Roguelike Incubator

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In terms of the "bundle" theme, here are my ideas:

(1) "definitely a roguelike" -- obviously up to some interpretation but I think we all know it when we see it
(2) multi-platform -- no one feels left out
(3) new-player friendly -- no player left behind, Darren's guidelines are a good place to start, although I don't agree with 100% of them: clear interface, simplified key mappings, mouse (less Nethack, more Brogue)
(4) "lunch break" sized -- medium sized RL. Heftier than a 7DRL, but not super-dense. Not remaking Crawl or ADOM.

In terms of setting or genre, I don't think we need or want a restriction. (e.g. the 'space roguelike bundle!!' is not necessary, but would certainly be amusing)

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@mariodonick:
> As I said, I am (basically) in, too -- but first (as you're the one who brought up the idea and should organize it  ) please clarify what exactly the cabal now will be:
> 1. Individual developers working on individual games, giving input and feedback to each other?
> 2. Teams, where each team creates one game?
> 3. Both is possible?

3 seems fine to me! The point is basically to 'guarantee' (as much as we can) a nice, friendly bunch of folk to test your game. You do the same to them. Honest feedback is all that is required!

[Darren Grey]

I think it's more about individual games, but with an understanding that since we're releasing in a bundle anything bad in one game reflects badly on the whole bundle. We have a prerogative to strongly encourage each other to improve and polish our games.

[twpage]

Right. I wouldn't want ALL teams. But if the make up is say, 4 individuals, and 1 team of 2, I don't see the big difference. If we are talking a team of 5 working on one game, then, maybe that would be good for a different kind of bundle. Although if you have 5 guys making a game you hopefully don't have to try as hard to get feedback

[mariodonick]

Okay. In general, I'm fine with this, and I would really like to receive and to give feedback.

But I'm not sure if it really made sense for the whole cabal thing, if LambdaRogue was included -- it may affect the rest of the games badly, maybe. Hm...


Edit: I think "affect badly" was unclear said. My main concern is that some games might be completely new, while others are more mature, and esp. the new games deserve much feedback. Games which exist for a long time probably can't include all suggestions given in the feedbacks, besides bug, interface and balancing reports. Conceptual changes would be more difficult.

[twpage]

I was thinking "new" games. Or at least, games that may exist in some alpha/7drl stage, but desire to be bigger and better! So, we'd all help each other get to that point, instead of each individual developer flailing around by themselves.

[getter77]

Somewhat stratified groups might make sense in this way you lot are doing it...one for the young and hungry, one for the generally established, one for the mature/mega looking to break beyond perceived limits, and perhaps one for projects yet to be aiming to reach any of the above levels all the way through the process.   Each group would have a vantage point to offer unto the others, aside from the inner group mingling of ideas, feedback, etc.

[Darren Grey]

I think stratified groups may come later once the idea takes off more.  Personally I'm okay with the initial bundle being a mix of different sized games.  The joining factor would really be motivation and a desire to improve one's work, coupled with willingness to help others in the same task.

On top of the multi-platform suggestion, I'd maybe also say open source should be encouraged.  It's a roguelike trope, and if we wanted to publicise the bundle in the wider indie community it'd be a nice one-up on the existing indie bundles.  And "easy to get running" should be an important part.  Players should be able to download a zip with the games in it and straight away play each of them.

Regarding medium of communication, I prefer forum to e-mails/chat because it's more open and lets others comment.  Players should be free to participate in feedback at will.  Google Docs is good for keeping track of participation etc.

[mariodonick]

Okay, I'm in with LambdaRogue 1.7. (But before that, a 1.6.5 update will conclude the current 1.6 branch.)

[Darren Grey]

Y'know thinking about this a bit more, I think something big could be made of this along the lines of the indie bundles - a sort of headline thing to attract people into the genre with a group of polished free games.  I can set us up a dedicated site and host the games in one package, and we could maybe have a charity donation link that would serve to track player enthusiasm.  Could make headlines on other indie and gaming sites.  Amidst the various commercial roguelikes and roguelikelikes it would be good to point out that there's a big resource of cool free games to play as well.  There have been a couple of free indie bundles already, but this would be a bit more focussed.

[mariodonick]

I agree, Darren. Maybe something in spirit of the "Humble Bundle"

[Darren Grey]

I've registered http://roguelikebundle.blogspot.com - we can decorate and populate it later.  I have some contacts that might be able to do us some nice looking art.

Hmm, really need to Slash to set us up a subforum - I'll go harass him on Facebook...

[mariodonick]

Thanks for registering that blog. Is this for development updates of the individual games, or for general bundle news? (What if I already have my own dev blog?)

[Darren Grey]

Bundle news.  More for a web-site function than general updates.  Everyone should have their own blogs, which I'll get linked at the side.

[mariodonick]

Now obviously the subforum is available, thanks to whoever did create it!