Welcome to Temple of the Roguelike Forums! (a.k.a. Introduce Yourself Thread)

[jocke the beast]

Hi. I missed this topic but here's a short "this is me".

My name is Jocke, 33 years old Swedish guy. I've coded some before, Qbasic and later on FreeBasic. Did some games about 5 years ago that was quite popular in the Qb-community.
I've been playing roguelike for quite some years, but never once won any of them Came close playing Rogue once (3.6 I think it was).
I'd love to make one myself and have begun developing and then aborted the project(s) when it got to messy & complicated. But now I will try to make one smaller, more simple but stable & playable.

Right now I play alot of Brogue and Frozen Depth. Never fell in love with either Nethack, Angband or Adom...even if I'm impressed by their "greatness".
One day I hope I understand how to play Dwarf Fortress since it seems to be a great roguelike.
DoomRL, DCSS and Avanor has been favorites as well.

God bless!

[kipar]

Hi all.
First of all, sorry for bad English - I can read in english easily (and among other things thanks roguelikes for it), but I'm really not sure in my speaking\writing abilities.

I'm a Russian programmer. Well, sort of programmer - i never worked in a team or learned programming seriously, and I'm creating something like specialized SCADA proggrams). I'm 24 years old.
I'm fond of roguelikes and I've played a lot of them. My first roguelike was moria. It was wonderful (even though i've never got deeper lvl15 in it).
Several years later, after getting own computer and the internet access I was glad to see that there are so much moria-like games, so i've started from angband variants (Hengband and Tome are the best, imho. And btw Portralis is the best of still developing variants), then opened nethack(on pocketpc)\gearhead\elona\dungeon crawl\etc.
I have won very few of them, but "almost won" many (getting to the last level normally and\or winning with savescum or abusing found bugs usually force me to switch to the next game).
Big roguelikes I haven't played a lot are ADOM and Dwarf Fortress. I don't like them for unknown reason. Well, I know that DF isn't roguelike, but that doesn't matter.

Now (after several failed efforts in past) I'm developing my own roguelike in FreePascal. The language is russian (english version isn't planned until it reach at least beta stage), so i won't bother anybody here with testing it. The page is rfrl.sf.net though.
I lack concentration and willpower, so when starting the project I was sure that I'll abandon it pretty soon, but now several months passed and it is still interesting for me. I don't even understand why have I choosen such a wrong theme (world of yet another mmorpg) instead of game in my own world which i always dream to create.
Perhaps because making a roguelike version of nonroguelike game is easier than creating own game mechanic and balancing it.

[getter77]

Welcome and good luck kipar.     No harm in creating a Roguelike based on an existing world as it is very likely that to do so you will have to make your own changes to make it all work well.   So, going from a game where you fill in many of the blanks to another in the future while you write it all from scratch seems like sensible progression.

[Ancient]

Welcome, kipar. I wish you much luck and satisfaction in development of your game.

Have you looked at Localization Project of RogueBasin? It could be very useful to you. As for other Russian roguelikes I have only seen Baryonyx.

[kipar]

Thanks getter77, thanks Ancient.

As for other Russian roguelikes I have only seen Baryonyx.

Yes, I've seen only it too . Well, now there is also Rayel. There are also several less complete or abandoned projects. That's why i decided to make my game russian even though it cuts possible playerbase and russian grammar is more complex than english.
I've checked the link you gave, but the problem is that i have complex GUI - all those buttons and labels. Translating them will be a boring work, so i'll wait till the game become stable so I won't do this work twice.

[Ancient]

I understand. Here in Poland we have several mature roguelike games only in our language and a bunch of discontinued projects. It is very refreshing to play and have the game talk to you in your own language.

Maybe you'd like to have a look at Menskband? Wizard's Quest has website in Russian but the game probably is only in English.

[Cap n Crunch]

Hi, I'm old, large and I reside in the UK ;
(well early 30's)

I started playing roguelike when I was 14, with Moria, then Hack but after a long time with no PC, i dropped out of the genre...except for the RL-Lite Fatal Labyrinth that i have had on various retro compilations.

Is it correct to include Diablo? I battered than on PS1.

As soon as i got a PC i acquired Angband off of a PC mag coverdisk and two years and an RSI later i'm still struggling to get to level 10. Doesn't bother me though, it's kind of a zen thing for me. I also like Lost Labyrinth (not so much rev4).

I have just started learning LDC:Stone Soup and spend some time staring at Dwarf Fortress without a clue what is going on. I hope they can sort out a tutorial for that xD

Ciao

[jim]

Welcome, Cap.

http://afteractionreporter.com/2009/02/09/the-complete-and-utter-newby-tutorial-for-dwarf-fortress-part-1-wtf/

Here's a good first place to start on Dwarf Fortress. Once you get a foothold on the interface, the game gradually reveals itself. If you can build a shelter for your dwarves and a few workshops to keep them busy while you dig deeper, you're well on your way to enjoying the game.

[guest509]

  Been here awhile but never introduced myself I don't think...so here is my character dump.

Name: Joseph Rand Bradshaw
Location: Eastern Oregon, USA
Race/Class: Human/Attorney
Exp Level: 31 (I'll reach level 32 on January 14, 2011)
Strength: 16 (I'm 275# lifter/boxer)
Constitution: 4 (prone to very bad breathing problems, sucks. It'll kill me but not today.)
Agility: 10 (used to do track...long ago)
Intelligence: 18 (Not too conceited, but I'm really good at school)
Wisdom: 9 (good at school but I do stupid shit)
Charisma: 8 (unmarried. Piss a lot of people off...love the webs...)

  I grew up playing a lot of hack, dunno what build it was. It was late 80's. I am drawn to the genre because of the replayablity and variety. I've written some platformers for my nieces to get them into computers but was disappointed because the games weren't fun for me. I knew all the tricks already, I had coded the whole thing! With a roguelike maybe I won't know it all. SO I guess that's my goal. To make a game that is fun for ME. Every time. Having it be fun for others is just a bonus.
  So far I've tried all of the major and popular roguelikes. I'm like Jock above in that I really dig Brogue, Powder and Frozen Depths (I actually just sent him a PM about this. Lol). I also dig Spelunky (but I suck!). Crawl/Nethack and the rest of the majors are a bit much for me. If I beat Brogue/Powder/Depths/Spelunky maybe I'll graduate to the Majors.
  I made a 7drl this year called Gunfist. It was not that good but I learned a lot. As a programmer I'm interested in a Roguelike using a Zelda-like engine. I like the idea of twitch reactions taking the place of tactics but keeping everything else that makes roguelikes so great. Namely the randomness and variety that keeps even the developer coming back.
  I mostly use Gamemaker because it gives me the training wheels I need to let my ideas ride and I have no illusions about ever being a programmer. Plus it's great for action games. It should also be noted that Gamemaker programs now play on portable devices which can be PERFECT for roguelikes.
  I game and develop games to fulfill my artistic/creative side. I also read and write really bad science fiction/fantasy. Like epic bad. I'm a big believer in having a balance of health, professional, interpersonal and creative sides to one's life.
  I also really dig chicks.

[Cap n Crunch]

Thanks Jim, i'll try that.

There's soooo much buzz about DF and i can make an imaginitive leap with ASCII gfx (though I AM lazy, so i play Ang'Tk with tiles ), so i've felt that i really should give it a proper go. Plus i'm a big player of Civ's and Sim City, so i do go nuts for micro management.

I'll hit that link after having a nosey around the forum for some Angband and General RL tips. I'm on a good run on my current save, and don't want to make a hash of it.
DCSS is currently teaching me harsh lessons on greed and foolhardyness that are improving my Angband game

Shame about Teratogen, it looks great fun.

[yodhe]

Hi Cap N Crunch

But I was wondering....

Do you whistle?

[Yoink]

Hi, I decided I'd better make an account here...
I've been playing rouglike games for quite a while now, since I found a disk with a copy of IVAN and ADOM... Naturally since I was a little kid, I went for IVAN which had graphics, and I was hooked.
Cue people thinking I'm crazy for playing this little game when I have a Playstation sitting in my lounge room...
Anyway, I played that on and off for ages, and then ADOM, (I never got that far through either, but oh well) and then suddenly one day, I thought, 'Hmmm, why don't I search for roguelike games on the internet?' I dunno why I didn't think of it before, but oh well.
So since then I've played many, many different roguelikes, some better than others.
Notably Crawl and more recently, Dwarf Fortress.
I have a newbie question, though... Why are they called roguelikes? I'm guessing there was some ancient game called Rogue that inspired it all?


Edited for typoes.

[guest509]

  Yeah man there was this game in the early 80's called Rogue. It was a text graphic dungeon crawler. It's still around. I play it once in awhile though I prefer Brogue, a newer variation.
  Many of these games have open source code so amateur developers hack away at them making their own games. Or they invent their own which is possible for an individual because these game are not graphics heavy. The player/developer community has tons of overlap.

  Here are some links to get you on your way.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike
  http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=Tree_of_roguelike_evolution
 
 

[Skeletor]

@ Jocke, Kipar, Cap n Crunch, Yoink:
Welcome to the Rogue Temple!

@ Jo:
Haha, awesome "character dump" 

[devonps]

Hello all,

I've made an account so I can interact more with the roguelike community. I'm currently building a simple(?) magic-centric roguelike that's been in development for about 10 months at the time of writing and is still in early Alpha.

Steve.