Vic Davis, aka Cryptic Comet, is the creator of Armageddon Empires and Solium Infernum, two very deep PC strategy titles that play more like board games than computer games, and are known for their very deep mechanics. Now he is turning his attention to what looks like it could be a roguelike in computer board game form. The following is from an interview with him I found on the Rock, Paper, Shotgun website:
RPS: In your plans for 2010, you’ve mentioned “Project Rogue Expedition: I am designing a strategy adventure game. My core design goals are to foster a fun sense of exploration and push your luck decision making”. Any chance of teasing anything else about in that? Presumably, this is returning to a single-player focus of Solium Infernum, but… well, it seems very different. Am I wrong by looking at those sentance and thinking that it’ll be a non-traditional representation of adventuring? More management than close-tactical-control? Or am I just desperately grasping?
You’re pretty close on target. You will have a map and a mission (you will be able to select from several) and the goal will be to explore the map (randomly generated paths) and manage your risk vs. your reward and push yourself at the same time to complete your mission. As you travel over the map you will have to overcome “challenges” which require you to use your stats, items, allies, special move type cards etc. I’m working on some neat mechanics here that are sort of like a card game in that you have a base set of rules and then look for ways to change and manipulate the rules. You will have to make hard choices on how you want to approach the challenges given your strategic situation on the map and the status of your mission. It will be single player primarily. I’m exploring some ways to make a meta game component but my primary focus is on single player. As I was working on SI, I found that I really missed the exploration aspect of Armageddon Empires. It just didn’t fit in with the design of SI and my idea was that new things showing up in the “Bazaar” would compensate a little for that “What is behind door #1” feeling that I like in my games.
But with Rogue Expedition I have the chance to play around with a lot of the rogue-like concepts and see what I can do. So a big part of the game will be exploration. I want it to play like a board game as well…so although you have a “character” with stats and an inventory I am going to keep those aspects tight and focused. Hopefully it will force tough “push your luck” type decisions on the player. I’m also hoping that players will get the sense of a “creating their own story” type of experience. I don’t want to talk about the theme quite yet but it might include a fedora hat.
Link:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/01/26/pitchforked-tongue-davis-on-sol-infernum/#more-24395Looks EXTREMELY promising!!!
