Author Topic: SQUIRM A.0.3 (alpha release)  (Read 23238 times)

AgingMinotaur

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SQUIRM A.0.3 (alpha release)
« on: April 23, 2010, 10:22:19 PM »
(cross-posted to rgrd)

I am pleased to announce the very first alpha release of Squirm. Squirm is written in Python, and the game is opting to attend the first Annual Roguelike Release Party in September. The working title for the September release is "Nadir Expeditions".

At this moment, Squirm is a playable dungeon crawl with a win condition. It is also lacking and buggy in important ways. With the current release, Squirm is going into a feature freeze. Until September, I won't add any features, but will concentrate on fixing bugs, adding content and tweaking the existing engine. "Nadir Expeditions" will be a shortish roguelike with room for expansion. If time will allow me to develop Squirm into something even close to my original vision, remains to see.

Some features:

* Hunt pancakes and impress swashbucklers!
* Cutlery-clinching cannibals!
* Randomly generated centaurs!
* Guaranteed no orcs or rings!
* Simple (but utile?) interface ...

The game is designed to have static levels, with no respawns and no natural regeneration. There is no food clock, and no cash. There are a few side quests that pop up from time to time, in addition to the (macguffin based) main quest.

It's a bit scarace at the moment, but I think the game already has some merits. With this release, I am earnestly hoping for feedback from the community. Of special interest is comments regarding technical issues, and comments about the interface and the basic dungeon crawling experience.

Python sources (requires Python 2.* and Pygame) and Windows binaries, as well as some screenshots and development notes, can be gotten here:

http://code.google.com/p/squirm/downloads/list

As always,
Minotauros
This matir, as laborintus, Dedalus hous, hath many halkes and hurnes ... wyndynges and wrynkelynges.

Skeletor

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Re: SQUIRM A.0.3 (alpha release)
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2010, 09:59:57 AM »
Some features:

* Hunt pancakes and impress swashbucklers!
* Cutlery-clinching cannibals!
* Randomly generated centaurs!
* Guaranteed no orcs or rings!
* Simple (but utile?) interface ...


Very cool! Let's try it!
What I enjoy the most in roguelikes: Anti-Farming and Mac Givering my way out. Kind of what I also enjoy in life.

mariodonick

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Re: SQUIRM A.0.3 (alpha release)
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2010, 11:05:55 AM »
General:
I very much like the colors you're using, I love the font, the fact that you have greek letters (will I encounter a Lambda anywhere? :D ) and the small nice icons on the right.

It's interesting that you use = instead of # to represent walls. "Brick walls" -- will there other wall types?

I was surprised that simply walking over stairs makes me use them. Might be problematic in some cases.

I like your message style. And the fact that the dungeon level is shown once I die. (Perhaps a little too much goblins for first level ;) )

I can't move diagonally using numpad.

One thing from a developer's view: Why are you using one .png for each letter and color? The .zip-archive takes endlessly to extract. Wouldn't it be easier to put the whole alphabet and numbers in your desired colors in one bigger .png and then only blitting the needed parts of that .png? Or only one alphabet set, in white or gray, and coloring it on the fly?

(In very early releases of LR: The Book of Stars, I did it the same way as you, but then I needed one SDL surface for each .png and FreePascal / SDL couldn't handle that).


Your game seems interesting and has it's own style already. Keep it up.
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AgingMinotaur

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Re: SQUIRM A.0.3 (alpha release)
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2010, 06:26:36 PM »
Thank you Mario!

It's interesting that you use = instead of # to represent walls. "Brick walls" -- will there other wall types?
Yes, I had this hang-up early on that I wanted to have particular rules for which signs represents which beings. Mathematical operators are obstacles or gates, punctuation marks are the ground etc. That's why walls "had to" be the "=" sign :)

There are a few different wall types already. But they're mostly identical (some are harder to demolish/mine), so I figured I didn't need so many. Rather save some colours for future stuff like pilars and special/magical walls.

I was surprised that simply walking over stairs makes me use them. Might be problematic in some cases.
Most of all, I didn't want to add another command key just to access stairs, so I decided to treat stairs as "bumpable". The game makes sure that all stairs can be walked around, however. Making stairs bumpable is certainly a bit like swearing in church (I'm sure Krice has dismissed the game already). To be perfectly honest, I'm actually even considering turning bumping off by default. Oldtime RLers would find it very unfamiliar, I think, but I wonder how casual players would feel about it? My reasoning is mostly that some weapons can be used from a distance, or as tools on objects that are traditionally avoided or walked over. So bumping feels vague for a game with more complex object interaction than the original Rogue.

I like your message style. And the fact that the dungeon level is shown once I die. (Perhaps a little too much goblins for first level ;) )
Yes, that can happen :P The Goblin aardvarks are better to just avoid, since they are rather slow and dumb and never carry treasure. You don't get xp for killing stuff, so taking them on is really just a waste of resources. Squirm is a bit on the hard side at the moment, and I expect easing it up a little. Not so much by nerfing the monsters as by adding more "friendly" encounters, that can be used to your advantage (like the swashbucklers currently present).

For a better survival rate, I'd suggest choosing "Create character" from the menu, and make sure that you get the "weapon experience" and "military training" (and possibly "well off" or "weapon specialist") merits.

I can't move diagonally using numpad.
You can't at all, actually. This is partly because I started development on a laptop. I also had this idea to allow movement patterns more like chess (or xiangqi) pieces. I haven't taken that very far, but there are Snakes and Hopping hands which use this feature, and I'm sure I have some notes lying around with related ideas. In hindsight, I kind of wish I had made the game with explicit facing, actually.

One thing from a developer's view: Why are you using one .png for each letter and color? The .zip-archive takes endlessly to extract. ...
Just being lazy and stupid, I suppose. What you write makes sense. I'll probably get something like that done at some point.

Very cool! Let's try it!
Please do :)

As always,
Minotauros
This matir, as laborintus, Dedalus hous, hath many halkes and hurnes ... wyndynges and wrynkelynges.

getter77

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Re: SQUIRM A.0.3 (alpha release)
« Reply #4 on: April 24, 2010, 10:56:37 PM »
While I've yet to try this, the simple fact that it features pancakes alone makes it a project I heartily endorse and wish all the best for.   8)
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AgingMinotaur

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Re: SQUIRM A.0.3 (alpha release)
« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2010, 09:10:15 AM »
While I've yet to try this, the simple fact that it features pancakes alone makes it a project I heartily endorse and wish all the best for.   8)

 :D I couldn't have done it without you guys. I certainly had the discussions round Elig's DreamHack fresh in my memory when the pancake questlet was added.

As always,
Minotauros
This matir, as laborintus, Dedalus hous, hath many halkes and hurnes ... wyndynges and wrynkelynges.

corremn

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Re: SQUIRM A.0.3 (alpha release)
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2010, 12:20:32 AM »
Didn't play it much, but what I saw was really good. Keep it up. 
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