LambdaRogue: Infiltration Development Thread

[mariodonick]

and good luck on your own thesis! At some point you will have the feeling that it's done and the time is right to stop writing and improving. Although nothing is perfect and theoretically could be improved infinitely, suddenly a point will be reached when it is done and "feels" right.

Much like programming a roguelike, by the way.

Not really. In programming you usually run some tests at that point and it turns out that you were wrong - totally wrong .

Well, hopefully the tests you run will show you you're NOT totally wrong, otherwise no piece of software (no roguelike) would ever be in a playable, somewhat stable state

The final phases of my thesis were similar, incl. versions I labelled alpha, beta and release candidate, and tests included several iterations of writing, reading and improving, until I came to a state where I could say "okay, let's stop it now."

[mariodonick]

My thesis is now (since last week Friday) handed in, i.e. finished, after 4 long years. Now I'm waiting for a letter that states that the "Promotionsverfahren" (a word hard to translate: It means the buerocratic aspects of the process leading to the PhD) is opened. Meanwhile, I'm doing some smaller usability studies and teaching German

So -- LambdaRogue, here I come

[Krice]

I started to make a copy of the source code where I'm now removing all the story stuff, to have the game's core to start to work with.

So it will be more sandbox-style hacking or with another story?

[mariodonick]

I started to make a copy of the source code where I'm now removing all the story stuff, to have the game's core to start to work with.

So it will be more sandbox-style hacking or with another story?

After a long time, I can answer this question.

LR 1.7 ("Infiltration") will focus on game mechanics, not so much on story, as LR 1.6.4 ("The Book of Stars") did. Of course there WILL be a basic plot (otherwise it would not be my game), but it will be much more straightforward, and quests will not be required to win the game. Basically, it will be like the coffeebreak mode from LR 1.6.4 with a short intro, 2 cutscenes and the end sequence, but in-between it's pure dungeon crawling.

LR:I is set some hundred years before LR:TBoS -- during the war between men and Drekh'Nar. The player can choose between human and Drekh'Nar. As a human, the player has to infiltrate a Drekh'Nar basis to obtain information, as a Drekh'Nar, the player has to prevent the humans infiltrating.

[Krice]

After a long time, I can answer this question.

My best guess is that you were captured in Syria and escaped by building a ironman suit. But you can't tell about that stuff, I know.

[mariodonick]

After a long time, I can answer this question.

My best guess is that you were captured in Syria and escaped by building a ironman suit. But you can't tell about that stuff, I know.

LOL no.

Until January I was preparing for defending my PhD, which I did on 28th. I'm also doing lots of flight simulation stuff.

[Krice]

So you really are now Doctor Mario.

[mariodonick]

So, again more than a month has passed. I got married, and I moved to another town. Most things have settled, though.

For LR:I, I have stripped the game engine from the 1.6.x contents and am now in the process of generalizing several parts, so I can fill it with new content soon. However, I will also need some new mechanics which fit the new theme, such as a "loudness factor" of the dungeon. The game's called "Infiltration", so infiltrating should be modelled in a nice way, and different dungeon environments, items etc. should have a different influence on player's loudness. There will also be some areas where its quite dark, and the player has to rely on his ears to "see" what's going on.

[getter77]

Congrats on the marriage and move!   

[mariodonick]

Congrats on the marriage and move!   

Thanks a lot, Brian!

[Krice]

That's great, but.. not always good news for roguelike development. Remember what happened to Mr. Biskup when he got his doctorate and married. He stopped developing ADOM for years and only returned when it was possible to squeeze money out of it. He must have explained it to his wife with whiny Eric Cartman voice: "But my dear Bertha, it's possible now to make money from ADOM, can't I continue developing it, my princess? Please?"

[mariodonick]

That's great, but.. not always good news for roguelike development. Remember what happened to Mr. Biskup when he got his doctorate and married. He stopped developing ADOM for years and only returned when it was possible to squeeze money out of it. He must have explained it to his wife with whiny Eric Cartman voice: "But my dear Bertha, it's possible now to make money from ADOM, can't I continue developing it, my princess? Please?"

Well, this can't happen for me. In fact, my wife pushes me to continue LR development, when I don't like to work on it.