Messages

31

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Yeekband (this exists)

« on: November 23, 2012, 10:10:20 PM »

Ooh thanks for sourcing this one, Getter77... keep up the good work!

The roguelike explorer extraordinaire!

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Other Announcements / Re: Legend of Dungeon Kickstarter

« on: November 20, 2012, 10:48:06 PM »

Thanks for the heads up on this one, getter77!

Like the look of this one, so backed it. We need more procedurally generated dungeon crawlers pushing the boundaries.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: The evolution of Cardinal Quest

« on: November 16, 2012, 12:10:16 PM »

I thought CQ1 was already a pretty streamlined fast paced accessible dungeon crawler, with aspirations towards being a gateway game into the world of roguelikes. I'm not sure, I can see the benefit of cutting it even further, unless it's a definitive statement to follow a different design. I suppose you're wanting to fork CQ at an earlier junction from it's current evolution. Perhaps when you've reached a basal distillation of the design, and then layered your beat-em-up mechanics on top, it might be a very entertaining arcade romp. I just can't help but feel that CQ was going in the right direction for "accessible roguelikes", and this feels like a step away from that. Having said that I am excited to see where Ruari takes CQ2, fleshing out and deepening the experience, but still retaining the accessibility.

I have to say that I'm a big fan of how CQ is today, and I'm always keen to see where you take your game design in the future, Ido.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: Tips on easy-to-learn roguelikes?

« on: November 15, 2012, 10:36:20 PM »

Thanks for the details to the "Hero" project, it sounds a very exciting prospect indeed. From the equipment available it sounds like my first character should Batman!

Looking forward to seeing what you can craft, with the accessibility of QuickHack, but with the depth you seem to offer in your initial outline/plans. Thanks for sharing.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: QuickHack 1.4.2!

« on: November 15, 2012, 10:27:10 PM »

B) The reason it kicks you out of the inventory screen, is because equipping takes time.  I didn't want players digging around in their inventory while the baddies stabbed them to death.  At least not without knowing what's going on.

Ahhhhh! I didn't realise the time spent in your inventory was a chunk of game time as such. That sort of clever detail must have passed me by. Now that I know this, I shall endeavour to only tidy up the inventory, when I've cleared a level. So there is no danger, when doing the OCD housekeeping in my inventory

Would it be possible to to know when a level is clear and there is no danger, and subsequently allow you to do this housekeeping without dropping back to the game? Yet keep the dropout to maintain situational awareness when you are in danger? I know this sounds like a lot of fuss over something quite trivial in UI terms. Just a thought anyway. Tell me if I'm hounding you a little too much, and I'll stop

Something else I've found, more tied in to the way I play the game, is I rarely ever take a chance on a token. Whilst the benefits of them can be advantageous, the risk factor of a random monster ambush, or something negative being applied to my character, more or less outweighs the decision for me to take that chance. I do like the mechanic, but in order to get anywhere I need to be ultra cautious with every action I take, so then including a lucky dip in those actions, often has my spidey senses tingling way too much.

Just wondered if other players of the game, have had a similar experience with the tokens?

36

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: QuickHack 1.4.2!

« on: November 15, 2012, 09:07:25 PM »

Excellent!

Really like the modifications you've made.

I couldn't get the batch file to work on my Win7 laptop, it said it couldn't find "javaw", but if I just right click and select Open on the JAR file it works fine still.

A suggestion I have, that hasn't really bothered me much, but I think would help players - would be to have pressing 'e' in the inventory screen equip the current item, but remain in the inventory screen selection. If you want to do some item swapping, or even dropping - having the game close the inventory after one selection means equipping more items becomes a dip in and dip out procedure that just interrupts the equipping process. A minor UI issue though.

I like the pillars in the lava levels, adding some structure to it all.  Top Stuff!

Thanks for the update!

37

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: Tips on easy-to-learn roguelikes?

« on: November 13, 2012, 09:07:37 PM »

I've got an update in the works, but it's mostly just documentation and a .bat file for people who have trouble running the jar.  However, it does speed up level generation (which can bog down a bit at the higher levels), as slightly faster pathfinding.  I just need to get off my lazy butt and write the help file.

Waiting in anticipation

Any plans to add more classes, perhaps an archer? I suppose the Wizard would play like an archer, so perhaps you've balanced the current crop, and I should just settle for what there is

I have begun sketching out my next project, however, which will be a super-hero themed roguelike.  While much of the design is still up in the air, the play style will be similar to QuickHack in many ways. 

Oh excellent, well consider me an eager fan. I'd like to see a super-hero roguelike executed well - do you think you'll roll up their powers, or will there be "classes" of heroes?

I also prefer games that I can learn quickly; while games like Angband, Nethack, and Dwarf Fortress are great, I want to play, not learn to play.

Same here, you can spend way too much time, digging into the nitty gritty and never getting anything out of the game. The number of "bigger" RL's I've taken a long time rolling up, only to be trounced by something very early on, it sort of defeats the point of a very detailed set up, if the difficulty can spike so soon you've not familiarised yourself with the complex character.

I know part of the charm of roguelikes is the mysticism that comes along with their mechanics, and many old school'ers wear that as a badge of honour, but for newcomers to the genre, especially nowadays, it can just put people off, and they'll be missing out on a really quite complex, diverse and very interesting world of gaming.

I've found a similar thing at play within the wargaming community. It's almost as if some wargamers feel they have to earn their stripes on the hardcore, dry nuts and bolts games, where the pain with an antiquated and obfuscated UI is part of your bootcamp training. There are some epic, complex and deep wargames out there, but ultimately a lot of them are hampered by their presentation and interface from yesteryear. It's looking up though, a number of companies are now bringing more accessible wargaming to the masses... and I feel like roguelikes are also in a period of similar transition. Although I could be wrong

Anyway, keep up the good work wire_hall_medic, if all your future projects have QuickHack's elegance behind them, I'm sure they'll be received well by newcomers to the genre.

38

Incubator / Re: Roguelike Bundle preparations

« on: November 11, 2012, 06:38:35 AM »

As an outsider, who is only a player and not a developer - I thought I'd share some thoughts I have about the roguelike bundle.

When I heard about it, I was very excited indeed. It sounded like a hand-picked collection of the best of roguelike gaming, that was collated by "experts" in the genre. The accessibility was one of the key selling points for me.

There are so many roguelikes to choose from and they all present often very different experiences, that it can bewildering for the newcomer to just settle on a couple and explore their depths. As soon as you decide to pursue your interest in roguelikes, you can easily become overwhelmed by the variety of choice available - without much in the way of a useful guide to steer your gaming. MUD's and MUSH'es present a similar daunting choice for the beginner, equally shrouded in mystery and diverse mechanics.

As a player, with only limited experience of roguelikes, it sounded like the roguelike bundle could deliver a "best of" menu of accessible roguelikes.

From what I can gather, at the moment, it's more a showcase opportunity for a small number of roguelikes, and it exerts a development pressure on the developers to "up their game" and polish their current projects to a release standard.

The premise is sound, but the expectations from the bundle buying public will already be set according to various indie game bundles systems now in play.

You could take a sweep of the roguelike genre, scoop the more accessible titles, more palatable to newcomers of the genre, and deliver that FIRST bundle fairly quickly - if the respective developers agree. Definitely hook up a donation/pay as much as you want style mechanic to the bundle - push the proceeds to charity - and deliver a cherry picked chunk of quality roguelike gaming to the masses.

As an example, titles I'd seek to include, would be the likes of Brogue, DoomRL, Zaga-33, TOME4, Powder, Lambdarogue, QuickHack. Established free to play titles, that really deliver on accessibility, and ease of play.

If you could present the current "cream of the crop" to newcomers, opening the door to the genre, you'd set the foundation for the roguelike bundle to become an established mechanism for delivering all sorts of roguelike projects in the future.

It would also serve to ease the pressure from the current bundle developers, and give them precious time to tune up their projects in readiness for the second bundle release. The "Incubator" release?

The 7DRL is an interesting competition style mechanic that showcases a wide variety of roguelike ideas, but not really accessible, established, polished efforts. The roguelike bundle could do this. Be the primary source of roguelike advice, and a focal point for showcasing the developers new projects, once they're at a stage for release.

Anyway, just throwing in my thoughts, coming at it from a purely players perspective. Whatever form it takes and whenever the bundle delivers, I can honestly say I'm still excited by it, and it could become THE definitive place to go for a community showcase of the best or more interesting roguelikes.

Keep up the good work folks.

39

Other Announcements / Re: Roguelike Radio podcast

« on: November 09, 2012, 03:49:16 PM »

Excellent show on tile art, looking forward to the next part.

I read John's article about his frustrations with producing indie art for an already established game. As a wargamer, I can really sympathise, because a lot of established wargames are still being pumped out with only slightly tweaked engines, and with the original art from the early 90's! On today's gaming systems, they just don't cut the mustard.

I listened to an early episode where Darren got really excited about a hex based RL, now you're talking, wargamers love the hex - so I'm fully in support there

Would love to see some sort of wargamey/roguelike hybrid based on historical settings. Not sure if thats ever been attempted in the RL genre before. I'm imagining a survival game, based around the Battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879

Getting my ASCII feet wet playing the rather elegant and accesible QuickHack at the moment!

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: Tips on easy-to-learn roguelikes?

« on: November 09, 2012, 02:17:32 PM »

This is my most recent project, QuickHack.  I wanted a quick, simple RougeLike that had almost a Gauntlet feel to it.  So I made one.  Enough depth to allow for meaningful choices, but very easy to sink your teeth into.

I've been ploughing through a bunch of roguelikes for a blog post, trying to come up with a hand picked selection of games that can be considered "accessible" to your average rpg or strategy gamer. However, after having picked my selection (and it's no way definitive), I stumbled upon QuickHack, and was instantly hooked!

I'm a dabbler when it comes to roguelikes, every now and then I come back to the genre and sample the delights. But I'm usually a tileset sort of guy. From the off, QuickHack had me in its Ascii clutches, it's real easy to start out, and it presents the information you need to just get on and enjoy the exploration and the progression. It's one of the first ASCII RL's that's gripped me. Kudos to you Sir.

I think the first "feature" that hit me, was the loot tumbling out of the barrels and taking up surrounding map spaces - I'd never seen this before and it's quite rewarding to see. I basically like the immediacy of the game, and hope you continue to develop it further. At the moment it will be my go-to game for quick sessions, because it's just so moreish to play.