Messages

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Other Announcements / New Review Blog

« on: June 13, 2012, 01:06:04 AM »

I have just started a new review blog, and since I am a huge rl fan, a good portion of the blog's content will be rl related.  So if you want to check it out, here is the link:

http://mikesvideogameramblings.wordpress.com/

Out of 4 articles written so far (my goal is to write at least one a day) not counting the welcome post, two of them are rl related.  Here are the specific links for those that don't want to wade through the whole thing, lol:

Review of Cardinal Quest for iPhone:

http://mikesvideogameramblings.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/review-cardinal-quest-for-ios-universal/

Preview of Crystal Catacombs, a game being funded on Kickstarter:

http://mikesvideogameramblings.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/kickstarter-update-the-crystal-catacombs/

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Other Announcements / Re: THE Commercial Roguelike

« on: June 28, 2011, 01:30:15 AM »

I know it's been a month since the last post in this topic, but I thought I would reply with some "commercial roguelikes".

There is the huge, and hugely popular in Japan, series of rl's called the "Mystery Dungeon" series:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Dungeon

There is a game that came out for the PS2 and Wii called Baroque:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_%28video_game%29

There is Champions of Norrath for the PS2:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_of_Norrath

They made a mod for Neverwinter Nights called Infinite Dungeons:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights:_Infinite_Dungeons_%28module%29

There are more listed here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_dungeon

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: IfRL 7dRL Released. And a call for beta-testers.

« on: February 11, 2010, 03:54:12 PM »

Wow, two great tastes that I'm sure will go great together!  I'll definitely check it out!

Edit: I've had a few minutes to play a runthrough of this game.  Very good stuff, imo.  I can't wait to see what you do next with this, and I'm going to keep playing for sure!

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Programming / Re: A peaceful dungeon exploration game

« on: February 03, 2010, 07:03:59 PM »

You could do survival-type stuff like the UnReal World does.  Getting shelter against bad weather all that.  Would hunting be too close to combat to use?  Even if the animals had no chance against you in a fight and just tried to escape?

I wouldn't call that combat. Especially if it's little critters like bunnies and stuff.

**You kill Thumper.  Thumper meat added to inventory.**

Then you could get more out of it if you had a good cooking skill and stuff.  UO had a good hunting and crafting system.

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Other Announcements / "Rogue Expedition" going to be Vic Davis' next project!

« on: January 27, 2010, 02:59:29 PM »

Vic Davis, aka Cryptic Comet, is the creator of Armageddon Empires and Solium Infernum, two very deep PC strategy titles that play more like board games than computer games, and are known for their very deep mechanics.  Now he is turning his attention to what looks like it could be a roguelike in computer board game form.  The following is from an interview with him I found on the Rock, Paper, Shotgun website:

RPS: In your plans for 2010, you’ve mentioned “Project Rogue Expedition: I am designing a strategy adventure game. My core design goals are to foster a fun sense of exploration and push your luck decision making”. Any chance of teasing anything else about in that? Presumably, this is returning to a single-player focus of Solium Infernum, but… well, it seems very different. Am I wrong by looking at those sentance and thinking that it’ll be a non-traditional representation of adventuring? More management than close-tactical-control? Or am I just desperately grasping?

You’re pretty close on target. You will have a map and a mission (you will be able to select from several) and the goal will be to explore the map (randomly generated paths) and manage your risk vs. your reward and push yourself at the same time to complete your mission. As you travel over the map you will have to overcome “challenges” which require you to use your stats, items, allies, special move type cards etc. I’m working on some neat mechanics here that are sort of like a card game in that you have a base set of rules and then look for ways to change and manipulate the rules. You will have to make hard choices on how you want to approach the challenges given your strategic situation on the map and the status of your mission. It will be single player primarily. I’m exploring some ways to make a meta game component but my primary focus is on single player. As I was working on SI, I found that I really missed the exploration aspect of Armageddon Empires. It just didn’t fit in with the design of SI and my idea was that new things showing up in the “Bazaar” would compensate a little for that “What is behind door #1” feeling that I like in my games.

But with Rogue Expedition I have the chance to play around with a lot of the rogue-like concepts and see what I can do. So a big part of the game will be exploration. I want it to play like a board game as well…so although you have a “character” with stats and an inventory I am going to keep those aspects tight and focused. Hopefully it will force tough “push your luck” type decisions on the player. I’m also hoping that players will get the sense of a “creating their own story” type of experience. I don’t want to talk about the theme quite yet but it might include a fedora hat.

Link: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/01/26/pitchforked-tongue-davis-on-sol-infernum/#more-24395

Looks EXTREMELY promising!!!

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Programming / Re: A peaceful dungeon exploration game

« on: January 27, 2010, 01:25:00 PM »

That's an interesting idea. Bring some sausages to bribe the zephyr hounds, gold for the ghost of the king, cheese for all the rodents, wine and rations for the orcs. Then make a party alltogether

More seriously, this could be an interesting sort of puzzle, particularly to find out what the different inhabitants of the place will like.

Yeah, that would be cool.  And of course in roguelike fashion, it could be random each time you play.

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Programming / Re: A peaceful dungeon exploration game

« on: January 26, 2010, 08:37:50 PM »

Just a random thought that popped into my head, so you can decide if it would be a worthy idea or not, but...

What about a game where you don't fight any of the creatures in the dungeon, but instead you bribe them to leave!  You collect gold and treasure that you can sell for gold, but when you encounter a creature, you have to guess how much it will cost for them to go away.  If you are right (and have that much gold, of course), they leave and you get the exp.  If you are wrong, they say if you are too high or too low and then that particular creature won't talk to you for another x turns.  You can also have food as normal that you have to find or buy, so you can't just sit there and press the next turn button over and over.

Just a thought...

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Labyrinthica: The Quest of Lima!

« on: December 23, 2009, 05:13:26 PM »

Looks intriguing!

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Sword of Fargoal remake for iPhone!

« on: November 18, 2009, 04:10:29 PM »

I'm hoping to get an iPod Touch for Christmas, and this and the other roguelikes out there will definitely be some of my first downloads!

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Other Announcements / Re: Torchlight

« on: October 28, 2009, 02:56:40 PM »

What's the character building like.  I could care less about the story, but I like a good character builder.

Very Diablo-like.  There are three classes, and each class has three skill trees.  Two are class-specific, then there is one that they all share.  Magick is done pretty uniquely- You find scrolls as loot around the mines (dungeon) and can learn any spell from a scroll, but you can only have four spells known at any one time.  And from what I understand there are quite a few spells.  In a single game I had a character that knew haste, summon skeleton, and fireball.  So there is quite the possibility for some really eclectic character builds, since the skill trees are also quite varied from one another.  That will probably appeal to some people but not to others.

And I didn't even mention the pet.  You can give them fish that transorm them.  Also, they can have two spells memorized themself.  Another really cool thing about the pet is that they can hold as many items as you can, and the super cool thing is that with a click of a button, you can send the pet to automatically go back to town and sell all the items in it's inventory, then come back, all without you having to leave the dungeon at all.  You are just without your pet for about 30 seconds or so.

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Other Announcements / Re: Torchlight

« on: October 27, 2009, 01:39:52 PM »

Got it overnight and checked it out a bit instead of going back to bed like I should have, although alot of that time was spent testing how it worked under various resolutions and graphic details.  But it's at least playable on my system, so that is a good thing.  I'm impressed with the vibrance of the graphics and the effects, but I knew I would be from the screens.  My only gripe so far is that the load times from level to level or level to city are kinda longish, but I know that's because I have too little RAM in my system.  I've only played one of the classes and only played through one level of the mines so far and got her to level 2, but the gameplay and balance is enjoyable so far.  I'm definitely enticed to keep playing, since I have already taken a boss quest and I've seen in one of the shops where you can buy maps thay you "activate" to play bonus levels, which I think is a really cool concept.  Anyway, we'll see how other people think of this game as they get it and I'm sure I'll post more as I play more.

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Other Announcements / Re: your favorite roguelike

« on: October 26, 2009, 05:18:46 PM »

I'd say Elona is probably around the high points of depth of things that mess with other things at this point.

That's another one that I have really wanted to get into, but have been too intimidated to do so.

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Other Announcements / Re: your favorite roguelike

« on: October 26, 2009, 03:17:26 PM »

What other games are deeper? I love Crawl because of the depth it has... others seem a little too simplified.

Nethack seems a bit deeper since there is more you can do.  And while I haven't played them too much, games like Angband and such seem like they are a bit deeper, since there are cities and wilderness areas and such as well as the dungeons.

Crawl seems like it has distilled the multitude of actions and locations of those other games to give the player a similar experience but without all of the minutia of detail that some other games have.  I never have that "overwhelmed" feeling playing it, but I have gotten that feeling playing some other roguelikes.

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Other Announcements / Re: Torchlight

« on: October 26, 2009, 03:11:25 PM »

I haven't heard if this game before. Anyone care to explain what makes it so interesting that people already anticipate it?

One of the reasons people are so looking forward to it is that it is being made by a dream team of devs that come from the developers of the Diablo series and the Fate series of action "rogueish" RPG's.  That, and it looks gorgeous (even though the system requirements are purported to be pretty low for todays standards), appears to have a ton of depth for this kind of game, and is extremely moddable.

Anyway, one more day!!

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Other Announcements / Re: your favorite roguelike

« on: October 22, 2009, 07:55:17 PM »

Nethack is what got me to even notice roguelikes in the first place, but I have to say my current favorite is Crawl Stone Soup.  It has most of the depth as Nethack, but is a TON easier to move around and control everything.  VERY intuitive for this type of game.  I know other games are deeper, but DCSS is plenty deep enough for me.  Also, I love how religion plays so much of a role in alot of the character types.  I think it's the perfect roguelike for me, if there is such a thing.