Recent Posts

11

7DRLs / Re: [7DRL 2023] [WIP] Loop Dungeons

« Last post by tukkek on March 07, 2023, 09:11:32 AM »

Not much to report today, some time was lost to non-essential tasks, some time was lost to IRL preoccupations and much time was lost to refactoring and, in particular a nasty string of bug-fixes. I do have a couple minor snapshots to show for my work though!

A simple in-game help screen showing keyboard-shortcut overlays:



And the in-game debug mode showing the auto-explore and auto-fight features, which I'll explain a bit more in detail:



(GOTTA GO FAST! The video is only 5 frames-per-second, which is why it looks so choppy in here).

As a game that can be played either in semi-idle or turn-based modes (proper balancing for each still pending), the auto-explore and auto-fight functions are essential to Loop Dungeons. The "driver" decides which goals to go for in the dungeon depending on simple factors (such as player health) while the "fighter" semi-randomly, semi-intelligently selects abilities to use during combat (bottom left).

Even now, before proper tuning, the auto functions cannot beat the game in any difficulty on their own. Besides some small amount of theory-crafting, players are also required to take control of the helm when things start going south 

12

7DRLs / Re: [7DRL 2023] [WIP] mission improbable Rogue Agent

« Last post by markflyer9 on March 06, 2023, 10:20:44 PM »

For the 7DRL 2023, I put in proceduaral elements that generates and gives every citizen an opinion of you and everybody else that can change for differrent reasons, this effects you by making bribes or seduction easier if they have a good opinion of you, but hard if they dont, I am making every offensive action on a charactor reduce their opion of you, and every good action if successful improve their opion of you. eg robbing them will cause bad feelings towards you, randomly placed enemies and random city maps, and every character in the game gets an original name generated. proceduaral targets shown in minimaps(as you move they can too). I hope the guys at itch like it, I tried to do something different a menu driven Roguelike with grid based turn based movement etc... random attributes(money, secrets, etc..), (abilities, hitpoints),  (backstory, they all have names and an opinion of you and all other NPCs).

This is a Spy game Roguelike, First off I'm a poor dev and if i paid for all the graphics for all my games I would be a very poor dev as i make many games, so i apolagise for the poor quality of the artwork I drew in MS Paint etc...

Now First off I wanted my roguelike instead of just bumbping into enimies for an attack,I made the game have many menu options to spice up gameplay. The game is based on a nuclear threat where 10 enimies are hidden in cities across the world(I was short of time or i would of had good maps of real places), you have spy tools to locate them, then you must assasinate them in order to avoid a nuke detanation. On your way you can find spys with secrets, you can rob or bribe seduce or kill, or even trick them out of the secrets, you can then sell them on the black market, you can also get money the same way from non spy characters to. use money to visit hospitals and replenise Hitpoints, and bank money you will need it to pay off goverment agents.

goverment agents are always hunting you, you will also have to use tracking systems to home-in on persons of interest, and targets. if agents capture you you will have to have something they want or take a beating to your hitpoints.

you can get forged passports are travel in a variety of ways between cities. you will find weapons such as guns or bombs to use in assasinations. every character in the game has an opion of you, if they have a low opion it will be hard to bribe or seduce them.

there is a detailed stats page to see all your progress.

this is an ironman game but with not even one save, you play in one sitting no loads.

all menus are exited by right clicking, movement is cursor keys.

it will run on any widows PC with a monitor capable of 1360x768

check out my profile on itch.io as I do lots of free games.

13

7DRLs / Re: [7DRL 2023] [WIP] Loop Dungeons

« Last post by tukkek on March 06, 2023, 06:55:35 AM »

Day 2 update



If you think you might have just seen Chrono moonwalk, it's not a fever dream, just our second 7DRL dev-diary update  (some other images are also placeholders).

Our earlier text-based prototype now has moody tiles, as you can probably see. It also has some work-in-progress music, which you probably cannot see...

The basic frameworks for leveling, gear, enemy and combat are all up and running as you can see in this glorious one-minute-long, one-level dungeon showcase! The driver is up to date, which is the game playing itself but you can toggle it on and off at any point.

I would have liked to finish the day off having fog-of-war, combat and basic item abilities properly implemented - which I would've done if I didn't spend a couple hours at the start of the day automating build and versioning. Sad but I would've done that at some point anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ so not really wasted time.

At least I'm calling it a day and going to bed a couple hours earlier than last night! That's a win, right?! Hope y'all have a nice week!

14

7DRLs / [7DRL 2023] [WIP] mission improbable Rogue Agent

« Last post by markflyer9 on March 05, 2023, 09:01:32 PM »

mission improbable Rogue Agent, in progress, well under way, just set up bare bones and filling placeholders with art

15

7DRLs / [7DRL 2023] [Success] Loop Dungeons

« Last post by tukkek on March 05, 2023, 08:40:02 AM »

Hi, hopefully it's OK to post a dev-diary style thread here?

Our entry for the 2023 7DRL event is Loop dungeons (working title), a semi-idle coffee-break roguelike that aims for a balance between traditional roguelikes, simulation games and puzzle games. Here are the planned features on day 1 (which may or may not make it into the game 7 days from now):

- Auto-explore
- Combat
  - Battle scene
  - Procedural enemy AI
  - Reactive combat
  - Enemies
    - Boss(es)
- Loot
  - Active abilities
  - Gear upgrades
- Player-driven dungeon generation
- Main menu
  - Difficulties
  - Multiple hero classes
- Soundtrack
  - Intro theme
  - Gameplay track
- Loops!
- Maybe even a better name!

The team is: me as code monkey, Felix as pixel sketcher and Alberto Martino bone-rattling to produce music.



The game is semi-idle in the sense that you can control it as a traditional roguelike, turn-by-turn but the gameplay is simple and (mostly) casual enough that a simple auto-explore function can play it for you while you watch. On easier difficulties, you can just watch your little guy go at it while you enjoy coming up with a build and making decisions about gear and levelling. On harder difficulties you'll need to leave exploration mode to play challenges more carefully or just play it manually as a traditional roguelike.

If we pull it off, the reactive combat system would be an interesting innovation to the simulation-RPG genre. Games that have combat simulation (such as idle-RPGs) are mostly played by what you do ahead-of-time leading up to combat, while in battle the game plays itself. By having a "semi-idle' combat system, we want to put emphasis on things like charging attacks and multi-turn spellcasting so that attentive players can react strategically during combat and be engaged and rewarded rather than just watch until they win or die.

I was going to post a day 1 prototype video and the intro theme song but the forum won't allow me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ if it's OK to use this thread as a dev-diary I'll try to write a status update at the end of each day!

16

7DRLs / 7DRL 2023 Starting Production

« Last post by Krytis on March 04, 2023, 09:47:20 AM »

Idk how this works, as this is my first game jam just posting that I started development on my project and for me to remember what time I started.

17

Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Cogmind (now at Beta 11.2)

« Last post by Kyzrati on March 02, 2023, 10:59:13 PM »

Cogmind "Encrypted Comms" is ready--welcome to Beta 12! Embrace the new Scrap Engine to create unique parts by feeding it other items, and explore significantly expanded Garrisons with major new rewards.

Full release notes and demo images.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn Based) / Re: Pathos: Nethack Codex now: Google Play, Apple iTunes Windows Store/Desktop v7.0!

« Last post by getter77 on February 28, 2023, 11:55:27 AM »

I am pleased to announce that full source code for the official content and modules is now available on GitHub:

https://github.com/callanh/pathos-official

You are welcome to fork this repository and to start a new variant of Pathos! All game assets such as images, sounds and translation files reside in the public repository. The content definitions and module generations are declared as C# code. This code is built into an assembly so it can be executed by the Pathos game engine. The game installation files include automated tools to generate the asset pipeline.

Anyway, enough about modding, this release introduces three new player races:

    Kobold. Unfairly characterised as cowardly and weak, these diminutive reptilian creatures overcome their physical limitations by employing vicious and cunning strategies.
    Plasmoid. Amorphous beings who have no typical shape but often take on a translucent humanoid form. While unmistakable for anything other than a plasma-like ooze, this form enables the use of clothing and tools.
    Tortle. Tortoise-like nomadic survivalists who leave their birthplace, from the moment they can walk, to travel the world with the comfort and protection of home on their backs.

As well as three new player specials:

    Drunkard. The habitually drunk make for brazen yet slightly unsteady adventurers; just don't ask them to recite the alphabet backwards.
    Glass. Sculptured from living glass that reflects energy and refracts light, you are a perfect but delicate emulation of your natural counterpart.
    Quantum. Uncertain of your position, you are accustomed to being anywhere and everywhere all at once.

Tiles now support multiple frames of animation. New animated tiles include fountains, altars, water and lava. Animated gif files are supported only in the Windows Desktop version and are best used for custom portraits.

Polymorph has been significantly rebalanced. Characters now keep their current experience level, instead of taking on the level of the entity. This means your life/mana is rolled based on the polymorphed entity but at your current level. If you are lower level than your polymorphed entity, this will reduce your natural defence and damage as well. This change is intended to make it fairer when a low level character is polymorphed into something overly powerful.

There are numerous quality of life improvements, rebalanced mechanics and updated tiles which are detailed in the in-game Help > Updates screen.

19

Programming / Suggestion Req for Best SQL Courses

« Last post by gulshan212 on February 27, 2023, 06:54:10 AM »

Hello this is Gulshan Negi
I am a software developer. I've recently started learning SQL, and I'm currently reading SQL for Dummies and The Art of SQL book to learn SQL. Should I take any SQL courses to enhance my skills, Is taking a SQL course really helpful? If yes, then which course should I take?
I need some suggestions on this.
Thanks

20

Player's Plaza / Re: Ever felt weird playing a roguelike?

« Last post by SophiaPrincess on February 26, 2023, 07:12:04 PM »

Strange topic, but something I have been thinking about for a while.
I was playing TOME2 recently and I couldn't get my mind off how lonely and bleak the game seems to be.
There was clearly a lot of work put into it, yet somehow the game has no soul at all. It's like a robot or something.
In comparison DCSS design choices are still very pragmatic and unrealistic, but everything is grounded enough to feel real.

In TOME2 though, the enemies are meandering husks, the towns are cardboard set-pieces, the quests are odd rituals given by disembodied voices, the player a is literal killing machine, and the dungeons all have this alien geometry and follow unnatural rules.
Superficially it seems believable enough, for the first few hours at least, but over time you will see the cracks in reality multiply. Think about this: Standing on ice, perfectly still, cuts you up and stuns you.
That is not a bug though, but just how the game handles that terrain type. Why? Because ice is sharp? It's painful to imagine. Things like this make it seem like an alien made this game.

And to a lesser extent this is how Angband and it's variants all typically feel. It is hard to get immersed, but if you manage to, it is an uncanny world you inhabit.
Sure, they are great at creating tension (mostly due to the time investment though), but are always abstracted in such specific ways it just seems wrong.
Even Morgoth's lair for example, in this unreal bastardization of a Tolkien setting, is just another level. He's just "there" with no fanfare or anything.
You then go over and kill him for no particular reason. I guess you make something up that makes sense. He drops a few pointless artifacts.
You can then explore about 20 more empty levels after he dies. There is nothing down there though, and there never will be...

Anybody else ever get a weird feeling from playing a certain roguelike?
I mean usually the games have a sense of adventure or mystery to them.
But something about all these band variants... They just seem off.

I don't feel weird at all.
May be em the only one but I say this because I play games without taking them serious.