Roguelike Radio podcast

[ido]

There will be more free roguelikes in the future, but basically the problem is that the major ones are too big to really do them justice.

For example, I might be able to say something about crawl but I haven't played any of the other big ones long enough to have a really educated opinion, and I think pretty much everyone on the team has played maybe 1 or 2 of the major ones for long enough to really know them well (and it's different games for each person).

With the binding of isaac (or 100 rogues, etc) I feel perfectly comfortable talking with some authority after playing the game for several days.

Moreover, the facts are that the commercial releases normally put much greater emphasis on easy to learn controls and interfaces and are a lot easier to get into (and therefor to play in time for the podcast).

That's probably a side effect of what you mentioned at the end of your comment, but honestly when you have to play a new game every week for many weeks straight you don't want a game that take a week just to get used to its quirks.

The best solution I can think of is to have anyone who is interested in joining us to post it here and we could integrate "experts" into specific episodes (e.g. you might be up in an episode about IVAN, someone else would join in for the nethack episode, etc).

Thoughts?

[getter77]

I'd say if there gets to be a Religion II episode that gets into things like IVAN and others that are taking a crack at it,  Triangle Wizard, now that the update is functional that introduced it, should probably get a mention on variety and some interesting quirks.  Depending on how it goes, for instance, your deity can compel you to do some questing for them---sometimes rather "forcibly".

[Darren Grey]

Topics can certainly be returned to.  It's hard to know about all games.  Apparently Incursion has a complex deity system too, but I've not gotten past the character generator in it.

One significant influence on the coverage of commercial games is that we have been blessed with several new commercial roguelikes or roguelike-likes in the last few months.  It's quite unprecedented, and it seems a shame not to cover them shortly after release.  There's plenty of time to balance it out with free ones in future.

[Darren Grey]

Z: Cool to hear you've gotten the Paragon of Order in ADOM too.  I thought maybe I was the only one to do it legitimately (the other person I know who did it was a player named Alex that abused the piety loop bug).  My point about it being fairly secret was to contrast it with other behaviour encouragement systems like in Crawl or Powder, where they are much more explicit and have more of an effect on people's play.

[Legend]

I don't particularly think the podcast needs a musical theme, or intro. I kinda like it bare-bones. Kinda like ascii only roguelikes. Bare-bones in presentation, but quality in content.

[ido]

Don't really see a point in those either.

[Darren Grey]

Forgot to post about episode 11, The Binding of Isaac:

http://roguelikeradio.blogspot.com/2011/11/episode-11-binding-of-isaac.html

It includes some interesting discussion with Edmund McMillen, the developer, who talks about some of his inspirations behind the game and the work that went into it.  Also some interesting talks on qualifying games as roguelikes, and why roguelikes aren't mainstream.

[Darren Grey]

And hot on Isaac's heels, episode 12, discussing roguelike features in other genres:

http://roguelikeradio.blogspot.com/2011/11/episode-12-roguelikes-features-in-other.html

[guest509]

  Hey you guys are doing pretty well with that episode. Couldn't quite follow the the parts about 'these things aren't roguelike they are just inherent to good games' and the 'we shouldn't use genre designations'. Those bits fell a little dead because it becomes a semantic issue. Words have power, for sure, but arguing that games like Binding of Isaac, Spelunky or Diablo are following some tradition other than that started by Rogue (really Moria and Nethack) gets a little thin and useless.
  I understand Ido's hesitation with labels though. I'm sure releasing a game and then getting criticism over fitting the genre can be frustrating. But labels are very important for understanding and simplification. The side effect of pigeon holing can be frustrating. Especially in this community of hyper nerdy developer purist types.
  As far as having an intro song or whatever I do not see the point. The people listening are most likely hobby developers who do not really require music. I guess if you discovered that your radio broadcasts were gaining popularity outside of our weird little niche you might need to spice up the productions. But for now I'd just concentrate on the content. Unless of course one of you is a musician or someone really wants to write you a nice little theme. But hell most the games you are talking about lack sound, so...
  Anyway I am a big fan of the broadcasts. I have listened to every one, sometimes more than once. The Binding of Isaac guy was fantastic. Reviewing a game with the developer seems like a winning formula to me.

[flags]

Episode 11 was awesome. Very inspiring to hear success stories like that.

[guest509]

Episode 11 was awesome. Very inspiring to hear success stories like that.

+1

[XLambda]

As far as having an intro song or whatever I do not see the point. The people listening are most likely hobby developers who do not really require music. I guess if you discovered that your radio broadcasts were gaining popularity outside of our weird little niche you might need to spice up the productions. But for now I'd just concentrate on the content. Unless of course one of you is a musician or someone really wants to write you a nice little theme. But hell most the games you are talking about lack sound, so...

I do think that Nethack's in-game music would fit very well into the podcast.   j/k

Anyway I am a big fan of the broadcasts. I have listened to every one, sometimes more than once. The Binding of Isaac guy was fantastic. Reviewing a game with the developer seems like a winning formula to me.

I agree. I find myself listening to some episodes over and over again.

[ido]

I agree. I find myself listening to some episodes over and over again.

Nice to hear you like them that much!

Which are your favorite episodes?

[XLambda]

I agree. I find myself listening to some episodes over and over again.

Nice to hear you like them that much!

Which are your favorite episodes?

I really liked the brogue and DoomRL ones, and recently the one on POWDER. The non-game-specific ones, on progression and deity systems, were also very interesting and entertaining. *thumbs up*

[flend]

I also have been enjoying the episodes. The Isaac one was strong but I think that owes a lot to the creator's interesting motives and history. I think an hour is about the right length (just happened to be exactly the length of my commute in Osaka over the last few weeks!).

Some better equalisation of the voices of the different speakers would be welcome (I could rarely hear the @play guy over the train noise).

Good stuff, keep it up!

-flend