Early 7DRL Declaration

[guest509]

  I figured that since I have my idea already I'll lay it out. I'm going to do a game for my nieces called The Littlest Princess. It will be a take off of the old single board romps, specifically Solomon's Key and Don Doko Don. Definitely a Roguelike hybrid. It will have the procedural levels, arcade style permadeath, problem solving and consumable management, but it will not be turn based or heavy on inventory.
  Dunno if I'll stick with the single board, or make is scrolling, we'll see. It'll be top down though, not a jumper.

Features
-The drunken Digger/Roomie dungeon architect we discussed here:
http://roguetemple.com/forums/index.php?topic=2830.0

-Movement engine from Gunfist: Gaiden, an old unfinished project.
-My own cutsie big eyed graphics to appeal to little girls. I was practicing on Slimy Lich Mummy, they should look alright.
-Real time game play, simple 4 way movement and 2 buttons only. NES style.
  -Button 1: Make brick, break brick (as in Solomon's Key).
  -Button 2: Use potion, which activates whatever magic item you are carrying. Fireball, Frost Nova, Teleport, etc...
-Couch Co-Op with different characters (sprite switch only, no difference in ability). Girl, Boy, Dog, Cat? We'll see.

It should be fun, as a lot of the engine is already extant. Also much of the graphics style will come from Solomon's Key for the NES, so I'll have a good template to work off of.

Of course everything is subject to change.

Any other early ideas out there?

[Quendus]

Considering a 7DRL in which the @ has randomised aptitudes for the different skills (melee, ranged, magic, etc.), which are hidden. The challenge would be in deducing which skills the character is most/least capable of learning, and then playing to the character's strengths.

A bit like taking random skills in Dredmor but not finding out what they are until halfway through the game.

[guest509]

  Sounds very complex.

[mughinn]

I don't know if complex, but it involves a new layer of extra thinking that you may not want (or maybe you meant developing complexity?). It also doesn't let you do what you want, which i personally don't like.

Seems like a nice idea, hoping to play it

[Quendus]

Depending on implementation it could be a lot less complex than my 7DRL from last year - I'd probably aim for a CQ-like level of simplicity, with this meta-class system being the experimental twist that gives the game its character.

7DRLC seems the right place to try that kind of crazy idea, especially since the average 7DRL gives exactly one class to play with. Every RL that I've enjoyed forces the player to adapt their tactics to the resources the game gives them; I don't see any problem doing this with classes rather than equipment availability...

[Darren Grey]

Cool idea :-)

My vague idea is a game where the terrain reacts to your every move, with different move chains having wide patterned effects. I'd like to incorporate some musical effects, but that may be too ambitious.

[jasonpickering]

Had an idea, don't know how it will work, but the premise is you are telling a story in a bar and want to impress everyone. It plays with the oft neglected message log. The player will have a fib button before they start a fight. Each time you hit it the fight gets harder

"So there I was facing two goblins"
"No , it was 5 goblins"
"No, 5 goblins and a dragon"
"And I only had a stick"

[guest509]

  That's funny. BardRL.

[AlchemyTwo]

First time poster. Thought I'd throw my hat into the ring, as I've been meaning to do this for a while...

I'm not a very strong programmer and I'm working on learning Lua and Löve2D right now to realise my ideas. I'm tentatively thinking of a game in which you play a "heroic guitarist" (hmm... that might be a risky name...), cranking out power chords and fusion licks to defeat your enemies. I want to make something colourful with plenty of music and silly fun. My primary goal is just to improve my programming though.

Thinking of skill trees based on your style of music. Metal will contain damaging attacks for instance, (head banger, mosh pit, riff of doom) where as jazz will be more of a crowd control line (confusing improvisation, mellow chord)...

Maybe a final boss battle against a drummer...


Should at least provide an interesting for setting for something which will probably be fairly run of the mill otherwise.

Had an idea, don't know how it will work, but the premise is you are telling a story in a bar and want to impress everyone. It plays with the oft neglected message log. The player will have a fib button before they start a fight. Each time you hit it the fight gets harder

"So there I was facing two goblins"
"No , it was 5 goblins"
"No, 5 goblins and a dragon"
"And I only had a stick"

Great idea! That would work fantastically well with some kind of gambling mechanic. The more you fib, the bigger the stakes if you win. You could bet with "reputation points" or something...

[Paul Jeffries]

I might see if I can find time to give this a go this year.

Current plan is for a game with a combat system based around dice, a little like the Heroquest or Blood Bowl systems (and probably a few more).  The basic idea is that each weapon has its own particular die covered in symbols that denote different effects.  So a sword might have one cutting attack side, one stabbing attack, one block (cancels out the opponent's attack) and three misses, while a shield would have two blocks, a bashing attack and three misses (for example).  When you bump an enemy, you get to roll a bunch of dice based on what you have equipped and your skills and then choose the result of one of them as your action that turn.  You also have a finite stock of re-rolls.

So far so might-as-well-be-a-boardgame.  But: the advantage of using virtual dice rather than real ones is that you can mess around with them easily.  So, there will be ways to alter what is on each die.  You might add a fire enchantment to a sword, which will switch one of the faces - at random - with a flame attack.  You also have an additional 'skill' die that gets rolled during combat which starts off blank but to which you can add new special abilities as you level up.

I guess the main aims are:
- Make melee combat actually interesting
- Expose the randomness of the game to the player in a way that seems fair(ish - it's still a gamble but at least you know the odds).
- Have a slightly more interesting progression mechanic than just 'number goes up'.

Of course I may change my mind completely before then and I may not have time to compete at all... we will see!

[guest509]

  I like both of these a lot.

  GuitaRL sounds need. Did you ever play the Michael Jackson game on the Genesis?

  The dice idea sounds good too. Really good. Don't think I've played anything like that.

[AgingMinotaur]

Neat ideas all around. While I strongly doubt I'll find time to join, I have been kicking around an idea for a while, similar to what Paul proposes, but drawing your actions from a virtual deck of cards rather than rolling dice. If I do make it, I'll probably opt for a western themed game, just because they're few and far between¹.

As always,
Minotauros

¹ The only Western RL I have encountered is Abura Tan. Any others? I'm no fan of westerns, but I'm sure I could make the theme palatable by throwing in a few randomly generated species and taking a cue from stuff like Burroughs' Red Night Trilogy (with ascii mechanics for lynch victims to ejaculate magical sperm as their necks snap ).

[AlchemyTwo]

I'm not sure it would quite class as a roguelike, but Cryptic Comet made a western themed, turn-based strategy game based on a virtual deck of cards.

I haven't played Six Gun Saga, but it sounds like it draws on similar inspirations.

http://www.crypticcomet.com/games/SGS/Six_Gun_Saga.html

[AgingMinotaur]

Thanks for the link. That does look quite interesting, just in and of itself.

As always,
Minotauros

[Paul Jeffries]

I played the demo of Six-gun Saga, but I didn't really get all that into it.  From what I played of it though it didn't seem to have all that many roguelike elements - it's more an abstracted strategy/management game where you're competing with other players to build a gang of characters and perform certain actions (robbing banks, holding up stagecoaches etc.)

I'm not familiar with any other western RL's, although I do vaguely remember somebody (maybe Jeff Lait?) at some point talking about a western-fantasy-themed game with Orcs in ten-gallon hats.  Not sure if that was an existing game or an idea for a game or just a joke, though.