Messages

1006

Programming / Re: Annual Roguelike Release Party

« on: March 31, 2010, 05:42:28 PM »

It is bad, because roguelikes which do not participate in this event -- perhaps due to time restrictions or other obligations in personal or professional life; lots of conferences in September ... -- will fall by the wayside.

This is already true of almost every roguelike 

You do have a good point of comparison with the 7DRL competition though - 7DRLs released during the rest of the year are almost completely unnoticed, which is a shame.  Still I don't think that'll happen so much with the annual release party, since many games are big enough in their own right not to need to participate.  Also no one will ever have enough to time give a really proper comparison of all the releases - it'll come down to players picking and choosing what to spend their time on, as they do already.

The big thing, and here the comparison with the 7drls becomes stronger, is that developers will actualyl get round to releasing something, and hopefully something very substantial.

Anyway, I'm excited 

1007

Programming / Re: What makes "major" roguelikes different from the smaller ones ...

« on: March 30, 2010, 06:09:24 AM »

Sounds like you definitely need to advertise your game as a quest and story based roguelike with graphics and sound.  Few RLs go down this route, so it's a unique enough feature.

ADOM has many quest and story elements (and multiple endings) and is well-known for its good writing, but ultimately leaves more unsaid than said.  GearHead is well-known for its procedural quests, though I don't know how much real story it has.  Legerdemain is the only title really known for focussing entirely on the story.  I think LambdaRogue may be fairly unique in its place as a roguelike that plays much like a regular computer RPG in terms of graphics and story.

Of course that's not what everyone wants out of a game.  Indeed I've seen many hardcore roguelikers complain that ADOM is far too text heavy (when in fact you can get through the game without chatting to anyone).  Many consider RLs to represent pure gameplay, separate from all graphics and story - Nethack and Crawl being the ultimate examples.  It may be that LR could have more appeal from the less hardcore elements of the roguelike crowd, or to people who are new to roguelikes and want something that feels a bit more familiar.

I must say that your game title also doesn't give much away about the game.  Most roguelikes have something to infer about their content in their name.  LambdaRogue?  Sounds cool, but it doesn't really mean anything.

Just my thoughts anyway - take them as you will.

1008

Programming / Re: Annual Roguelike Release Party

« on: March 30, 2010, 05:53:47 AM »

Hah, a Shockfrost Fair would be awesome    Not sure it would be too productive though...

1009

Programming / Re: What makes "major" roguelikes different from the smaller ones ...

« on: March 29, 2010, 12:35:28 AM »

Rogue had the first dynasty - there were a lot of variations and expansions made, though most are now forgotten.  Hack then had a small dynasty of its own, and so did Nethack for a while (most got integrated into the mothertitle).  Crawl has had a line of single descendents instead of a real family tree.  The *Bands obviously are the most extensive and branching of the dynasties, with the most inbreeding and the most diversity.  Chaosforge's community may be producing a new dynasty, but it's certainly not the first, nor the only modern one.  I think libtcod could spark a great dynasty if ever one of its developers produces a major game instead of faffing about with graphical effects for ages.

You're right about the communities helping the dynasties, but this has gone on for a long time, with each new title in these chains being helped by the existing community around it.  I guess it's not so bad an idea to try to latch on to an existing community to get more players interested in your game, though there are other methods (participating in the 7drl competition for instance).

1010

Programming / Re: Annual Roguelike Release Party

« on: March 29, 2010, 12:28:51 AM »

The problem I see with this is that if, say, 10 big roguelikes are updated in September, the players would have to divide their attention between them. That means, each developer will get less feedback than if he updated alone. Especially the least interesting project of these 10.

The existing communities of each of the 10 would benefit!  Too many of even the major games are in need of some new update, and a deadline mgiht help kick some of the developers into action.  A release party will also give players the excuse to try out games they haven't tried before, and importantly give some concentrated attention to new titles on the scene.  It may also draw some attention from general games communities and come and see what all thefuss is about roguelikes.

As I see it nothing gets taken away from releases during other parts of the year, so development cycles can continue on as normal if developers wish it so.

1011

Programming / Re: Corner detection algorithm

« on: March 28, 2010, 08:26:49 PM »

I too would like to know the reason for identifying corners.  Seems like an odd thing to check...

1012

Programming / Re: Corner detection algorithm

« on: March 28, 2010, 04:21:32 PM »

I don't see how you can ignore the diagonals like that...  Consider:

Code: [Select]

#.#      ..#
.##  VS  .##
#.#      #.#
Or many other layouts, for that matter...  Of course I can't think of any elegant method to include diagonals.

I think you misunderstand. The algorithm I suggested would return both of those as corners.

The problem being that the first example is not a corner.  The middle tile has no diagonal edges exposed.

1013

Programming / Re: Corner detection algorithm

« on: March 28, 2010, 05:03:42 AM »

Hmm, well, brute force would be like this:

Code: [Select]

789
456
123
IF ( 9 = . AND 8 = # AND 6 = # )
OR
IF ( 7 = . AND 8 = # AND 4 = # )
OR
IF ( 1 = . AND 2 = # AND 4 = # )
OR
IF ( 3 = . AND 6 = # AND 2 = # )
OR
IF ( 9 = . AND 8 = . AND 6 = . )
OR
IF ( 7 = . AND 8 = . AND 4 = . )
OR
IF ( 1 = . AND 2 = . AND 4 = . )
OR
IF ( 3 = . AND 6 = . AND 2 = . )

It ain't elegant, but as far as I can see it works.

1014

Programming / Re: Corner detection algorithm

« on: March 28, 2010, 04:58:58 AM »

I don't see how you can ignore the diagonals like that...  Consider:

Code: [Select]

#.#      ..#
.##  VS  .##
#.#      #.#
Or many other layouts, for that matter...  Of course I can't think of any elegant method to include diagonals.

mike3, if you include the jutting out square as a corner then I presume you include the following too:

Code: [Select]

#..
.#.
..#
I really can't see any easy way to judge this, but I have the problem stuck in my head now...

1015

Programming / Re: Corner detection algorithm

« on: March 28, 2010, 12:16:42 AM »

Code: [Select]

789
456
123
IF ( 9 = . AND 8 = # AND 6 = # )
OR
IF ( 7 = . AND 8 = # AND 4 = # )
OR
IF ( 1 = . AND 2 = # AND 4 = # )
OR
IF ( 3 = . AND 6 = # AND 2 = # )

However this doesn't include your original post of a long wall jutting out - I fail to see how this counts as a corner, to be honest.

1016

Early Dev / Re: Faded Prophecies (Alpha)

« on: March 28, 2010, 12:10:07 AM »

Looks quite cool.  Not keen on some of the battle detail or many of the symbols and colours you use, but the world map looks very nice and I like the way the interface is split into windows.

What are your development plans at the moment?

1017

Programming / Re: Annual Roguelike Release Party

« on: March 28, 2010, 12:06:36 AM »

Well, the idea arose after hte 7drl contest, and the analysis of how so many good games came about that otherwise would never have seen the light of day.  The idea of a deadline is a great incentive for people to do some work and actually get something released.  Far far too many roguelike developers have never actually released anything, and are working in the background on some big project that they keep losing the incentive to continue working on.  Honestly, the number of 'ultimate' projects started that never get anywhere is apalling.  With a date for people to work towards hopefully we'll see more releases and less dreams!

That's my thought anyway.  There's no need for developers to actually pay attention to the release party of course.  But I really hope it leads to a lot more releases popping up, which ultimately means more fun roguelikes to play.

1018

Programming / Annual Roguelike Release Party

« on: March 27, 2010, 07:34:21 PM »

A new idea has just been proposed on rec.games.roguelike.development:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.roguelike.development/browse_frm/thread/bf6eb52794b7c06f#

In short, the idea is we have a release date every September where every roguelike developer should try and get a game out.  It can be a completely new project, an unreleased RL that's been in development for ages, or an update of an already published title (no matter how big or small).  The date should give an incentive to get a lot more developers producing real results by a certain deadline.  It'll also give us a lot more games to play coming into the winter months!

1019

Other Announcements / Re: How do you like your roguelikes?

« on: March 27, 2010, 07:25:29 PM »

Tiles. I use Windows and I hate using the small console on my 27" monitor.

Right-click on the top of the console window and choose Properties.  In there you can either choose to always have it full screen, or you can go to the Font tab and pick a larger Font.  Personally I use Lucida Console size 18, but you might want something a little bigger for your 27"    When you exit it'll ask if you want to save these settings for future consoles - choose yes and it'll make all consoles the same in future.

1020

Programming / Re: What makes "major" roguelikes different from the smaller ones ...

« on: March 27, 2010, 07:20:33 PM »

What is it, that makes Nethack, Angband, Dungeon Crawl SS, Adom, Powder to belong to the major ones?

There are two factors.  The first is scope and complexity - these are big games developed over years with a *lot* of content and complexity and interesting things.  They all take years to truly master.

The second factor, which I think stems from the first, is the size of their communities.  They all have very active communities with dedicated wikis, forums, newsgroups, etc.  When it comes to discussions of roguelikes these are the ones that are talked about most, because these are the ones with the most players.  Of course as I said this is because they have the most complexity - they keep people attached to them for longer.