I found the dynamic lighting effects quite impressive, and I like the use of proportional text for the story rather than more monospace.
Habits from other roguelikes make me keep looking for an inventory and the ability to move diagonally, but neither one actually seems necessary, just unexpectedly missing for a roguelike.
Edit: "Achievements: 0 gold found 1 secret gold stashes found". So, I found one secret gold stash but it had no gold in it?
I believe you were mugged. By the mugger! He was wandering around outside the castle with the dog. I found 3 gold spots, but interacted with the mugger twice and finished with 1 gold, so I'm betting I got pick pocketed or something.
The dynamic legend and narrative bar are really great additions to roguelikes. Did you have inspiration for these things? I don't know that I've seen either of them done before.
Brogue has a dynamic legend for monsters and items. I've never seen one done so well for terrain. This game does a nice job of combining all useful information I need in one tiny spot. Well done!
That was great! I'm particularly impressed with the smooth learning curve, especially the dynamic legend.
I sometimes didn't notice when a new narrative appeared. I would just glance over once in a while to see if something new had happened. Maybe bring more attention to that, like having it blink once instead of fade in? Sure it doesn't look as nice, but you want the player to focus there.
Seconded! The library used in this game (rot.js) is the perfect platform for a 7DRL game as well. I've been using it quite extensively (via coffeescript) and it handles a lot of the hard stuff (FOV, lighting) very well, which frees one up to work on more interesting things: setting, gameplay, etc.
nice.
as someone unfamiliar with rougelike games I liked the walk you through it on the side and map legend on the bottom.
In javascript too.
I like the reference to the toolkit on the homepage.
> I like the reference to the toolkit on the homepage.
Oh. That's a problem. The only thing I can think of that might be more of a productivity drain than playing a roguelike is writing one. Goodbye sweet, sweet sunlight...
I just started playing Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup the other day for the first time (I've played Nethack and Angband for years though), so I'm in a Rogue sort of mood. Thanks! This is wonderful.
Tome 4 (http://te4.org )is a really polished, modern take on roguelikes. It's also based on a pretty modular, GPL3 licensed engine, in case you ever feel like making your own.
Yeah, I played that quite a bit a few years back. Unfortunately at the time quite a bit of some of the runecaster class was broken, but it was still quite fun.
That was all before the current engine, which I have to say looks pretty awesome from videos and screenshots. I'll have to try playing it again.
If you're talking about the old Middle Earth one (tome2), then it's a very different game in many respects. A lot more changed besides the graphics, but it's turned into a pretty polished game that encapsulates many of the best parts of *band roguelikes.
I've been playing a ton of Brogue lately. The dynamic lighting in this is similar to what Brogue has. Brogue is by far the prettiest ASCII game I've ever played.
Given the selection of characters that represent walls, corpses etc. I'm guessing that this game is influenced by Adom. The narrative system is pretty well done, and the font is awesome by the way :-)
Same thing happened to me, and I reloaded before I read this post...I'm starting over now and I'll post the output if it happens again. Loving it so far!
Normal game: You pick up an unknown potion. Do you drink it? You save the game and drink the potion. The potion kills you. You reload the game, dont drink the potion, and move on to the next level.
Roguelike: You pick up the potion. Do you drink it? Hmmm...too risky, it could kill you. You decide to visit a wizard who can identify it for you. Oh no! A monster. You fight! The monster is strong...You're down to 1 health..the potion is your last chance...AHHHHGH OMG IT WAS POISON. <or> OMG ITS A HEALTH POTION I LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY!
People play roguelikes because the specter of permanent death (no save games* ) creates tension and suspense you rarely see in other games. This tension has a dramatic influence on gameplay choices and the emotional response elicited by those choices.
If, however, it's the oldskool text graphics and complex control schemes that you dont 'get', you'd be forgiven for thinking that 'ascii graphics = roguelike'. This is not the case, its just that the many famous roguelikes are dungeon crawlers with this graphical style. And yes, the controls are complex and the learning curves are steep. They are not for everybody. ADOM is my favourite roguelike dungeon crawler.
The best (IMHO) recent roguelike is FTL: Faster Than Light. Its a spaceship combat/strategy game designed to be played so a session lasts about 30-90 minutes. The graphics are nice and the gameplay is simple to understand but difficult to master. Its brilliant.
Permadeath only really works for games that don't have an explicit narrative. It's no fun to die and then have to sit through the same conversations and plot twists all over again. Roguelikes tend to be complex and random enough to allow the player to experience something entirely new each time they play. There's still an overall story, but every telling of it is unique.
I agree, and I think you've touched upon a critical point.
One thing you'll notice about roguelike forums is the number of 'storytelling' threads where a player recounts their adventure. The lack of explicit narrative is more than compensated by user generated narrative.
Much like emergent gameplay (ie Minecraft), good roguelikes create emergent narrative. The narrative is worth sharing because of the surprising random encounters and do-or-die decisions.
I suspect this partly explains why most roguelikes have such simple graphics. A friend remarked that FTL was 'good for the imagination'. Basic graphics leave much to the imagination which enriches the internal narrative of the gamer.
That said, I dont think AAA graphics exclude a roguelike experience, and are in fact a barrier of entry for some younger gamers.
I think it would be reasonable to have a Rogue-like with a narrative if the death of your character did not mean the death of the world. Maybe dying would mean that you had a new character in the same world. Omikron: The Nomad Soul had a similar mechanic (although it was non-random).
[edit] Shiren the Wanderer also has a notion of progress that is saved even though your character will die.
In Planescape Torment, your character wakes up after dying. In most situations in the game, dying has little consequences, you just wake up a little while later.
I've thought about it some more, and I think the main issue is that most rougelikes I've seen are in the fantasy genre, but dungeons / castles / magic / etc don't really interest me at all. As such I've never really got into them to see what they can offer. I never knew that there was the randomness or permadeath - they are both pretty nice game mechanics.
I'm perfectly happy with the graphics, I've played Dwarf Fortress (in fortress mode - I think the city building overcomes my lack of desire for fantasy) and use Vim all day at work :)
Thanks for your explanation, and yeah I'll think I'll give FTL a go!
They are a bit tricky to get. And OP's game probably doesn't quite have the hook that will make you get them. As far as I can see, the draw is that the games are ruthless and kill you over and over again, but they are also ever so slightly different, and always hint at the chance to crack a bit more of the game on the next play, when you have both learned more about the game's tricks and get a new roll of the procedural generation dice. And, if they're done well, they don't waste your time. There should be something that even a veteran player won't just sleepwalk through right through the door.
p.s. for anyone looking for a great Rogue like game for mobile checkout "Legends of Yore". I have wastedH^H^H^H^H^H whiled away a lot of time with this gem.
Pick up the plate armor, he'll barely score any damage on you. It looks like `[` and is in the dungeon somewhere (in addition to chain mail, which looks like `[` as well).
I had the plate armor and I suspect there was a bug with the axe (or perhaps a feature where one of the weapons does nothing), he didn't do much damage to me but I just had 100% miss rate. Second playthrough used the sword and dispatched him easily.
Habits from other roguelikes make me keep looking for an inventory and the ability to move diagonally, but neither one actually seems necessary, just unexpectedly missing for a roguelike.
Edit: "Achievements: 0 gold found 1 secret gold stashes found". So, I found one secret gold stash but it had no gold in it?