Rogue Rage

[Darren Grey]

Agreed, and it's mostly providing a patch-up job for evaluators at the moment (similar to leaving in the debugging commands).

[Darren Grey]

I'm struggling to find any time to work on this (and what free time I have I want to prioritise on playing the games of the people that have given me such great feedback) but I wanted to bring up an idea I've been toying with for a while.

The current game has a story campaign that can be completed in a fairly short amount of time.  I'm not sure how well this suits replayability - to me the gameplay is sustainably fun, but admittedly it misses but of the content variety most roguelikes have.  So I've been considering an "infinity mode" to go alongside the current "story mode".  It would be an endless (or endless enough) dungeon with random floor layouts, enemy distribution, and bosses.  You'd have a score for every dungeon level progressed and boss killed.  My ideas at the moment:

 - Each level a different, randomised generator type (with extra types not seen in the current game)
 - Random enemy distribution of all game enemies.  I'd like to try thematically restricted stuff, but this is very hard with how the game is coded.
 - 1 boss per level, probably placed on the downstairs.  Not sure on whether to use existing bosses or add a load of new bosses or somehow randomly generate them.  Randomly generated is probably very hard to do without a big refactoring of enemy special abilities - not sure if it's worth the effort.
 - All stances unlocked from the start.
 - Enemies would get harder (more HP, more damage) as you go deeper.  The game would be hard from the start, with random unfair situations quite likely at times, but as you go deeper it would fairly quickly reach the near impossible, where immense skill is required to progress.  With a boss per level and a point per level passed and boss killed I would foresee scores above 20 being very hard to get.  It would hopefully have a short, arcade feel.

Would this sort of game mode be appealing?  Obviously my priority is on getting the current mode finished, and this extra mode might be a lot of work, but it could make it into a much more replayable game.

[Z]

I also feel that replayability is quite low, so this is a very good idea. I have no specific suggestions, though.

[kraflab]

It might be interesting to try adding additional randomized stances for the infinity mode.  Perhaps you start with the 5 regular stances, but have the option of substituting a randomly generated one that can be found on each level with varied powers.  Just a thought.

[Z]

Another idea would be to start each level with a random subset of stances (but adjusting the strength of enemies to this set). It should be more interesting to adjust your stance strategy for each level, depending on what you have.

[guest509]

  Regarding finding time to work on things. I find that 'finding time' is mostly a function of will.

  Not saying that you are weak willed. Please do not thing I am saying that. What I find is that when someone tells me they are having trouble finding the time they are really talking about priorities. They are taking about lacking the will to shift their priorities.

  Again I'm not trying to be a huge asshat here. There are plenty of those folks around without me engaging in that.

  I like your game as is. I loved dodging those tree bastards and blasting shit down. Is there sound in your game? I seem to remember hearing the pleading of my foes as I skewered them.

  What I am saying is that if you really dig your game, then you'll have the will to shift things around so you can finish it.

  The problem is that most games take about a bazillion more hours to finish than one would think they should. Starts. Restarts. Testing. Public testing which leads to restarts...etc...

  You think you are making a 7DRL but then you wind up with a monster.

  I guess my real advice is to make a game, the game, you are happy with. Then fix the bugs.

  Good luck Darren. I love your games. Sorry I've given any specific advice. Just meta advice. I guess I'm in a cheer leading mood. :-) SMILEY!

-Jo

EDIT: My goodness there were so many typos in that post. It was pretty heartfelt so I'll leave it as is. Still...too many errors. A 'GUNFIST' amount of errors  you might say.  :-)

[Darren Grey]

I agree on the will thing.  But there's also a matter of big and small things to do, and right now the things I want to do on the game are big whilst there's a lot of other urgent little things that need doing too.  I need to think about splitting development into small targets to make it more approachable.

I plan to add sound to the game later, but at the moment you'll just have to continue enjoying whatever imaginary screams you're hearing 

[kraflab]

I agree on the will thing.  But there's also a matter of big and small things to do, and right now the things I want to do on the game are big whilst there's a lot of other urgent little things that need doing too.  I need to think about splitting development into small targets to make it more approachable.

I plan to add sound to the game later, but at the moment you'll just have to continue enjoying whatever imaginary screams you're hearing 

In my game design experience, adding 5 small things can dramatically improve a game in ways a single large thing might never accomplish.  As an example, adding the ability to leave a trail of blood behind you in epilogue is a small thing but I absolutely love seeing it happen Sound is another thing that is easy to do and has a huge benefit.  Of course, if you don't have any experience coding sound it might not be as "easy" as I see it.

[Darren Grey]

Here is the latest build of Rogue Rage, with a whole bunch of fixes and things from previous:

http://gruesomegames.com/games/roguerage-alpha2.zip

Rage is less easy to get, the heavens have been nerfed slightly, many display things have been improved, and the final boss level is in (but without special abilities).  The default Rogue attack has been changed to straight damage and its rage attack has been made cooler looking and easier to follow (seriously, check it out!)  Stairs now auto-use upon traversal and you can right-click to change stances, so full mouse play allowed!  In addition save files now work  I'm still worried that the Heavens are overpowered and the other areas are too easy, so feedback there is welcome.

However! I have not been attentive enough to other Incubator projects so I would ask that other developers please ignore this until I have rightly given more feedback on their work.

Things I have to do:
 - sound effects and music (I'll be using some free classical stuff)
 - story text (only needs a light touch)
 - cosmetic map changes on boss death
 - in-game instructions
 - cope with different screen resolutions better
 - Endless Death mode, with random bosses on each level

[Ancient]

Good to have you back with us. I suggest to try improved Fame first. It has not yet received good suggestions since its last release.

PRIME is very likely to have graphical release on 27th or 28th August. Thus we would like you to wait a bit with playing it.

[Darren Grey]

My first thought was "What the hell if Fame?"  Google soon told me

I don't really care about the graphical version (being an ASCII fan), but I'm happy to test it out.  Will there be any major game/interface changes?

[Ancient]

Nothing major that has not happened already. Biggest visible thing menus are no longer paged. They scroll smoothly instead. Unless you want to suggest something?

Since you are not waiting for the pretty graphics feel free to try PRIME whenever you like. Gameplay suggestions are important too.

[Z]

Graphics are much better in this version. Smooth boundaries between tiles, and the animation when killing the shadow boss, look very cool.

I don't understand the Rogue Rage Targeted attack, sometimes it seems to do nothing (move into an enemy's position, making me vulnerable).

Sometimes I find it annoying that I climb stairs automatically. Especially that climbing stairs up on Level 2+ brings me back to the wrong place... I lose my progress.

Seems more difficult than the previous version. But maybe I just have to learn.

Since stances and rage are the central concepts for the game, maybe there should be some explanation. Non-obtrusive hints displayed while in the Temple of Elysium, and the stance description should state the currently available stances, and how to access them (keys).

[Darren Grey]

The Rogue targeted attack sometimes does nothing?  That should only happen if there are no more enemies around in a radius of ~10.

Stairs out of order is a little bug I'm trying to hunt down...  But in general I find it's actually kinda annoying trying other roguelikes that don't have auto-stairs now 

Difficulty was increased - well, more specifically the shadow dungeon was made more dangerous and the rage cost of targeted attacks was increased.

Help info and stuff is all needed, yes  :/

I've ended up quite ill this weekend, which coupled with the purchase of FTL has not been good for my productivity.  I'll have something out by the end of today though.

[Darren Grey]

I think I'm going to have to miss out on ARRP.  The last stretch of polish and perfection is just killing me  :/