Graphics for Roguelikes

[Xaron]

Hi there,

I've grown up with rogue likes and being 42 I'm not the youngest anymore but I'd like to ask a question about graphics. I know, ASCII was used because of hardware and because making good graphics is expensive and/or time consuming. But is it also "wrong" to use some nice looking graphics? I mean I've read quite a lot here that a majority seems to prefer ascii stuff over real graphics. Is there a reason for this? Just let the gameplay aside for a second and imagine it's good. So what is wrong with not using ascii then? Is it a roguelike-like then? 

As I'm developing kind of such a game I just wonder how many of you would decline to play a game which is kind of roguelike but doesn't have ascii graphics but real tiles (still 2d top down)?

Cheers!

[Krice]

majority seems to prefer ascii stuff over real graphics. Is there a reason for this?

Many reasons. Ascii is easier to do. Most roguelike projects are created by one person so if you are not a good artist it's quite difficult to draw even decent looking tiles. ADOM team has a real artist who draws tiles, but even then tiles can look silly like in ADOM's case. Some developers seem to think that ascii is essential for roguelike game and that's the reason for them to use ascii, but I don't support that opinion myself. Ascii was the only option back when original roguelikes were programmed. I'm sure they would have used graphics if it could have been possible.

[Xaron]

Yes, that's what I thought as well. Thanks!

[javelinrl]

I am fully aware I'll draw out the hatred of many a person in this forum but I don't play ASCII roguelikes anymore, like I did back in the day. if I am able to create a free game that uses graphics I don't see why anyone else shouldn't. In that vein a roguelike for me nowadays has to be free, graphical and preferentially have mouse support too. This locks me away from some interesting titles, sure it does but I have no shortage of cool games to play that fit these requirements either.

There are a ton of libre resources to be used for roguelike development, but I do agree that coming up with new stuff to fit your game can be a pain if you don't have an artist helping out or if you're not a half-talented pixel artist yourself, at least. Anyways, repositories like this should be more than enough to create a typical roguelike, unless your setting is really very unique https://github.com/saniv/free-game-art

I will make an exception to ASCII games that look absolutely beautiful - to the level Ultima Regum seems to be getting at. I see people talking about how beautiful Brogue is but, really, I'm not impressed.  Anyway, I'm not currently playing any ASCII game even though RL is the video-game genre I'm most interested in.

Computers have been handling graphics quite well for almost 40 years or so now, the programming overhead is negligible and if a developer's reason for creating an ASCII is that then he probably doesn't know very well what he is doing (which is fine for a starting programmer). Creating a good-looking ASCII game is probably a lot harder than creating a good-looking game with art assets, when you boil it down to time consumed in developing a typical roguelike.

And yes, non-ASCII games can still be roguelikes, as are all of the roguelites out there. Would you say Dungeon Crawl is not a roguelike? Of course you wouldn't but nowadays there must be a ton of players who only play WebTiles and have no idea there is even an ASCII mode for the game.

Also you're only 42? More than enough time to put at least 4 new great roguelikes out there, starting now good luck with your project!

[Xaron]

Haha thanks for stepping in. Yeah I agree to you, I know many hardcore fans will disagree though. I'm not an artist just a programmer but getting a talented artist has never been an issue to me. Generally I'm not aiming for a dungeon type RL but for an open world RL...

And creating 4 RL games? Uh yeah, plenty of time ahead but I'd be lucky if I manage to create only one.

[Hellford]

currenty i do some Gfx for Tome but they are useable for other tilebased rlhttps://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikes/comments/5qayko/tome_2xx_replacement_tiles/?st=iyet60hw&sh=ce8f4feb

updated!