Rogue Space Marine (7DRL 2015) (Success)

[thesleeve]

Rogue Space Marine is my first attempt at creating a game. I coded it for the 7DRL challenge over the course of 7 days in March 2015. It can be described as a fast-paced coffeebreak roguelike.

The game is now listed on RogueBasin.



[Download] The Windows version is available on itch.io at http://thesleeve.itch.io/rogue-space-marine. To play, just unzip the file to a folder on your computer and run the executable.
[Tutorial] Here is a video describing how to play the game (of course, there is also a help screen built into the game).

Summary
I wanted to create a game that emphasizes the aspects of Roguelikes that I enjoy (procedural level generation, permadeath, tactical turn-based combat) while specifically trying to avoid the aspects that I dislike (experience points, levels, stats, hit points, lighthouse vision, quaffing potions, unintuitive interfaces…).

With this goal in mind, I devised a pretty novel system of combat in which there are only two resources: Abilities and Time.

Graphics
The game uses a graphical tileset and the interface uses the mouse and keyboard hotkeys (although the game can be controlled entirely by the mouse, if you wish). The game uses Sci-Fi sprites that I purchased from the Oryx Design Lab. I am using these sprites in accordance with the Oryx Commercial License. I created some additional sprites myself to complement the Oryx sprites.

Engine
The game was developed in GameMaker Studio, which I had never used previously! The code was built entirely from scratch; no external code libraries were used.

Game play screenshots:












Update [Saturday, March 14]
The development of the game was successfully completed! Here's a gameplay video:
http://youtu.be/ApWPsuHMmVQ

Update [Thursday, March 12]
I made some tweaks to the level generator last night.
Update blog post is here: http://7drl.org/2015/03/12/rogue-space-marine-update-4/

Update [Tuesday, March 10, 23:30 EST]
Update blog posted on 7DRL.org! http://7drl.org/2015/03/11/rogue-space-marine-update-3/

Update [Monday, March 9, 23:30 EST]
I have made some major progress! Procedural level generation is now up and running! Here's a short video demo:
http://youtu.be/BxqCyZZGbKA

Update [Sunday, March 8, 23:30 EST]
Here are some updates!
Here's a simple gameplay video: http://youtu.be/k5oFJEQPZbI

[Techbear]

Neat!  Cute art!

[thesleeve]

Update [Monday, March 9, 23:30 EST]
I have made some major progress! Procedural level generation is now up and running! Here's a short video demo:
http://youtu.be/ysxhC0HPGcU

Original Post Updated.

(Oops, just realized I posted the wrong YouTube link... It's corrected now)

[thesleeve]

Update [Tuesday, March 10, 23:30 EST]

I have made a blog post on 7DRL.org detailing my updates for today. Please take a look!
http://7drl.org/2015/03/11/rogue-space-marine-update-3/

[thesleeve]

Update [Thursday, March 12]

I made some tweaks to the level generator last night.
Update blog post is here: http://7drl.org/2015/03/12/rogue-space-marine-update-4/

[thesleeve]

Update [Saturday, March 14]
Game development completed!

[Samildanach]

Congratulations! ...Where can we get it?

[thesleeve]

Congratulations! ...Where can we get it?

Thanks Samildanach! I just updated my post with the link.
Here’s a portable executable in a zip file.
Here is a video describing how to play the game (of course, there is a help screen built into the game as well, but I imagine some people might prefer the video!).

[binary_headspace]

This looks great!

I'll have to fire up my Windows machine tomorrow to try it out!

[thesleeve]

[IMPORTANT: I just discovered a game-crashing bug that I was able to fix by changing one line of code (the game would crash if you ended a level with your shields active). I just updated the dropbox file and it should be resolved now. If you downloaded the game any time before March 16 at 1:15 AM UTC, you have the old version. Please update so that your game won’t crash!]

It's true that this one line of code came after the deadline, but you know, I think it's worth it to bend the rules if it allows people to play the game and not suffer a fatal crash!

[thesleeve]

UPDATE: I discovered (and fixed) two major bugs that would cause the game to crash. These bug fixes came after the deadline, but I'll hope you'll all forgive me for that. I'd rather have it so that people can play the game without it crashing, even if it technically means I made changes to the game after the time limit expired.

[akeley]

Very nice...the movement has nice & hypnotizing rhythm to it and the occasional carnage is great too (exploding barrels is one videogame trope that never gets boring).

Losing abilities on hit sure adds tension, but being left totally without any seems a bit unfair - come on, not even a knife? Well,  I suppose that`s a harsh reality of being a space marine...

One serious gripe is that the installer forces a DirectX update/install - that`s never a good thing. I know it`s probably tied to the Game Maker itself, but making it optional would be a good idea.

[thesleeve]

Very nice...the movement has nice & hypnotizing rhythm to it and the occasional carnage is great too (exploding barrels is one videogame trope that never gets boring).

Thanks! It's great to get some feedback. As far as I can tell, you're the first person to play the game outside of a few of my close friends.

I guess you can probably tell that I played a lot of Doom when I was a kid... A game without exploding barrels is just unimaginable for me.

Losing abilities on hit sure adds tension, but being left totally without any seems a bit unfair - come on, not even a knife? Well,  I suppose that`s a harsh reality of being a space marine...

Yeah, I tried different mechanics and I realize that losing all of your attack abilities can be harsh, but sometimes it can create some amazing moments. One time, I lost everything but my "dash" ability and I was on a later, more difficult level. I was able to just barely make it to the last computer terminal by outwitting the enemy AI and maneuvering around them, so I figured, what the heck, I'll leave this in, because it can create some really tense moments.

Maybe in the future I could give the player a super weak "punch" ability that never goes away, and can be used as a last resort?

One serious gripe is that the installer forces a DirectX update/install - that`s never a good thing. I know it`s probably tied to the Game Maker itself, but making it optional would be a good idea.

Good point, I didn't think about this. This is indeed a GameMaker requirement. I just realized, however, that it's possible to zip up the game directory and just play the game by running the executable, no install required! So, I have made a zip file and updated the download links.

akeley, if you don't mind, could you try out the new zip file and see if the program runs without going through the install process? It works on my computer, but it's always good to have confirmation from somebody else. 

Thanks very much for playing the game, and thanks for your feedback!

[thesleeve]

[UPDATE] Created Rogue Basin page: http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Rogue_Space_Marine

[supperdev]

I couldn't play for long but I like it so far, good job.

I kind of had this happen:


Also this:

I'm pretty sure this was supposedly the only way in. I ran around the map for a while to find another way in, then red alert kicked in and I could scramble back here for the screenshot lol.

Two more things:
I find the computers hard to distinguish from grey walls
Movement speed could be a bit faster

Overall though I enjoyed it. I'll play more of it to make sure I'll experience the game with more abilities unlocked.

EDIT: Oh, those enemies in space could be because of this:

They could get outside through the computer.

Also +++ for exploding barrels. Can't have enough of them.