Why we're here

Apologies to those who would be offended by this. (pdf)

The Movement Project

A big part of the frustration of Far Cry 2's movement problems I mentioned yesterday, is that these problems have been solved in other games. It's not like FC2 is the first first person shooter invented which has tree roots. But at the same time, the problems I experienced are a worrying indication that first person shooters featuring procedurally generated, wide open spaces, are going to have issues with movement when the terrain isn't smoothed out by a human hand.

Movement in military themed first person shooters is, as far as I am concerned, a solved problem. There is an excellent article series Dslyecxi's Tactical Gaming Done Right (warning: hours of reading at this link) describing exactly what movement grammar a military FPS should include, the main trade off being the time required to implement these movements. But instead first person shooters seem stuck in the WASD jump crouch moves of yore.

I would like to propose a partial solution to the mess of FPS designs: a military themed first person shooter movement standard, which describes a standardised grammar of moves that a first person game which matches the standard must support. There would ideally be a reference implementation in a number of the current engines (Source, Unreal etc), but this is not necessary to start with.

The important part would be the branding, so there would be a sales and marketing advantage to publishers in adhering to the standard, and so that you, the consumer, could quickly check that the game complied.

There will be an inevitable trade off between what features the game must support, against what are optional features - while a rush to the lowest standard is probably inevitable, the benefit in having a standardised design document to which the major companies to reference, as well as would be FPS designers learn from, should hopefully improve the current state of affairs.

Another aspect is reviewer education: and I'd be interested to hear from any game reviewers whether this would be of help. Even pointing game review sites at Dslyecxi's article series on a regular basis would be beneficial to start with.

The argument against this, is that the grammar of movement forms an important part of the game play, and well-written games should have a unique feel for the avatar's movement. I don't disagree, but note that, for instance, I can quickly slip into Valve's source engine games because of the common movement core between games, before having to learn about the exceptions. And this is not necessarily targetted at well written games - Far Cry 2 being a case in point, where care and attention has been paid to parts of the game other than movement, and where (I suspect) a reference to design against may have helped in this instance.

Thoughts?

Review: Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 has been an exercise in frustration. I appear to suffering from a disease that prevents me moving over anything knee high or higher, even when I jump; which manifests itself most frequently trying to climb out of boats.

Then there is the complete lack of check point saves.

Unfortunately, I appear to have spent money on something that reviewers somehow liked while failing to mention any of these basic facts.

[Edit as of 20th April 2011: Some 2 years later, I successfully finish this sprawling and brilliant game, which defies first impressions and ends up being one of the most acclaimed and talked about shooters of its time. However I want to preserve this record of my first thoughts of this game].

Angband now GPL clean

The significance of this cannot be understated. Angband, which has long been under a non-open source license now has received permission to move to the GPL from every contributor for the code using in the 3.1.0 release. The last permissions required were from Ross Becker, as outlined here.

This now means that any Angband variant built from version 3.1.0 or later can take advantage of code hosting on Source Forge and other code repositories which restricted free but not open software, as well as the significant protection of the Free Software Foundation should the Angband code be unfairly expropriated elsewhere.

Time to open a bottle of champagne. It's been a long time coming.

I need an economist

In an interruption to your regular service, a small plea for help.

I've written an article for an upcoming 'The Amateur' column on GameSetWatch, and I need someone with an economics background to sanity check it.

In case you're wondering, I'm an enthusiastic amateur when it comes to economics (which is why Prince Charming revolved around financial arbitrage) but I've never had any conventional training in the subject beyond a 1st year university paper.

The column will be on why it is rational to pay for something even when you can get it for free. As a part of that, I make some statements around why people start companies, for which I've not seen the conventional economic explanation (I've seen plenty for why people continue to run companies, but not why they start them).

Here's the scenario, restated slightly:

Ten people want to have a party, which will cost them a total of $1000. How should they apportion the costs?

The answer appears to be split 10 ways (another to weight it based on the relative pleasure they'll derive from the party).

However, one of them comes up with the idea of selling tickets to the party at $20 dollars each. That way, each person only has to pay $20, instead of a higher amount, and they only have to find another 40 people to pay for the costs.

How many of the ten people does it make sense to start the 'party company' with, which will sell the tickets and pay for the party?

One argument is that all 10 people should join. Because in this instance, they only have to sell one more ticket to be better off then when only 10 people were paying for it.

My questions are: Why should a person choose not to join the party company? What possible benefit do they derive from allowing the party company to make a profit, and how does this relate to why you should pay for something when you can get it for free?

(I've got the answer, I think, and hopefully I've piqued your interest. More importantly, the answer still makes sense even when the number of attendees is known in advance).

Nintendo DS question for you

What should I buy in order to start enjoying the Nintendo DS homebrew scene? Pros and cons in the comments please - remember I'm in Australia.

I want minimum fuss, with expandable storage a bonus if possible.

Trends for Roguelikes in 2009

Here's where I gaze into my crystal Orb, wearing a ring of reflection, and make ten predictions about roguelikes in 2009. You can help, by voting your top trend of 2009 in this week's poll.

10. We'll see more roguelike-likes like Spelunky using procedural generation to extend the game play of a non-roguelike genre. I've championed procedural generation for some time, but unfortunately, like the Sims, we'll not see anyone other than Electronic Arts capitalize on the unique place that Spore occupies. The exception will be procedural narrative techniques, which will continue to be slipped in the back door for a variety of different games, following on from the success of Left4Dead and Far Cry 2 - however the tech won't mature significantly before 2010. Fingers crossed, there'll be a first person shooter released which uses procedural map generation, but I suspect that also won't happen until 2010 at the earliest.

9. There'll be more roguelikes released on Flash and mobile platforms in 2009 than we've seen in previous years combined. Some of these will be ports from existing roguelikes that move across to the mobile platform (Angband and variants will be the most active in this area), others will be newly developed games, particularly developed from game developer communities other than rec.games.roguelike.developer.

8. I don't believe we'll see an Angband variant released this year. Work will continue on a number of existing variants, but a fair amount of that will be catching up with the user interface features that Angband is currently developing. I really rather wonder if the Angband variant developer community is dying a little...

7. The depth and complexity of a Dwarf Fortress or Incursion will not be matched by any newly released roguelike this year. Which is a shame, but I don't believe there is any roguelike developer working behind the scenes on their magnum opus capable of delivering this. By implication, JADE will not be released this year.

6. There will however, be a significant release of at least one roguelike built on a roguelike engine developed by someone else. This may be ToME 3, libcotd or another engine. The roguelike engines are getting to the point at which they deliver a compelling use case.

5. A trend that has not been exploited sufficiently, but may catch on this year is roguelikes that allow creation of user generated content which can be then recycled back into the game for other players. Imagine a roguelike where you design a room template, which is then placed in the dungeon mixed in with room templates contributed by other players. If I can make one trend happen by discussing it here, I'd like it to be this one.

4. There were a large number of commercial roguelikes released in 2007, a smaller but high quality list in 2008. 2009 will feature almost no commercial roguelike releases, but will feature one developed outside of Japan - I'm guessing Russia.

3. Diablo III will flatten the roguelike community for about 3 months after release, at which point everyone will start bitching about it and go back to Dwarf Fortress / World of Warcraft.

2. Stuff* will happen with Unangband. Stay tuned.

1. The next version of NetHack will be released.

0. John Harris will get around to writing about your favourite roguelike (again).

* By stuff, I tentatively mean version 1.0.

Full results for Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year

At 75 roguelikes released last year, this qualified as the longest poll ever, but suggests that 2008 was a bumper year for roguelikes and the roguelike community. That there were 371 people who took the time to recognise their favourite roguelike suggests we have a vibrant community who span across games to celebrate the fundamentals of the genre - replayability over repetitiveness, ideograph over art, the fun of failure and the fruits of victory.

A big thanks to everyone who voted, and look forward to having you back at the end of 2009.

Alan's Psychedelic Journey	5 (1%)
Angband	7 (1%)
ASCIIWAR	1 (0%)
Caverns of Underkeep	3 (0%)
ChessRogue	2 (0%)
Chrysalis	1 (0%)
Cracks and Crevices	0 (0%)
crashRun	1 (0%)
ClassicRogue	0 (0%)
Crown of the Forest	0 (0%)
Cryptrover	2 (0%)
CyberRogue	5 (1%)
DaJAngband	0 (0%)
Deep	0 (0%)
DoomRL	45 (12%)
Doryen's Arena	6 (1%)
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup	126 (33%)
DungeonClimb	0 (0%)
Dwarf Fortress	116 (31%)
Elona	18 (4%)
Fatherhood	4 (1%)
First Age Angband	10 (2%)
Fridge	0 (0%)
Frozen Depths	9 (2%)
GearHead-2	18 (4%)
Goblinhack	1 (0%)
GUILD	1 (0%)
Heroic Adventure!	0 (0%)
HexRogue	0 (0%)
Incursion: Halls of the Goblin King	45 (12%)
Ironband	2 (0%)
JAR	0 (0%)
KING	0 (0%)
Labyrinth of Reptoran	0 (0%)
LambdaRogue	7 (1%)
Legerdemain	28 (7%)
Lords of DarkHall	1 (0%)
Mage Guild	10 (2%)
Megaman RL	0 (0%)
Mines of Elderlore	0 (0%)
Mines of Morgoth	1 (0%)
Neon	0 (0%)
NetHackDS	4 (1%)
Numbers	2 (0%)
POWDER	30 (8%)
Quarker	0 (0%)
QuickBand	3 (0%)
Portralis - NewAngband	3 (0%)
Privateer: Ascii Sector	13 (3%)
RevivedHack	1 (0%)
Rogue 5.4	2 (0%)
RogueLite	0 (0%)
Rogue Mercenaries	1 (0%)
S.C.O.U.R.G.E.	1 (0%)
SewerJacks	9 (2%)
Slayer	0 (0%)
SporkHack	2 (0%)
Steamband	5 (1%)
Teemu	2 (0%)
Test Adventure	0 (0%)
The Slimy Lichmummy	1 (0%)
TileRogue	1 (0%)
T.o.M.E	15 (4%)
Tower	1 (0%)
TrapRogue	0 (0%)
Unangband	16 (4%)
UnReal World	10 (2%)
Warlock's Mountain	0 (0%)
Warp Rogue	3 (0%)
Wizkill	0 (0%)
Wizard vAlpha	0 (0%)
Zaiband	0 (0%)
Zangband+	13 (3%)
Zomband	2 (0%)

Next poll will be up shortly.

Honorable Mentions for Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year

There were over twice as many votes cast this year; and while the winner and runner up were conclusively ahead of the pack, four further roguelikes stood out.

Incursion: Halls of the Goblin King is a D20 based fantasy roguelike by Julian Mensch that features deep game mechanics and a 'next-gen' religion system. It's possible to win this game as everything from a warrior or summoner or assassin or even a diplomat, and starting characters are considerably more powerful than many other roguelikes. For fans, you'll be glad to hear John Harris has just featured Incursion in his column @ Play.

Doom: the Roguelike, or DoomRL, was runner up in 2007, and had almost the same number of votes cast for it this year. A self-described 'fast and furious coffee-break' of a game, not so much inspired by Doom as an overhead ASCII remake of the original game. DoomRL comes complete with the original Doom MIDI files for that authentic experience and features everything you'd want from the original game. John Harris also featured DoomRL in an @ Play column.

POWDER is the premier portable roguelike, developed originally for the Gameboy Advance but ported to multiple portable and cell phone platforms. While the name is a play on the frequent mispelling of rogue as rouge, the game play comes in tactical bite size chunks winnable in an afternoon. John Harris on POWDER @ Play.

Legerdemain is a roguelike in Java set within the hallucinogenic realm of Phenomedom, that has proved to be endearingly popular, as well as available for purchase in a plastic zip loc bag. John Harris discusses this and more on the @ Play column featuring the game.

For a list of the top ten, as well as further discussion, feel free to meander over to Temple of the Roguelike or comment below.

Runner up for Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year: Dwarf Fortress

The surprise runner up this year is Dwarf Fortress, winner of the 2007 Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year award. Surprising in several senses: Dwarf Fortress is hugely popular, but was consistently in second place over the two weeks of voting, and because Dwarf Fortress is always a contentious nomination in the first place.

Adventurer mode in Dwarf Fortress is definitely a roguelike, but adventurer mode is a small part of the game overall; fortress mode being far more popular. Fortress mode is more akin to a real time strategy game, and this genre based definition of gaming is what people argue disqualifies DF as a roguelike.

I would defend Dwarf Fortress as being a roguelike on 3 counts: firstly, a roguelike is a definition based on agreed conventions, and no one has disputed DF nomination in the first place, or it's presence on Rogue Basin, secondly, Dwarf Fortress is a huge asset to the visibility of roguelikes in general, and an inclusive approach will benefit the community overall, and thirdly, ASCII graphics are cool and should be celebrated in all their glory. (Pictured, as a counter argument, is the 3d Dwarf Fortress visualizer).

I would hope people are generous enough to extend the arms of the roguelike community around all games that embrace a lo fi visual aesthetic, free availability and deep game play. Letrain, the ASCII train simulator, and Privateer: Ascii Sector are both games that do not fit the mold of roguelike in the narrowest sense, but the programming problems of representing a complex world using a grid based visual symbol set, and the process of evolving a community during the development process for a game with a certain visual signature, are exactly the same.

Arguments aside, Dwarf Fortress fans have benefited from a much more regular release cycle in 2008, going from version DF 0.27.173.38a to DF 0.28.181.40c over the year, along with the inclusion of a Macintosh version from February (and soon to be Linux version). The development process has become more inclusive, with third party developers recently contributing significant improvements to the OpenGL performance of the game. And a sister release of Elf Tree Top City shows that the fantasy race simulator genre has significant depth (and hairstyling).

To learn more about Dwarf Fortress, you can read the wikipedia entry, visit the Dwarf Fortress wiki, and join the forums. You can download Dwarf Fortress here.

Angband Variant Relationships

I asked for this on the angband.oook.cz forums earlier, but I figured you, gentle reader, may appreciate it.

It's a simple diagram detailling the approximate relationship between Angband variants from 2004.
For a more up to date list of Angband variants, feel free to consult the list on roguebasin.

Any suggestion on a robust enough source control system to allow the merging of these code bases in a clean fashion is more than welcome.

Winner of Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year: Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

Firstly, a big thanks to everyone who voted, especially those of you who ran a well organised campaign this year.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup had a bumper year in 2008, going from version 0.3.4, released on the 1st of January, through to version 0.4.4, as well as a playable beta of the near-mythical 0.5.0 being available for those brave enough to download it.

This year also saw the inaugral Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup tournament in August, which featured feats of both individual and clan based play on two hosts, as well as a shake out a number of bugs in the 0.4.x line. Four hundred people total entered, showing how active and lively the Crawl community is, and testament to the addictiveness of roguelikes in general.

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has established itself as a well-rounded, tactically rich roguelike, rewarding intelligent game play over mindless hacking. It deserves to be acknowledged in the canon of great roguelikes alongside NetHack, Angband and Rogue itself.

To find out more about Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, you should start with at the home page. I strongly recommend downloading the windows tile version as the best way to get into the game to start with.

If you don't mind being spoiled, John Harris' excellent Before Learning to Walk, One Must Crawl is a good outline of the game play and tactics available to you. The best place for discussion I could find was the rec.games.roguelike.misc group, but if there's a better one, let me know and I'll publicise it here.