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[Rebel Crusader]

Hey everyone. I would like to share with you a game I'm currently developing; a tactical turn based strategy game in a sci-fi world setting. It's strongly inspired in Julian Gollop's classic: Rebelstar.

The game is still in early stage of deveopment and most artwork is missing.
Please visit http://www.rebelcrusader.net if you would like to know more about it and follow its development.

Nonetheless, feel free to ask anything about it over here.

[EDIT]
I've just released another video about Rebel Crusader. This development blog focus on the interface.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOtki-l9l2M&t=3s

[Reelya]

This is cool, I used to play Rebelstar on the olden days computers when we had to punchcard in our own games

[Rebel Crusader]

This is cool, I used to play Rebelstar on the olden days computers when we had to punchcard in our own games

I lost the count of hours I spend playing Rebelstar with my friends, including tuning the tape recorder so that games could actually be readable by the computer.

[Reelya]

OMG yeah I had that on goddamn tape, too. Later I had it on disk and was able to edit the map btw.

BTW mine was the Amstrad version.

One cool thing you could do with the pathfinding is to record a heat map. e.g. play out thousands of fast battles between AIs then wherever they get hit you raise the cost to travel to that square, and wherever they are standing, and get a hit on the enemy, you lower the cost of that square. Gradually the map will "learn" the good and bad places to stand / walk (e.g. if a specific tile has a higher death chance during the enemy turn than other squares, then the AI might path through there but it should be smart enough not to stop there at the end of turn, or if there is a room with a row of pillars then the area behind the pillars will be slightly safer to walk on than the area in front, so AIs will tend to walk behind the pillars when possible).

[snow dwarf]

Could this count as a rogue-lite?

[Rebel Crusader]

OMG yeah I had that on goddamn tape, too. Later I had it on disk and was able to edit the map btw.

BTW mine was the Amstrad version.

One cool thing you could do with the pathfinding is to record a heat map. e.g. play out thousands of fast battles between AIs then wherever they get hit you raise the cost to travel to that square, and wherever they are standing, and get a hit on the enemy, you lower the cost of that square. Gradually the map will "learn" the good and bad places to stand / walk (e.g. if a specific tile has a higher death chance during the enemy turn than other squares, then the AI might path through there but it should be smart enough not to stop there at the end of turn, or if there is a room with a row of pillars then the area behind the pillars will be slightly safer to walk on than the area in front, so AIs will tend to walk behind the pillars when possible).

That's a fine suggestion! When I start implementing the AI I will look into it! Thank you! Oh by the way, I played the Spectrum version of Rebelstar.

[Rebel Crusader]

Could this count as a rogue-lite?

Well, I've actually been thinking about it. It has permadeath and all but I'm not sure if it deserves such title... If you have read about it at its website, what do you think about it? Is there room for a "roguelikish" keyword?

Thank you!

[Reelya]

Rebelstar was never a roguelike. It's a turn-based tactical combat game that was the originator of X-Com.

[snow dwarf]

Could this count as a rogue-lite?

Well, I've actually been thinking about it. It has permadeath and all but I'm not sure if it deserves such title... If you have read about it at its website, what do you think about it? Is there room for a "roguelikish" keyword?

Thank you!

There are horrible games that still count as rogue-lites and because this looks like an awesome game, which I would play and does apply to the criteria, I do think it could be a rogue-lite.

[Rebel Crusader]

There are horrible games that still count as rogue-lites and because this looks like an awesome game, which I would play and does apply to the criteria, I do think it could be a rogue-lite.

A'm not sure what the exact criteria is but I know procedural generating algorithms and permadeath are common features among roguelikes. I have on my book procedural generating functionality for Rebel Crusader, which I believe will add tremendous replay value, when you get tired of playing the hand crafted campaign(s).

It is cool you really like what you see, that really motivates me!

[snow dwarf]

I definitely will play it once it comes out .

[Reelya]

Could this count as a rogue-lite?

Well, I've actually been thinking about it. It has permadeath and all but I'm not sure if it deserves such title... If you have read about it at its website, what do you think about it? Is there room for a "roguelikish" keyword?

Thank you!

There are horrible games that still count as rogue-lites and because this looks like an awesome game, which I would play and does apply to the criteria, I do think it could be a rogue-lite.

That's rogue-LIKE btw. rogue-"lite" implies that it's almost like rogue but with less depth. Which would be an insult.

And this is not a roguelike. Not every turn based game is a roguelike. not every tile-based game is a roguelike. This is a strategy game, not an RPG for a start.Basically Rebelstar is nothing like a roguelike. you could call Laser Squad and X-Com "rebelstar-likes".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike

In Rebelstar you control a squad of soldiers, you get to deploy them in battles. Each side alternates combat turns, and during your turn, each soldier you have gets a certain amount of action points. Each action such as moving or shooting costs a different amount of actions points. If you run out of points, you can't move that soldier again until the next turn. The game ends when one side or the other is dead, or you destroyed a specific game objective. So in other words, it's not like a roguelike at all.

[snow dwarf]

Could this count as a rogue-lite?

Well, I've actually been thinking about it. It has permadeath and all but I'm not sure if it deserves such title... If you have read about it at its website, what do you think about it? Is there room for a "roguelikish" keyword?

Thank you!

There are horrible games that still count as rogue-lites and because this looks like an awesome game, which I would play and does apply to the criteria, I do think it could be a rogue-lite.

That's rogue-LIKE btw. rogue-"lite" implies that it's almost like rogue but with less depth. Which would be an insult.

And this is not a roguelike. Not every turn based game is a roguelike. not every tile-based game is a roguelike.

This is a strategy game, not an RPG for a start. And there are international roguelike organizations which have defined the things that they have in common:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike

Basically Rebelstar is nothing like a roguelike. you could call Laser Squad and X-Com "rebelstar-likes" however.

In Rebelstar you control a squad of soldiers, you get to deploy them in battles. Each side alternates combat turns, and during your turn, each soldier you have gets a certain amount of movement points. different actions cost different amounts of movement points. The game ends when one side or the other is dead, or you destroyed a specific game objective.

If you call this a roguelike you can call just about anything a roguelike.

e.g. Rebelstar is "turn-based" like a roguelike, but the concept of turns here is more like a "turn" in Civilization, where you get to move your armies around and make decisions, then it's the other side's turn.

Also there's no RPG progression, and no levels to explore, no random level generation etc. If you're calling this a roguelike then basically any boardgame such as Space Hulk would have to be a roguelike.

Well, it does kind of remind me of "Demon".

[Reelya]

http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Demon

If you mean this, then Demon is a role-playing game where you play a single character and ascend a randomly-generated tower, gaining levels as you go. Some monsters happen to follow you around. It's the textbook definition of a roguelike.

that's absolutely different to a tactical squad combat game where you deploy a squad of soldiers, which you control one by one each turn to defeat an evenly-match squad of enemies, and there's no character who is "you", nor is there character development, nor is there a map that you progress through: each map is a standalone battle.

Is Advance Wars on Nintendo a roguelike too?

[Rebel Crusader]

Snow Dwarf, reelya is right, they are different types of games. Check some youtube videos of Rebelstar or Laser Squad so you get the general feeling of how they play.