Messages

1

Temple of the Roguelike / Re: Off topic room removed and my thoughts on the Krice ban

« on: January 29, 2021, 12:05:12 AM »

The actual trend in videogames is that some of us have been in this field for decades and we just want to talk about games without someone constantly insulting us or telling us we don't belong. It's exhausting.

The added bonus of not having horrid personalities stinking up the place is that it stops even worse people from setting up shop. The games industry has been cleaning house the past few years of its abusers and perverts. Good riddance. "Oh noes, we can't treat people like crap anymore!" Fantastic.

If Krice can write an essay saying how he understands what pain in the arse he was and how he will try to do better then maybe he deserves a reprieve.

But this post isn't it is it? It's saying that we should put up with more abuse and "get used to it". Suck it up.

If that's the attitude you're bringing then only the same attitude is warranted in return.

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Early Dev / Re: this is a dead forum

« on: August 12, 2020, 05:14:00 PM »

Like any party or community, a forum is as fun as the fun you bring to it.

That means:

• Linking to the forum from outside.
• Starting threads that spark a discussion that everyone wants to join in on.
• Contributing to threads with new insights and information.
• Not being a Negatron that sucks the life out of the party and makes everyone want to leave.

I've been on many a forum that have seen highs and lows of attendance. And the lows were mostly due to the factors above and a lack of maintenance. Given that Slashie has recently pulled out the feather duster and started sweeping off the cobwebs, what the forum needs is positive contributions. If other people aren't doing that, then it's up to you to make an effort.

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Other Announcements / Re: Roguelike Radio podcast

« on: August 08, 2020, 12:21:02 PM »

Scrolls are a hold over from tabletop RPGs where they allow casting of a spell from a game's spell list without using a Vancian resource. In some systems it is used as part of a caster's learning process (D&D wizards for example almost exclusively learn from scrolls). They were never really a means for any class to cast the spell, because in a lot of systems scrolls cannot be used by any class - requiring some innate ability to be able to read them. Shadow of the Demonlord for example requires you to have magical power to read a scroll without consequence of failure.

Potions in tabletop are distinct from scrolls in that they almost never replicate the effects of a spell. They are always bespoke effects.

In any videogame when we see a potion we think there's a good chance it will restore health. That's generally why we want both scrolls and potions. A scroll will never heal you (or at least it shouldn't).

I have to agree with the podcasters though that potions and scrolls in roguelikes have become interchangeable - which is not a good thing. Likewise only game which has made good use of identification is Cinqo Paus - and you rarely burst into flames during an investigation.

4

Programming / Re: Order of Execution In Turn Based Roguelikes

« on: August 07, 2020, 05:44:57 PM »

For a classic roguelike I'm getting feedback that random is preferable to avoid any bias and I happen to agree. When the level is random and most effects are random then the fairest method is to look randomly.

The execution order doesn't just apply to A.I. - imagine that you have an explosion - and that explosion hits more fuel for another explosion. The order in which these events occur can have different effects on the level, perhaps vaporising elements before they can react if the execution steps one way instead of another.

In my own project I have unlimited Undo - so there needs to be repeatable logic. Or perhaps you want enemies with a specific bias because of map structure.

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Programming / Order of Execution In Turn Based Roguelikes

« on: August 07, 2020, 12:09:24 PM »

This discussion came up on a Discord I am on and the responses I received made it clear that many people don't consider this important - when in fact it is the difference between life and death in a turn based game.

Consider the Compass option. If a monster always looks at north first and east last when pathfinding then the player has an advantage when approaching from the east. Depending on the type of roguelike you are making, the order in which you look at adjacent tiles determines the outcome of all situations where a player's life hangs in the balance.

In a current project I'm using Clock - this mitigates some of the problems with Compass, whilst encouraging kiting from enemies. Though it's a little less predictable and less puzzle-like.

I'm posting this poll in the hopes to find out how people generally approach this problem and to raise awareness of what I think is a core piece of roguelike design. It affects the A.I. of all your enemies and the nature of all your effects.

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7DRLs / Re: GOB! [7DRL 2017]

« on: March 11, 2017, 10:35:20 PM »

Done 

https://st33d.itch.io/gob

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7DRLs / Re: GOB! [7DRL 2017]

« on: March 10, 2017, 11:34:56 PM »

After I removed health it occurred to me that I could have done "glory kill" stuff a la nu-Doom, but health just didn't feel right. It suggests you get more health later - meaning it gets easier. And even having a tiny bit of non-regen health just killed all the tension - who cares, there'll be a health pickup somewhere.

-

I've got it pulled together as a sort of score-based arena shooter where you go down levels to increase your multiplier and up the difficulty. I added charges to spells at the last minute and finally they feel useful - you get to spam a spell 5 times before it runs out.

This is really important as you can equip multiple spells at the same time - there's even a clone-spell that copies all of the spells that come next in the sequence you've chosen. Meaning you can shoot and suddenly there's blasts, laser fire, mines, and another package of the same behind it. Because bullets block bullets, it's a huge waste creating a combo and seeing it get sniped.

I feel like it's got potential but needs room to grow. I think I should see what people make of it, and maybe return to it after 7DRL.

https://twitter.com/st33d/status/840314583260770304

Expect a link on itch.io soon.

8

7DRLs / Re: GOB! [7DRL 2017]

« on: March 09, 2017, 10:56:13 AM »

Shooting things costs health.

Ho-lee-shit was that a bad idea.

Here's the deal. You shoot, your health goes down. Now what? I guess you have to regenerate. Well it's a bit easy now but I guess you can still be overwhelmed right? Except you won't let that happen. You'll play in the most boring way possible, because that's what regenerating health forces you to do.

Even after I removed health-shot-cost and regen, it was still too easy. So I went the D.Grey route and removed all hit-points.
 
The state of the game now is a lot better. I've got spells, but they feel a bit underwhelming (except when you combo them), and I've got a few monsters. I had to do a lot of work on their AI so that they can pose a threat - because it's super easy to cheese with a gun. I could do more but I doubt I have the time.

It's looking promising but the internet at my house has been cut off somehow. There's insomnia stopping me from getting to sleep and building works outside stopping me from staying asleep. I've got a bunch of mechanics, death, and descending levels, but still no "game".

AAAARRRRGGHHH!!!

Now I'm off round someone's house to see what they've been up to for 7DRL.

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7DRLs / GOB! [7DRL 2017]

« on: March 05, 2017, 11:32:43 PM »

Plan: You are are Gob, a big happy mouth. You shoot things. Shooting things costs health. There's spells. Spells augment shots, costing more health.

Had various plans for 7DRL. But since Unity is the only IDE I could comfortably get working on my new PC, I ended up taking several broken Unity engines I've made over the years and tried to glue bits of them together to finally make something work.

I got a roguelike engine going with no Chuckle Brothers turns (to me, to you). Everyone decides (correcting as we go), then everyone acts at the same time. Mmm, smooth. The bullets then test for collision during the animation. This makes it much easier to track than my previous attempts at bullets which required the player to guess if the bullets check for collision at the beginning of their turn or at the end. It's a mesh of realtime and turn based.

Normally everyone just goes for instant attacks on ranged weapons. This is more sort of bullet-time stuff with bullets colliding as well. I felt that I haven't seen that yet so let's have a gander.

Progress Gifs:
https://twitter.com/st33d/status/838053198300606464
https://twitter.com/st33d/status/838155687670779905
https://twitter.com/st33d/status/838200152728940544
https://twitter.com/st33d/status/838522546819588097

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Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: August 12, 2013, 11:17:53 PM »

I was going to mention a fireball trap, but in Turnament they came with their own issues.

Because they move and you move, you either have to insist that they kill if you enter their tile and if they move into your tile (like moving spikes in Bump!) or; you kill the player only when they walk towards the fireball and when it moves into their tile.

I went with the latter in Turnament, which made for good puzzles and the behaviour makes sense when you think about it, but players struggled with learning the concept.

In Microgue however you have the added problem of moving two tiles.

We thought of an axe swinging round on a pillar as a trap in Turnament, it would hit you it it swung into you or you moved into it. We also thought of splitting enemies - which would create some interesting problems in Microgue.

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Early Dev / Re: Microgue

« on: July 29, 2013, 09:43:12 PM »

Do we really need to see the turn order of all the baddies? I know it has a fundamental impact on the game, but I think that most roguelikes have managed quite well without it. I mean, you might as well illustrate the logic order of which directions are examined first (in some roguelikes you can game the AI in certain directions) - that would be more important than which enemy acted first. But both of those I think get in the way of just playing the game.

60fps is noble, but not really essential for a turn based game. It's putting a strain on older phones as well. 30fps is quite acceptable.

Gameplay is good. Squads of rats are quite hard to deal with because the create a wall of check, which is quite interesting. Not quite sure about the timing on spikes, but managed to tactically use them in this version as opposed to classic Microgue where they seemed like decoration. Was a bit on the fence about the bigger map, but it seems to create more interesting problems. Wouldn't go larger though.

Re hosting: If you want ultra cheap hosting then you should take a look at Amazon S3. It's pay as you go:

http://aws.amazon.com/s3/

As for hosting a site, I can't really help. My host is pretty shit. But I've got all the executables for my games on S3, because I only get charged when people download and I get charged next to nothing compared to most services. At least you won't exceed your bandwidth limit like you can on dropbox.

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Other Announcements / Re: Roguelike Radio podcast

« on: June 17, 2013, 08:13:34 PM »

More podcasts please.

13

Development Process & non-technical / Re: Why I hate the term "Permadeath"

« on: May 29, 2013, 07:07:59 PM »

Static games require frequent save states to be comfortable to play. I played some stupid ass long level of Hotline Miami last night and I'm in two minds now whether to do their "stamina level" again because I've a lot of compiling to do tonight. It's disrespectful of my time.

Random games, why bother. If the start, middle and end aren't of equal quality then it's the game's fault, not how far in you need to be before it stops being crap.

14

Programming / Re: Ending: Adventure mode

« on: May 02, 2013, 09:05:23 AM »

There isn't enough horse power in Flash to throw away rooms when it's exported for mobile. Or generate a room solver for the randomly generated rooms.

Generally you want corridors and pillars. Which is what it currently generates (I've been tweaking it more every day). Aiming for specific patterns would constrain the game to what I already know about it - and after playing it constantly for 6 months I'm still learning new things.

I find the objective fun personally, it just seems that a lot of people miss what that objective is.

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Programming / Re: Ending: Adventure mode

« on: May 01, 2013, 10:33:10 PM »

The advance doors now blink. They always spawn east or west in the starting room and I've removed the bad door. This should make the objective clear now as well as adding the opportunity to kill rooms in order to escape.

Preset puzzles would not work because the player would simply execute them by rote. I've tried this already. The challenge of getting to the final door through a random maze seems to throw up more interesting puzzles for me because I've never seen them.