Messages

241

Programming / Re: Can a Roguelike with only monsters be fun?

« on: December 20, 2011, 02:30:23 AM »

thanks the skeleton is my favorite so far. yeah the skip turn would be nice, but if the player always has it they can abuse it to get a monster next to them. my original fix is below

oh yeah there is no balance in the game right now. all enemies are equally rare so the balance is really broken. I thought maybe I could give the playable character one skill. it recharges at the beginning of each island. Maybe they can freeze, use a fireball, or swap places. originally the plan was to add potions to the game. the player was given a random assortment of 10 potions. they were then able to choose 5. there was no way to get anymore potions once you embarked, so one had to plan ahead and try and save yourself for any situation. Also using a potion took a turn and many a time I drank a heath potion just to skip my turn and get an enemy closer. the problem was that they broke the game because they made you to powerful. I had an idea of adding them on the island, randomly placed like the monster. they would be auto used as soon as you stepped on their tile.

242

Programming / Re: Can a Roguelike with only monsters be fun?

« on: December 20, 2011, 01:28:18 AM »

My Aim is IOS and possible just sitelocked flash versions (I will add keyboard controls for it). Don't know about android as I cant test it. Yes the player does feel a little forced as to what monsters they can fight and I would love to give them more of an option. Any ideas?

243

Programming / Re: Can a Roguelike with only monsters be fun?

« on: December 20, 2011, 12:54:40 AM »

well here is what I had so far.

Test

its mouse controls right now. which are pretty much just clicking the tile you wish to move to. Its only Cardinal directions at the moment.

Current enemies are the Mouse, Skeleton, Goblin, Yeti, and Fairy. there is no ending yet, in the full game you win when you reach the Alter on the 5th island.

Hi: Nah I think I will be fine, but you should make some tilesets. I think one thing we should do as a community is put together a huge amount of 16x16 tiles. It would be a great resource.

Hamish: Yeah it does feel slightly puzzle like and I think I want to continue that route. I don't know what you mean by shunt  enemies. I think Environmental stuff could be a good idea.

Darren: thanks

244

Programming / Re: Can a Roguelike with only monsters be fun?

« on: December 19, 2011, 08:30:02 PM »

most likely it would be IOs and flash. well the main goal is to get to the 5th island and grab the Amulet. so the game is more like dodging the monsters then killing them all. once you get to the bridge you move on to the next level. similar to stairs in some roguelikes. so for the hydra its basically knocking it down and running like hell before it gets back up.

245

Programming / Re: Can a Roguelike with only monsters be fun?

« on: December 19, 2011, 08:00:12 PM »

thanks Pueo. I thought about adding a night and day before, with most monsters being stronger at night, but it was a little bizarre and really messed up the balancing. I will use some of your ideas, although i might change the creature names. like the pig might be replaced with the troll (trolls turn to stone).

lulero thats probably a good idea about renaming the goblin. I like all those ideas.

Another Idea I had was a Hydra. it has 1 HP. on death it comes back after 5 turns with 2 HP. etc etc.

here is a mockup. to give you an idea. the islands are very tiny to limit movement.


another idea i had was doing different environments with specific enemies. if the island is a graveyard island there is a higher chance of getting skeletons and that's where the necromancer would be.

246

Programming / Can a Roguelike with only monsters be fun?

« on: December 19, 2011, 06:58:14 PM »

Wasn't really sure what to call this. but here goes. So I was developing a very small roguelike game over the thanksgiving break and decided to expand on it, because it seemed like the idea had merit. so basically this was the premise. the player is on a very small island with many enemies and only 5 health. most enemies die with 1 hit. there are no items or spells. the spells come in the form of monsters. so as an example: Killing a Fairy will give the player 1 heart, or killing a yeti will freeze all monsters for 3 turns. Do you think something like this could be a decent challenge without adding potions or spells, just giving a wide variety of monsters with interesting mechanics. In game so far are:

1. Mouse - Normal enemy
2. Skeleon - on death collapses into a pile of bones. after 5 turns comes back to life. works as a temporary wall
3. Goblin - normal enemy but takes to hits to kill
4. Fairy - heals the player
5. Yeti - freezes the enemies

So what other monsters and "Spells" do you think i could add. I am running a little low on ideas at the moment. I will try posting a build later so you can see it.

247

Programming / Re: Tile set project

« on: December 14, 2011, 02:56:28 PM »

actually under art, there is a workshop forum. that might be good also.

248

Programming / Re: Tile set project

« on: December 07, 2011, 05:40:04 AM »

Looks pretty good so far. Doing super small sprites is a challenge. I went the other direction and used larger heads with smaller bodies to display my characters. I hope you dont mind me posting a mockup in here it might give you some ideas.



You might be able to get away with doing one wall. Kind of like the side of the island I did here, that would make it a little easier for people to program because they would only need to worry about a few tiles, instead of doing all the different ones.  (I have a better example if you need it)

also maybe think about doing a few floor textures. A you can use it to break up the monotony, and B you could use it to set up a grid system, which can be troublesome if the world generates large open areas.

As for the Sprites I think you did a good job in making things look different IE. centaur vs Ape vs Demon. the specific ones in that family are a little hard to differentiate, like the centaurs, especially if they are displayed smaller on screen then what you have there. It might be better to stick with one Type of each, although I guess that might be at the discretion of the game designer, perhaps in their game centaurs use bows so they use the sprite with the bow where someone else might use centaurs with axes.

and another thing is think about the location monsters will most likely be at, and when you draw them, do it on the base color for that areas tilemap. In my above example the main character is very readable, but if he is in an area that is very blue, then he would be much harder to see. That might be a problem with the sprites later on. I bet the Dark Ape, would be rather hard to make out against the cave floor, but if you were in a snow world he would really pop at the player.

249

Programming / Re: Giant Enemies?

« on: November 28, 2011, 04:14:58 AM »

Yeah I think playing with enemy size can add a lot to a rogue like. here are some mockups for a graphical roguelike



not the players dont really fill the entire square, but then that allows you to do this



now the dragon looks huge, but mechanically the game handles them both as a 16x16 monster. Of course this only works in a grapical roguelike, but I think you could do something like this using ASCII at different sizes and jsut centering them.

250

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: "Auro: The Golden Prince" (Kickstarter went up today)

« on: November 20, 2011, 09:57:05 PM »

thats awesome. I loved 100 rogues but I played in such small bites that I could never really get into it fully. If the levels are as quick as you say, It will be great t sit down and play through like 3-4 levels.

251

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: "Auro: The Golden Prince" (Kickstarter went up today)

« on: November 19, 2011, 07:51:17 PM »

Looks awesome and I love the idea of keeping the stats simple and low. It makes sense. Its a welcome break from the usual trope of your numbers going up at the same rate as enemies. so about how long will a normal dungeon take?

252

Programming / Re: Giant Enemies?

« on: November 18, 2011, 08:30:45 PM »

Thanks Guys. doing the Flood fill to create a monster would be pretty cool. I don't know how I would create it graphically and get everything nice and fit together though. I might just go with a much larger sprite it taking up 32 x 32 and giving the player small alleyways to cut through. Maybe something like this

253

Programming / Giant Enemies?

« on: November 18, 2011, 05:43:47 AM »

Alright guys so I am making a graphical roguelike. As opposed to the you fighting a myriad of enemies I have gone with one big enemy that you can not kill, but may only run away from. The entire thing is inspired by At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft. the monster that chases you being a Shoggoth its described as:

It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter.



so these were my first interpretation. you can see one to the right and one to the left showing how it blends with the shadow. so here is my main thing. How can I make it Gigantic? I was keeping everything 16 x 16, but this should be much bigger, yet still able to fit down corridors. would it be better to increase the size to 32 x 32 and keep the guy the same size but in the center of the tile, meanign he fills up less of it? should I make all my corridors wider and you are still 16x 16 but the shoggoth is 32 x 32 and it chases you? this would give me the option to make small 16 x 16 paths to cut down to escape the thing, knowing it cant follow you.

254

Early Dev / Re: My Attempt at a 7DRL

« on: November 17, 2011, 05:58:49 PM »

Thanks for testing it out. Sorry about spawining you on a water surface. I had commented out some code on the stairway being on the first level so it had no where to spawn the character so you always started in the top Left.

I havent added an inventory yet. I will keep adding to the game and when the need arises then I will add it in. I also added the next piece of the puzzle. I felt just the lamp was dangerous enough so now you are also being chases by a monster. Meaning you need to keep ahead of the monster and also you need to keep track of your light or you wont be able to see the monster. Journals have a use now when selecting them you can use them or burn them. using them pops up a small arrow on screen which fade away. it points you in the direction of the level exit, to help you get out.

I am also adding a secondary use for Oil Cans. they will be able to be burned. Basically burning an Oil Can will create a wall. it will be of use if the monster is chasing you as the beast will need to find a new route to get you. giving you a chance to get away.

I hope to post a new version soon.

255

Early Dev / My Attempt at a 7DRL

« on: November 07, 2011, 04:38:38 AM »

Hey Guys.

So I attempted to do a 7DRL, but things didnt go according to plan(I was in the process of moving and thought I would have more free time), but I want to post what I currently have and get some suggestions. Unlike most roguelkes that focus on combat. I decided to focus on the mechanic of the food clock, but didn't want anything so literal. so you are an adventurer who fell into a underground cave in the arctic. You will need to climb your way out by finding the up stairs, and collecting fuel cans and journal entries.

its missing a lot of stuff. and is in a very early state but I would love some feedback.



Give it a Try!

So I just want to know what you think. couple questions
1. should I have an inventory so you can carry oil cans you find?
2. what purpose can journals have? originally they were purely score. should you need to collect a certain amount to make the exit appear?
3. if journals played a more important part. should you be able to burn them to get a small boost of Torch power? causing the player to have to choose?
4. any suggestions?

P.S. Eventually the circle of light will also get smaller as your lamp goes out making it harder to navigate.