Author Topic: New games?  (Read 36485 times)

Vanguard

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New games?
« on: February 26, 2009, 06:51:12 PM »
I haven't seen many new "major" roguelikes announced or released in a while.  Does anyone know of any promising new projects either in development or recently released? 

How about the ones posted on the front page on the 20th?  Most of them looked like 7drls and small projects to me, but maybe they're still good, did any of you find ones that deserve some recognition?

getter77

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Re: New games?
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2009, 09:12:57 PM »
The last couple ones I posted on in the announcements section may interest you...

Also, expect new versions of Incursion and Frozen Depths in the not terribly distant future, as both of those project have resumed with renewed vigor in recent days.

Triangle Wizard grows at a tremendous and delicious pace...
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Anvilfolk

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Re: New games?
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2009, 10:38:19 PM »
Yeah, this is a trend I've seen in quite a few communities recently. Roguelikes with 7 day roguelikes, all the competitions at TIGsource, ludum dare a few international events all point towards really small games.

I know it's a good starting point for developers and all, but right now it seems more like an objective and not a stepping stone to other things... I mean, I try out those games and some of them are pretty cool, but they never stay more than a few hours on my hard drive. Play, "yeah, that was somewhat fun", *shift-delete*.
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getter77

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Re: New games?
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2009, 08:37:55 PM »
Yeah, this is a trend I've seen in quite a few communities recently. Roguelikes with 7 day roguelikes, all the competitions at TIGsource, ludum dare a few international events all point towards really small games.

I know it's a good starting point for developers and all, but right now it seems more like an objective and not a stepping stone to other things... I mean, I try out those games and some of them are pretty cool, but they never stay more than a few hours on my hard drive. Play, "yeah, that was somewhat fun", *shift-delete*.

I think part of the problem is a psychological one betwixt the various "major" Roguelike sites, that is, that by and large there is seemingly a great reluctance to add fairly recent ones to the "big list" where Nethack, Rogue, and ADOM live---sort of creating a Chicken and Egg problem as one reason why the "biggies" are "biggies" is that they got mentioned often enough in the same company.
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Re: New games?
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2009, 02:17:09 AM »
I think it's simpler than that.  I think the reason there aren't many new games considered to be on par with the "major" roguelikes is because there just aren't new ones that are as large and ambitious as those ones are.

Like, I think Mage Guild and Spelunky are two examples of really great recent games, but both of them combined are still only a few hours long.

getter77

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Re: New games?
« Reply #5 on: March 01, 2009, 03:06:01 AM »
I think it's simpler than that.  I think the reason there aren't many new games considered to be on par with the "major" roguelikes is because there just aren't new ones that are as large and ambitious as those ones are.

Like, I think Mage Guild and Spelunky are two examples of really great recent games, but both of them combined are still only a few hours long.

Makes sense.  But it would seem a far wiser thing to celebrate games like Spelunky and such proper by listing them as outstanding ones for what they DO accomplish---length is easily trumped by replay value afterall as far as that being the entire crux of Roguelikes.  I suspect Incursion will be the next "Major" one to somewhat crack the glass ceiling and get listed alongside ADOM/Nethack and the like providing the next update or series of them are very potent and somewhat timely.  On the other hand, IMO, I reckon something like LambdaRogue is presently/has been at a state of polish on its merits to also deserve a spot in the pantheon.

It also seems nutty to me that there isn't a sense to celebrate and recognize the retail Roguelikes in the same groups as Nethack and such... >:(
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ido

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Re: New games?
« Reply #6 on: March 01, 2009, 07:18:09 PM »
I think the main reason is that it takes a long time to develop a game in the scale of nethack or angband. 

If we take your example- incursion is already 10 years old and is just *starting* to become a "major" roguelike (for reference Nethack was originally released 22 years ago).

If Glowie continues working on it I'm pretty sure Frozen Depths will become quite big in another decade.  GearHead[2?] & Legerdamain are even more likely to become "major" given enough time & developer effort.

getter77

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Re: New games?
« Reply #7 on: March 01, 2009, 10:13:22 PM »
Overall though, I think the results in various areas matter moreso than time...as time is a matter of luck more than anything.  There's nothing to say the guy behind Incursion couldn't get struck by a "mood" ala in Dwarf Fortress and bang out the rest of the game relatively bug free by the end of this year.   It shouldn't even need to be considered how long something has been at it to get listing amongst the big dogs but rather what nifty things the game does period.

That's the critical thing right there, once listed in the same breath you attract more/new players, who can then enjoy and contribute, which then naturally, yet artificially, ramps up the game quality, which attracts more, and so on.  Essentially, the more people freak out and make a big deal about the latest well deserved version or patch or whatever for as many Roguelikes as possible----the better.  There's no harm at all in having a very long list of greats at their various strengths for newcomers, active players, and returning old timers---in fact that should be the goal of such to be able to objectively say  "Yep, this works and does cool stuff...into the list!"  as often as possible, sooner the better for the sake of progress and more people getting to enjoy a more abundant variety of games.  Liveliness is the key to the future in Roguelikes same as all others.

/gets off his madman soapbox...for now....
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Re: New games?
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2009, 04:23:39 PM »
Crawl is nowadays very regularly listed alongside the big guys, though most of it's content has been fairly recently developed.  I don't think there's anything blocking new games from getting due discussion, it's just a matter of gaining depth and being around a little while to build up a good player community.

Gearhead, Legerdemain, LamdaRogue and POWDER are all recent and currently active roguelikes that get plenty of merit too.

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Re: New games?
« Reply #9 on: March 04, 2009, 03:05:58 AM »
Have any of you tried prospector yet?  It's still far from incomplete, but I'm having a lot of fun with it.  The creator announced it in this thread: http://www.roguetemple.com/forums/index.php?topic=341

PaulBlay

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Re: New games?
« Reply #10 on: March 22, 2009, 08:28:17 PM »
I recently put together a list in RogueBasin that (I immodestly claim) is the most comprehensive list of recently released and updated roguelike games. (I did, however, exclude 7DRLs as there are rather a lot of them).

http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Recently_Updated_Roguelikes

My major sources of data where the Temple of the Rogue news, RogueBasin news, newsgroups, the IRLDb and the list of Actively Developing Roguelikes.

There are 91 games in the list, covering all update/releases from 2008.  I hope that will be enough for anybody to find something interesting. ;-)

getter77

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Re: New games?
« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2009, 10:28:32 PM »
Great stuff on that listing, bookmarked!   ;D
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Anvilfolk

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Re: New games?
« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2009, 11:00:05 PM »
Hell of a way to enter a community! Good one, and cheers :)
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ido

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Re: New games?
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2009, 09:33:39 AM »
I recently put together a list in RogueBasin that (I immodestly claim) is the most comprehensive list of recently released and updated roguelike games. (I did, however, exclude 7DRLs as there are rather a lot of them).

http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Recently_Updated_Roguelikes


If you don't have an automated way to do so, it'll be a pain to keep up to date ;)

PaulBlay

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Re: New games?
« Reply #14 on: March 23, 2009, 10:23:47 AM »
If you don't have an automated way to do so, it'll be a pain to keep up to date ;)
Not that bad actually, I estimate less than one change per day (now that I've done the basic work). 

When the Internet Roguelike Database is updated it will automatically get the latest information from RogueBasin - but somebody has to put the information in RogueBasin in the first place!