transition between human/vampire and vice versa has been clarified visually. Previously, it was especially confusing because of unread books.
- A less annoying door sound has been introduced. The old one can still be heard occasionally.
- Fixed a game locking bug that happened when the user clicked on Menu while in another menu. Thanks Mitchfynde!
- Difficulty is now on the character sheet
- Added descriptions to each difficulty mode
- Balaurs have been removed from the Pharmacopoeia
- Fixed Stupefy mouse range indicator
- Pools of blood stick around slightly longer.
- Fixed an issue where music wasn't switched out when teleported, only when taking stairs
- Tooltips show up for identified potion icons on the Potion menu
- Blood potion gives a small HP boost when humans drink it
- Right before turning vampire, regeneration goes up 4x. This should prevent a lot of bad experiences when going vamp
- Vampire disguises get to start at night now.
- The Shapeshifter starts during a full moon and Lycanthropy lasts much longer.
- Reworked disguise menu to use relative rather than absolute stats.
- Animated the key icon on disguise menu to make it clearer when unlocks are available.
- Hawkers weren't actually resistant to sunlight, but that's been fixed.
- Instability effects (resulting from repeated teleport magic) have been softened.
- A nifty teleport animation has been added.
- Moroi have been made much weaker, but now give the Vulnerable status.... which is really scary!
- Examining a sunlight/moonlight tile now says something about the light there.
- Miasma has been buffed a lot, but has a chance to poison now instead of confuse.
- Combustion and particularly Volatile Poison have been made MUCH more useful. Hint hint.
- Added a Confusion icon
- Monsters are now generated away from staircases to discourage a reliance on stairdancing.
- Put in a decent message in case save file loading fails.
- Fixed a common problem where players would fire their revolver in the wrong direction because they moved their mouse when intending to just click.
- Apparently several monsters that shouldn't have been regening health were in fact doing so. That's fixed.
- Lore books are now collected in the Books & Letters menu. The opening letter will no longer be shown by default.
- Drop caps (the super cool huge letters that begin chapters in old books) have been added.
- Some file writes have been made asynchronous, which should prevent some hiccups.
- Stritiba renamed to Cragsbellow to help with pronunciation.
- Death tips font made much bigger.
- Cancel option added when trying to forget a spell.
- Plate and leggings auto-equip wording clearer.
- Beds give a hint about how to rest.
- Input delay added to certain menus to prevent accidental selections.
A couple last housekeeping notes:
The plan is to release by Halloween. so we've gotten well past the halfway point of Early Access. If you have any feedback or ideas for the game, the time when that can make a meaningful impact is quickly running out.
Also, don't forget about the recently added achievements and the Morgue sharing system. Feel free to share your runs in the forums or on the official subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/goldenkronehotel/).
Enjoy!
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Starting a series on roguelike design:
Things I Hate About Roguelikes – Part 1: Burden of Knowledge (http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wordpress/2017/06/01/things-i-hate-about-roguelikes-part-1-burden-of-knowledge/)
I love roguelikes. Traditional roguelikes. Turn based, grid based, punch-you-in-the-gut roguelikes.
The complexity, depth, and emergent gameplay in these games rival any other genre out there. The heavyweights like Nethack, Crawl, and ADOM can be played for years without mastering them… or sometimes without a single victory. And in the last decade, roguelikes have proven beyond all doubt how valuable their ideas are. Despite being a genre invented in 1980, new games are constantly borrowing roguelike ideas and even the name itself.
And yet we haven’t seen a big adoption of traditional roguelikes. Roguelite action has done gangbusters of course. Games such as Binding of Isaac sell millions of copies. Nuclear Throne and Spelunky aren’t too far behind. But where’s our Binding of Isaac? Where’s the turn-based dungeon crawler blowing up the Steam charts? Clearly, permadeath is something many gamers are willing to stomach. Games like Civilization are proof positive that they enjoy turn-based stuff too.
I’d argue that there’s nothing inherent in the structure of traditional roguelikes that is holding them back from mainstream success. It’s simply that, for the most part, the genre is still stuck in the 1980s...
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Starting a series on roguelike design:
Things I Hate About Roguelikes – Part 1: Burden of Knowledge[/url (http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wordpress/2017/06/01/things-i-hate-about-roguelikes-part-1-burden-of-knowledge/)
Loved it :) Left you a steaming pile of reply on reddit.
As always,
Minotauros
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I skimmed and read some bits and its really good.
I need to reserve some time to read this properly.
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Steam Trading Cards and Price Increase
Boom goes the dynamite.
(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26549830/f32ce5d6255e52e3f3bf3eeb11765a7fb48489be.jpg)
Golden Krone Hotel now has Steam Trading Cards. There's 5 cards, a badge, 3 backgrounds, and 10 emoticons to collect. Apparently, I forgot you also have to check a box to tell Valve your game has trading cards and achievements (even though it clearly already knows that). So... I've checked those boxes. Now you can see the features are present on the store page. Woot!
Some of you may have already been awarded cards for your playtime. This is really good, as I was initially concerned that recent changes to Trading Cards (https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1954971077935370845) might prevent the cards from dropping completely for games like this one. Fortunately that's not the case.
One more thing
I'm putting the game on sale soon, though I can't say exactly when. When that happens, Golden Krone Hotel will be the cheapest it's ever been (and cheaper than it will be for several months).
Shortly after the sale ends, I'm planning on raising the price from $5 to somewhere around $10. This is a really tough decision to make, but I think after adding a tutorial, save system, unlockable classes, morgue files, a bunch of new branches and monsters, and all around polish the game is worth more than it was at launch.
If you have feedback on pricing, I'd be glad to hear it.
http://steamcommunity.com/games/497800/announcements/detail/1341358701085518174
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So, I'm glad that I decided to buy GKH for 5$ :P It's interesting how price rise will affect sales.
Is 10$ too much? Probably not. It is worth it, for me. But: I know nothing about marketing, also don't know how Steam developers used to work with pricing. Although personally I think it's wrong time for that change. Usually, early access games have different price than fully released titles. I'd wait for 1.0 release for changing the price, because people could think like Look at this, developer didn't even finish his game but he increased price by 100% already.
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It's interesting how price rise will affect sales.
Definitely. I'm more interested in gaining a bigger audience than I am in a higher sale price. I don't think people invest in and value a game that they got for so cheap. The higher the base price, the higher the perceived value. There was a really good article recently that found that games priced lower than $10 did horrible compared to games price at $10 or higher: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20170509/297708/What_I_learned_playing_quotSteamProphetquot.php
I'd wait for 1.0 release for changing the price
Well, that's what I'm trying to achieve essentially. I want to increase the price for 1.0, but there's one problem.
I also want a launch discount, which is both extremely common and recommended. Valve prevents you from putting a game on sale for a couple months after you raise the price, for good reason. So I need to raise it a few months before launching.
I figure very few people will be buying it at full price in the last couple months of EA anyway, especially since I'm offering the opportunity to buy for about 1/3 of that price during the next sale.
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Valve prevents you from putting a game on sale for a couple months after you raise the price, for good reason.
I didn't know that, but it makes things more clear, definitely :) Still I'm not sure if it's good decision but I see you've got positive feedback, so it's gonna be OK, I hope. The truth is, when I'm reading Steam reviews, players think about <=5$ games as a low-budget (ie: simple, ugly, often buggy), so 10$ price tier sounds sensible.
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As promised, the game is on it's biggest sale yet at $3.50 (30% discount).
The truth is, when I'm reading Steam reviews, players think about <=5$ games as a low-budget (ie: simple, ugly, often buggy), so 10$ price tier sounds sensible.
Yea, true. I feel like there's two sides to it though. The price influences the perception of value. That is certainly the case. At the same time, price is a HUGE factor mentioned often in Steam reviews. Reviewers trash games all the time, not for being bad games, but because they don't think the game is worth the base price (even if they got it at a huge discount). I'm hoping the latter isn't a big factor here.
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Continuing the "Things I hate..." series with Part 2 about Identification: http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wordpress/2017/06/25/things-i-hate-about-roguelikes-part-2-identification/
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Two things on the same day oddly:
Roguelike Radio Episode 138: Golden Krone Hotel (http://www.roguelikeradio.com/2017/08/episode-138-golden-krone-hotel.html)
Also released an update featuring the Underworld branch. Full details here (http://steamcommunity.com/games/497800/announcements/detail/1443820118334045311).
(http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26549830/66c8ec254c0809d31ff80e200837b424b2c3a953.jpg)
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If anyone is interested in testing mac and/or linux builds, let me know.
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Count me in :) For Linux, at least.
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OK, you're on the list. ;)
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Nearing the end of EA and tackling some big remaining items:
- Mac & linux support: testing seems to be going fine except I've given up hope on getting the steam overlay working
- Optional diagonal movement: so this can be a proper roguelike
- ASCII Mode: for the grognards in the audience
entire spritesheet converted
(http://i.imgur.com/dFDvOiB.png)
the underworld and a baron (constructed out of several characters)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIeuXowVAAEWOOi.jpg)
thinking about keeping an absurd tiles+ASCII mode
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIXScRnWsAEf8ew.jpg)
in a happy coincidence, the character for vampire eyes (") matches up pixel perfectly with the big vampire character (V) and that's with no tweaking of the font I'm using (code page 437)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIXXjBpW0AE7XDm.jpg)(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIXXkPzW4AEjEsP.jpg)
I think ASCII mode is looking OK, but I keep wondering if I shouldn't ensure every single monster has a distinct character representation and then redo the whole thing in only black/white/red.
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HOLY CATS, WE'RE LEAVING EARLY ACCESS NEXT MONTH.
This month it's all about playing the way you want to play. That means Mac and Linux support, tools to prevent stupid deaths, keyboard examine, ASCII mode, and optional 8-way movement.
(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26549830/e9f3e5de263673a905290f95c063f6c124498073.png)
The final class has been added as well: Berserker. With the highest starting strength of all the disguises and an ENRAGE spell, you'll surely wreak havoc on the hotel. That brings us to 12 classes and 19 achievements to collect!
Diagonal movement
Four way movement has always been helpful for players without numpad. But sometimes it just doesn't feel like a roguelike without diagonals.
Adding optional 8-way movement to Golden Krone Hotel affects A LOT. Expect the game to feel different, but hopefully still balanced. It's now easier to dance around lone enemies and it's possible to dodge light beams. But remember it's also easier to get surrounded and magic becomes 8-directional too.
ASCII Mode
ASCII can look cool as hell. It's often easier to understand what's going on too. So here it is.
(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26549830/84ae91c893c8ce051e519b9afff4a7e2ee949e56.png)
There's a Muted Palette option that almost turns the game greyscale (the main exception being hints of red). This an excellent option if you want to crank up the horror aesthetic.
Grognard Mode
If you really want to go old school, there's GROGNARD Mode. This flips a bunch of options simultaneously to make the game look and feel more like a classic roguelike. You'll get ASCII, diagonal movement, and a bunch of display effects turned off (like animation, damage numbers, bounciness, etc.).
But feel free to play with those on if you prefer! It's quite fun playing a little bouncy @.
(http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/26549830/31ce3e604be29b1f336cbf6da78b3552044a5676.png)
Changelog:
- Mac and Linux now supported. Please let me know if you have any problems.
- Optional diagonal movement added
- ASCII mode added
- Bump animation added
- You can now Examine with keyboard (press V) and hovering over tiles also displays their name
- Added a "Confirm dangerous moves" option. If you die to sunlight a lot, this might help
- Berserker class added
- Shapeshifter now turns into a wolf whenever in moonlight
- Spiridus and Moroi toned down a bit. Moroi range reduced
- Options menu reorganized and several new options added
- Sound play when selecting options
- Added highlighted text to tutorial to make it easier to understand
- Fixed a very weird bug with ice/stairs that created ghost enemies that could be killed infinitely
- Fixed a crash when playing the game outside of the Steam client
- Fixed an issue with the revolver cancellation not clearing selected tiles
- Fixed an issue with certain attack types being displayed
- Fixed an issue with rebinding ESCAPE/ENTER
- Fixed the display of 1HP in morgue files
- Fixed an issue with ring display in morgue files
- Fixed an issue with resting while poisoned/burning
Since the game is wrapping up, please let me know of any last minute ideas on balance/polish. Big changes are probably not making it in, but there's still a month to fine tune things.
And I'm super serious about the price increase this time (I wanted one last opportunity for Mac/Linux players to buy at $5).
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(https://i.imgur.com/fOH2ovm.png)
OST
Golden Krone Hotel now has an original soundtrack by Christopher Loza! You might know Christopher from the KeeperRL soundtrack, but he also made our delightful chiptune title track and trailer music. We've been working on redoing all the game's music for a few months and it's finally done.
If, however, you want to switch things up or just get nostalgic for the old music (which has a more ambient horror focus), you can toggle back and forth between both soundtracks in the Options menu.
Despair mode
Even if you're not quite ready for the game to get harder, I know you will be eventually. Despair is a new unlockable, unfair, and unforgiving difficulty mode. It comes with its own redone title screen featuring a gnarly remix, blood moon, and custom font. I have to be honest: this is easily the most badass thing in the game.
(https://i.imgur.com/iMWNBJO.png)
Visual tweaks
Stained glass has been toned down and looks less like "unicorn puke." Menus have been visually reworked and made Fancy!
There's also a good number of bug fixes. Thanks to everyone who reported them!
- The game now features an original soundtrack by Christopher Loza. The old soundtrack can be switched in as well.
- New difficulty: DESPAIR MODE
- The credits menu has been totally reworked into a "crawl" and now displays after a win (also available from Options)
- Reworked menus
- Stained glass no longer looks like "unicorn puke"
- Difficulty can now be selected with keyboard (left/right)
- Drawing ASCII windows differently depending on their orientation
- Debug menu has been made more difficult to accidentally access (now requires '~' + 'debug').
- Accessing the debug menu (or running console commands) prevents a run from having a morgue file saved. This should prevent at least one category of "cheat" morgue files from popping up on the leaderboards.
- Fixed an issue with sliding on ice diagonally
- Fixed a morgue display issue when dying of starvation
- Fixed a major bug where reading a book the same turn one dies turns you immortal.
- Any unbound commands (which had their keys stolen from another remap) are randomly assigned keys, which should prevent a bug where the game wouldn't start with unbound keys.
- Fixed an issue with potion deduction. You should be able to deduce identities more often.
- Fixed a game locking bug with Examine mode in the tutorial. Also now easier to escape from menus in the tutorial.
- Fixed an issue with MIASMA that wasn't hurting enemies unless they were directly hit.
- Fixed an ugly display issue with spell icons on Grimoire menu
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I posted my third entry in the recent series: Things I Hate About Roguelikes Part 3: Terrible Controls (http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wordpress/2017/09/30/things-i-hate-about-roguelikes-part-3-terrible-controls/)
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Cool stuff. I continue to enjoy the series.
As you mention in closing, it's not exactly controversial these days to aim for streamlined interfaces. Still, it's an interesting topic of debate, maybe especially in the context of RLs, which traditionally have such esoteric controls. My own game is aimed to be a "one handed roguelike", partly by way of context-sensitive commands and menus. That can work, but has the danger of becoming obscure in itself (rather than having to remember which key to "disarm" a trap, you have to know what the "default action" is in any given position). Then I need something like a zoomed out map view which skews the whole interface, and the delicate balance feels disrupted again. Well, I hope to have a snappy game when it's feature complete. I'm currently working on mouse controls, actually, and both gamepad and terminal have been on the long todo-list since day one. I think that alone has helped me work with a certain sense of direction, at least :P As another aside: six-directional movement actually works surprisingly well with the four arrow keys.
One strategy I'm pondering, is to shape the game mechanics and the lore/story/action to fit each other as much as possible. For instance, you can collect bounties on criminals by chopping off their heads and giving them to a judge. This uses just the basic interface for picking up and dropping items, but provides a bare bones quest system. Likewise, there is no chat command (the player is assumed to be the silent type, I guess), but NPCs will sometimes deliver lines of dialogue. Something recently had me thinking of the C64 action game Usagi Yojimbo, where the two most important commands were "greet politely" and "draw sword". With these, you interacted with farmers, wandering monks, warriors challenging you to a duel, disguised ninja, etc. I think it's really another way to see the point 1) in your post, which is to say: implement a few actions, and imbue them with a lot of meaning.
By the way, Dumuzid is one of the few 7DRLs I've come back to replay several times. The interface was certainly one of the features that struck me, but also the quite fun strategies that emerge from the basic rules. Very nifty :)
As always,
Minotauros
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Ah thanks! Dumuzid definitely seems to be a crowd favorite.
Something recently had me thinking of the C64 action game Usagi Yojimbo, where the two most important commands were "greet politely" and "draw sword".
Wow, that is pretty badass. Your idea about collecting bounties and returning them to a judge also sounds interesting. That's my next discussion topic: theme and how it's usually super boring/tired.
As another aside: six-directional movement actually works surprisingly well with the four arrow keys.
Really? What, with two pressed at once?
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Something recently had me thinking of the C64 action game Usagi Yojimbo, where the two most important commands were "greet politely" and "draw sword".
Wow, that is pretty badass. Your idea about collecting bounties and returning them to a judge also sounds interesting. That's my next discussion topic: theme and how it's usually super boring/tired.
Yeah, I'm hoping I won't have that problem, seeing as how my original core idea was "gay cowboys on drug induced spirit quests dual wielding sawed off shotguns" :)
As another aside: six-directional movement actually works surprisingly well with the four arrow keys.
Really? What, with two pressed at once?
Exactly. That sounds horrible, but since pressing Up or Down doesn't do anything in itself, they actually work quite well as modifier keys. (WEADZX is also a possibility, but people I've seen try my game prefer the arrow keys.)
As always,
Minotauros
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Oh I could see that. I hate having to use multiple keys (even on a d-pad) because if you don't time it right you end up hitting the wrong one. But if up/down are not used, it seems sensible.
seeing as how my original core idea was "gay cowboys on drug induced spirit quests dual wielding sawed off shotguns"
you're doing god's work.
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Crunch time. I'm wrapping up the final update to the game this weekend. We release out of EA on October 26.
I planned a little "release party" that night:
(https://i.imgur.com/9fNqpAa.png)
http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/releaseparty/
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Running a 3 day competition for Valentine's day.
Details: http://steamcommunity.com/games/497800/announcements/detail/1658883402140670961
Leaderboards: http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/valentines.php
In other news, the game hit the "Very Positive" threshold!
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DV4LlLxV4AAhz6r.jpg)