Professional Adventurer's League v0.1.0

[wire_hall_medic]

Well, it's finally to a state where I'm comfortable releasing it to the community.  While a long way from finished, I'm ready for some player feedback!  I'm really excited about this game, and hope you enjoy it!

You can find the RogueBasin page here:
http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Professional_Adventurers_League

Or directly download it here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hbtwxifrdb1mvxn/ProfessionalAdventurersLeague_0_1_0.jar?dl=0

[getter77]

Neat---sounds promising along the sort of line that Forays into Norrendrin focuses down mightily.   

[jim]

The prologue and introductory sponsorship is very funny for genre insiders, and it sets up an expectation for a Nascar-esque adventurer experience. I find myself hoping for the commercialization and theatre of adventuring as a central part of the game (double kills earn popularity points, an adventure that becomes boring might have a boss tossed into the arena, you might have to renegotiate your contract between levels, your sponsor might demand that you have a partner / nemesis -- lots of options.) The absurdist potential for something like this is definitely there. The flipside is that until more of that potential is in place, what we've got is a fairly straightforward roguelike demo with a funny intro. May the force be with you!

[wire_hall_medic]

I definitely plan on reinforcing the sports theme; I'm kicking around ideas for how best to do so.  I'd like to include a between-level leaderboard, like on golf games, but have been having difficulty coming up with a fair way to determine the NPC scores.

Kill streaks, organizers spicing up boring performances, and contracts are all strong ideas.

While I don't want the player to level up in the traditional sense (they're supposed to be at the peak of their ability already), gaining additional sponsors for in-game achievements is a definite possibility.

I do plan on adding sponsor billboards and having an announce report to the message panel; both pretty simple but go a long way to reinforcing the theme.

[ekolis]

This sounds amusing... ever heard of Monday Night Combat? That's basically the FPS equivalent of this game

I'm surprised you didn't go with Major League Adventuring or something like that... I mean, MLG is already a thing, right? Or is it just a meme and not an actual sport?

[getter77]

If this is the closest we ever get to something of a Roguelike successor, in the good ways, to Smash TV---we'll have arrived in a better future for sure.

[wire_hall_medic]

@ekolis: I went with PAL because I was thinking of it more from a golf perspective, rather than a team sport.  And PAL works as a nice little acronym. 

@getter77:  I've been toying with the idea of adding prizes, like in SmashTV.  It makes it less sports and more game show, and I need to decide how I feel about that; I don't want to dilute the theme, but I obviously want it to be as fun as possible.  The summary screen after each level of SmashTV is specifically why I included the same thing in PAL.

[wire_hall_medic]

Though in thinking about it, a straight-up adaptation of SmashTV could be amazing.

[jim]

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!

Yeah, wire_hall_medic, I think your tone is great. You don't need to push it into a Hunger Games / Thunderdome / Running Man theme. Don't get me wrong, those are wonderful dystopias, but they create a sense of oppression that I think runs counter to what you are going for. Granted, I am inferring a lot from a demo, but I saw PAL as a more cheerful game, kind of a friendly, snarky, capitalist adventure. I guess the key difference is player agency: a life chosen rather than basically being a hostage to a system.

Anyway, fun stuff. I guess I got intrigued!

[akeley]

I saw PAL as a more cheerful game, kind of a friendly, snarky, capitalist adventure. I guess the key difference is player agency: a life chosen rather than basically being a hostage to a system.

My word, you guys are ~deep~  Methinks, sometimes an @ in a tunnel is just an @ in a tunnel.

Only joshing 

Reasons I liked PAL though are less lofty : just nice to see a solid groundwork for a decent traditional RL coming up here.
In fact, it`s so solid that even as an alpha, no bugs or requests to report: the only annoyance is that I keep looking at the bottom of the message window to find a newest one, whereas it`s the top one - but maybe it`s just me.

Also: I`d rather not be forced to quit the equip screen every time I do something there.

[jim]

I tip my Oedipus complex to you, sir

[wire_hall_medic]

Actually, just last night a friend commented that the message panel was backwards for him, too.  In the next update I'll include the option to flip it.

The reason it kicks you out of the inventory screen every time you equip something, is because it takes a turn.  I'm not sure of a better way to communicate this, other than that it's mentioned in the help panel.  But you're right, it can make it a bit more cumbersome, especially when you're unequipping a charm to equip a different one.  It just worked better than any alternative.