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Author Topic: Developing a Roguelike - Seeking Suggestions and AMA I Guess  (Read 2071 times)

Blaze_1711

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What the title says, basically. I also wrote a short "pitch" for the game, as seen below, back when I first had the idea of it. It's a sort of reminder and guideline for what I strive to achieve. I also have a development log and a "to be done" feature list - although for now they are mostly engine-centric.

Quote
"This project is conceived as an instrument for experimental purposes, and aims to provide a roguelike engine along with a playable piece of interactive entertainment.

Puckish Rogue is a roguelike game set in modern times, where the player shall have the role of a custom made character, or inherit an already existing NPC's role in the game's current world.

The game's world will be generated semi-randomly and will be persistently saved, which means that everything will influence the proceeding events of the world. Permadeath will ensure that players will have to deal with consequences, and that dying means losing a possibly valuable character. As only one character may remain active at a time, to play another role in the world the player will either have to get his character killed or "abandoned" temporarily for AI control.

The playable character's progression will occur as a combination of attributes, skills, work experience, education and life aspirations.
The player can assume the roles, for example, of a common worker striving for career and social success, a police officer tracking down crooks and criminals or a criminal trying to come up in the world through any means possible - although greater emphasis will be put upon the crime and law aspect of the game due to the primary concept.

Features such as melee weapons, guns, driveable vehicles ranging from skateboards to airplanes, travelling to other places, human and biological needs, social interactions, wants and fears and complex NPC behavior will be present during gameplay.

Inspiration was drawn from games such as Grand Theft Auto 5, Saints Row 2, The Sims 3, Hotline Miami, Dwarf Fortress, Caves of Qud, Rogue Survivor, Mercenaries: World in Flames, Cataclysm DDA, Yakuza 0 and other pieces of entertainment media.
"

As mentioned before, I'm still in the engine-centric phase of development. Pre-alpha if you will. Currently I have set up the whole data structures the game will make use of, as well as the many flags and identifiers to be used by the AI (goal oriented - based around tasks and how to perform them based on the current agent's many attributes and characteristics, as defined by flags). I also make use of a lot of summarized ID tags and boolean flags as a means of keeping the game easily customizable - since the point is to allow the player to insert custom items, weapons, creatures, NPCs, places, vehicles and other stuff on the go (which is also part of a future project I plan to work on, based on this one).
I do, however want to have missions and campaigns, as to give the game a streamlined experience, since I (and I believe most players) tend to get bored rather quickly when a game is too open ended. There will be challenges and goals, both in the open-ended and linear spheres.

So far I have been having a blast, although I keep it hobbyist and casual - both to fit my current student's schedule and to avoid mental fatigue - but it's coming along fine and according to my expectations. What is outside of my area of expertise is the whole marketing thing. My plan is to keep the game free, and only accept willful donations from people that believe I should get something for it (it is just a pet project and a stepping stone for some of my ideas after all). I wonder how should I go about divulging it for the roguelike enthusiast community, when it is in a playable state at least.

I still have to populate the default data files, code the AI and polish the UI as of now. Any questions or suggestions from you fellow roguelike game conoisseurs?

Also: Shout out if you get a reference contained within this post. You'll know what it is if you know it.
« Last Edit: June 05, 2018, 07:55:26 am by Blaze_1711 »
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SabbaticGoat

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Re: Developing a Roguelike - Seeking Suggestions and AMA I Guess
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2018, 02:07:49 am »

A couple questions first:

  • What language are you using?
  • Depending on the language: Would you like any help developing it? (If not, I understand, don't feel bad lol)

Now a couple of comments:

  • I'm super interested in the game concept! I hope all goes well.
  • Best of luck! You had the ability to come up with a good idea--now put that idea to keyboard and IDE and by God may you create an epic!
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Blaze_1711

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Re: Developing a Roguelike - Seeking Suggestions and AMA I Guess
« Reply #2 on: June 09, 2018, 01:17:08 pm »

A couple questions first:

  • What language are you using?
  • Depending on the language: Would you like any help developing it? (If not, I understand, don't feel bad lol)

Now a couple of comments:

  • I'm super interested in the game concept! I hope all goes well.
  • Best of luck! You had the ability to come up with a good idea--now put that idea to keyboard and IDE and by God may you create an epic!

Sorry for the wait! Busy week.

I'm using pure Java, since I'm developing it from scratch, and for the UI I'm using Swing.

I would appreciate some help, yes! But unfortunately not in the current state of the game. I'll be adding more stuff and documenting it better before either turning it full-on open source or allowing some trusty people to help me out on it, code-wise, later on. One of the first things I believe I will want help with is populating the JSON files (where creatures, items, locations, vehicles and more will be defined and embodied) - which is a rather accessible help I believe, albeit somewhat tedious if done massively (which it probably will, due to the nature of the project, but I'm all for filling in the blanks if no one is interested).

Thank you for your input! I'm glad to know there is interest in the concept. I find it to be quite a challenge to fit in concepts that are basically the antithesis of one another and having them be complimentary to one another, and not just a chore or forgettable side-activity (not to mention the difficulty in coding it, and afterwards testing and polishing), but a very doable one, given enough effort and good planning.

I'll have to open up means of logging my progress publicly for anyone interested, as stated before, but I believe that is currently secondary to having a more presentable and tangible project.
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SabbaticGoat

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Re: Developing a Roguelike - Seeking Suggestions and AMA I Guess
« Reply #3 on: June 09, 2018, 01:44:41 pm »

A couple questions first:

  • What language are you using?
  • Depending on the language: Would you like any help developing it? (If not, I understand, don't feel bad lol)

Now a couple of comments:

  • I'm super interested in the game concept! I hope all goes well.
  • Best of luck! You had the ability to come up with a good idea--now put that idea to keyboard and IDE and by God may you create an epic!

Sorry for the wait! Busy week.

I'm using pure Java, since I'm developing it from scratch, and for the UI I'm using Swing.

I would appreciate some help, yes! But unfortunately not in the current state of the game. I'll be adding more stuff and documenting it better before either turning it full-on open source or allowing some trusty people to help me out on it, code-wise, later on. One of the first things I believe I will want help with is populating the JSON files (where creatures, items, locations, vehicles and more will be defined and embodied) - which is a rather accessible help I believe, albeit somewhat tedious if done massively (which it probably will, due to the nature of the project, but I'm all for filling in the blanks if no one is interested).

Thank you for your input! I'm glad to know there is interest in the concept. I find it to be quite a challenge to fit in concepts that are basically the antithesis of one another and having them be complimentary to one another, and not just a chore or forgettable side-activity (not to mention the difficulty in coding it, and afterwards testing and polishing), but a very doable one, given enough effort and good planning.

I'll have to open up means of logging my progress publicly for anyone interested, as stated before, but I believe that is currently secondary to having a more presentable and tangible project.

I don't know Java; like, at all--but it would be a great learning opportunity. If it's object-oriented, then I can learn it in no time.

Just hmu when you decide it's ready for outsourcing!
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Blaze_1711

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Re: Developing a Roguelike - Seeking Suggestions and AMA I Guess
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2018, 01:59:41 pm »

I don't know Java; like, at all--but it would be a great learning opportunity. If it's object-oriented, then I can learn it in no time.

Just hmu when you decide it's ready for outsourcing!

Java is indeed object oriented. Pretty easy to learn, reasonably easy to master too - due to good documentation and intuitive features. I also have experience with JavaScript, Python and C, but I felt more comfortable using Java due to a longer relationship with it and its syntax, features and nuances (it's the first language I effectively learned).

And sure thing. I'll keep you in mind!
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