Roguelike Incubator

[mariodonick]

At the first page of the thread, someone (I think Darren) even explicitly mentioned LambdaRogue as one of the RLs that could participate. However, if there are more voices saying I should not, I won't force myself on it. LR development continues anyway.

[Darren Grey]

I think the point has to be on how much you expect the game to change over the next few months.  With LambdaRogue I'm guessing there's a lot of scope for the new crawler mode to actually change quite a bit.  Plus feedback can inspire significant alternations.  But if it doesn't work out like this then I guess it may not be suitable for it to stay in.

There could be a separate strand for more mature roguelikes to polish up, add features, etc.  But I'd say it's best to start inclusive and split into sub-groups later if we feel it appropriate.  The balance should definitely be more towards new games, but developing established games is certainly not to be discouraged.

[getter77]

Remember folks:  "new" and "new to me" are vastly different things, and given the aim of the bundle in large part is to make some noise in the wider gaming world when it comes to this niche---rather sure the like of LambdaRogue and others will far and away count enough on the latter in volume effectively transmute into the former, especially should some game media outlets give the bundle some due notice when the time comes.   


The aim of a varied mix in particular seems wise given how most bundles have gone---you can have variety, even randomness, without dooming the lot of it to off-putting dissonance or cacophony.   Whatever games somebody gets in a bundle, they are more inclined to sample the whole after perhaps the one game that hooked them in originally as per their current state of perceived preferences----just human nature.

[kraflab]

In my mind, while the idea of releasing a free bundle is nice, I think we (meaning the roguelike community) should be trying to release a really nice commercial bundle.  Show the world that you can release something worth paying for.  In my opinion, free games devalue the genre.  Even something like a pay-what-you-want might work if you don't want to put a number on it.  I realize this sounds silly but I am much more likely to try out a game with a price tag because it leads me to believe that there is something of value there.  Ever seen the photo of the huge line of people for $5 hugs and the empty line at the free hugs stand?  Same principle.

[Darren Grey]

I have no interest in commercialisation myself and am quite happy that this is my hobby and not something I feel the need to make more appealing for commercial purposes.  I just want people to play my games and enjoy them, and the lowest barrier for entry on that is freedom.  Plus I don't believe many of the wider public would really fork out for ASCII games before they play them.

But I have nothing against there being a commercial roguelike bundle if someone wants to go through the financial mess of sorting that out.

[Ancient]

*downloads PRIME and has a gander*  Um, man, this is quite excellent for interface actually!  There really aren't that many keys.  And the contextual help is very good.  Certainly far better than Nethack and the like.  I would consider this acceptable for the accessibility standard for the bundle.

Thank you for the kind words!

Just be mindful that there will be suggestions for improvement (first request: make items usable from within the inventory screen - it's frustrating to look at an item to see what it does, then have to go out into the main view to actually do something with it).  Up to you how you want to change the game, but have an open mind to suggestions.

What are your development goals for the game?  It looks quite fleshed out already.

There is a department PRIME loses in both to LambdaRogue and Hydra Slayer + NotEye. Please be patient. I have written mail to Psi and need his feedback on the whole idea first. The thread in appropriate forum is going to have goals listed. Perhaps tomorrow it will appear.

Ancient and Darren don't remember what game informs you how to use stairs when you step on them. Just for the record: Hydra Slayer has this, thanks to Ancient, as it was actually his suggestion, and I think he suggested it only because Hydra Slayer uses "g" for "go" instead of ">".

Yes, thats the game! Its me who made that suggestion? Oh wow. We seem to be agreeing with Darren much more than it is apparent to me. Or even both of us.


What I think the incubator will force me to do is to improve the PRIME website. It could use some extra content and up-to-date screenshots.