Anti-Deratization (2014 7DRL Success)

[tom]

Anti-deratization is a turn-based tactical open space-ish squad combat roguelike.

Set in a low-fantasy world where the only way you're going to hurt someone with a spell book is when you throw it at them hard enough.

Story:
In the dungeons beneath a castle dwell peaceful creatures.
Due to the intense four day long birthday party thrown by the Puk the gnome, the very landlord of said castle - alarmed by the persistent noises - took interest in what's happening under his magnificent carpeted floors.

Rumor has it the size of the dungeon coupled with the landlord's disgusting wealth amassed by oppressing the local townsfolk enabled him to hire a deratization squad of local Warrior Guild's recruits to 'get rid of the rats in his cellar'.

You are one of the goblins inhabiting the dungeon and, shall you succeed in defending your home, story of these times will forever be known as...
(fanfares) Anti-Deratization!

Features:
Group behavior and attack assistance based on what's in sight, dynamic pathfinding including group movement, controlling allies, barricade building (well, sort of) and gnomes hurling hefty arcane tomes at anything in sight

Controls:
? or F1: help screen
vi-keys/numpad: player movement
numpad 5 or . : wait a turn
TAB: auto attack-move
x: enables/disables cursor
with cursor on:
 Left mouse button: orders allies to move to the selected spot
 Right mouse button: places an obstruction object (selected randomly out of three, properties vary)

Download:
Standalone Windows binary: http://7drl.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/adr1.zip
Raw .py version requiring Python 2.7 will be released shortly


Gameplay:

Goblin intercepting an enemy constructor




Dodging mage attacks and letting allies gang up on a knight

Although I ended up not implementing almost half the features I initially intended to put in the game is playable, the core mechanics work and most of the time it's winnable, too, even if the balance is not quite there as of now.

I'm planning on releasing a minor update in a week or two addressing issues that I've overlooked in the development phase as well as any other bugs that will inevitably surface
 
Being one of my first game projects and the very first 7DRL in which I've taken part it was a huge learning experience both in terms of game design as well as software development. Looking back at that week just one day later there are many things I would have done differently knowing what I know now.

In the end I had real fun participating in this year's challenge.
The game may not look like much, especially compared to some of the bigger projects, but it's a labor of love and if at least one, single person finds something enjoyable about it I will consider my mission fully accomplished

Cheers,
Tom

[ekolis]

Hey Tom

I happened across your game when I was doing reviews (if you want to review 7DRLs, get in touch with Darren Grey). Let me warn you that the review isn't all that favorable (I found the gameplay kind of dull), but for a first attempt, it's not bad at all! I did like the "shout" feature where you could command your allies to go to a specific location - not many roguelikes have something like that!

Oh, man, you should see my first successful 7DRL... I'm not even sure if you could call it a roguelike! It was completely abstract and math themed (both you and the enemies were numbers), and the single level that the game had was tiny! At least I had some clever mechanics in terms of all your attacks being math operations... if you really want to check it out, you can see here: http://edkolis.exofire.net/decimation.php

[tom]

Hey ekolis, thanks for taking the time to play my game!

I appreciate the honest feedback - Anti-Deratization indeed has its, erm, shortcomings and some aspects could've been handled better. At least commanding allies somehow stands out


I'll be sure to check out your 7drl in my spare time, cheers!