Messages

91

Incubator / Re: Untitled Feedback Thread

« on: July 11, 2012, 02:08:28 AM »

So I downloaded and tried a few games.

I liked the main menu first of all. After admiring it for a good 6 seconds, I pressed New Game.
I set my stats, age, and such first. Kind of wish there was a way to tell what things such as "Appearance" or "Founding" do. Also, does age do anything, or is it just there?

I moved around, but I couldn't figure out the controls other than that. After checking the controls screen, I can safely say I don't like them. Not sure why you really need to add "Shift" or "Ctrl" into so many commands. Anyway, I accepted some quest from a lady to go into her basement and kill some monsters. After going in, I tried to fire some arrows with my bow at some orcs and skeletons, but they did absolutely nothing, and the baddies ended up killing me.
In my second game, I just used a sword and killed everything with no problem. What really annoyed me is that whenever I check my inventory (i) I have to move my already comfortable right hand from the numpad over to the mouse and press the "Close" button with it. Shouldn't I just have to press "i" again to close the inventory? Oh well. Also it took me a while to figure out how to drop items. Maybe make it more obvious that the left of the inventory screen is what's on the ground? I also found a telekinesis spell, but attempting to read it told me that it's too complicated for me. Does that mean that my intelligence is too low? Or what? About a third of the doors in this dungeon triggered a trap and I never figured out how to tell if a door activates one or not.
After the lady paid me for killing all of the baddies in her basement, I accepted another quest from some guy to deliver something to some mining camp. I went through a few wilderness levels, until I finally died to some green things named something that started with "T".
For my third life I decided to go north to the tower on my map. After just running through 10 or so levels without any problems I entered a new level that made an error pop up on my screen. It said that it couldn't load some npc script or something, and upon pressing "Ok" it closed my game.

Something that makes the game incredibly easy when going through the wilderness is that enemies cannot pass to other levels. So if you can quickly run through a level then the enemies don't have enough time to reach you.

 I found some rocks with paint(?) on them, but I didn't know how to mine them, if I even could, so I continued onward. I found some sort of snow fortress, which was neat. One thing that I like about this game is the the amount of things hidden around the wilderness. It really encourages exploration. I continued exploring until the error popped up again and the game crashed.

More games, more exploring, more errors and crashes. Is this happening to anyone else?



Other than that, I really recommend adding some sort of tutorial with a test level or something that shows how the game works for new players.

What did I like? Well the menu for one thing. Other than that, exploring was actually pretty fun. Some people may hate this, but I liked that the world was not randomly generated. It made for a much more directed adventure with a much more defined goal (Not that I played enough to figure out what that goal was). This is probably the only roguelike I've played that has its own world editor with its own programming language. There's a lot to like in this game, but too bad that it kept crashing on me.

92

Early Dev / Re: Left Field Hotel (Horror Roguelike)

« on: July 07, 2012, 01:43:02 AM »

Here's a news update:

In the past two days I've added new sound effects to cabinets, doors, and lamps. Sometimes you will see a blood trail. Following it will lead you to a surprise.

There was a big update to the "?" Enemy. You can now hide from the it. If the enemy loses you it will search around for a while until it either finds you or leaves. Hiding in shadows will decrease the chances of it finding you. If you are found you can still try to outrun it or lock yourself in a room and hide.

Next I want to add fire and possibly a small tutorial for the controls. I'll be updating the playable build once I get at least the tutorial done.

93

Early Dev / Re: Left Field Hotel (Horror Roguelike)

« on: July 05, 2012, 08:02:09 AM »

I'm happy to see that we now [DATA EXPUNGED]. I wish you all the [REDACTED] you can get.

Your fellow researcher ███████

SCP-████ was recovered from site ███ █████ on █/██/19██. Attempts to contain it were met with [DATA EXPUNGED].

I am trying to add elements of SCP's into the game as I work on it .

94

Programming / Re: Experience Points

« on: July 04, 2012, 10:24:18 PM »

The first roguelike I created had each skill (Ex: Axes, Swords, Armor, Archery) increase as you used certain items in said categories. The only problem with it was that the first type of items you found would really be the main type of item you'd use for the rest of the game. Let's say you first found a sword. Well, now your sword level is really high. Would you even want to pick up that axe on the ground, especially considering that enemies are much stronger and you'd do much less damage to them? I don't think so. If enemies continuously spawned then it may have not been a problem because then the player could grind their skills up. But mine didn't respawn, so it was a problem.

95

Early Dev / Re: Left Field Hotel

« on: July 04, 2012, 05:11:34 AM »

I haven't the foggiest what it is, but I'm glad we're finally going to have SCPRL

Well at least you've heard of them!

I've added the first playable build with a link up in the first post. Tell me what you think about it!

96

Early Dev / Left Field Hotel (Horror Roguelike)

« on: July 03, 2012, 09:45:54 AM »

Introduction

Hey all!

For some time now, I've been creating a new roguelike named "Left Field Hotel".
(Out of Left Field -  An idiom meaning "suddenly; from an unexpected source or direction; not expected or prepared for")

Anyway, the game is a survival horror roguelike set in a hotel. The game currently starts off with you waking up from bed in your hotel room to find that everyone else has disappeared. The hotel is empty...mostly.

I'm removing the download. The game has been completed and no longer needs any kind of testing. I'll continue to fix things up until the ARRL this September.

Gameplay

There is only one enemy right now. This enemy cannot be hurt and you are forced to hide and run from it. If it finds you, it will follow you around and even break down doors over time if they are in the way.

What's Else Is There?

The game includes a fairly complex damage system (at least in my opinion). There are 4 areas of damage. Head, Torso, Arms, and Legs. Each of these categories have many subcategories. Heads have eyes, nose, ears, mouth, forehead, temples, and other parts. Arms and Legs can be severed as well as other features. You are able to hold your breath (and faint if you hold it for too long), become paralyzed, and much more.
There is an option to hurt and/or kill yourself with whatever is in your hands. The most damaging items right now are the Knife and the Hammer.

Unlike usual roguelikes where the player is able to see around them, in Left Field Hotel you are able to see any tile that has light on it. Light is able to combine and become more bright if there are multiple light sources around.

All of the tiles in the game were created by me. The "?" Enemy is inspired from other artwork however. (If you know a bit about SCP's I think you'll guess what it is ).

Things To Add

The world outside the hotel mostly right now. It will mainly be part of the storyline that will make sense once I add certain items and events into the game.

Photo

Here's an example of a lamp lighting the area around it. You can see a balcony and an open window as well as some objects in the room.

97

Incubator / Re: The Bundle and the Incubator

« on: June 29, 2012, 01:10:52 AM »

I should say still have a go at Incubating.  Think of it this way----say over time you get everything polished up and very capable EXCEPT for the portability,  part way I'd think that could slide and part way one never knows how such limitations can hash out on the technical front in the unknown future.  I mean, Mono wasn't "A Thing" for quite some time or any guarantee outright for that matter when XNA C# stuff first arrived----so that's a problem to be concerned with to a lesser degree I'd say.

That's a very good point! Right now I'm still working on my roguelike, but if I finish it up in time then I'll have to see about that.

98

Incubator / Re: The Bundle and the Incubator

« on: June 29, 2012, 12:16:53 AM »

Why is it not portable though? Is there anything others could help you with?

Sadly no. The problem I have with porting the game is mainly due to the programming language I'm using and the way the game is built.

Oh well. I probably can't release it with the bundle, but I can still release it standalone.

99

Incubator / Re: The Bundle and the Incubator

« on: June 28, 2012, 06:08:28 PM »

Bug-free, polished UI and properly portable are the main things.

I'm thinking of joining the Incubator with the roguelike I am currently working on, but the "properly portable" part (For getting it to work on Mac and Linux) simply isn't possible for me. Am I unable to join under these circumstances?

100

Programming / Re: Roguelike graphics project

« on: June 26, 2012, 06:24:26 PM »

Really interesting way of doing tile graphics . I can't wait to see you do more.

101

Incubator / Re: Rogue Rage

« on: June 22, 2012, 06:35:35 AM »

Not sure what I can do about it getting repetitive.  There's nothing I really want to add to the existing game.  I'm open to suggestions though.

There's probably nothing you can do to change that a great deal, unless you were to change the whole idea and gameplay of the game, which I wouldn't recommend at this stage.

But maybe you could make the levels be a bit more varied. You could add barrels in your path that can be broken, or something of the such. Not very interesting, but they could make the levels feel more different from each other. The combat isn't going to change, but it's fun anyway, so it doesn't matter really. As a melee based roguelike, I think you've succeeded.

Anyway, I'd love to hear some other peoples' feedback, and see they think .

102

Incubator / Re: Rogue Rage

« on: June 22, 2012, 01:55:33 AM »

I just tried out the game, and I thought it was fun! All 4 locations are rather difficult, especially the "The Heavens" area to the north. Will you make it so that you can only enter The Heavens once you're beaten the other 3 locations, or will it remain open at all times? Since it's probably the hardest area in my opinion, or am I imagining that?

Anyway, it's a very enjoyable hack n' slash game . But I can imagine it getting repetitive after a while in it's current state.

103

Programming / Re: No HP, minimal healing

« on: June 21, 2012, 10:31:17 PM »

Well we could have called them "Beneath-Apple-Manor-likes", but that doesn't sound as good .

When I think of roguelikes, I don't think Magic, Goblins, or Hit-points. I think of turn based games in worlds made of tiles in which you control a single character. Some people might want to create a game to be as similar to Rogue as they possibly can. I'm ok with that, everyone can do whatever they want. If the game is fun, I don't care if it's a roguelike or not. If all roguelikes were set in dungeons with the same health system with only a few variations in weapons and enemies, then I wouldn't have gotten into them .

104

Programming / Re: Health and Limbs

« on: June 21, 2012, 05:34:42 AM »

If you are going to do limbs you might as well do organ too. Damaged brain from being hit on the head and damaged liver from drinking too many unknown potions.

Of course . The more detailed the better in my case.

105

Programming / Re: Health and Limbs

« on: June 20, 2012, 07:27:15 PM »

Roguelikes are about managing risk, and a well-done limb system is just an extra piece of risk to manage, so I don't think it limits the strategy.  Now if there is just a random chance of suddenly having your hand cut off, I agree with you and that has no place here.

That's very true, and you make a good point. I think that "too random" probably isn't a good thing when it comes to limb systems. One player might get a crazy critical hit on his neck, and die instantly, while another player might come up against the same type of enemy and get hit in the stomach, causing almost no real harm to him. It's doesn't have much to do with strategy, it's more of a dice roll.