CULT - Success!

[Numeron]

This game was a success!
Download HERE!
Requires Java 8 and OpenGL2+

Rise subjects! Your dark lord Azzafel commands you Rise!

Before my throne rests a twisted altar. Let it be known that he who can
complete the rite of becoming upon its stone top will become my avatar!

A dark gift for only for one worthy enough to best his peer. Let the battle begin!

Hello! My name is Numeron, and this is my 9th entry in the 7 day roguelike challenge! This year, my game is called Cult.

It will be a 'king of the hill' style arena game where being the first to stay on the altar before Azzafel will transform you into his avatar, and gift you additional powers that come with such a dark privilege. You must use these powers to fend of the hordes of lowly cultists - but should be unable to, then a new avatar will rise and you will join the hordes yourself. As a player you aren't just any old cultist though, you can pick from several classes which give you various abilities and can upgrade them throughout the match. While there will be other named strong cultists with powers that you will be primarily competing against, the fun thing about this game will be the hordes of hopeful undead and lowly acolytes. They will be easy to dispatch but hopefully also present a unique feeling of unbridled chaos, and new tactical avenues as the unnamed cultists rally around the named ones.

Unfortunately this year I don't have as much time to work on this as I normally do, and I only found out about that not so long ago. This means my original plan to add multiplayer functionality will most likely be canned along with some of the variety. I had some good ideas for multiplay - that there would be several game clocks, and while you aren't in view of another player you get to move as you wish - but once two players can see each other turns take a second each. But alas. Anyway I still feel good about this one so stay tuned!


DAY 1

Got a main menu down and an empty world up, along with some new graphics - like the Azzafel gif at the top of the page which will be an in game asset (he'll watch over the center of the arena). Nothing too substantial yet.. I want to try to nail the world gen as soon as possible because that always seems to take the longest in my 7drls. I'm going to be pixelling new sprites like mad during my lunch breaks, and I'm determined to put together a good looking interesting environment.

[Gornova]

nice to see u back to action Your roguelikes are always interesting

[Numeron]

DAY 2

Some more world gen done, in particular 4 sections of map marked out, randomized, and structured with some basic walls. Hopefully wont take too long tomorrow to fill in all the spaces and rooms with features. My old cellular automata algorithm is playing up for some reason so I spent a long time trying to debug it instead of being productive which sucks. That and some kind of race condition with the asset loader are makin' me a bit frustrated because that's all old code that hasn't changed for years.

Added a big ole grim reaper to the location you will respawn from on death and that made me feel better.

[Numeron]

DAY 3

Pretty happy with todays accomplishments, but I'm starting to wear thin with work... Ive been waking up at 6:30, getting home from work at 4 and working on this till midnight every day... Hopefully I can keep this up till the end!

I got most of the worldgen complete, I just have to tie together the pieces and add a stack of polish. Then tomorrow I'll hopefully start working on the different classes, abilities, consumables and the shops. After that, the arena objective (fighting over ownership of the altar) and AI that can follow that objective.

I also ported over some old dynamic lighting code I wrote a couple of years ago - and to think when I spoke about it on these forums at the time I was met with why dnamic lighting in a roguelike?

Well this is why - how awesome does that look!?

Random Room:


Throne room:


A pair of future shops:

[Numeron]

DAY 4

Worldgen is complete! It took 4 days (oh god) but its done. To be fair its 4 days where I've also gone to work and my deadline is Sunday midnight so all weekend to get everything else done!

The arena isn't huge, but its not small either - and there is a ton of cool stuff packed into the space. This game is becoming very purple. The scheme looks good, but occasionally things stick out when they shouldnt - like bookcases which are a browny grey. I don't want to make everything purple, but I also don't want the detail to confuse walls and floors at a glance - I at least am keeping all impassable terrain dark and that helps.

On to the screenshots - evil things are happening around this place....

[Numeron]

DAY 5

I got the main menu finished off, the classes created (they will determine the ability you start with but the shop will sell all abilities anyway) and the majority of the UI elements like armor/weapon levels, gold carried, and the abilities row. Also now dying actually wakes you up at the graveyard... and its the end of day 5 with so much to go. I still need sensible AI and to actually implement the king of the hill functionality. I'm almost definitely going to be making the last two days into a 40 hour push to get this thing through the door - I got a good rest last night in preparation.

[Gornova]

don't forget a little bit of instructions! sometimes a little help (aka wall of text!) can help a lot!

[Numeron]

Day 6/7

Oh my, I've been awake for 36 hours - Since I started this project on Monday of the comp week, my deadline for the 7drl is midnight Sunday night.... and I'm uploading a successful game with 30 minutes to go!

I'm too tired to do a write up with screenshots and everything tonight, so I'll leave it until tomorrow...

but for now you can still have the download link!

Download HERE!

Requires Java 8 and OpenGL2+



Gornova I think you'll be happy with my help screens!

[Hrakanku]

Crashed on me with a complaint about not finding overdose.ttf, noticed the file was named Overdose.ttf, so removed the capitalization and it works. Seems fun, too.

[Numeron]

Thanks! I've uploaded a new zip containing the correct name for the file.

Okay so that was a massive sprint, but I got it all done! I had a couple of huge moments of doubt - one was when I first started on the AI as I realised how much work it would be, and whether I could make something smart enough to balance fighting with wanting to be in the middle of the map, and balance fighting to keep others away from an objective with wanting to stay alive. The second was when I first started testing the AI and found it almost impossible to get a wedge in and score points! - I thought I'd either have to add obvious cheats to level the playing field (like doubling the players health compared to the other mobs) and release what might just have to be a bad game. It turned out that for a long time I was wrestling around a bug in the AI that meant enemies would fail to recognize each other as threats about 75% of the time!

So, I'm actually pretty happy with the way everything turned out. Its exactly the right balance of crazy I had in mind. Its possible to take and defend the central position for short stretches until you become overwhelmed - there is a nice balance of overturns. Now that I've played it quite a bit I find it easy to win (especially starting as the mage) however I think it should be well balanced for others. Appropriate balance is something I've always had trouble with in my games though so time will tell.

I scrapped my original idea of collecting friends in the outskirts of the arena and bringing them in, and replaced them with nuisance skeleton trash mobs which seems to work for much less effort. There are also a couple of lingering bugs which occasionally rear their heads, like the AI getting stuck with pathfinding on some maps, ending up just waiting in a corner somewhere. killing them releases them but they eventually get stuck in the same place again. I managed to mitigate this a little by starting all doors on the map as open - but still see it occasionally.

Well anway, let me know what you think!

[Avagart]

Interesting, on my computer old zip does not have problems with Overdose.ttf. Anyway, it looks promising, I played a little (ca 2min?), and I would like to play more... But it's too fancy / neat / beautiful for my laptop :F I will check it on my PC, but not until Wednesday, unfortunately.

[Gornova]

works really fine here and.. well done!

I like it, but I found really confusing: other "players" are not collecting coins? Do I need to upgrade myself a bit and challenge others ? Or just fight in the center?

[Numeron]

Yeah, the old zip worked fine for me too, but the code does ask for the lower case spelling so it must be an OS thing.

The other 'players' collect coins if they are close by or they are the avatar and there's no one to fight, but of all things to do it's the lowest priority. Your opponents don't need them though because they will upgrade automatically through the match - they get stronger and you'll see them start to use abilities not initially available to their class after a while.

So, your main objective is to stay in the middle, and prevent the others from doing the same - but after a while you might start get outmatched, so collecting coins as you go and buying stuff at some point should be necessary.

[Gornova]

The other 'players' collect coins if they are close by or they are the avatar and there's no one to fight, but of all things to do it's the lowest priority. Your opponents don't need them though because they will upgrade automatically through the match - they get stronger and you'll see them start to use abilities not initially available to their class after a while.

thanks for explanation, not so clear on first play

[jere]

I ran into a bug after a few runs. Rogueliker said he experienced the same thing before recording.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CeM27BdUMAEgdWq.jpg:large

Otherwise, an excellent entry. Having a lot of fun but have yet to win.