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JS roguelike game: The Royal Wedding

ondras.zarovi.cz

61–70 of 75 posts

Re: JS roguelike game: The Royal Wedding

#61

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.

I agree; the narrative should bring more attention to itself. Not sure about the proper UI/UX way to do that, though...

Re: JS roguelike game: The Royal Wedding

#63
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 rand…

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.

Re: JS roguelike game: The Royal Wedding

#64

It looks very nice, and I'm pretty impressed with the effects. I do have to admit though that personally I just don't 'get' rougelikes, maybe I'm just too young, but they just don't really interest me.

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 healt…

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!

Re: JS roguelike game: The Royal Wedding

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 healt…

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 Fort…

Be careful, FTL is very addictive :)

Incidentally FTL was funded (at least partially) by a Kickstarter they did in early 2012. It ended up being one of the biggest PC games of 2012.

Re: JS roguelike game: The Royal Wedding

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 rand…

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.

Thats a cool idea. Havent played either of those games but will check them out.

Re: JS roguelike game: The Royal Wedding

#67
post #61

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.

I agree; the narrative should bring more attention to itself. Not sure about the proper UI/UX way to do that, though...

Having the text in different colors would be enough. Maybe just a different "brightness" of that golden color

Re: JS roguelike game: The Royal Wedding

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 rand…

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.

Re: JS roguelike game: The Royal Wedding

#69
post #54
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.
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