Author Topic: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.  (Read 31824 times)

Zambaku

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My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« on: November 22, 2008, 07:54:08 AM »
I've been playing roguelikes for years and years and I love 'em. Recently I've developed an interest in making my own roguelike becouse I'm also a zombie survival fan and I have never seen a zombie survival roguelike. I'm still just in the process of finding the coding language I want to use so it will take a very, very long time untill I'm even getting started on the coding.


My idea is something like this:
You start by creating your characters name, pick a gender and a starting age, then you pick what skills he will be good at using, for example: Hand guns, rifles, medicin, lockpicking, sneaking, melee combat, throwing, trapping, unarmed combat, gambling, outdoorsman, speech, barter, climbing and repairing.

Hand gun will determine how well you aim with a hand gun, if you have extremely low points in this skill and still use a hand gun you run a risk of accidently shooting yourself.

Rifles works in the same way as hand guns, only they weight more and causes bigger damage.

Medicin allows you to treat injuries, be it yourself or others. Treating everything from scraped knees to torn limbs.

Lockpicking simply allows you too pick locks, quite handy if you are chased by brain hungry zombies and you need a place to hide.

Sneaking determines how quietly you can move around, for example: You find yourself in a narrow street filled with junk and zombies, if your sneak skill is low you sneaking is rather clumsy. Your character's constantly looking over his shoulder and isn't very focused and might stumble into a trashcan and alert the nearby zombies who in turn will alert more zombies and you find yourself surrounded. The higher the sneaking, the more focused your character is on actually avoiding to make noises.

Melee combat allows you to wield melee weapons, everything from forks to baseball bats too tire irons.

Throwing allows you too throw things, the higher the more precision you get. You can basically throw anything that you are able to lift, be it forks, spoons, trashcans, bricks, grenades or rubberballs. You use what you got ;)

Trapping allows you to use and even make traps to well, trap zombies or other survivors if you wish. You can make everything from spiked pits too snares to dead weight traps. Extremely usefull if you plan on staying in one spot for a long time.

Unarmed combat lets you fight with your hands and feet. Low skilled players will fight quite sluggish and then develop better fighting skills. Different fighting moves like can be learned from magazines. Like karate, taekwondo, boxing etc etc.

Gambling determines your luck in well, gambling. The higher the more likely you are to win at a game.

Outdoorsman determines your survival skills, ranging from fire making too water purification.

Speech determines how well you speak, low skilled players will curse alot and generally express themselves poorly while high skilled players will be able to convince people that what you are saying is a good idea.

Barter determines the prices of things.

Climbing determines how well you can climb things. Low leveled players might only be able to climb onto cars while higher leveled players can climb trees and even buildings to escape the ever grasping claws of death.

Repairing allows you to repair things, be it elevators, cars or vending machines. Ofcourse you need to gather the correct pieces and tools.


Now, the gameplay would work something like this: Once you named your character and picked your skills, you will be dropped in a randomly generated city with a random name. You start unarmed and have some random knick-knacks in your pockets like ciggarettes, lighters or things like that. You simply wander around the city, explore buildings and scavenge for items, find a safe spot to call home and try to defend it the best you can. There will be other survivors aswell that you can interact with, ask them to join you, give them equipment and things like that. They will all have randomly determined personalities. Some might be absolutely psychotic, suicidal or simply just upset about the whole situation. If someone gets bitten they will in time turn into zombies.

The inventory is based on pockets, bags and backpacks.

You will be able to move anything that isn't too heavy. You can for example if you wish gather tons of trashcans, haul them up the stairs in a house and as the zombies gets close you can throw the trashcans at them through a window, or you could use the trashcans to block the door. It's all about scavenging for items that might be usefull and use them in a way you think is best.

The goal is simply too survive as long as you can in the city or find a way to escape.


This project will most likely take me years to complete, if I complete it. I might even give up half way through. Anyway, if someone else thinks this sounds like a good idea you are free to use this idea.

Nahjor

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #1 on: November 22, 2008, 02:09:43 PM »
Might check out Zomband for inspiration; it uses a similar theme, but simpler mechanics than what you're proposing.

ido

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2008, 03:40:44 PM »
Recently I've developed an interest in making my own roguelike

<snip>

This project will most likely take me years to complete, if I complete it.

If this is your first attempt at making a roguelike I suggest aiming lower, try to think of a way to get the "gist" of your idea in a 7drl scope and implement that first.

getter77

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #3 on: November 29, 2008, 02:21:42 AM »
Sounds cool.  One good balance I would suggest is that Older characters, past a tipping point, have access to more skills and such (more life experience and all) but suffer in raw attributes compared to the young and fresh to the world would-be survivors.   Could make for some damn good teaming systems and alliances as well.
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Scautura

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2008, 02:15:31 PM »
Sounds cool.  One good balance I would suggest is that Older characters, past a tipping point, have access to more skills and such (more life experience and all) but suffer in raw attributes compared to the young and fresh to the world would-be survivors.   Could make for some damn good teaming systems and alliances as well.
That sounds a bit like Mekton Zeta (PnP RPG) - young characters have little in the way of skills, but increase rapidly, older characters already have masses of experience (by way of skills) but don't increase as much. They're supposed to be played together in groups so that the younger characters have something to aspire to.
In Star Wars terms, think Han Solo (old/experienced) and Luke Skywalker (young/heroic) - the older character isn't the hero of the piece, but the hero wouldn't be anywhere without him.

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idontexist

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2008, 03:40:33 AM »
I posted a similar idea to this on rgrd not too long ago. My problem was that i wanted an escape roguelike that was different from zomband so i wanted ideas. My idea is alot simpler though and as soon as i learn pdcurses I will start making it. BTW does anybody have a link to a good pdcurses tutorial? I havent been able to find one.

ido

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #6 on: December 02, 2008, 08:36:42 PM »
BTW does anybody have a link to a good pdcurses tutorial? I havent been able to find one.


Code: [Select]
#include <curses.h>

char *map[]={
"***************",
"*      *      *",
"*             *",
"*      *** ****",
"**** ***   *  *",
"*          *  *",
"*          *  *",
"*             *",
"*          *  *",
"***************"
};

main() {
        keypad(initscr(),1);
        int y=1;
        int x=1;
        int c;
        while('q'!=(c=getch())){
                for(int yy=0;yy<10;yy++)
                        for(int xx=0;xx<15;xx++)
                                mvaddch(yy,xx,map[yy][xx]);
                if(KEY_UP==c && ' '==map[y-1][x])
                        y--;
                if(KEY_DOWN==c && ' '==map[y+1][x])
                        y++;
                if(KEY_LEFT==c && ' '==map[y][x-1])
                        x--;
                if(KEY_RIGHT==c && ' '==map[y][x+1])
                        x++;
                mvaddch(y,x,'@');
        }
}

idontexist

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2008, 02:03:24 AM »
Funny story, ido. Right after i posted that message i came across your link to this on cymons games and started a game using it. Pretty much all of the original code has been changed to fit my own classes and preprocessor definitions but it was the perfect start for me. Did you write this? I need to know so I can give proper credit.

Also some of the curses programs on cymons are well commented so i guess I should be able to make my game without an extreme amount of problems.
« Last Edit: December 03, 2008, 03:13:16 AM by idontexist »

ido

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2008, 09:05:10 AM »
Yes i wrote it.  You can also check out cryptrover's code on cymon's game, which is also mine: http://cymonsgames.retroremakes.com/cryptrover/.

If you want a slightly longer guide I also wrote one for kuro5hin about a year ago: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2007/11/29/5715/1869.

It's the one I got scolded for on the news group at the time (http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.roguelike.development/browse_thread/thread/e95dd5d28100acfa), and I haven't written the second part yet.  Maybe now is the time? ::)
« Last Edit: December 03, 2008, 10:46:59 AM by ido »

idontexist

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #9 on: December 03, 2008, 09:56:29 PM »
OK my game which is a simple run away from a single character is done and will be somewhere on the internet probably tonight but at the latest saturday.

Yeah I have enjoyed crypt rover for a while. Hopefully i will have that much skill in roguelike making soon.(I am a total ameture programmer)


Maybe now is the time? ::)

Please.

Btw Ido out of curiosity, How do you pronounce your first name?
« Last Edit: December 03, 2008, 09:59:58 PM by idontexist »

ido

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #10 on: December 04, 2008, 09:07:25 AM »
'i' like in "bingo", 'do' like in dog.
« Last Edit: December 04, 2008, 09:14:01 AM by ido »

Gamer_2k4

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #11 on: December 05, 2008, 07:31:57 PM »
'i' like in "bingo", 'do' like in dog.
Whoa...that's like "ihdaw" or something (at least, based on how I pronounce "bingo" and "dog").  I always pronounced it eye-doe.  But what do I know, right?
Gamer_2k4

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #12 on: December 05, 2008, 07:47:22 PM »
I think phonetically it comes out something like "ih-doh" (short o, not long o). Japanese, by any chance?
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ido

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Re: My roguelike idea - The zombie survivalist.
« Reply #13 on: December 05, 2008, 09:02:47 PM »
I always pronounced it eye-doe.

That's how Americans normally pronounce it, but it is wrong.  Brits are normally much better at pronouncing my name.

Japanese, by any chance?

No - it is a Japanese last name but a Hebrew first name.