Bay 12 Games Forum

The Berlin International Roguelike Development Conference has issued a redefinition of the term "roguelike":

=High value factors==

====Random environment generation====
The game world is randomly generated in a way that increases replayability. Appearance and placement of items is random. Appearance of monsters is fixed, their placement is random. Fixed content (plots or puzzles or vaults) removes randomness.

====Permadeath====
You are not expected to win the game with your first character.  You start over from the first level when you die.  (It is possible to save games but the savefile is deleted upon loading.)  The random environment makes this enjoyable rather than punishing.

====Turn-based====
Each command corresponds to a single action/movement.  The game is not sensitive to time, you can take your time to choose your action.

====Grid-based====
The world is represented by a uniform grid of tiles.  Monsters (and the player) take up one tile, regardless of size.

====Non-modal====
Movement, battle and other actions take place in the same mode.  Every action should be available at any point of the game. Violations to this are ADOM's overworld or Angand's and Crawl's shops.

====Complexity====
The game has enough complexity to allow several solutions to common goals. This is obtained by providing enough item/monster and item/item interactions and is strongly connected to having just one mode.

====Resource management====
You have to manage your limited resources (e.g. food, healing potions) and find uses for the resources you receive.

====Hack'n'slash====
Even though there can be much more to the game, killing lots of monsters is a very important part of a roguelike.  The game is player- vs-world: there are no monster/monster relations (like enmities, or
diplomacy).

====Exploration and discovery====
The game requires careful exploration of the dungeon levels and discovery of the usage of unidentified items. This has to be done anew every time the player starts a new game.

==Low value factors==
====Single player character====
The player controls a single character. The game is player-centric, the world is viewed through that one character and that character's death is the end of the game.

====Monsters are similar to players====
Rules that apply to the player apply to monsters as well. They have inventories, equipment, use items, cast spells etc.

====Tactical challenge====
You have to learn about the tactics before you can make any significant progress.  This process repeats itself, i.e. early game knowledge is not enough to beat the late game.  (Due to random environments and permanent death, roguelikes are challenging to new players.)

The game's focus is on providing tactical challenges (as opposed to strategically working on the big picture, or solving puzzles).

====ASCII display====
The traditional display for roguelikes is to represent the tiled world by ASCII characters.

====Dungeons====
Roguelikes contain dungeons, such as levels composed of rooms and corridors.

====Numbers====
The numbers used to describe the character (hit points, attributes etc.) are deliberately shown.

To me, it appears that Dwarf Fortress fits firmly within this redefinition as a roguelike game, the only significant exceptions being a lack of unknown items requiring discovery and a lack of dungeons in the traditional sense.

The IRDC post may be found at http://www.roguetemple.com/forums/index.php?topic

Imagine a power goal like this:
"A caravan arrives with an ancient scroll.  The dwarves purchase and read it.  The scroll describes a great artifact (a rhyolite armor stand menacing with spikes of giant cave spider silk, etc.) constructed by the stonecrafter Zasir Regelin in the year 1058 at the fortress of Stone Mountain.  The dwarves prepare the army for an expedition to Stone Mountain to recover this valuable artifact from the haunted ruins."

Books (or scrolls) could record information acquired during the lifespan of a fortress.  Topics could include artifacts, creatures the dwarves have encountered, and the biographies of prominent individuals in the fortress or famous adventurers.  Books could be valuable trade goods to encourage their dissemination into the world (once the Caravan arc is initiated).

Cumulative knowledge of the world's creatures could also be recorded in books as it becomes available to the dwarves, i.e. "A Natural History of the Naked Mole Rat".  Information could include a species description, products while living, products upon butchering, size, special attacks, and so forth.  This aspect of books would be especially valuable once randomly generated monsters are introduced into the game.

The economy of book production would be relatively straightforward.  Either paper or vellum may be used.  Paper could require wood + lye giving the alchemy lab something more to do.  Vellum could be prepared automatically from any leather by a writing specialist, avoiding the complication of the alchemy lab while adding additional time to the task of writing.

A writing job order and writing specialist (scribe) would have to be introduced as well.  Naturally, he would produce books from paper or leather.  Once a book is produced, it may be added to as more information on the topic becomes available; the products of dragon butchery may be determined long after initial observations are made, for example.  Furthermore, an option for the player to add notes himself to the books would be very useful.

Further complexities could, of course, be endlessly added to the system.  Writing engraved walls & tablets, religious books, a library designated room, and a sage noble specialist who directs the scribes are just a few possible additions.

Regards,

Zasir Sarveshkol
Editor, The Weatheredgrip Gazette
Kingdom of the Sizzling Gears