And your next project is not a roguelike, please leave a comment here.
Monday, 20 February 2012
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Not the key
This opinion piece on the Zelda series elegantly summarises why I don't think a 'procedural Zelda' will ever be interesting.
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Interview with David Ploog
If you're at all interested in game design, you should listen to David Ploog (former lead designer of Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup) get interviewed by the Roguelike Radio team.
Sunday, 12 February 2012
To do list
You might note that my to do list is progressing very slowly - at least the public face of that list (Unangband development, blogging) has virtually stalled. I've got two very good reasons, plus I'm back working full time with a long commute.
I've mentioned previously that my OS X laptop was running Tiger. No longer, I've upgraded to Leopard - anything newer felt a little risky.
Given the amount of software I now have access to, it feels like a new machine. So I've taken advantage of being able to run Steam natively, and started playing some games in the comfort of the living room.
As a result: I've beaten Mom's Heart in the Binding of Isaac. The Book of Shadows and Virus together feels like cheating - even more so when I had every stat at maximum. Isaac, however, is one of those games which you need at least one ability which fulfils that requirement in order to get anywhere.
Unfortunately, you won't be able to follow my progress, as the OS X version of Isaac doesn't support achievements. This is probably a good thing, as I
Next on the list is fixing a bug which has made the current Angband competition featuring Unangband a lot less interesting than it should be.
Thursday, 9 February 2012
New poll 'How do you handle errors?'
Just put a quick poll up for roguelike developers out there: how do you handle error conditions in your code?
(Inspired by this discussion, which you should read after you vote).
Friday, 3 February 2012
Fast Pathfinding via Symmetry Breaking
This paper at AI Game Dev has immediate and natural application to roguelikes, and uses a number of techniques I've not seen discussed elsewhere. The headline quote is 'up to 30 times improvement on A*'.
I can see RSR being extended for Dijkstra maps, by storing the map cost at each rectangle corner, instead of every grid, and interpolating if required. (Paging Pender).
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Action roguelike watch 2012
The latest developer to jump on the 'I want to be popular and make a lot of money developing a roguelike' bandwagon is one Notch.
Tuesday, 27 December 2011
Full Results for the Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year 2011
I thought we'd reached a high point last year with the number of votes: this year had nearly three times as many. Thank you to all 2937 of you who came here to vote for your favourite roguelike. Remember, in many ways the point of this poll is not to see who is the winner, but to see what games might be worth playing. If you step outside the winners circle and those games which merited an honourable mention, there are still a huge number of roguelikes which warrant a play if you've not done so already.
transmission... | 1 (0%) |
100 Rogues | 28 (0%) |
3079 | 8 (0%) |
3D/2D dungeon crawl | 4 (0%) |
7DRL PUZZLE CHALLENGE | 1 (0%) |
7DRLCC | 1 (0%) |
91 | 3 (0%) |
A Little Anxious When It's Dark | 1 (0%) |
Adventurer | 5 (0%) |
Alamut | 3 (0%) |
AlfaRogue | 1 (0%) |
Allure of the Stars | 4 (0%) |
Anauroch | 2 (0%) |
Angband | 68 (2%) |
Anylo's Roguelike | 1 (0%) |
Ascii Sector | 37 (1%) |
Avendesora | 1 (0%) |
Bardess | 2 (0%) |
The Binding of Isaac | 199 (6%) |
Block Rogue | 5 (0%) |
BOSS | 4 (0%) |
Brogue | 240 (8%) |
Broken Bottle | 35 (1%) |
Bushudo | 1 (0%) |
ButtonHack | 2 (0%) |
Cardinal Quest | 68 (2%) |
Cataclysm | 170 (5%) |
Caves of Qud | 87 (2%) |
Chompy! | 1 (0%) |
Clarion | 4 (0%) |
Crawl Light | 6 (0%) |
Cypress Tree Manor | 1 (0%) |
DaJAngband | 5 (0%) |
Deep Realms Heroes | 2 (0%) |
Defender of the Deep | 12 (0%) |
Demonhunt | 9 (0%) |
Descension | 2 (0%) |
Desktop Dungeons | 391 (13%) |
Destiny of Heroes | 3 (0%) |
Detribus | 2 (0%) |
Devil *MIGHT* Laugh | 2 (0%) |
Diabololical Dungeons of Dr Devil | 1 (0%) |
Diggr | 18 (0%) |
DoomRL: Doom, the Roguelike | 178 (6%) |
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup | 486 (16%) |
Dungeon Maker | 3 (0%) |
DungeonRL | 3 (0%) |
Dungeons of Decay | 1 (0%) |
Dungeons of Dredmor | 612 (20%) |
Dwarf Fortress | 373 (12%) |
Dwarftown | 4 (0%) |
Dweller | 17 (0%) |
Elite International Detective | 1 (0%) |
EmoSquid | 3 (0%) |
Eracia | 0 (0%) |
Escape from the Master's Lair | 1 (0%) |
Expedition | 17 (0%) |
Exploring The Bleak | 1 (0%) |
FAangband | 23 (0%) |
Fall From Heaven | 11 (0%) |
Free-Like | 0 (0%) |
Gauntlet | 0 (0%) |
Geiger A.D. '42 | 0 (0%) |
GhostbustersAscii | 2 (0%) |
GnomeSquad | 2 (0%) |
Goblin Camp | 38 (1%) |
Grand Rogue Auto | 4 (0%) |
Gridfolk | 0 (0%) |
Hack 'n Slash Online | 0 (0%) |
Happy Ever After | 0 (0%) |
Harrowed | 0 (0%) |
Hordes of Tarshish | 0 (0%) |
Hydra Slayer | 11 (0%) |
Hyperbolic Rogue | 11 (0%) |
Ignite | 12 (0%) |
Infra Arcana | 62 (2%) |
Into the Dungeon | 12 (0%) |
Inversion of Control | 5 (0%) |
JADE | 431 (14%) |
js-like | 4 (0%) |
JSRL | 0 (0%) |
Kepler | 0 (0%) |
Kharne | 0 (0%) |
kusemono | 4 (0%) |
Labyrinths & Legends | 1 (0%) |
The Lair of Xar | 2 (0%) |
LambdaHack | 1 (0%) |
LambdaRogue | 23 (0%) |
LarnHD | 4 (0%) |
Legacy | 1 (0%) |
Legacy of a Warlord | 2 (0%) |
Legends of Yore | 94 (3%) |
Legerdemain | 24 (0%) |
Liberal Crime Squad | 25 (0%) |
Light7DRL | 0 (0%) |
Lost Labyrinth | 9 (0%) |
LumberjackRL | 3 (0%) |
Mad Mage | 2 (0%) |
MageGuild | 8 (0%) |
MAGHD | 1 (0%) |
Magicko | 4 (0%) |
Magog | 3 (0%) |
The Man in the Mirror | 6 (0%) |
Microcosm | 1 (0%) |
Middlecrest | 3 (0%) |
The Moor | 0 (0%) |
Monster Slayer Show | 5 (0%) |
MonsterEnthrallerRL | 0 (0%) |
Mysterious Castle | 3 (0%) |
NarwhaRL | 1 (0%) |
Neon | 2 (0%) |
NetPack | 8 (0%) |
Netwhack | 2 (0%) |
NLarn | 7 (0%) |
NPPAngband | 20 (0%) |
PabloQuest | 2 (0%) |
Piraten | 0 (0%) |
Pitman Krumb | 5 (0%) |
PM:theRL | 0 (0%) |
Portralis - NewAngband | 10 (0%) |
POWDER | 66 (2%) |
PRIME | 2 (0%) |
Prospector RL | 49 (1%) |
PWMAngband | 5 (0%) |
pYendor | 0 (0%) |
Pyromancer | 6 (0%) |
Quest for the Unicorn | 0 (0%) |
Quickband | 13 (0%) |
Random Realms | 1 (0%) |
Rayel | 9 (0%) |
Regicide! | 0 (0%) |
RevivedHack | 0 (0%) |
Rings of Valor | 6 (0%) |
Rising Force | 1 (0%) |
Rogue - The Cardlike | 1 (0%) |
Rogue Assassin | 6 (0%) |
Rogue Project 2 | 0 (0%) |
Rogue Survivor | 49 (1%) |
Rogue Zombies | 3 (0%) |
RogueDungeons | 0 (0%) |
Roguelike GCS | 1 (0%) |
Roguestar | 0 (0%) |
RogueUnlike | 0 (0%) |
roguezombies | 2 (0%) |
Rook | 6 (0%) |
Run from the Shadow | 9 (0%) |
S.C.O.U.R.G.E. 2 | 1 (0%) |
Serial Killer | 7 (0%) |
Siegfried | 7 (0%) |
Silence | 0 (0%) |
SilverQuest | 2 (0%) |
Skills Angband - Sangband | 12 (0%) |
The Slimy Lichmummy | 20 (0%) |
SRL | 0 (0%) |
SRogue | 0 (0%) |
Stellar Edge | 1 (0%) |
Storming the Ship | 0 (0%) |
Stygia | 2 (0%) |
Temple of Vengeance | 1 (0%) |
Through | 1 (0%) |
ToME 4 | 702 (23%) |
TomeNET | 16 (0%) |
Traction Edge | 0 (0%) |
Triangle Wizard | 39 (1%) |
Twelve Hours | 2 (0%) |
unnamed | 0 (0%) |
Unnamed Angband - UnAngband | 31 (1%) |
UnNetHack | 32 (1%) |
UnReal World | 79 (2%) |
Untitled | 1 (0%) |
Vapors of Insanity | 6 (0%) |
Vicious Orcs | 20 (0%) |
Voyage to Farland | 4 (0%) |
Warudo | 1 (0%) |
WebRaidMobile | 0 (0%) |
Wordrogue | 1 (0%) |
World of Tey | 6 (0%) |
X@COM | 90 (3%) |
XirrelaiRPG | 1 (0%) |
Honourable Mentions for Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year 2011
Three games had more votes than were required to win last year's roguelike of the year: Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup, JADE and Desktop Dungeons, with Dwarf Fortress needing only 12 votes to do the same.
Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup is a previous winner which has continued to improve year on year.
JADE should be seen as the newcomer this year, although Thomas Biskup's pedigree as the designer of ADOM ensures that his next game was always going to receive a lot of attention.
Desktop Dungeons is a challenging puzzle roguelike now in an extended beta, and looking forward to a commercial release next year.
Dwarf Fortress is a previous winner, with the next release looking to fulfil more of the potential of its roguelike adventure mode.
All up, an incredible 10 roguelikes got more than 150 votes, those I've already mentioned as well as The Binding of Isaac, Brogue, Cataclysm and DoomRL: Doom, the Roguelike. The fact that so many roguelikes got so many votes shows the strength of the genre.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
