Messages

16

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

« on: May 13, 2013, 12:02:19 AM »

Frozen depths, Larn, NLarn.

17

Development Process & non-technical / Re: Why I hate the term "Permadeath"

« on: May 12, 2013, 09:46:14 AM »

Jim: excellent post.  Good insight.

Permadeath is a very small feature to exclude something as a roguelike over. It's a smaller feature than tiles.

This is crazy.  So many roguelike mechanics are fundamentally built around permadeath.  They don't make sense without it.  A roguelike with tiles is still the same game.  It looks different, but plays exactly the same.  Allow unlimited saving and loading in most roguelikes and the end result is complete nonsense.  Risk-reward mechanics no longer function - risk is completely negated, leaving only reward.  Item identification and other knowledge-based mechanic stop functioning.  You can chug every potion you find right then and there.  Even if it's a potion of death, there's nothing to worry about, because you can't actually die.

And all of that applies to a hundred other mechanics as well.  Everything changes when you replace permadeath with persistent saves.

Well, I completely disagree.

18

Development Process & non-technical / Re: Why I hate the term "Permadeath"

« on: May 11, 2013, 09:53:56 PM »

Popularity and financial success are poor indicators of quality.

I think that most game developers want their games to be popular and financially successful. Most game devs probably spend a lot of time trying to make their games popular and financially successful.

I don't know what that article was about. Permadeath is a feature of a roguelike. So? What is the problem. Let me answer for you: you are the problem.

There isn't a problem, as I keep saying anyone can implement it if they want to. I'm also not sure who the "you" is that you're referring to in this, and what "problem" caused by this person is.

I think you're trying to say that something without permadeath isn't a roguelike. Permadeath is a feature of roguelikes, ascii is another feature, but most people these days use tiles and we don't say that roguelikes with tiles aren't roguelikes. Permadeath is a very small feature to exclude something as a roguelike over. It's a smaller feature than tiles. I'd much rather call something that doesn't use ascii "not a roguelike" than to call something without permadeath "not a roguelike."

Again though, there isn't a real problem here. It's just a matter of taste for game devs whether or not they want to put permadeath in their games.

19

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Kerkerkruip release 8

« on: May 11, 2013, 12:24:51 PM »

Very cool! I like the concept of an interactive fiction roguelike. Keep up the great work!

20

Development Process & non-technical / Re: Why I hate the term "Permadeath"

« on: May 11, 2013, 12:20:14 PM »

The thing is, a huge number of successful, mainstream games offer no challenge whatsoever.

As you say, those games are successful and mainstream... It's hard to argue that successful mainstream games are doing something majorly wrong when they're successful and mainstream. I understand that you and many other gamers want games to be harder, but there is an equally large if not much larger group that likes the ease of difficulty that mainstream games provide. If most players really disliked saving and loading as much as you say then it wouldn't be a feature of virtually every successful mainstream game, and the games that had it wouldn't be successful and mainstream.

This isn't an all or nothing situation, anyone is free to put permadeath in their games or not. There's not a lot of point in arguing for it or against it because everyone can make their games however they like. If you like permadeath then implement it, if not then don't. If people really want permadeath, then your games are bound to be more successful than other games that lack it.

21

Off-topic (Locked) / Re: The Obscure Games Thread!

« on: May 10, 2013, 08:59:43 AM »

I'm also a huge fan of locomalito. He's one of my favorite game devs of all time. I admire all his games.

22

Development Process & non-technical / Re: Why I hate the term "Permadeath"

« on: May 10, 2013, 08:46:11 AM »

I disagree. There's pretty much two sides you can look at the term from. Either the side of supporting permadeath, or the side of opposing permadeath. The side for support is probably going to not like the term for the reasons that you listed. The side that doesn't support permadeath, including myself, is going to look at it differently. However, the term was probably created by people who supported it, so there is that. And the term has also been around so long that it'll probably never change.

Anyway, I don't like permadeath, and in my games I'll never include it. None of the games that I grew up on and loved the most (aside from roguelikes) used it. Not one. But I encourage you all to put it in your games if you believe in it.

It's also a very small feature to exclude something from being a roguelike over. If you take nethack, and you add saved games (that don't get deleted), it's still a roguelike. The people who savescum essentially do this, but nethack is still a roguelike.

23

Programming / Re: What's the best way to implement a 3D world with python/libtcod

« on: May 08, 2013, 01:29:37 PM »

The easiest thing that comes to mind is just adding another dimension to the array. Using a 3d array for the map instead of a 2d array.

24

Programming / Re: What's the best way to implement a 3D world with python/libtcod

« on: May 08, 2013, 03:00:02 AM »

What do you mean by a 3d world?

You can use noteye if you want quick and easy 3d.

25

Programming / Re: The Ultimate Roguelike Tileset

« on: May 06, 2013, 12:50:50 PM »

I like this tileset. In general, I like the monochrome tilesets, but so many roguelikes use tilesets these days that I'd really like to see more traditional ascii based roguelikes. (full disclosure; I'm the guiltiest of all about this, but my next roguelike will use ascii, I swear) The monochrome tilesets I like because they're kindof half way between ascii and a real tileset.

I agree that exclusive tilesets are a cool thing to have, but roguelikes were founded on the ultimate non-exclusive tileset, ascii. All the classic roguelikes used essentially an identical tileset, so exclusive tilesets while nice are not always necessary.

Anyway, great tileset oryx, and a good price, though it'd be great if one day you released it for free. I'm not saying soon, but some day, eventually.

26

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Underhall 2.1 Released! (works!)

« on: April 30, 2013, 09:05:29 PM »

It's a custom engine, not noteye. Much better than noteye's 3d stuff, actually. Not bragging, noteye just has some fairly poor 3d stuff. I've always thought about improving noteye's 3d stuff.

It's shareware for now. The demo only goes so deep in the dungeon.

27

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Underhall 2.1 Released! (works!)

« on: April 29, 2013, 09:10:36 PM »

I'm planning on doing a youtube video soon. Is there anything you guys would like to see in game? Something from the late game maybe?

28

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Underhall 2.1 Released! (works!)

« on: April 29, 2013, 03:02:22 AM »

Underhall 2.1 has been released! Underhall is an old school 3d roguelike for Windows.

I (hopefully) fixed the bugs in this version. It should work. I hope you enjoy it.

Features:
•30 floors of monster killing mayhem
•Dozens of brutal weapons
•Over 50 devastating spells
•Over 40 unique and complex items
•6 classes each with unique gameplay and skills

Here's the zip file:
http://nosoftware.googlecode.com/files/Underhall%202.1.zip

Here's the windows installer:
http://nosoftware.googlecode.com/files/Underhall-2.1-Setup.exe

Here's the website:
http://upsidedownunderground.org/?page_id=27

Here's some blatant advertising:

29

Programming / Re: pedantic object oriented question

« on: April 27, 2013, 07:05:26 AM »

I bet that if everyone puts their functions wherever they want, we'll all end up happy.

like you ask your main game loop to update everything that needs updated.

I don't have my main game loop update everything. I ask the objects to update themselves. And I don't even do it in the main game loop. The map does it.

It's a cascading hierarchy of updates.

All programming is, really. Main is called, and then main calls things, and those things call things, and those things call things, and then one day all of those return and you end up back at main and main returns. It's inescapable. Even in a multithreaded program, main initiates the threads, and the threads one day return before main returns. The whole of programming is a cascading hierarchy of updates starting at the program entry point.

30

Programming / Re: pedantic object oriented question

« on: April 26, 2013, 10:54:47 PM »

I bet that if everyone puts their functions wherever they want, we'll all end up happy.

like you ask your main game loop to update everything that needs updated.

I don't have my main game loop update everything. I ask the objects to update themselves. And I don't even do it in the main game loop. The map does it.