Topics

1

7DRLs / [7DRL 2018] Search for the Crown

« on: March 22, 2018, 05:52:00 AM »

My incomplete entry for this year. Go with a team of explorers (and bloodhounds) to search for the Golden Crown in a trap-filled dungeon. It can be played in the browser here: http://aquatsar.itch.io/search-for-the-crown-7drl

I considered it incomplete because the game just feels unbalanced and unpolished. It's probably my best entry so far though. The version currently on Itch.io has a recent patch that fixed the controls and some bugs that made the game unwinnable in certain circumstances.

2

Early Dev / Rogue Harvest Extended

« on: April 20, 2015, 04:58:53 AM »

With the 7DRL HarvestRL done, even if it is really unbalanced, I'm remaking it and extending it in a way I wanted the game to be originally. I'm starting with UI changes, so that I can address some of the major complaints of the 7DRL version and improve accessibility. Once I get those changes complete, I can start working on mechanical changes (such as better monsters, more meaningful / less tedious farming, actual villagers, etc.).

I don't have much to report at the moment except how the new Inventory screen looks/works. Those brown button-like things are clickable buttons, though I think the brown might be a bad color choice. Mouse targeting for throwing doesn't work yet; improving the targeting for ranged effects is next on the agenda.

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7DRLs / HarvestRL - Success?

« on: March 12, 2015, 04:04:28 AM »

For this year's challenge I've decided to make a Harvest Moon-style game, with a typical roguelike twist. For those who have played the Rune Factory series of games, it will be similar but with greater randomness to the dungeons (and permadeath). You'll play as a farmer who needs to farm for supplies, to help keep the village alive and well, and clear some dungeons of enemies to finish the plot. After 3 days, I have a random village and surrounding grasslands, some unpopulated nearby dungeons, and basic functionality (movement, bumping to open and punch stuff, looking around, etc.).

Screenshots are below. I'll be blogging the development too here: http://gamesbyaqua.blogspot.ca and on the 7DRL Challenge site once I get access to it again.


Wandering around the village, just leaving the main road.


Looking at a door I closed behind me.

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Programming / Rogue-like without combat

« on: April 02, 2012, 02:27:37 PM »

The idea of a roguelike without combat has been discussed in many places before, but I am curious about something. What do you think of a roguelike where combat, and all it's associated stats + inventory mechanics, were included in a game where combat is not the point?

In other words, a game where you could fight all sorts of people but the point is actually to say travel between towns acting as a merchant. Or something similar to Rune Factory, where you need to farm but you can also fight stuff. (Though Rune Factory does still have a combat emphasis, since you can't win or end the game without fighting.)

Any thoughts on this? Clearly the fun of a game would depend on what else you do, but do you think it would be bad to include combat mechanics in an otherwise non-combat game?

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Programming / Resolution and Fonts

« on: July 09, 2010, 08:03:19 PM »

I have come across a dilemma. Earlier I asked for some opinions on scrolling vs static dungeons, but recently I realized something problematic with static dungeons. The maximum size of a dungeon floor is based on the size of the font, and the size of the game window (and thus resolution).

Allowing people to change fonts or screen size requires a scrolling dungeon. Now, if I wanted to instead make a static dungeon, the most obvious approach would be to just use a set font size (which is fine) and a set resolution.

What resolution would be "acceptable"? I am aiming for desktop machines, not handhelds, but OS should be irrelevant. I'm thinking 1024x768 is a standard monitor size now, but when I was in a computer store the other day I could not find a non-widescreen monitor. Is everything widescreen now?

So, does anyone have some ideas on an acceptable resolution?

6

Programming / Restricted Actions

« on: March 23, 2010, 08:58:32 PM »

So far I've noticed roguelikes tend to have all actions available at the beginning, and I'm wondering whether a variation of that would be good or bad.

Basically, I've considered using 'key items' of some sort to provide an available action. Such as requiring a shovel in order to dig. This would turn a 'dig' command into 'use' command on the 'shovel' item, or something similar. However, that would also mean you cannot dig without a shovel. Another idea would be requiring a quiver before you could get arrows to perform a ranged attack. The newer Zelda and Harvest Moon games use this mechanic, as I'm sure other games do.

Does anyone see potential pitfalls with this idea? I'm sure there could be some actions that may be annoying, such as not being able to attack without a 'weapon' item, but I'm hoping that having a smaller set of actions at the beginning would not be detrimental.

7

Programming / Multi-tile Creatures

« on: December 02, 2009, 03:55:42 AM »

Alright, I've got another set of questions for everyone out there about creatures that are larger than a single square. ZZT has those centipede like creatures, and Dwarf Fortress has seige equipment and wagons that take up multiple tiles, but are there any other roguelikes with large creatures like this?

Do you think it'd be good to have large creatures like this? I can see wagons and catapults (or workshops) being big, but in that case would a dragon be the same size? And how would it show up? Just a larger D or some other sequence of letters?

I know tile-based games can simply show a larger tile (and those games are valid enough to be listed here) but what would be a good way to do this in ascii?

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Programming / View of a Scrolling Dungeon

« on: November 15, 2009, 06:56:32 PM »

Hi all,

I've been experimenting with a RL for a bit and have implemented a scrolling dungeon. However, I'm not really sure what would be the best way to view this dungeon.

For example, should the player's view onto the world automatically scroll so that their character is always in the direct center? Or should the view only scroll when the player's character reaches an edge? And then, how close to the edge?

Right now I've got it centered and auto-scrolling, because that was easiest, but I'm curious what other people think of that idea. Any thoughts?