[HN Gopher] How to Make a Roguelike
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How to Make a Roguelike
Author : metadat
Score : 58 points
Date : 2022-10-24 19:54 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.gamedeveloper.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.gamedeveloper.com)
| kelseyfrog wrote:
| As mentioned in the article, the r/RoguelikeDev summer code-along
| event[1] is a fantastic way to complete a basic roguelike. It
| provides both a bit of a push and group accountability that some
| people need to get started and maintain momentum. Unfortunately
| it takes place just once a year during (northern hemisphere's)
| summer break because that's when a bunch of young people have
| more time on their hands to do stuff like this. :)
|
| 1. Disclosure: I'm the host
| swayvil wrote:
| What do you like about the turn-based mechanics?
|
| What do you dislike?
| justinlloyd wrote:
| Sudden feelings of guilt as I think "I should really give a few
| weeks of love to my unfinished roguelike." Maybe I'll get to it
| over this year's holiday season. Need to finish the multiplayer,
| the vendor buy/sell system, and compose the music score and I can
| say "done."
| candiddevmike wrote:
| After finally purchasing RimWorld, I don't see the point in
| playing most other games. The vanilla game is incredible, but
| with mods and scenario customizations I can basically create any
| kind of top down game I want: start a game playing it one way
| (super peaceful like the Sims) and flip on a zombie mod once I
| get bored.
| jawr wrote:
| Although a great game, I'm not sure it can be considered a
| roguelike.
| MrLeap wrote:
| It has the procedural generation and permanent death. I'd say
| it shares many characteristics, enough to be called a cousin
| at least.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| When I think of a "roguelike", I think of a game that is
| played in "runs" where a run is typically 60 minutes or
| less, but completing a game round is not completing the
| entire game, as it will take several runs to unlock all the
| features and content. You are also generally not expected
| to be able to complete a run to the final boss in your
| first several attempts.
|
| Hades, FTL, Vampire Survivors, Gunfire Reborn, and Crypt of
| the Necrodancer all satisfy these.
|
| RimWorld is not at all a roguelike because a "run" can
| _easily_ last hundreds of hours.
| jiggawatts wrote:
| It's pretty much a Dwarf Fortress clone.
| dan-g wrote:
| Steve Losh has a great series of blog posts on creating a
| roguelike in Clojure: https://stevelosh.com/blog/2012/07/caves-
| of-clojure-01/
| postalrat wrote:
| Another good roguelike tutorial:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnY7Inp74dw&list=PLea8cjCua_...
|
| Great gameboy translation: https://github.com/binji/porklike.gb
| wchar_t wrote:
| The original article is here:
| https://www.gridsagegames.com/blog/2018/10/how-to-make-a-rog...
|
| The author is the creator of the popular commercial roguelike,
| Cogmind.
| riidom wrote:
| Recently I wondered what the name of the site formerly known as
| gamasutra is. Maybe it's just my bubble, but it feels just dead
| since the renaming :( A pity.
| justinlloyd wrote:
| I feel the same way, and I think it was the point at which the
| physical hardcopy magazine stopped being published.
| skocznymroczny wrote:
| I miss devmaster and flipcode, both coming from the age of
| people writing their own engines. Unfortunately ever since
| Unreal and Unity went mainstream, the community of amateur game
| engine developers shrunk considerably.
| guzik wrote:
| > I need that feature over there, and this one, and what about
| that one!
|
| This hits me hard as I am always 2 days before releasing my first
| roguelike game on Steam since 2021 (shameless plug:
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/2053250/Hellway/).
|
| > Release early and often
|
| Uhh, I really don't think it's a good advice for gamedev.
|
| I really miss the times when games were polished since v1.0.
| Random crash on boss fight? Hey, it's an early access / beta /
| v0.0.1 / we were in rush, forced by some non-sense deadline set
| by our kickstarter campaign (or ego). Wait for the updates!
| kelseyfrog wrote:
| >> Release early and often
|
| > Uhh, I really don't think it's a good advice for gamedev.
|
| It is, but it leaves out a crucial bit of information, namely
| who is the audience to whom the game is released. It's
| important to get feedback early, especially gameplay feedback.
| At the same time, failed releases to the general public do
| little to inspire confidence or provide the valuable kind of
| feedback required in the early phases of development.
| xeromal wrote:
| Roguelike games are one of those major events that happened that
| I completely missed. It's hugely popular and I still don't know
| what a roguelike game is. lol
| pavlov wrote:
| Rogue is actually one of the oldest computer games, the
| original is from 1980:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_(video_game)
| TulliusCicero wrote:
| These days it usually refers to games that have permadeath +
| procedurally generated levels, so every time you die you start
| the whole game over (but an entire 'run' isn't very long, less
| than two hours definitely, often less than one). Sometimes
| there's "meta progression" that does actually persist some
| unlocks or upgrades in between runs.
|
| Originally rogue likes were that, but specifically in the
| gameplay genre of turn-based dungeon crawling RPG's. These days
| they can be in other genres: twin stick shooters, card games,
| action platformers, etc.
| bbreier wrote:
| I _think_ that the meta progression is the sticking point
| that determines whether the game is a roguelike or a
| roguelite, roguelite being the one with the meta progression.
| WastingMyTime89 wrote:
| As the name suggests, rogue likes are games like rogue which
| generally implies a procedurally generated dungeon, aerial view
| which might use ascii graphics, a gameplay loop involving going
| through floors killing monsters while collecting objects and
| levelling up a character and permanent death. They are fairly
| obscure games and not really popular.
|
| What has become really popular and was introduced by roguelikes
| is using procedural generation in games. When it's done well it
| does wonder for replayability.
| swayvil wrote:
| Procedural generation is the wild frontier. It's like a visit
| from aliens.
| haunter wrote:
| > They are fairly obscure games and not really popular
|
| Nah come on. They are incredibly popular since the indie
| revival age (~2005). Arguably one of the most popular indie
| genre. Spelunky, FTL, The Binding of Isaac, Rogue Legacy,
| Slay the Spire, Darkest Dungeon just to name a few. Hades,
| which is pretty much an AA rougelike.
|
| Recently the biggest hit is Vampire Survivors [0]. Top 50
| game on Steam with 20-35k players.
|
| 0, https://store.steampowered.com/app/1794680/Vampire_Survivo
| rs...
| henryfjordan wrote:
| Vampire Survivor and others like it are starting to form
| their own sub-genre. There are so many bullet-hell
| roguelikes just like it coming out these days. Making a
| clone seem like a great first game project.
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