Want to make an Roguelike starting from ASCII

[Ribby]

Hi, I'm Ribby, new here. I want to make an roguelike because it looks easier to do; now, how do I do this?

So far, I see no program to start with development and the only one I would have known at all is probably that Legendermain, that roguelike done in Java.

Since this is the site with the roguelikes around, I was looking for where to start off. I don't know on what themes I am going to use yet, but I am looking to see how far I can go.

[Nahjor]

Well, I guess the first question is, do you have any experience programming?

[Ribby]

I do know html, css, javascript, learned how to do Java variables, printout, aggregate functions, and an experiment with the OOC Java Temparture. 

Yeah, I know there's going to be an probability math equation, but that is not really hard. I think JAVA is my best bet than javascript, so I wanted to know how can I start off the codes (with source code)?

[corremn]

I guess you might want to check out Slash's IO library.  Also I believe he has a demo roguelike built using it, that you can download and modify.
http://slashie.net/libjcsi/

However roguelikes look easy to program, because of their retro (old-style) looks, but believe me they are NOT that easy. Many, many people have though the same thing, roguelikes can be very, very complicated! 

Start with a very simple idea, Slash's LUCK program for example. Get that done, then move on from there.  Line of sight routines, pathfinding algorithms can be found and copied into your code without too much knowledge of maths.  Really the only maths you need is probably finding the distance between two points on a XY plane.  (pythagorus). 

Probably not having an idea about a roguelike theme is best when you start, just get some orcs chasing a '@' around the screen and build from there.

Check out the Roguelike Developer FAQ at roguebasin http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Roguelike_Dev_FAQ

[Slash]

Welcome Ribby!

The first thing you must know, as corremn has pointed out, is that roguelikes are NOT easy to program. You *might* get a basic engine running in less than a week, but then, you will fail.

Why will you fail? mainly because of a lack of content, unbalanced gameplay, complex unneeded unfun features, clumsy UI, clumsy AI, and a myriad of other things which will ultimately bring you to a willpower leak, with vapourware as the only result. Tenths of powerful developers die after years of continuous rewriting and refactoring.

This is not to discourage you, it is always good to see more people interesting in developing roguelikes; these are just some thoughts from my personal experience, and if you know them beforehand, your chances to succeed will increase.

About LUCK, yes, it is included in the libjcsi distro; however I would not recommend it as a starting point, mainly because it is obfuscated (it was born on the 1KBRL challenge). Next version will have a much better and well commented example.

[Nahjor]

To second that point: I've got a roguelike released now, MageGuild. And before that happened, I had... Let's see... four or five roguelikes completed to some level of playability, plus quite a few that never even made it that far. It is possible to succeed, but not without learning lots of lessons that you can't get any way but trying and falling flat on your face.

So, get out there, get working on your project, but don't get too discouraged if it takes you a couple trial-runs.

[AgingMinotaur]

I think everyone will tell you that roguelikes are harder to make than they seem. But it is rewarding to even try. It's probably very educational to write a simple game with a limited ruleset: (something like) a 7-day roguelike, or even a slight variation on the original Rogue. For my part, I have very little experience in programming, and I don't work with computers, so I'm very much a hobbyist. Apart from some simple web design, my only excercise in programming is the erratic development of a roguelike in python. I've had several working demos where I could walk up and down stairs and whack monsters in labyrinths, but there seems to always be something I want to rewrite

The only thing I can say, is that writing a roguelike is fun and challenging. Whatever you make of it in the end, you will have pondered and worked with some (IMHO) important aspects of game design and programming.

Best of wishes.

[Ribby]

alright, I'm going to take a look into those two links right away!

[Ribby]

eh... I got a little problem.

Download is in .gz format, and I don't got the right extractor/unpacker to handle .gz.

Can anybody upload the files in an .zip format with an temporary online hosting service? Uploading the files will be fine too; no malware please! 

Even better, upload in this threa if possible.

[Ribby]

whoops, nevermind.

I found a simple yet free program to deal with non-zip compressed formats.