What platforms would you play roguelikes on?

[RylandAlmanza]

I'll play on Linux, Android, or in a Web Browser.

[guest509]

Oh man. I know this is an older thread, but I just gotta say I'd play a good table top Roguelike.

[mushroom patch]

For traditional roguelikes the platform is PC.

lol

For traditional roguelikes, the platform is UNIX terminals on multiuser systems (not your linux box). You really get a feel for the state of play in roguelike development when people post a poll that doesn't even include the traditional method of play (which remains the best in all important respects -- play nethack on your university unix servers, kids!) and the response from the local "purist" is that the traditional platform is one that originally couldn't even run roguelikes.

Most everyone wants roguelikes to become more like Candy Crush, except the guy who wants the future to look more like Castle of the Winds. Sad.

[reaver]

For traditional roguelikes, the platform is UNIX terminals on multiuser systems (not your linux box). You really get a feel for the state of play in roguelike development when people post a poll that doesn't even include the traditional method of play (which remains the best in all important respects -- play nethack on your university unix servers, kids!) and the response from the local "purist" is that the traditional platform is one that originally couldn't even run roguelikes.

Most everyone wants roguelikes to become more like Candy Crush, except the guy who wants the future to look more like Castle of the Winds. Sad.

Crawl back to your bridge, troll. There other threads to whine about how you miss the 80s.

[mushroom patch]

I'm sorry, you're obviously right (as opposed to, say, clueless) to frame a question about platforms for roguelike games as smart phone vs. web browser vs. personal computers without any mention of public telnet (a popular and vital platform to this day). I should stop trolling about how smart dev teams (e.g. DCSS) have emphasized multiuser servers, especially via telnet but also more recently web browser based, and remember that the only gameplay experience roguelike fans are interested in is an insular, tile-based game hosted on mom's windows xp box. And smart phones, natch.

Next up in offtopic polls: Who's your favorite Star Trek character? (Go back to your caves, Spock and McCoy trolls!)

[reaver]

I framed the question the way I wanted to get results that interest me. I'm not *obliged* to specify your platform of preference. If you don't want to vote, don't. Bitching about the lack of "other" option would be valid, but that's it.
Btw I don't care what the DCSS team does, I'm not "competing" with them, I'd emphasize something different, I'm not even making a proper roguelike ffs.

I don't know who McCoy is. You'll probably be burning with rage and sadness.

[mushroom patch]

Yeah, lots of people frame polls in ways that give results that interest them. It's a practice that most who do wouldn't easily admit to though.

My commentary isn't about your obligation one way or another and, like most people, I don't give a rat's ass what you're doing (or not doing). I'm simply observing that in a forum nominally about roguelike development, a poll appears asking for platforms people would play on that does not give the historically crucial, still-popular-among-actual-players option of public telnet/multiuser UNIX servers and the objection is that the list is too broad in that it includes platforms other than personal computers.

I mean, it amazes me that people somehow think the only thing they can do is release a binary on github or upload to an app shop somewhere, meanwhile nethack, DCSS, ADOM, (you know, games that are actually successful that people actually play -- as opposed to, well, nevermind) continue to cultivate large telnet followings. There's apparently no thought that maybe this is something more people should be doing. How can I make my game more "cross-platform," they wonder...

[reaver]

Exactly, I didn't care to create the poll as the de facto list to refer to when talking about who's playing on what platforms.

You realize that ADOM, DCSS have teams of people that have been working on these for years and years AND they want to be true-to-source, right? The bedroom-programmers, working by themselves, while having a job or a life or both, will try to realize their game as simply as possible and will try to expose it to as many people as possible (sharing your brain-child feels good). Programming for multi-user servers is not my wet dream, and not my priority either. Btw, (I guess) nobody gets paid so there's nothing that people *should* be doing, only what they *like* to be doing. Awesome if it's multi-user, awesome if it's great graphics/sound, awesome if it's great gameplay.

[jim]

Woah woah woah. Simmer down there, gentlmen. Here - amulets of clarity for everyone.

For me, I'd stick to PC. For the general public, if your game is accessible and intuitive, seems like tablets are pretty much where this whole thing is headed.

[reaver]

Here - amulets of clarity for everyone.

Ok, but they better not be cursed

[mushroom patch]

Exactly, I didn't care to create the poll as the de facto list to refer to when talking about who's playing on what platforms.

You realize that ADOM, DCSS have teams of people that have been working on these for years and years AND they want to be true-to-source, right? The bedroom-programmers, working by themselves, while having a job or a life or both, will try to realize their game as simply as possible and will try to expose it to as many people as possible (sharing your brain-child feels good). Programming for multi-user servers is not my wet dream, and not my priority either. Btw, (I guess) nobody gets paid so there's nothing that people *should* be doing, only what they *like* to be doing. Awesome if it's multi-user, awesome if it's great graphics/sound, awesome if it's great gameplay.

I think I have a pretty clear idea of how the ADOM, DCSS, etc. development process goes/went, but this has damn near nothing to do with how the game is delivered or played. If anything, the point is that your bedroom programmer is working too hard making a crappy tile-based interface in Qt or whatever instead of just using curses the way God intended.

Anyway, it sounds like we agree about the value of your poll.

[Endorya]

There's apparently no thought that maybe this is something more people should be doing. How can I make my game more "cross-platform," they wonder...

Sorry but that's definitely something I wouldn't do or care about. It would be great though, if people thought more about creating better interfaces for roguelikes, starting with mouse support (which is also something from the 80's).

[Endorya]

Woah woah woah. Simmer down there, gentlmen. Here - amulets of clarity for everyone.

LMAO!

[Bear]

Unix/Linux.  I have an Android phone as well, but I've gradually come to loathe and distrust the infrastructure, industry, and cavalier treatment of customers' security and privacy behind it, and no longer download and use new software for it. 

And, seriously?  For best results?  Use text mode in the dang term window.  Let me pick the font, let me pick the size of the font, and be ready to go with whatever number of rows and columns I happen to have it open to when I invoke it (from the command line, of course), and I'll be happier with your game than I've been with most of what I've seen lately. 

[Eben]

Unix/Linux.  I have an Android phone as well, but I've gradually come to loathe and distrust the infrastructure, industry, and cavalier treatment of customers' security and privacy behind it, and no longer download and use new software for it. 

And, seriously?  For best results?  Use text mode in the dang term window.  Let me pick the font, let me pick the size of the font, and be ready to go with whatever number of rows and columns I happen to have it open to when I invoke it (from the command line, of course), and I'll be happier with your game than I've been with most of what I've seen lately.

I want all new games to support 1x9000 text resolution!

But seriously, term window doesn't need to be used to get this effect. With a bit of effort, libtcod can handle some of it. With nearly no effort SquidLib can exactly handle the font changes to arbitrary fonts.