I’ve had many game ideas on the back burner for awhile now, but now that things have settled down a bit with my new job I’ve made some progress. I have been working on a simple (but somewhat difficult) casual strategy game. It was meant to be a small demo game of sorts, that would lead into my next project that has a similar theme. But since the development has been coming along so fast I decided to flesh the idea out a bit and make it a small but full fledged game.

I hope to have to completed and ready for release on PC & MAC by the end of the year. I am then going to port it over using XNA and release it for the xbox 360 via their creator’s club. This is exciting stuff and I hope in the end its well received. Once the game is ready to be shared with the public I will be launching the game development section of the brainrotcollective.

As always, I’ll post updates as they come.

Also, I’ve been working on a bunch of programming projects lately – mostly of the C++ variety, and all relating to games : ) I read about GAMMA 256 a few weeks ago and thought it sounded like great fun. So, I came up with a few ideas for the contest and I will be focusing on their development as soon as I put the finishes touches on my current one. As usual, I will post any updates/developments here.

   

Read the rest! Click below
Rogulelike description (from ADOM’s website):

There are two major differences to roguelike games though: most roguelike games do not use any graphics but rather rely on the ASCII character set to display their surroundings. While this might sound horrible to you, you will be surprised how quickly you start to enjoy this “primitive” type of display. Your imagination quickly will take over and you’ll no longer miss those ugly hand-drawn graphical tiles that do not resemble your picture of a dragon at all. But in your imagination, that blue D will soon become the most horrible and frightening ice wyrm you can imagine. Try it out. You won’t be disappointed. A side effect of this “graphical style” is that you won’t need to download much. Roguelike games are pretty small because most of their code is concerned with a very intense sort of gameplay and not some ugly graphics quickly becoming out of date. In that respect many roguelike games are far superior to commercial roleplaying games (did I forget to mention that? Most roguelike games are available for free!)

Roguelike games are very random. While almost all of them have a background for the gameplay, the dungeons, villages and other locations in the game are randomly created anew for each game. This offers a never-ending challenge as each dungeon will be different and there (almost) is no tedious “Let’s try this dungeon for the twentieth time… how boring since I know all the tunnels”.

Roguelike games usually do not allow you to save your character past his/her death. While this might seem overly harsh at first, you will quickly discover that this provides a level of tension unheard of in commercial games. Every decision is importand and it’s a lot more exciting to explore unknown terrain, if you know that death is final.

Not all RL’s are ascii based anymore. In this era of next-gen graphics I know many of you wouldn’t want to view… text. But that’s ok. Many of the popular RL’s have graphical representations as well. Nethack’s win32 version has an option to load up some nice tiles to play graphically. I linked to the graphical version of Dungeon Crawl, and in that forum link above they have a download for the Stone Soup + Tiles version as well.

I think I’ll paste the morgue file of my greatest Dungeon Crawl character yet. RIP Diabolous!

• Dungeon Crawl with Tiles (graphical version! play this)
• Stone Soup – community modded version of Dungeon Crawl (many prefer this one)
• ADOM – another popular roguelike
• Falcon’s Eye (isometric nethack project – dead project i think)
• Vulture’s Eye (new isometric project taking on where Falcon’s left off)

Dungeon Crawl 400b26e070tf(Windows/Tile) character file.
[Last build Dec 23 2005]

Diabolous the Thaumaturge

Race     : Spriggan         Res.Fire  : . . .   See Invis. : +
Class    : Venom Mage       Res.Cold  : . . .   Warding    : +
Worship  : Sif Muna         Life Prot.: . . .   Conserve   : .
Res.Poison: +       Res.Corr.  : .
Level           12          Res.Elec. : .       Gourmand   : .
Exp          29260
Next Level   37699          Sust.Abil.: .       Rnd.Telep. : .
Exp Needed    8439          Res.Mut.  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .
Spls.Left        5          Res.Slow  : .       Ctrl.Telep.: .
Gold            67          Clarity   : .       Levitation : .
Ctrl.Flight: .
HP       :  -1/ 53
MP       :  21/ 37          Weapon staff of wizardry
Str      :   4              Armour +1 robe
Int      :  21              Shield none
Dex      :  17              Helmet +2 wizard's hat
Armour Cl:   4              Cloak  none
Evasion  :  12              Gloves none
Shield Cl:   0              Boots  none
Amulet amulet of warding
Play time  :   10:22:05     Ring   ring of poison resistance
Turns      :      19914     Ring   ring of wizardry

You are in the Hive.
You worship Sif Muna.
Sif Muna is exalted by your worship.
You are not hungry.

Inventory:
Hand weapons
h - a +2,+2 sabre
H - a +5,+2 elven long sword of holy wrath
Missiles
t - 6 +0 elven darts
x - 13 poisoned +0 orcish darts
Armour
o - a +1 robe
+r - a +1 robe (worn)
y - a +0 buckler
E - a +0 robe
+K - a +2 wizard's hat (worn)
Magical devices
c - a wand of polymorph other (5)
d - a wand of polymorph other (5)
g - a wand of disintegration (4)
n - a wand of random effects (13)
S - a wand of enslavement (6)
Comestibles
f - a royal jelly
I - 8 honeycombs
Scrolls
b - 2 scrolls of enchant weapon II
i - 6 scrolls of teleportation
G - 7 scrolls of remove curse
O - 2 scrolls of blinking
R - a scroll of immolation
Y - 3 scrolls of detect curse
Z - 2 scrolls of enchant weapon I
Jewellery
k - a ring of protection from magic
l - a ring of protection from magic
+q - a ring of poison resistance (right hand)
+s - a ring of wizardry (left hand)
+z - an amulet of warding (around neck)
A - an amulet of clarity
B - a ring of wizardry
C - a ring of levitation
F - a ring of regeneration
N - a ring of protection from fire
T - a ring of fire
Potions
a - 4 potions of healing
e - 2 potions of might
j - 2 potions of berserk rage
m - a potion of speed
X - 2 potions of invisibility
Books
u - a book of Conjurations
W - a book of Wizardry
Magical staves
+D - a staff of wizardry (weapon)

You have 134 experience left.

Skills:
- Level  1 Short Blades
+ Level  3 Long Blades
- Level  1 Darts
- Level  1 Throwing
- Level  5 Dodging
- Level  4 Stealth
- Level  1 Shields
+ Level 13 Spellcasting
- Level 11 Conjurations
+ Level  7 Divinations
+ Level  3 Fire Magic
- Level  1 Air Magic
- Level  9 Poison Magic
- Level  2 Evocations

You have 5 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

Your Spells                       Type                  Success   Level
a - Sting                        Poison/Conjuration      Excellent   1
b - Mephitic Cloud               Poison/Air/Conjuration  Excellent   3
c - Cure Poison                  Poison                  Excellent   2
d - Venom Bolt                   Poison/Conjuration      Great       5
e - Fireball                     Fire/Conjuration        Very Good   6
f - Detect Creatures             Divination              Excellent   2
g - Magic Mapping                Earth/Divination        Great       4
h - Identify                     Divination              Very Good   6
i - Magic Dart                   Conjuration             Perfect     1
j - Throw Frost                  Ice/Conjuration         Excellent   2

Last messages:

> The killer bee hits you!
> The killer bee hits you!
> Cast which spell ([?*] list)?
> Which direction ([*+-] to target)?
> The bolt of poison misses the killer bee.
> The killer bee misses you.
> The killer bee hits you!
> The killer bee hits you!
> The killer bee misses you.
> You kill the killer bee!
> Cast which spell ([?*] list)?
> Which direction ([*+-] to target)?
> The sting misses the killer bee.
> The killer bee misses you.
> The killer bee misses you.
> The killer bee hits you!
> The killer bee hits you!
> * * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *
> The killer bee hits you!
> You die...

.
###  #..
##.###.?..
##...#....#
#.........#
##..........k
#..kk..k!..#
## #.@k.....#
#.....k..>....k
##.#.......?..!
# ##.#.###.#.
#####  ###

Vanquished Creatures
2 hydras
2 elephant slugs
3 hill giants
10 giant brown frogs
2 humans
A cyclops (D:12)
A giant snail (Lair:9)
A queen bee (D:10)
The ghost of Diabolous the Stinger, an experienced Sp VM (D:6)
3 komodo dragons
Psyche (D:11)
A polar bear (D:9)
2 hippogriffs
A two-headed ogre (D:10)
A blink frog (Lair:9)
A hungry ghost (D:11)
A grizzly bear (D:10)
15 yaks
A giant slug (Lair:4)
Edmund (D:10)
7 ogres
3 ice beasts
4 centaurs
A yellow wasp (Lair:1)
A phantom (D:6)
8 giant lizards
7 gila monsters
6 war dogs (Lair:7)
3 orc warriors
Sigmund (D:3)
12 giant frogs
Blork the orc (D:7)
7 brown snakes
25 killer bees
9 hounds
3 imps
An orc priest (Orc:1)
2 wights
8 orc wizards
3 giant ants
4 giant beetles
7 giant iguanas
4 scorpions
Ijyb (D:2)
2 jellies (D:12)
7 gnolls
3 giant centipedes
3 worms
3 giant mites
29 green rats
17 snakes
An ooze (D:3)
3 giant eyeballs
A hound zombie (D:5)
A killer bee zombie (D:8)
26 giant bats
9 giant geckos
16 goblins
51 grey rats
19 hobgoblins
22 jackals
32 orcs
14 quokkas
22 rats
10 giant cockroaches
10 giant newts
4 killer bee larvae (D:10)
16 kobolds
2 orc zombies
A small snake (D:6)
A plant (Lair:7)

504 creatures vanquished.

Now I must disclaim, before I start talking about my experience with the game, that I only played two different characters (a Goblin Necromancer and a Vulmane Ranger) up to level 5 each. So I can claim no great knowledge of the depth of the game, but for MMO’s the starting experience is just as important as the endgame to me.

After my time with the game I felt like it was EQ2 meets WoW – except not as good as either one. The interface was very similar to WoW’s and the quest system had similar conventions as well (Icons over the heads of quest givers/targets etc). Not to say thats a bad thing, if there was one thing WoW got right it was making the play experience very streamlined. I’m not sure how I feel about it in the end, it is definitely hand-holding – but sometimes thats not a bad thing. Maybe more games should offer that as an option to turn off, I’m pretty sure EQ2 lets you do that.

I’m really not sure how VG hopes to capture their player base (or create one for that matter). I think the main selling point for the game is supposed to be their 3 “spheres” of focus for the game: Adventuring, Crafting, and Diplomacy. Well lets see, Adventuring. Its more of the same, select target and attack and hit your specials. Again, not saying this is horribly wrong – but its nothing fresh. I liked how EQ2 had the Heroic Opportunity wheel and all that (of course who knows if that ended up being useful or necessary). FFXI had that crazy ass skillchaining, but if you got it down to a science it was really awesome and definitely helped you mow down shit. Maybe combat in VG gets more in-depth later in the game, but I doubt it.

Crafting. I only tried this a little bit, got a quest to go chop down a tree and bring back the shit. I must admit the animations for the harvesting is pretty cool, and the fact that the tree actually falls down after your down is awesome. Definitely cooler than the disappearing resources we see in other games. I can’t go into much more depth on this, as the only thing I created was a pile of sticks. Hopefully it will follow a SWG/EQ2 path of crafting, but only better. They could be on to something with that. Oh and evidently you can build players houses and ships to sail around in. If it works, that would be cool.
Diplomacy. The only truly fresh thing I saw in VG. Diplomacy allows you to handle different relations of factions in the game, and I believe I read that high level diplomats could get charters for player made cities. Diplomacy is handled by playing an in-game card game. You get various cards (like skills) from quests etc. Then before you begin a parley (diplomacy “combat”) you setup your hand of 5 cards from all your available ones. There is a goal number you have to reach, each round that you are winning the parley the number decreases. Once you get to zero you win – if your opponent gets there first you lose. I thought this aspect of the game was really cool. Once you understand the mechanics, its all up to strategy of picking which cards are best for the task at hand. I’m sure people will figure out some min/max for this – but before it gets trivialized its a lot of fun.

Besides all that, VG is full of graphical bugs. When you open a window (quest log, socials, inventory, etc) for the first time it tends to load in a different resolution from the rest of the game (read: huge and weird looking), or it just comes up as nonsense and you have to drag it to make it look correct. I heard that they suckled on the teet of ATI this time around, so Nvidia users got the initial shaft. Maybe thats my problem. The game stutters from time to time, the LOD pop-up is pretty annoying (i turned up settings to a reasonable level and it still happens – though I noticed the same in EQ2).

So.. EQ2 had next-gen graphics and a pretty awesome story (that was supported by a great lore campaign on the main site). World of Warcraft was Blizzard, new, and had a pretty unique graphical style. I’m not really sure what VG has. Though I am pretty sure that they’re kicking it out the door in an unfinished state. The world is huge, and thats great, but they didn’t have time to fill it. The game lacks some seriously needed polish. I’m not sure I played the game enough to rate it, so I won’t even try. But for a game thats being released to pretty much compete with the WoW juggernaut Burning Crusade, they’re gonna need to do some miraculous things very soon. They may get lucky in that respect though. Figure that a lot of people may be burned out on WoW: BC in 3-6 months. In that time period VG could really get their shit together, then they could see a shift in player base. But, there are many other MMO’s coming out soon that have people excited (Warhammer, Conan, Pirate of the Burning Sea) so who knows.

For reference, my gaming rig is as follows:

• AMD Athlon XP 3800+
• 1 gig Corsair RAM
• nForce3 Lanparty mobo
• BFG Geforce 6800 Ultra 256
• WD SATA drives