Cipher Trials - Barely Finished

[CaptainKraft]

I finished my first roguelike (debatable) and my first 7drl tonight.

If you do give it a try, I welcome any and all feedback, constructive or not.

https://github.com/CaptainKraft/7drl2015/releases

The game is sort of a 5 hp game because you must start back at level 1 if you make 5 mistakes. Your journal will still have info that you gathered from your previous run. Unless you are extremely lucky, you will have to "die" a few times to fill up some of your journal so that you have more info to progress through the later levels.

My original goal was just to try to get some sort of mechanic that forces the player to experiment with information that they don't know. In the end, it's probably a bit too random and there isn't much depth with the "experimentation" mechanic.

Maybe 7 days wasn't enough to explore my idea, but I had a good time making it. Art is from a good friend of mine: Robert Shenton. You should definitely check out more of his work at http://robertshenton.co.za

If anyone likes the game, I'll put some more work into it to get it polished up. For now, I'm going to take some time off the game and rest my melted brain.

Thanks for checking it out everyone!

[binary_headspace]

Hi!

I tried to start your game on Linux and all I get is the following I'm afraid:

Code: [Select]

Error: src/game.lua:43: attempt to call method 'getDimensions' (a nil value)
stack traceback:
        src/game.lua:43: in function 'makeQuad'
        src/room.lua:12: in main chunk
        [C]: in function 'require'
        main.lua:4: in main chunk
        [C]: in function 'require'
        [string "boot.lua"]:331: in function <[string "boot.lua"]:227>
        [C]: in function 'xpcall'

Afraid I don't have time to dig deeper right now (It's late), I will try again later!

[CaptainKraft]

That's really strange.

When you get a chance, let me know what distro you're running, the version of love you have installed, and your version of lua. Thanks

[binary_headspace]

OK, I found out that the version of love in the Ubuntu 14.04 package repos is 0.8.0 and your game requires 0.9.0. I installed 0.9.0 and the game now works :-)

I agree with your assessment of the game but I think there is a kernel of something here that could be expanded into a nice game. Currently it is too trial and error and that breeds a very mechanical play style (Try this? No. Try this? Yes. Try this? No ...). Also the enemy movements are too simple to be interesting.

If you do decide to expand it you could introduce obstacles in the room (bookshelves, inner walls etc...) that break enemy LOS to allow more interesting sneaking up. Also if guard behaviours somehow hinted on the rune they are weak to it could be fun.

Maybe if you use the wrong rune on a guard an alert sounds that causes the player to be hunted unless they hide?

Anyway, thats just some rambling! Well done on completing and I'm glad you had fun :-)

[CaptainKraft]

I really appreciate you playing. You also have some great ideas of how to improve it.

To be honest, I'll probably leave it as it is and move onto something a bit more complex. I learned a lot about the mechanic I was experimenting with and have some ideas about how to put it into future games, so I say it was a win.

Thanks again!

[binary_headspace]

No problem!

I learned a lot about the mechanic I was experimenting with and have some ideas about how to put it into future games, so I say it was a win.

Absolutely.