Slash's 7DRLs retrospective

[Slash]

So it's been 8 years now. I was there with the first 9 successful challengers, we had survived.

In retrospective, I have been able to participate in all of the 7DRL challenges, yet never managed to create an outstanding entry.

So I wanted to ask the community, did you ever play one of these 7DRLs? what were your thoughts about them? which one did you like the most?

All of them should still be accessible via http://slashie.net

Edit: Note that CastlevaniaRL and DrashRL got a LOT of development post the 7DRL limit. MetroidRL still did to a much lesser extent...

[Slash]

Download links for the original 7DRL versions: http://slashie.net/download.php?list.12

[Darren Grey]

I've only played your recent ones and from those I'd say you have a severe problem of restricting scope.  They're usually too unpolished, sometimes outright buggy or very obviously incomplete, and it's impossible to enjoy them that way.  So I'd say choose one very focused thing and get that working nicely.  If you look at the ones that are considered "outstanding" it's because they do one memorable thing really well.

[Slash]

Yes indeed, it makes all feel like wasted efforts product-wise, but I guess I've learned in the process (though I don't seem to have applied it into my entries, each one is more complex than its predecessor )

[mrrstark]

I really like and keep trying to get farther in CastlevaniaRL. CastlevaniaRL and DoomRL (with tiles) are the two RL's that got me into RL's at all.

I love the art, and the theme, character gen, everything. However, I also find it's goddamned hard, about the farthest I've gotten is the town a few times and that's like it.

I wish that it'd get developed even though I know it's not going to happen especially since as you say it's your oldest.

I need to give the other ones a try too.

[joeclark77]

Am I the only one not seeing the most recent games (2009 onward) at the link?

[Slash]

Hmmm, RULER is at the "Latest releases" section, since I didn't continue developing it post 7DRL http://slashie.net/download.php?list.4

I just notices "Elite International Detective" and "Hope" are not linked in slashie.net... they are at https://code.google.com/p/elite-international-detective/downloads/list and http://7drl.org/2012/03/18/hope-finished/ respectively

[mrrstark]

I notice on your forums that people talk about CastlevaniaRL 1.26:
http://slashie.net/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?771

but I can only see 0.73 on the download page here:
http://slashie.net/page.php?6

[Slash]

0.73 is actually newer than 1.26 I think there was a jump from 1.26 to 0.6 or something like that...

Yep, http://slashware.net/blog/2009/castlevaniarl-day-1-of-the-new-age/ , 1.26 was from 2007, and I started a "New Age of Development" on 2009, whose end was marked by the release of v0.73 on February 2010

[Ex]

I'm not surprised that CVRL has the most votes. It's the one that keeps me coming back even after all this time. In fact, all the recent games that I've developed have a class system that is inspired by the class system in CVRL (Underhall for example). That is, a small number of highly different classes with very different gameplay.

However, I want to point out that CVRL also has the best graphics. Even though this shouldn't contribute to it's success, I still wonder if it does. In my own games, I'm always torn between going for better graphics, or leaving them plain and simple. I'd like to think that players see beyond graphics, but the history of the video game industry kinda suggests a graphics "arms race" over time.

Maybe judging the success of an ascii game by comparing it to the success of a game with amazing 2d graphics makes the ascii game look less successful than it actually is.

[Ancient]

I remember RULER most fondly. DrashRL is close second. Somehow Castlevania did not impress me as much. Expedition was fun too because it was a fresh approach but once I lost interest there was no incentive to go back. In a way, it was too novel and distant from usual dungeon hack and slash.

[ekolis]

I wonder what Slash's next retro-gaming themed roguelike will be... MarioRL? Or to throw everyone for a loop, SonicRL?

"You used spin dash! Oh no! You can't see where you are anymore, because your field of view hasn't caught up yet!"