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Programming / New Roguelike in development: Forge of the Elements
« on: July 30, 2009, 04:33:57 PM »
Hi, I am a fan of roguelikes in general and thought I would develop one this summer. So far progress is coming along nicely.
I am developing the game in java as an applet, which means eventually I'll have it running from a browser. OOP is sweet and life's to short to debug segmentation faults.
My goals with the game are three fold.
1) make an ASCII look good using true colors. (it's psuedo ascii though, using graphical interface objects and painting multiple characters to some squares).
2) fast paced, easy to learn, difficult to master, intuitive and simple UI.
3) Browser based eventually...
As the name suggests, the theme will be different elemental focuses. Melee and spell casters can choose, but don't have to, an elemental proficiency which will add elemental damage to ranged/melee attacks in addition to granting intrinsic bonuses, while spell casters will be able to cast high lvl spells of their element depending on the schools the focus on. I'm pretty proud of the skill system, that's the though behind the game. The items and ac is all balanced around weight and armor skill, and there are three specialist skills fighting, focus, agility that rise when points in sub skills are spent. Fighting increases melee damage/hp, focus increases mana, agility raises defense. Elements will be Fire, Ice, Acid, Earth, Temporal (time and space), Mind, Life, and Death. Let's see, oh the spell system should be a lot like City of Heroes dominators class, with high amounts of crowd control if anyone is familiar.
Anyway, my design philosophy so far has been: 1) build legos, 2) build rocket ship. Right now I am making excellent progress on building all the building blocks. 104 spells are planed and charted, spell engine and targeting system is already implemented just working out all 18 status effects from confusion, poison, lull, sleep, disease, stat drain, stun, paralyze, immobilize, freeze, slow, stop, corrode etc.. . 22 different skills, all implemented so far save stealth/magic item. Item generator built, it's pretty diabloish atm though. Melee combat is in, map generator, pathing AI, LOS, targeting, inventory/spell/equip/character UI is all in place and graphical.
I hope to release an alpha version by the end of the summer. It will be lacking many features though, but I hope to have wands, scrolls, ranged weapon ammo, potions, stealth, basic state based AI in place to test gameplay before the game itself is fleshed out.
So, anyway. It's been a productive month. I'm pretty confident I'll have a game even if in alpha in one more.
I'm going to post some images in a sec, I could use some feedback on the look and feel and level design. It's simple atm, eventually I would like to add a whole host of room templates to mix it up, but right now I just want to finish something.
I am developing the game in java as an applet, which means eventually I'll have it running from a browser. OOP is sweet and life's to short to debug segmentation faults.
My goals with the game are three fold.
1) make an ASCII look good using true colors. (it's psuedo ascii though, using graphical interface objects and painting multiple characters to some squares).
2) fast paced, easy to learn, difficult to master, intuitive and simple UI.
3) Browser based eventually...
As the name suggests, the theme will be different elemental focuses. Melee and spell casters can choose, but don't have to, an elemental proficiency which will add elemental damage to ranged/melee attacks in addition to granting intrinsic bonuses, while spell casters will be able to cast high lvl spells of their element depending on the schools the focus on. I'm pretty proud of the skill system, that's the though behind the game. The items and ac is all balanced around weight and armor skill, and there are three specialist skills fighting, focus, agility that rise when points in sub skills are spent. Fighting increases melee damage/hp, focus increases mana, agility raises defense. Elements will be Fire, Ice, Acid, Earth, Temporal (time and space), Mind, Life, and Death. Let's see, oh the spell system should be a lot like City of Heroes dominators class, with high amounts of crowd control if anyone is familiar.
Anyway, my design philosophy so far has been: 1) build legos, 2) build rocket ship. Right now I am making excellent progress on building all the building blocks. 104 spells are planed and charted, spell engine and targeting system is already implemented just working out all 18 status effects from confusion, poison, lull, sleep, disease, stat drain, stun, paralyze, immobilize, freeze, slow, stop, corrode etc.. . 22 different skills, all implemented so far save stealth/magic item. Item generator built, it's pretty diabloish atm though. Melee combat is in, map generator, pathing AI, LOS, targeting, inventory/spell/equip/character UI is all in place and graphical.
I hope to release an alpha version by the end of the summer. It will be lacking many features though, but I hope to have wands, scrolls, ranged weapon ammo, potions, stealth, basic state based AI in place to test gameplay before the game itself is fleshed out.
So, anyway. It's been a productive month. I'm pretty confident I'll have a game even if in alpha in one more.
I'm going to post some images in a sec, I could use some feedback on the look and feel and level design. It's simple atm, eventually I would like to add a whole host of room templates to mix it up, but right now I just want to finish something.