Adventures of a Newbie Roguelike Dev

Okay, so it ain’t exactly matching the 700+ votes of ToME4, but 35 votes for Broken Bottle and 9 for Run from the Shadow is extremely gratifying for me. 9% of the games got over 80% of the votes in the poll, so even getting 1% is fantastic. Broken Bottle has been the highest voted 7DRL this year, which is pretty damned great in my books. Thanks a lot to those who voted!

2012 is almost upon us. The votes for Run from the Shadow remind me that I really must polish it up and produce a far better version. With that in mind here are some further ideas in my head for the coming year:
– Port Gruesome and Toby the Trapper to the T-Engine, with updates to both (including massive updates to Gruesome)
– Port Unstoppable to Android (will likely never happen, but it’s a nice thought)
– 7DRL based on sanctity, rage and revenge (come on, March!)
– Make a *Band/DoomRL hybrid called Hobbits with Guns (a much bigger project)
– Make a massive procedural story-based roguelike that’ll blow the world away (I’ll almost certainly never find time for this, but I have some cool ideas that I’d like to play with at least)

I dunno what I’ll actually achieve, but I am itching to make some new stuff next year. I’m still very much a newbie roguelike dev, and I have a lot to learn with the T-Engine especially, but whenever I get the time to code it’s still fun to discover new things. I worry that if I ever get beyond the newbie dev stage I’ll find the whole experience dull…

Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for some very very cool interviews and features on Roguelike Radio. 2011 has been a nice beginning for the podcast, and I have high hopes that 2012 will be even better.

Yes, I managed it, though around the 45 minute mark I thought I was seriously going to fail. The game is a simple dungeon crawler – you get your health regenerated upon level change, and must kill/avoid the enemies chasing you. Download the windows version here:

http://www.gruesomegames.com/harrowed-win-1.0.zip

Alternatively Mac and Linux users can download the T-Engine beta 34 and grab the module file for the game here:

http://www.gruesomegames.com/harrowed-mod-1.0.zip

You can find more info about the zero hour game jam here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/10/25/0h-game-jam-make-a-game-in-zero-hours/

Slashie linked me to this post last week:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/10/25/0h-game-jam-make-a-game-in-zero-hours/

And I thought well… that sounds fecking impossible. But it’s stuck in my mind, and watching a documentary about arctic wolves has just given me an inspiration for a simple but potentially interesting game. Not sure if I can do it in an hour, even with the wonderful T-Engine, but I’m damn well gonna try!

One potential problem is that the challenge is set at 3am this Saturday, and I’m supposed to be at a house party that night… Can I make in a game in zero hours whilst pissed? Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out…

Some clever chap has ported my FreePascal games to the Nokia N900. With their relatively low number of keys they should be fairly playable on the small device. Details are here:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=75179

Ido Yehieli is making Cardinal Quest available for free… but just for today. Details are here:

http://twitter.com/#!/tametick/status/120485642504372226

(or if you want a shortcut, visit http://t.co/ipXZGxYK and enter code BXZQ00097)

Cardinal Quest is a commercial indie roguelike by developer Ido Yehieli, with a very unique focus on interface and style. I helped review it on Roguelike Radio a few weeks back, and it’s definitely a game worth playing, so this is a great opportunity for those who haven’t tried it yet.

This is a new game I’ve written in the T-Engine in less than a day and a half. Admittedly I ran a little out of time and didn’t get to add sound effects like I would have wanted to. There’s also a couple of minor features missing. In particular item tooltips don’t work in the inventory, and I never implemented a right-click on player command to streamline the interface.

It’s a very short and simple game, based on themes of guilt and escapism. The gameplay twist is simple – the game boss appears x turns after you’ve been on any level, but early on you don’t have the power to defeat it. The only option is to run! Until you feel powerful enough to face it, of course.

To play you can download the windows standalone version, or download beta 34 of ToME4 and drop the module folder into game/modules/.

Kinda boring screenshot:

http://gruesomegames.com/games/shadow-scn.png

And now for some well-deserved sleep :)

Okay, I really meant to start this months ago, but I’m hopeful I can get a new game made from scratch in the next…. 34 hours. Feck :/ The game shall be called “Run from the Shadow”, and will explore themes of guilt and escapism. Wish me luck!

I was going through a department store and my girlfriend pointed out something which she joked that I should buy. Much to her chagrain I bought it with delight:

Yes, it’s a large wooden @ symbol. Not sure why such a thing was for sale in a department store, but upon seeing it I knew I had to have it. I’m not really one for home decorations (being a bloke and all) but this now has a proud space on my shelf. Next to it is a small toy I saw one time that puts me in mind of a baby grue. Yes, I’m a geek… :)

A guy by the handle of ImpotentLper has done 3 “Let’s Play” style videos of Broken Bottle: 1, 2 and 3. He narrates them with quite a cool throaty American voice (rather fits the main char of the game, I’d say) and he seems to have a number of other interesting videos of roguelikes.

His preferred method of play involves abusing alcohol so he can kill kids. I do find it interesting how easily gamers become hooked on this optimal play style… Everyone has their own addictions, eh? He says he enjoys the story, but I have to wonder if he’s missing out on much of the hallucination texts. He also doesn’t seem to notice that his sight is severely restricted by his headgear later in the game, making life much harder for himself. Anyway, it’s nice to see my game appreciated by others, and very interesting to watch how someone else plays it. Thanks, ImpotentLper!

This is tweak release to balance a couple of gameplay elements and alter a few bits of text in the game.

Windows download here.
Mac and Linux users will have to get beta 27 of the T-Engine and extract the game’s module folder to the /game/modules/ directory of the T-Engine.

Changes:
– Increased starting HP from 20 to 25
– Decreased junkie attack power and accuracy
– Added variety to player killing messages depending on enemy and drunken state
– Several small text tweaks and additions in story elements.
– Slightly decreased withdrawal rate (you’ll see hallucinations less quickly)
– Much much lower and less frequent hp penalties from heavy alcohol abuse
– Flying numbers above @ to indicate hp or stamina loss from drunk/withdrawal effects

Screenshot: