Linux, seed scummer builds of 1.1 available

Joshua Day has made me a Linux build of UnBrogue which you can get here. And Patashu has tempted the fate of the RNG to give you a seed scummer version of UnBrogue 1.1 including a Windows compile, which you can get links to from the Brogue thread on UnBrogue.

UnBrogue 1.1 released

Many thanks to Marco Salamone and Harrison Kreimer for taking the time to test the pre-release versions of the 1.1 release. Windows, OS/X Linux (thanks to Joshua Day for compiling this and updating the Linux platform code).

Changes for 1.1
- Code base updated to Brogue 1.7.
- Some changes have been added from 1.7.1: Bloodworts, lunging with rapiers, weapons of Force, reflection is now negatable, improvement to low level charms of protection, moving around obstacles diagonally.
- The majority of Brogue 1.7.1 change will be included in the next major UnBrogue release (1.2); the diff between 1.7.0 and 1.7.1 is approximately twice that of 1.6.3 to 1.7.0, and a number of systems changed significantly (dungeon generation, monster AI) in ways that will require more time to port across.
- Unlike 1.7.1, statues cannot be moved around diagonally.
- Added sabres which attack all adjacent targets in regular combat and when lunging.
- Blinking with a rapier, sabre will perform a lunge while blinking if there is a monster in the path of the blink.
- Moving with a spear or pike extends the weapon into the next grid in the direction you are moving if it is unoccupied. Any monster entering this grid will be automatically hit for x3 times damage.
- Maces, hammers damage is halved but they knock back enemies they hit 2 grids, doing triple damage if the enemy is knocked into an obstruction.
- Talisman of madness bonus now only affects weapons and armour. (One does not simply walk into DL100).
- Spiders summoned by a talisman of spiders appear at the stairs on the current level and begin levelled up twice for each enchantment on the talisman; this does not allow them to learn new abilities.
- Fix potion of winds typo.
- Scrolls of duplication correctly duplicate keys.
- Scrolls, charms of shattering have a chance of shattering reflective monsters, based on proximity and shattering radius.
- Fix protection so that it really only lasts 20 turns.
- Golems are not tortured.
- Dragons attack all adjacent targets; horror attacks penetrate like a Brogue spear/pike.
- Armour AC is increased by 1 for all armors except leather, plate. Plate strength requirement increased by one.
- Imps, nagas, salamanders get flee near death flag.
- Nagas and salamanders rapidly heal when submerged (2 hp per turn).
- Nagas and salamanders hate each other and will always attack each other on sight, even if allied.
- Added 'h'arpies, 'l'amias and [spoiler]. Feedback on how unfair these monsters are is welcome.
- You take half damage falling into shallow water, bogs or dense foliage, or if the air below is filled with strong winds.
- Slays/immunities now apply to a group of similar monsters (dar slaying, jelly slaying) rather than individual monsters in some instances.
- Firebolt is piercing: left over damage is applied to the next monster in line of fire if the first is killed.
- Aggravate Monster temporarily aggravates all monsters in LOS: aggravated monsters attack instead of fleeing, flitting or keeping their distance.
- Throwing potions of fire immunity creates a fire extinguishing gas. Throwing potions of life creates a healing gas.
- Centaur and arrow turret attacks unaffected by negation. Dart and acid turrets are stripped of their special effects but can still attack from a distance if negated. Ogres do not lose their shields if negated.
- Captive and dominated monsters generated out of depth don't begin gaining experience until they reach their minimum depth.
- Removed rings of Accuracy, Wizardry and Alchemy.
- Added Transference as a ring again. Removed Transference runic.
- Excess hit points stolen with transference adds to protection.
- Thrown weapons are not destroyed when they hit a target, unless it is a dart or javelin with a special ability such as incendiary darts. To compensate they all appear in smaller stacks and you begin the game with only 3 darts. (Inspired by morphles' patch).
- Thrown spears and pikes penetrate through to a second target in the next grid along the aimed path; thrown axes, sabres hit all targets adjacent to the grid before the first target they would hit.
- Wand and staff types are combined, with each type randomly being a wand or staff from game to game, but a minimum of two wands and three staffs, one of which will be a direct damage staff (lightning, fire, poison, force).
- Wands/staffs of Force and Nature added. Force pushes monster backwards 1 grid per enchantment and damages them if they hit an obstruction: triple damage if the target is knocked into a wall. Nature stops and grows a plant if the bolt crosses consecutive three fertile grids of the same type - either observe what plants grow on what terrain in the dungeon, or experiment to see what you can grow - and nature wands grow wooden bridges over chasms.
- Added more monsters summoned by wands/staffs of summoning. Staffs of phantoms removed as invisible hard hitting enemies on level 1 was not fun.
- Added more talismans. Check 'D'iscoveries for names.
- Talismans now all significantly change how part of the game works so that the least interesting ones are those which require that you be hallucinating, poisoned or on fire.
- Added some new reward rooms for further mid and end game variety.
- Runic wands and staffs.

Goofing off

My daughters have pointed out there are two types of touch controlled games: natural and goofy. Natural games are where you drag the actor around the screen, goofy is where you press somewhere on the screen and the actor moves to that location. Does anyone have a recommendation for good natural games for iOs for two year olds? Everything I have is goofy.

Sil-ver lining

From this thread on the angband.oook.cz forums where Darren Grey gets into a post episode 59 discussion about Sil with the developers and fans:

Actually the variance can function a little like multiple lives systems: you can think of it not as stochastically letting you die when you deserve life, but stochastically letting you live when you deserve death. And by being memoryless, it doesn't induce the temptation to restart if you lose a life early. (It's also a little less clear about providing feedback to the player when they made a mistake, but at least ending up on low life is a clue.)

I've been reading a lot of writing about how randomness has no place in games, and while the people taking this position seem to be perfectly nice and otherwise sensible, to me it feels like getting to know someone and then finding out their favourite book is Atlas Shrugged. I have an essay about it in me somewhere, but today is not that day. Scatha's sentiment is something I can agree with.

Honourable Mentions for Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year 2012

In an ever-expanding genre it seems there are too many honours to mention. This year all of the top 10 received more votes than DoomRL did when it won in 2009.

4. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup: The loss of mountain dwarves has not put off its loyal community, as this enduring classic has received further polish and a swarm of spiders.

5. Dwarf Fortress: A big increase in Adventure Mode content has made it stand out as a compelling single-hero roguelike in its own right. Planned additions are bound to make this even more popular in future.

6. FTL: The spaceship roguelike has made a big impact in the gaming community as a whole, winning and being nominated for numerous awards. Core roguelike mechanics mixed with many novel features have proven a highly compelling combination.

7. UnReal World: The best iron age Finland survival simulator ever made! Further improvements and new players have given this elder game a vibrant lease of life in 2012.

8. DoomRL: With further updates and a beautiful new tileset from Derek Yu, Kornel's turn-based shotgunning classic remains as bloodily alluring as ever.

9. Brogue: Procedural puzzles, a new charm system, and the removal of experience points from the game have all been part of a continued refinement in an increasingly critically acclaimed game. Oryx's recent tileset may help garner it wider popularity in the new year.

10. Dungeons of Dredmor: Expansion packs and a hugely active modding scene have kept this game fresh, and solved many of the complaints of those who found the game initially frustrating, whilst adding new humour and madness in the form of violent veganism and communist powers.

A glance back at the honourable mentions from 2009 shows just how much the scene has changed in 3 short years. So a huge applaud is due to these excellent games that have proven excessively popular in the ever more active roguelike genre!

Runner Up for Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year 2012: ADOM

After 10 years without updates one of the greats has returned. ADOM is back.

New classes, races, items, artifacts, endings, bugfixes and rebalancing have all been part of Thomas Biskup’s flurry of activity in the late stages of 2012. This is following an expertly run crowd-funding campaign on IndieGoGo that raised an astonishing $90,169 from 1,666 loyal followers, well above the target Thomas set to resurrect ADOM. It was no wonder then that it did intensely well on the poll, coming a close second to the winning ToME. With all the many planned changes in the coming year, including NotEye integration and a new custom tileset and soundtrack, it’s hard not to imagine it doing even better next year, ensuring another exciting competition for the crown of ASCII Dreams Roguelike of the Year.

Not to be forgotten is ADOM II, formerly known as JADE. Coming in at 3rd place there is clearly still strong support for this super-sized successor to the popular classic. This year it has had significant updates, making the game fully completable and adding quests and additional races and classes. With development continuing in parallel to ADOM it will be interesting to see this expand further in future.

Winner of Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year 2012: T.o.M.E. 4

Last year Tales of Maj’Eyal became the first game to win Roguelike of the Year for two years running. But in 2012, despite a brush with death, DarkGod has not rested on his lauded laurels. A vast stream of updates to content, interface, web-site, balance, bug-fixing and the opening up of community-built add-ons have ensured that Tales of Maj’Eyal remains the most popular of all roguelikes yet again. Beating off competitors young and old, ToME is now ASCII Dreams Roguelike of the Year 2012.

And it doesn’t stop there, as the game has now reached the all-elusive status of version 1.0 – a prestigious and rare event for a roguelike. With its modern interface and intense emphasis on tight turn-based gameplay it has spread roguelike appeal beyond normal grounds, and has recently been described in the popular press as “the gateway game you've been waiting for”. And that could prove true as it vies to garner enough votes to be the first roguelike to break through on Steam Greenlight.

A new module-making competition also hopes to encourage further games to be developed in the flexible and powerful T-Engine on which the game is based, meaning we’re sure to see some new ToME-inspired roguelikes popping up over the next 12 months. Look out for a new episode of Roguelike Radio in the coming weeks making a return to Maj’Eyal.

Big d@ta

Regular commenter Joseph has done some analysis of the poll results. And a Korean site has a year by year break down.

Full Results for Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year

This is the fifth year I've had to string together superlatives describing the growth of the poll both in record numbers of entrants and numbers of votes. Thanks to all 5,123 of you who voted on the 283 games below.

91	4 (0%)
3079	8 (0%)
@Star Wars	16 (0%)
100 Heroes	11 (0%)
2419RL	3 (0%)
7DRL	8 (0%)
99 Levels to Hell	5 (0%)
ADOM	1445 (28%)
ADOM II (formerly JADE)	730 (14%)
Afterlife 3: Legends of Rickard Bronson	0 (0%)
AliensRL	72 (1%)
Allure of the Stars	3 (0%)
Angband	91 (1%)
Animonstres	0 (0%)
AppRogue	0 (0%)
Ascension of the Drillworms	1 (0%)
Ascii Wilderness	1 (0%)
AS.T.Ro	1 (0%)
AsylumRL	6 (0%)
Auro	3 (0%)
Bardess	0 (0%)
BattlePaths	0 (0%)
Below	1 (0%)
Beyond the Light	2 (0%)
BileBio	3 (0%)
Bone Builder	3 (0%)
BOSS	3 (0%)
Brogue	349 (6%)
Bushudo	0 (0%)
Cardinal Quest II	23 (0%)
Cardlike	9 (0%)
Cargo Commander	10 (0%)
Castle Dungeon	1 (0%)
Castle of the Winds Online	4 (0%)
Cataclysm	173 (3%)
Cave Chop	0 (0%)
Cave Rescue	0 (0%)
Caves of Qud	138 (2%)
Chengband	5 (0%)
Cinders	0 (0%)
Claustrophobia: The Downward Struggle	0 (0%)
Cogmind	70 (1%)
Como el Rogue	0 (0%)
Cooplike	0 (0%)
Cosmic Commando	9 (0%)
Crossword Dungeon	2 (0%)
Crystal Catacombs	1 (0%)
Cult: Awakening of the Old Ones	28 (0%)
Cursed Dungeons	0 (0%)
Cypress Tree Manor	1 (0%)
DaedlyFlazh	5 (0%)
DaJAngband	3 (0%)
Dangerous Dungeons of Sevenholm	0 (0%)
Dark Valhalla: Prelude	1 (0%)
Dary's Legend	0 (0%)
Das Schurke Boot	0 (0%)
Daybreak RL	0 (0%)
Dead Night Forest Chapter 2: The Lost Caravan	0 (0%)
Death Settler	0 (0%)
Deep Deadly Dungeons	3 (0%)
Delver	15 (0%)
Demonhunt	4 (0%)
Denizen's Den	1 (0%)
Depths of Peril	17 (0%)
Desktop Dungeons	83 (1%)
Destiny of Heroes	1 (0%)
Diablo III	95 (1%)
Diehard Dungeon	1 (0%)
Diggr	5 (0%)
Din's Curse	39 (0%)
DoomRL: Doom, the Roguelike	393 (7%)
Dungeon Panic!	1 (0%)
Dungeons of Desolation	1 (0%)
Drakefire Chasm	17 (0%)
Drox Operative	20 (0%)
DuneRL	5 (0%)
Dungeon Bash Tactics	2 (0%)
Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup	687 (13%)
Dungeon Dashers	8 (0%)
Dungeons of Dredmor	280 (5%)
Dwarf Fortress	605 (11%)
Dweller	59 (1%)
Earl Spork	5 (0%)
ElonaPlus	69 (1%)
Emet	0 (0%)
Encircled	2 (0%)
Enter Thy Name	2 (0%)
Epilogue	13 (0%)
Equal in Death	8 (0%)
Escape from the Vault	2 (0%)
Expedition	4 (0%)
FAangband	25 (0%)
Fabula Divina	2 (0%)
Fall From Heaven	4 (0%)
Fame	3 (0%)
FFHtR	2 (0%)
Fictional Roguelike	1 (0%)
Flatspace	8 (0%)
Flight of the Maxima	0 (0%)
Fog and Thunder	1 (0%)
Forays into Norrendrin	16 (0%)
Fragile Wrath	1 (0%)
FTL	454 (8%)
Fuel	9 (0%)
GatewayRL	1 (0%)
GearHead-2	21 (0%)
Gnoblins	0 (0%)
Goblet Grotto	6 (0%)
Grand Rogue Auto	5 (0%)
GUTS!	1 (0%)
Hack, Slash, Loot	19 (0%)
Hallowmorn Dungeon	0 (0%)
Halls of Mist	20 (0%)
Harmonia	0 (0%)
Hellmouth	1 (0%)
Herculeum	0 (0%)
Hokuto-no-rogue	6 (0%)
Hope	0 (0%)
HordeTheory	1 (0%)
House of the Lost	0 (0%)
HunterRL	1 (0%)
Hydra Slayer	13 (0%)
Hyperbolic Rogue II	5 (0%)
HyperRogue III	23 (0%)
I rule, you rule, we all rule old-school Hyrule	19 (0%)
Ighalsk	0 (0%)
Ignite	0 (0%)
Inferno+	2 (0%)
Infiniverse	3 (0%)
Infra Arcana	52 (1%)
Intelligence: The Roguelike	1 (0%)
Interhack	0 (0%)
Into the Dungeon ++	2 (0%)
JaggedRL	0 (0%)
Jelly	0 (0%)
Kaiju King	2 (0%)
Kerkerkruip	16 (0%)
Kitchen Masters	3 (0%)
LAIR!	0 (0%)
LambdaHack	4 (0%)
LambdaRogue	11 (0%)
Left Field Hotel	2 (0%)
Legacy	0 (0%)
Legend of Dungeon	5 (0%)
Legend of Siegfried	9 (0%)
Legends of Yore	21 (0%)
Life of Sir Pointsalot	0 (0%)
LinLem’s Vague Adventure Roguelike	0 (0%)
Locks	0 (0%)
Lost Labyrinth	15 (0%)
MagmaHack	1 (0%)
Magog	0 (0%)
Malastro	3 (0%)
Me Against The Mutants	1 (0%)
Meat Arena	0 (0%)
Mercury	4 (0%)
Microcosm	0 (0%)
MicRogue	5 (0%)
Middlecrest	3 (0%)
miniFlake	1 (0%)
Mont Asall	0 (0%)
Mujahid	6 (0%)
Mushroomvania	2 (0%)
Mutant Aliens!	2 (0%)
Mysterious Castle	3 (0%)
NEO Scavenger	24 (0%)
Neon	6 (0%)
NetHack-De	33 (0%)
Nightfall	2 (0%)
NitroHack	5 (0%)
NLarn	9 (0%)
No Way But Down	1 (0%)
Noxico	30 (0%)
NPPAngband	21 (0%)
OutlastRL	0 (0%)
PabloQuest 3: Danish Adventures	2 (0%)
Path of Exile	57 (1%)
phage	1 (0%)
Pineapple Smash Crew	4 (0%)
Pixel Dungeon	9 (0%)
Porta Lucis	4 (0%)
Portralis - NewAngband	8 (0%)
POWDER	76 (1%)
PRIME	11 (0%)
Probability 0	2 (0%)
Professional Sword Tester the Roguelike	1 (0%)
Project gnh20/The game of my dream (sb3dgraph)	2 (0%)
Prospector RL	42 (0%)
PWMAngband	4 (0%)
QUAD	0 (0%)
Quest for the Unicorn	1 (0%)
QuestQuest	2 (0%)
Quickband	9 (0%)
QuickHack	7 (0%)
QuillRogue	1 (0%)
RailRL	0 (0%)
Random Realms	3 (0%)
Ransack	0 (0%)
Receiver	3 (0%)
Red Rogue	55 (1%)
Revenge on a Toy Factory	1 (0%)
Rings of Valor	5 (0%)
ROADLIKE	2 (0%)
RoboCaptain	1 (0%)
Rogue Mud	0 (0%)
Rogue Survivor	38 (0%)
Rogue's Souls	8 (0%)
Rogue's Tale	10 (0%)
RogueDungeons	0 (0%)
RRRSRoguelike	2 (0%)
Ruins of Kal Raman	0 (0%)
SCP: Site 17	2 (0%)
Second Wind	1 (0%)
Seduction Quest	4 (0%)
Serial Killer	3 (0%)
Shadow Rogue	0 (0%)
Shattered Haven	0 (0%)
Shepherd Slaughter	3 (0%)
Sick Peter	4 (0%)
Sil	130 (2%)
Smooth Rogue	1 (0%)
Solstice	3 (0%)
SpaceNodes	0 (0%)
Spelunky HTML 5	39 (0%)
Spelunky XBLA	52 (1%)
Squirm	0 (0%)
Steam Marines	12 (0%)
Steel Knights	3 (0%)
Stella-111: A Cosmic Voyage	1 (0%)
Stellar Edge	4 (0%)
SUN CRUSHER!!!	19 (0%)
Super Office Stress	1 (0%)
Super Shotgun Showdown	0 (0%)
Swamp Monster	0 (0%)
Sword in Hand	7 (0%)
Sword of the Stars: The Pit	180 (3%)
Tales of Maj'Eyal (ToME)	1659 (32%)
Teleglitch	28 (0%)
Telos	0 (0%)
The Adventurer's Guild	5 (0%)
The Binding of Isaac	150 (2%)
The Challenge!	1 (0%)
The Death of Juga t'Dy	1 (0%)
The Four Challenges	0 (0%)
The Liberate Pixil Cup Quest	0 (0%)
The Light of Amber	1 (0%)
The Serpentine Caves	0 (0%)
The Slimy Lichmummy	15 (0%)
The Well Of Enchantments	1 (0%)
The Wizard's Lair	0 (0%)
Through	6 (0%)
TomeNET	133 (2%)
Top Dog	0 (0%)
Torchlight 2	175 (3%)
Tower Climb	13 (0%)
Traction Edge	0 (0%)
TrapRL	0 (0%)
Triangle Wizard	37 (0%)
Turambar	0 (0%)
Turnament	1 (0%)
Ugly Rogue	1 (0%)
Ultima Ratio Regum	63 (1%)
UnBrogue	26 (0%)
Underhill 2	0 (0%)
UnNetHack	37 (0%)
UnReal World	442 (8%)
Untitled	2 (0%)
Vapors of Insanity	6 (0%)
Voxel Heroes	1 (0%)
Voyage to Farland	3 (0%)
Waaaghammer	5 (0%)
Warden	2 (0%)
Wayward	9 (0%)
WazHack	25 (0%)
WebRaidMobile	0 (0%)
Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space	22 (0%)
World of Tey	1 (0%)
Wyrm	3 (0%)
X@COM	135 (2%)
Yeekband	2 (0%)
YioRpg	0 (0%)
Zaga-33	33 (0%)
Zero-Player Game	3 (0%)
Zombies!	5 (0%)
Zombocalypse	4 (0%)
Zone	3 (0%)

Best of lists

Goblet Grotto is among the indie gam.es Best of 2012: Adventure.

Badly worded, apology

I would like to sincerely apologise to DarkGod for the wording of the previous post which implied he was somehow cheating or hacking the poll. The post and follow up comments were poorly written and far too ambiguous and I should have been much more explicit about what was actually happening and what outcome I wanted.

From next year, the poll will include the following wording: 'Promotion of this poll from within a game itself is strongly discouraged and will be sanctioned if discovered. This includes using any kind of MotD or in game chat functionality which may already exist in the game.'

The reason I am making this change is I don't want anyone to start down the trail of 'I need to add feature X to the game to promote my chances of doing well in the poll'. There's no evidence that this is actually happening - and I would be surprised if it did - but I would hate for even one developer to make one decision which was based on this kind of reasoning.

You are completely free to promote your game outside the game itself - that's what forums, twitter, Facebook etc. are based on. Note the key difference between inside and outside the game, is that promotion outside the game can be done by anyone - the developer themselves are not the gatekeepers for this process. Whereas coding and/or code check-in and review are drains on developer time, and I don't want to end up being responsible for taking time away from working on the parts of the game which you feel are important.

Not happy

It appears that someone is distributing an .exe which has been modified to directly affect the vote outcome.

I believe this is a violation of the spirit of the poll, and I'd like to ask this person to stop.