Messages

16

7DRLs / Re: 7DRL 2014 Massive Videos Thread

« on: March 19, 2014, 05:09:55 PM »

7DArrrL, by Paul Jeffries

Overall Thoughts:
What an eclectic set of controls! I'm rather fond of mixing up control as a part of changing gameplay, and this one seems to make the jump easy and intuitive: wind can be hard to see, but other than that I had no issue trying to control. Whether or not I could control well is another matter, but figuring out the right timing and adjusting to the enemy's movements is the main reason for real-time games (or rather, whenever it's a reasonable choice between that and turn-based). But, well, it's just not a roguelike! Right now it's uniform combat, so after you figure out how to beat one ship, you're set beating them all (or doomed to eventually lose if it's impossible to do so flawlessly).

Of course, I never actually killed a single ship, so there may be some sustainability in the form of getting more crew. But unless there's a goal and/or a stark increase in variety (different ships, ways to improve your own, weather fluctuations) it's just a fun sea combat simulator, which does not a roguelike make. Definitely play it a little, it's fun anyway.

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7DRLs / Re: 7DRL 2014 Massive Videos Thread

« on: March 19, 2014, 05:02:37 AM »

Northbound, by skeeto and netguy204

Overall thoughts:
It's not bad at all for a prototype: many of the concepts-to-come are obvious and the pacing of gameplay is solid. There's really not much content except the graphics and music, though, so I can't speak much on how much fun I had: it's more pretty than engaging. Hopefully more work will be done, because it needs work, but almost any new efforts into adding content should turn out positive. Ramping up the number of resources necessary to survive, making use of the terrain for those resources, occasional obstacles "thrown" by the encroaching shadow to hinder you, and adjusting the stamina system to account for long-term fatigue, to name a few. The aesthetics have been built up nicely, all you gotta do is get the game down!

EDIT: New video's up. My overall thoughts from this post haven't changed, but there are more accurate comments in the new video description.

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7DRLs / Re: 7DRL 2014 Massive Videos Thread

« on: March 18, 2014, 03:58:58 PM »

Impera, by kniiight

Overall thoughts:
For what's here, this is a very polished and complete game. Simple startup and controls, complex interactions, decisions between limiting movement and limiting your own: there's a lot to get out of here! Replayability is definitely here as well. Honestly, the only flaw I could conceivably give is meta: the game's great but, given the challenge of 168 hours, it probably could have accomplished some more. Don't get me wrong, it accomplished a fair amount, but aside from some interesting enemy AI there isn't a lot of "content implementation". I bet some other simple abilities, interactive terrain, and a slightly more varied reward system per level could have been figured out with a really good use of time (and possibly beforehand planning).

I'm only saying that because I'm fishing for something to describe how it could be better in the context of 7DRL: as a standalone game, regardless of the challenge, this is a very good work and should be considered as such.

19

7DRLs / Re: 7DRL 2014 Massive Videos Thread

« on: March 18, 2014, 05:23:13 AM »

SoulsRL, by pangaea

Overall thoughts:
I enjoy the prospect of what SoulsRL hopes to accomplish, but unfortunately it isn't accomplished to the point where I can effectively enjoy it. To guess at the ideal, I imagine a giant battle arena wherein you kill things as efficiently as possible, setting up paralyzed enemies as walls and slicing down those behind with a giant magical laser or hammer or mid-sized sedan. It'd boil down to keeping yourself health and alert, preparing for unseen challenges to come. Certainly that massive wave of turrents makes me want to survive the ordeal! But, as I mentioned, it's not really doing any of that right now, whether it be due to overall imbalance, some scattered bugs, or some missteps in the implementation. I really do hope this game (or at least this idea) gets worked on some more, as it can be so much more. I think some thoughtful consideration on a little more content, combined with some rigorous and thorough coding, would do wonders for this one.

20

7DRLs / Re: 7DRL 2014 Massive Videos Thread

« on: March 18, 2014, 04:59:09 AM »

This space will be left blank for now. A massive link list could easily max out a post, so I'm leaving extra room in case that happens.

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7DRLs / 7DRL 2014 Massive Videos Thread

« on: March 18, 2014, 04:09:32 AM »

I was advised to post all the videos here at the Temple, so I'll do just that. I'll even do one better: along with links to each video, I'll write up a small, additional review of the game. (EDIT: not doing a "official" judging, at least not with the posts.) Feel free to either comment in this thread, or head on over to YouTube and comment there: I'll be reading both as I go.

I've decided to go in the opposite direction of "sometimes videos won't be available here" and instead make it so that the videos are unlisted until their standard viewing time on YouTube. In other words, you'll have a small period of exclusive access by checking here first! It's not really my intention to add traffic in that manner, this just happens to make things less time-demanding for me while I'm at work.

To 7DRL Developers:
If you want me to do some extra reviewing for your game, let me know and I'll strive for more than one paragraph: if you want me to target a specific part (like the graphics, controls, gameplay, mechanics, etc) specify that as well. You can even ask this after the post goes up, it's just a quick edit! (Of course if you wait too long, like a month or more, I might not remember enough of the game to be confident in a review, so please keep this in mind.)

Anyway, without further ado, I present to you the massive link list! (This will be updated over the course of the next couple months as videos are completed.) Listing is alphabetical by game name.

7DArrrL, by Paul Jeffries
Beware of Strange Warp Points, by Ed Kolis
Fida'i, by Pat Wilson
Hellspace, by Numeron
Impera, by kniiight
Northbound, by skeeto and netguy204
Rogue Station, by Pål Trefall & Kenneth Gangstø
SoulsRL, by pangaea
The Littlest Princess, by Joseph Bradshaw
VARIABLO, by Rat King

22

Other Announcements / Re: Let's Play... a Bunch of Roguelikes!

« on: March 17, 2014, 07:38:03 PM »

Also you seemed to get bored reading the story so I cut down on that side of things considerably too.

I reckon that has less to do with me getting bored of reading the story and more with me getting bored of dictating the story. I tend to read what's in front of me (maybe I'll stop doing that every single time) so something that takes a while can drag on and I can already feel the viewers waiting for me to get to the gameplay. That is, I wouldn't call it a fault of the game, rather a fault of my own presentation. I WILL say that simple games should have small stories anyway: that's just my raw opinion, though, and it will vary from player to player.

-----

Eben suggested that I make a thread in the 7DRL forum for all the games I do, so any updates on my journey through this year's games will be found there (haven't made the post yet but I'll refer a link when it is). In addition to the post linking the video I'll try to write up some short review: nothing that goes past what I played in the video but hopefully involving details I didn't mention. Feel free to reply in that thread or, as always, comment on the videos themselves through YouTube.

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Other Announcements / Re: Let's Play... a Bunch of Roguelikes!

« on: March 16, 2014, 06:32:28 PM »

Hi! I'm back from not making videos! Sorry for not at least mentioning anything about it, kinda ran out of steam and, true to what I'm personally used to doing, completely detached myself from all things related to it. But I've returned, just in time for this year's 7DRL! You can find the playlist here: it's basically empty right now but expect it to fill up starting Monday night.

Like last year, if you want me to play your 7DRL game (or play one you've tried and liked, or play one 'cause it sounds cool) let me know with a reply and I'll prioritize them over the others. I'm hoping to pump out at least two every day (not just weekdays), it depends on how many roguelikes there are this year: I would like to finish before June this time.

As for whether or not I'll be returning to a regular schedule after 7DRL, I'm keeping that tentative. I have a new hobby now (speedrunning, just gonna paste some twitch and YouTube accounts if it sounds interesting to you) which, combined with my still full-time job, leaves little room for other stuff. I might play games by request, I might do games I think are interesting, and who knows how many videos per series. The 7DRL playthroughs will give me a good sense of how much opportunity and interest I still have, so we'll see how it goes!

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Other Announcements / Re: Let's Play... a Bunch of Roguelikes!

« on: July 16, 2013, 03:38:28 PM »

Because of the way things are in terms of timing, I have three games in the cycle at the moment and, if anything, UnReal World is probably the least roguelike of them (or at least the least mechanically-similar to Rogue). Teleglitch is done , doubly so because I actually beat the game! Instead we have:

• Dungeonmans is a currently-Kickstarted roguelike and one of the devs asked me to play it so I'm playing it. Really liking the sensory aesthetics so far and the basic mechanics include both classic and innovative bits. For comments about the game itself you're probably better off going to this thread, but anything regarding my own playthrough and commentary is welcome here.
• The Wizard's Lair slides into more humble roguelike category with just the basics and a few amusing changes here and there. Been a while since we've seen a game (outside of 7DRL) that takes this approach, and I don't mind analyzing the formula more rigorously for the goods and bads! Prior to this year's 7DRL, the developer asked me to try it out and, now that we're finally out of that marathon, we can see what this game has to offer.
• UnReal World is still moving along, of course! I'm seriously considering if I should move this one to like, a "dedicated weekend" slot, since there's a lot of time not actively commenting on the situation and more about the steady progress of a lifestyle. I'll keep it in my regular group for the time being, but I also think we should move on from it soon.

And as always (even if I didn't mention it last time), let me know what you think! I've been at it for nearly two years at this point but I don't consider myself at all a veteran of either live-LPing nor roguelike-playing. I'm always eager to hear your praises, suggestions, criticisms, or anything else of that sort.

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Other Announcements / Re: Let's Play... a Bunch of Roguelikes!

« on: June 16, 2013, 11:24:18 PM »

Whoops, I absolutely forgot to make a proper update here! The 7DRLs are more or less finished (save a few stragglers I'll post whenever I can get them running) and so we move on to the multi-video series.

In the "classic" side of things, though certainly not by objective, I'm learning the ins and outs of UnReal World. It's all about survival and making a home in the unforgiving and sinister wilderness. It's also about throwing rocks at a squirrel until it falls out of a tree and then bashing its skull open! (Not that the game is particularly gory about it, but you gotta do what you gotta do to stay alive.)

On the flip-side of modern and sassy roguelikes, we enter the realm of mutants, zombies, and tears in the rug of spacetime with Teleglitch. It's fast-paced, it's pretty hard, and I'm loving all of it. I won't say that the controls get in the way, but the general control scheme is unorthodox and takes a little time to adjust to: that said, once you're well-immersed in the interface, you run into some really exciting situations.

I wonder whether you ever played any games from the 30[5-8]9 line? I think it would be interesting to see your take on them, as they look like they should major, but I haven't noticed roguelikers giving them much attention (for me, they weren't approachable enough, but as I have said, my determination to "get into" games is very low).

Y'know, I've heard of that game series before within the roguelike community, but I haven't gotten the chance to explore it. Gonna have to put that one down on the list, nice and proper. Thanks for the suggestion, and thanks for watching!

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Other Announcements / Re: Let's Play... a Bunch of Roguelikes!

« on: May 23, 2013, 03:10:50 PM »

YAY you did a review of my game. So happy.

If anything I feel bad that the video came out so late. I had a block on one of my videos, preventing me from posting videos with a length greater than 15 minutes, and your game's video was in that category: ideally you would've seen it a couple weeks before.

Fun game though, really good job this time around.

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Other Announcements / Re: Let's Play... a Bunch of Roguelikes!

« on: March 19, 2013, 03:43:37 AM »

So I did a quick playthrough (and by quick I mean 16 videos' worth) of Diablo, the original. It was a good amount of fun! One of the few playthroughs I've done that wasn't blind from the start, so we managed to get through the whole of it!

Mostly I'm posting because I wanted to point out that my 7DRL Challenge 2013 videos have begun! It was a real bumper crop this year, and I'll do my best to pump out videos at a good pace so that we're not stuck with them for too long. If you want a particular game played (for whatever reason, so long as it was actually successful), I'll be sure to make it a priority.

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Other Announcements / Re: Let's Play... a Bunch of Roguelikes!

« on: February 08, 2013, 04:54:13 PM »

And another forever later...

My last two projects finished up, Hydra Slayer long before, but I took a little break from the second side with a few videos in between. Those included some looks at various roguelikes using NotEye, a roguelike frontend that allows for a variety of additional graphical modes, including tiles, isometric, and even a first-person perspective. I tried out DoomRL, Brogue, and Frozen Depths under these possibilities, and the results are rather interesting.

In the meantime, however, I'm currently playing Rogue, the one and only. It'll be an explorative LP, trying out a good many versions and direct variants of the game, all the while trying to see exactly what makes the game tick and why so very much people found it appealing.

On the flip-side, we have Elona, a roguelike styled similarly to JPRGs (I'd even say it reminds me a lot of RuneScape). Tons to do but plenty of grinding to get there, which is exactly what you'd expect given the inspiration.

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Early Dev / Re: Wayward

« on: January 30, 2013, 08:45:22 PM »

I did notice I needed a lot of strings for different recipes. And it took my quite some grinding to get enough strings. ( branch -> stripped bark -> blah ).

[/quote]

The pace of things should only improve with time; however, strings seem to be a stumbling block for most still.

I don't think string is as grindy as it used to be, especially now that there's a grand total of six different rope-like items to work with. Often you can just go exploring early-game and get a ton of string, and I'd say you really only need 10-15 units of it to get into late-tier (at which point string is useless except for fabric and occasionally rope).

I'm really hoping that durability repair isn't quite so constant. Maybe it should could on skill (as the scaling) and hammer type (as % cap), where the skill is tinkering, related to the item being repaired, or a new "repairing" skill altogether (or quite possibly some combination thereof). It's a good idea that you can't use the same tools all game, but right now it barely feels worth the time to repair something after one or two uses.

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Early Dev / Re: Wayward

« on: January 25, 2013, 03:53:52 AM »

I was really excited upon noticing this update. World permanence is great and all, but I'm more of a sucker for all the new gizmos and gadgets. Some thoughts so far:

• The spontaneous crafting recipes upon leveling skills in that category makes it a whole lot easier to figure things out. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's a little TOO easy in its current state. It's hard to remember specifics, but in general I'd attempt to ensure that they're intuitive leaps in understanding and not abrupt (e.g., building a stone wall wouldn't help you realize how to create a mortar and pestle, but crafting a smooth stone, one of its components, might).
• Additionally, the insights, albeit amazingly helpful from a gameplay perspective, lack a certain narrative. Part of it may be accomplished with well-structured steps in understanding, but another part may come, literally, from a dialogue between character and player. As an option, I would suggest allowing some descriptive interaction with everything, so that the player can figure out just what the game-world expects of them, allowing for things to be understood. This could be implemented through a few different facets:
  
  • Right-click descriptions can definitely be expanded upon. I imagine the Anatomy skill you mentioned for 1.1 will make use of it, but there's plenty that you can do with all items dependent upon skills relating to them.  Enough woodworking would give some hints about items like fire ploughs and bow drills, mining would explain the rarity of valuable minerals in a certain region, cooking would fill you in on making actual food recipes, and so on. For certain items you could even make it impossible to "know" a craft until their skill has reached a certain point (the exception would be readable scrolls, though I have yet to find any so I can't comment on them).
  • Resting/sleeping could allow for a "dream state" in which the character has access to everything they've found or encountered recently, and can "tinker" with them in an attempt to figure what can be accomplished without wasting time spent awake. Dreaming wouldn't occur unless the character sleeps long enough, but there can be time dilation to make the period of dreaming count extra. Of course, the player can choose to "exit" the state at any time, which then removes lucidity and the character wakes up. It's a stretch of an idea, but I where it can go.
  • The beginning of the game tells the player that their vague quest is to find treasure, but this isn't expanded upon whatsoever. Perhaps periods where the character's mind is allowed to wander (such as gathering resources or walking long distances) can be sprinkled with flavor text, either informative or entertaining (or both if you want to be clever). This would not only break the monotony in what is hopefully an enjoyable way, but also direct the player towards their ultimate mission and give them impetus to explore.
• The game has become a whole lot faster now that "catastrophic failures" have been eliminated. It's perfectly understandable why they were removed: however, the original balance of time spent felt better than now, and rarely do I find myself waiting for stamina to recharge. As a compromise, I suggest that crafting requires far more stamina than it does now, with different amounts depending on the thing-to-be-crafted; or that crafts actually take a significant amount of time and that stamina is not gained during this time. Skill, then, would decrease stamina loss or time spent, respectively.
• Since there's so much equipment, it'd be cool if each piece had unique characteristics that gave you a reason to get them over others. For example, I noticed that you can take damage gathering without tools: gloves could affect this by reducing the chance of damage but also make it harder to gather due to lack of dexterity: thus, there could be special gloves made for gathering, which would contrast with iron gauntlets that protect your hands well but are far too clunky for branch-collecting. Storage equipment might also slow down your stamina gain if you're carrying above your normal encumbrance limit, boots could decrease stamina loss while walking (assuming you gain less stamina by walking than by standing), et cetera. I don't know if there's a whole lot to work with, here, but the little details really go a long way in impressing the player.

Those are the "big" things. There are a bunch of little things too, but I'll bet most of those are pretty fleshed out already. Biggest thing is that I noticed Iron Hammers use "old" repair functionality (only one less max durability lost) and wasn't sure if that was intentional, but it sure made getting one a rewarding experience.