Bay 12 Games Forum
Other Projects => Other Games => Topic started by: zirconst on March 08, 2017, 07:21:27 pm
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Hello! I'm the developer for Tangledeep (http://tangledeep.com), an upcoming roguelike/dungeon crawler RPG for PC/OSX and (eventually) Linux. The game is inspired by the 16-bit aesthetic of some of my favorite SNES games like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Terranigma, and a bit of Shiren the Wanderer as well. If you fondly remember RPGs of that time, I'm hoping you'll love this game too!
Tangledeep is about exploring a mysterious dungeon, caves and ruins that lead to the surface of a world forgotten by time. It has tactical combat with lots of abilities, 7 character jobs (and counting! plus, you can multiclass) and lots of items to find, equip, and throw at enemies. I'm trying to make it more accessible than some roguelikes by removing 'cruft' that to me is less fun (like hunger clocks and way too many keyboard commands), while enhancing the aspects I enjoy, like dynamic combat and monsters, Diablo style loot etc.
The game is currently free, and you can play it now! But it will eventually be sold on Steam. At some point between now and then it will become not-free :D
Latest Builds
WIN: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Tangledeep-LatestWinBuild.rar
OSX: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Tangledeep-LatestOSXBuild.zip
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TangledeepGame
Discord: https://discord.gg/4q5kjUm
Full Dev Log @ TIGSource (https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=57600.0)
https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=57600.0
Interested in getting email updates about the game on a regular basis? Mailing list is here! (http://eepurl.com/cAFft1)
(http://zirconstudios.com/game/TangledeepCast.png)
The cast of characters so far
(http://zirconstudios.com/game/TangledeepWorld.png)
The first level of the dungeon
(http://zirconstudios.com/game/HunterWalkingAnimation.gif)
Walking test - with a successful Kickstarter, we can animate lots more!
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Game looks neat. Your first post on the Bay12 Forums being a pitch and looking for backers is a lot less neat.
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Game looks neat. Your first post on the Bay12 Forums being a pitch and looking for backers is a lot less neat.
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I apologize - I'm not looking for backers, that isn't why I posted. I just want to spread the word about the game itself, which again is currently free. Just to back up a little bit I've been playing games for a long time, and writing music for them for most of my career. I worked on Dungeonmans which went over really well in the RL community and I'm very proud of my contributions to audio there, plus a little bit of extra design work. So last year I took the plunge and decided to pick up C# and make a game myself. It's been a lifelong dream and I'm doing it out of passion with every minute of my spare time. While it would be nice to recoup whatever money I put into it, Tangledeep could sell 100 copies and I'd still be overwhelmingly happy with simply working on it and making the best game I possibly can!
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[Deleted]
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Zero points won, still a dumb reason to join b12. Reported
WTF.
People getting mildly annoyed over this I can understand, even if it seems a little petty. But reporting someone for sharing their game?
That's quite an overreaction, there.
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A bit, yeah. Dev is clearly a human.
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Zero points won, still a dumb reason to join b12. Reported
FFS. Seriously? Absolutely uncalled for and ridiculous. Games get shared here all the damned time by their devs and they tend to stick to their own topics just as much as this one has.
@Zirconst: Apologies for the rude introduction to our community. While it's generally understood that people sharing their games here become active members of the community, you obviously put a lot of love into this game and into researching where to show it off. It looks like a good time and I look forward to trying it out.
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Zero points won, still a dumb reason to join b12. Reported
I don't even care if you think this is a joke or if you are serious, this is not okay from anyone, period.
Edit: zircon, I think your project looks great, and I appreciate your sharing it here. While there cannot be an adequate apology for this kind of reception, I am sincerely sorry that this is how your first post was responded to.
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Well, some people seem to think they belong to some kind of elite.
I love the old SNES RPGs and I love RLs, I guess I will love Tangledeep, too ;)
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You'd be surprised as to how many projects are made by the devs to feed themselves as a side purpose. I believe reporting out of some misguided sense of social justice is just outright disgusting. Hope you'll be on this side as well, making ends meet and doing sales pitches not because you want to, but you have to.
Which brings me to this point; I'm more tolerant of the sales pitch, but it being the first post as well may leave a bad taste in other people's mouths and I understand where they're coming from. How about this: why not put Patreons and Kickstarters in a separate blog, which you can link and also have it double as a progress report?
Also really digging it so far; just waiting for more news on the matter.
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Zero points won, still a dumb reason to join b12. Reported
Real human replies nicely and clarifies their first post, and your response is to say it's dumb and to report them? Report them for what? Engaging with the community and trying to rectify the faux pas they made? Posts like these are the reason why Bay12 has a bad reputation and drives off developers from posting.
Hello! I'm the developer for Tangledeep (http://tangledeep.com), an upcoming roguelike/dungeon crawler RPG for PC/OSX and (eventually) Linux. The game is inspired by the 16-bit aesthetic of some of my favorite SNES games like Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Terranigma, and a bit of Shiren the Wanderer as well. If you fondly remember RPGs of that time, I'm hoping you'll love this game too!
Hello zircon, I'm a big fan of your OCRemix work. I'm very much liking what I see, and am all about roguelikes that focus on removing the "cruft", as you called it. There looks like there's a lot of potential in your vision!
My advice is to talk less about things like Steam, sales models, and Kickstarters; focus more on getting feedback for your game and starting a conversation about it. Build rapport with the community first, and address questions about monetization when they naturally come from people interested in the project.
Also, a link to a YouTube video of gameplay would go a long way towards getting people to click on a zip file from an unknown source.
Here's a link to a guy that's posted over an hour of Tangledeep gameplay from the 3-7-17 build: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOkdt98-UyA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOkdt98-UyA)
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Yo, hold up. That zircon? ... yeah, now that I check, it is indeed. Hadn't even noticed when I read the OP.
I may have just become a bit more interested, ha. Definitely pretty appreciative of the OCR stuff, so taking some time off from other stuff becomes a bit easier to convince myself to do :P
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i very much do not see where promoting a personal creative project is a bad reason to join this forum.
anyhow, game looks neat, im giving it a try :)
there is a never version then the one linked in the op btw.
just remove that build.... part from the linked url in the op to find it. im not sure if its ok if i poste a link so you haveto do it on your own.
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Shame on me.
I can not stress jow sorry i am for that. I really dont know what got into me. I was a insensitive prick. Welome to the forums.
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No apology necessary, I've been on the internet for awhile and I should know better! FWIW most of my time spent has been talking with people about the game on TIGsource (dev blog) and the SomethingAwful roguelike thread. I'm also on r/roguelikedev (and the Discord for it), where Kyzrati mentioned this in a recent post of "cool roguelike communities I post in" :-) Tangledeep is what I do until 4am and it's what gets me up in the morning so I got a little excited about posting first. But this seems like a great place and I'll be contributing to other threads too of course.
Anyway! I will make a gameplay video soon, I've been working on some big polish things and replacing placeholder art before I do. Hoping to clean up a bunch of the UI art as well. Also by the next build there will be some basic metagame things you can do, like banking items for retrieval on your next character (for a fee of course), a la Shiren. Also gotta write some new music...
Here are the latest builds:
WIN: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build3-9-17.rar
OSX: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build3-9-17.app.zip
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Well, some people seem to think they belong to some kind of elite.
I don't think it's anything to do with feeling part of some 'elite' so much as that people feel like they're constantly marketed-to enough elsewhere - it's practically inescapable, these days. And it could easily become the norm for that to be the case here, as well.
I agree with nenjin, but yeah, I do think Moony went too far in talking about reporting the guy. That said, I have seen Toady remove the more egregious examples of marketing from the forum (guys who've copied and pasted their sales pitch in a dozen other forums on the same day, for example, and never returned to answer questions).
I'm not promoting first-post-advertising, I just think that
... reporting out of some misguided sense of social justice is just outright disgusting. ...
Well, it seems he gave it another thought.
Shame on me.
I can not stress jow sorry i am for that. I really dont know what got into me. I was a insensitive prick. Welome to the forums.
It was just that your reaction was inappropriate and over the top. Had this post looked any more like the many others we've seen here, I would have totally agreed with you. But here you can clearly see that he is sorry, and you can really see the passion when reading his explanation, I like that.
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No apology necessary, I've been on the internet for awhile and I should know better! FWIW most of my time spent has been talking with people about the game on TIGsource (dev blog) and the SomethingAwful roguelike thread. I'm also on r/roguelikedev (and the Discord for it), where Kyzrati mentioned this in a recent post of "cool roguelike communities I post in" :-) Tangledeep is what I do until 4am and it's what gets me up in the morning so I got a little excited about posting first. But this seems like a great place and I'll be contributing to other threads too of course.
Anyway! I will make a gameplay video soon, I've been working on some big polish things and replacing placeholder art before I do. Hoping to clean up a bunch of the UI art as well. Also by the next build there will be some basic metagame things you can do, like banking items for retrieval on your next character (for a fee of course), a la Shiren. Also gotta write some new music...
Here are the latest builds:
WIN: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build3-9-17.rar
OSX: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build3-9-17.app.zip
Looks nice. Will you be publishing a Linux build?
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so, i played a bit, and i like it over all.
there where a few annoyances tho:
if i buy something from the shop, it buys some random stuff i hadnt selected. not clicking the item directly but in the same line far right beside the item seems to do the trick, but its a big source of frustration.
i have no idea how to use my equipment screen. i have not found a good way to change out an equiped weapon for one i have not equiped. i found out i can drop something with d from that screen by smashing my keyboard against my head a few time. but i think you must have another way in mind to do it. maybe it would help to list the keyboard commands at the bottom of the screen.
the hud will sometimes block me from interacting with the game.
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Oh, two more questions: What is the game written in, and will there be modding support?
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Looks nice. Will you be publishing a Linux build?
Yes I definitely plan on doing a Linux build. It may take a couple months because I need to actually get and set up a Linux test bench for it and then do some research. If I connect with a publisher (no idea if that will happen) hopefully that will become easier.
if i buy something from the shop, it buys some random stuff i hadnt selected. not clicking the item directly but in the same line far right beside the item seems to do the trick, but its a big source of frustration.
i have no idea how to use my equipment screen. i have not found a good way to change out an equiped weapon for one i have not equiped. i found out i can drop something with d from that screen by smashing my keyboard against my head a few time. but i think you must have another way in mind to do it. maybe it would help to list the keyboard commands at the bottom of the screen.
the hud will sometimes block me from interacting with the game.
Sorry, UI is the biggest annoyance right now for sure! Working on it, with my UX guy sketching out a revamp of the hud completely.
Oh, two more questions: What is the game written in, and will there be modding support?
I'm using Unity (which is why the Linux port shouldn't be toooo bad...) and C#.
There will be some level of modding support. The game reads most of the key data about items, monsters, abilities, NPCs, rooms, maps (etc) from external files. With a bit of effort I should be able to let players create and import their own files to create new content. The main barrier is just making sure the data is properly validated before importing, so I might write a few simple tools for that.
In terms of code modability, like rewriting monster AI or something like that, it's not on the to-do list at the moment. But it IS theoretically possible. I would probably use Lua or something to let players safely import new code.
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Here are the latest builds:
WIN: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build3-9-17.rar
OSX: http://zirconstudios.com/game/Build3-9-17.app.zip
This came up beforehand in the OP, but an easier way to do this would be to upload a zip named "latest.rar"/"latest.app.zip" and just replacing it each time a new build is released. You can do specific build downloads as you do now, but that way you can just pass around one URL and not worry about keeping it up-to-date/people downloading outdated builds because they didn't look into it.
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PTW. I really like the artstyle and think it would work great in a roguelike. I'm a big fan of input "simplified" roguelikes, because with sufficient thought you really shouldn't need so many keys (DoomRL is a good example of "doing it right"). UIs can be tricky, and can take up a surprising amount of dev time to ensure they don't bloat, but it's worth it (Kyzrati's Cogmind is an excellent example). I hope you can find a nice balance for both. It really enhances playability massively, even for people that are used to stuff like DF's incomprehensibly scattered menuing system
Anyway, I'll give it a go sometime today and give you some feedback on the game. Looking forward to it. Thanks for posting and surviving the initial barrage of first-post BS that tends to happen around here. You'd be surprised how often people get called on it, even though it's incredibly rare for a developer to post about their game on Bay12 and *not* come back to see how it was received. Cheers.
(I wonder if I'll get something like that when I finally post on my game? Especially since I probably will make a new account for game only related stuff.)
Just a heads up, your dev-log link in the original post doesn't actually link anywhere.
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Good suggestion on the "Latest Build" links. I've updated the OP as there's a new build today (3/17) with a pretty big list of changes. Everything from general art polish (particularly UI improvements, like proper item/equipment comparison), to balance stuff, optimization, some new content - including the Banker, an NPC that can store items between characters, lots of bug fixes, and a good deal more.
Even though I have at least 7 more months of development ahead, making the game *feel* as good as possible is really important to me. It needs to have a superb level of polish and excellent feedback. So, hopefully I'm one step closer to that goal!
If you want to read the full writeup of changes, you can check it out here: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=57600.msg1323145#msg1323145
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Game has been launched on Steam!
Trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0N3sEuRJ_I) looks AMAZING and the gameplay mechanics feel flawless! Cute mobs & environment, compelling music, feel good backstory; challenging difficulty curve (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT_kNAHXEkQ&t=2h07m57s) forces you to spam consumables but you can inherit loot after dying and memorize attacks patterns. I give this game an 8 out of 10, but if you're a fan of old school roguelikes then this is a 10 out of 10. This game is revolutionary because it implements so many niche game mechanics flawlessly!
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looking forward to checking this out
A bit, yeah. Dev is clearly a human.
a human who deserves an apology from you, as you apparently couldn't be bothered to read his OP before attacking him
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I won't, and no, that wasn't attacking.
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This does look really great, I added it to my wishlist and will probably pick it up when budget allows.
A bit, yeah. Dev is clearly a human.
a human who deserves an apology from you, as you apparently couldn't be bothered to read his OP before attacking him
I won't, and no, that wasn't attacking.
FWIW I agree with Nenjin. Joining Bay12 and making your first post about your project is not really appreciated. At least make an effort to be part of the community. That said, it was a free project so it's not as if he was selling anything at that time. No drama needed.
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Yeah if you want to bitch at me about my feelings about forum etiquette, PM me or start a new thread.
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I'm thinking that ZeroGravitas just didn't read the posts between the first and yours, or that martian is his first language.
In other news: first post needs tidying up.
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I'm thinking that ZeroGravitas just didn't read the posts between the first and yours,
there were no posts between the first and nenjin's. nenjin just immediately jumped in and told the OP he shouldn't be pitching a game and asking for backers... which the OP wasn't doing.
moony then started being even more of a jerk, but that was handled and moony apologized. but apparently nenjin can't admit his own inability to read before throwing accusations, and won't apologize. whatever.
In other news: first post needs tidying up.
yeah, i was curious if the game is still available free or if its now just sold on steam.
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but apparently nenjin can't admit his own inability to read before throwing accusations, and won't apologize. whatever.
What part are you referencing here? What do you think nenjin didn't read?
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Dunno if it's still intentionally available for free, but there's a 4/2017 build still on zircon's site. The latest build link in the OP 404s, but if you cut off the file and leave just game/, you can find some stuff lingering.
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Game is fantastic quality and well worth excitement now and to come---odds are high this will be one of the most polished Roguelike releases overall that 2018 will see. Ample post-release support is also in the works to continue moving things forward in the spirit of all the greats before it that it now strides alongside. 8)
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Just noticed for the first time that zircon, who makes awesome ocremix music, was posting here. Its a shame he didn't get a very warm welcome, but I'm also kinda late to the party.
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Dredging this one out of the depths of the grave courtesy of the (at time of posting) 1$ Humble Bundle bundle...
It's good; it shouldn't be in the 1$ tier, but higher up.
Outside of character skills, the core plays more or less like a standard roguelike, with some QoL built in like free town portals, fast travel to dungeon shops, and optionally turning off perma-death. Character skills are one of the more defining elements: You can freely multiclass, learning active and passive skills along the way, and switch to a different class for a token amount, losing only specific-class bonuses. My first win was with a quad-class, with two of my classes offering up three skills between them. Unfortunately, you can only take four different class-based passives at once,
There's a pet raising/breeding mechanic, and don't ignore it; if you put in the effort, they can vastly outpower a normal endgame character. (Don't ignore the starter pet-- that guy has an awesome skill that you probably want to ensure gets bred into all offspring.)
You can dive into equipment (Disgaea...?) to strengthen it, either giving it a specific mod, or a random one.
And the music's good!
Edit: Holy, I should not post anything that resembles a review when dosed with cold meds. That was awful.
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Oh. Huh. Yeah, I'll be getting that, probably tomorrow afternoon. The free/beta thing was fun enough, and at that price range it's a steal. Shame there's nothing else in the bundle I'm interested in, though...
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Oh. Huh. Yeah, I'll be getting that, probably tomorrow afternoon. The free/beta thing was fun enough, and at that price range it's a steal. Shame there's nothing else in the bundle I'm interested in, though...
Tooth and Tail's not bad and it made a modest attempt at playing with the RTS formula; I found the dialogue in the single player campaign to be somewhat chilling when you read between the lines. Some of the missions are super frustrating though.
And how could you not want Dream Daddy? :o I bought at the base tier.
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I'm just not terribly fond of dating sim/visual novel stuff on the whole, really. Even the good stuff irks me. Something about having to go through the dialogue boxes et al like you do just irritates me more than a game is worth to me, heh.