Do you Roguelike?

[Finarfin]

This looks interesting - it seems like it's very narratively focused, especially for a roguelike. Have you played it? I'm wondering how that would affect the freedom traditional roguelikes usually provide.

Not a huge fan of the game kicking off with the character making a deal with the devil, though.

Spoke about the game on the chat and rusty was asking if someone could post it on the Roguelike thread but no I haven't played it yet. Thinking about pirating it first though.

[rusty_shackleford]

I played the game 5+ years ago and it seemed promising then, but when I replayed recently I had to wonder what the hell these losers were doing in the intervening time? Nothing of importance was improved. It’s a shame because the game did have potential but the devs just suck dicks all day and couldn’t pull it together after the initially promising start.

I left a review almost a decade ago saying the game was never going to be finished, when it ""released"" the dev left a catty note on my review saying it has been ""released"", must have really been making them butthurt all these years.

It's still not finished, it's basically the same exact game it was all those years ago. They did ******* nothing.

[rusty_shackleford]

and for anyone curious, the game takes place in israel

[Lich]

Has anyone played this?
The Cogmind developer says it's "a traditional roguelike one might describe as Infra Arcana mixed with CDDA"

[OGchan]

This game is a venture into an alternative timeline in which graphics and sensible game design were never invented.

[OGchan]

Anyone ever played Shadow of the Wyrm? I only downloaded it for now but it looks like the dev really cares about it, also offering separate sound and sprite packs for you to use.

[rusty_shackleford]

Anyone ever played Shadow of the Wyrm? I only downloaded it for now but it looks like the dev really cares about it, also offering separate sound and sprite packs for you to use.

Think this is the one I wanted to play because it has a storyline but didn't get to it

[Lich]

You are August Hellsing, an ordinary man who experienced a vision of the Archangel Michael and endeavored to right the wrongs in the world. Explore a massive procedurally generated game world, filled with quests and monsters. Delve into monster lairs and defeat the beasts within. Fight cultists, demons, and the creations of mad scientists in your righteous crusade.

[Lich]

Roguelike devs should honor the venerable tradition of making their games free. It's a symbol of individuality and belief in personal freedom.

[DemoGraph]

Nobody referenced this yet. It's a good one.

[rusty_shackleford]

roguedislike

[Lich]

Metaprogression aka grind based safety net is opposed to the fundamental idea of roguelikes, which is that you lose everything when you die--it's ridiculous that metaprogression is now thought of as a defining element of fake roguelikes.

[Lhynn]

If you are into wuxia and enjoy simulation roguelikes its alright.

[DemoGraph]

Metaprogression aka grind based safety net is opposed to the fundamental idea of roguelikes, which is that you lose everything when you die--it's ridiculous that metaprogression is now thought of as a defining element of fake roguelikes.

I used to think the same way... but then you also get tired, when RNG quirk shuts down another run just because.
Besides, vanilla Rogue also has non-obvious metaprogression - player experience with the game.

[Lich]

Meta-progression refers to game mechanics not player skill. If you get tired, turn off the game.

[DemoGraph]

If you get tired, turn off the game.

If you don't like metaprogression, don't play games with one, duh.

[Lich]

If you get tired, turn off the game.

If you don't like metaprogression, don't play games with one, duh.

I don't. This "player experience is meta-progression" non-argument is indie dev pilpul: player experience is meta-progression, therefore classic roguelikes have meta-progression, therefore grind-based unlocking metaprogression is a roguelike mechanic, therefore my quirky indie deckbuilder metaprogression grindfest is a deep and hardcore roguelike hardcore gamers should buy.

[OGchan]

Truth be told I don't really see the appeal of Cogmind but its dev has a YT channel where other than showcasing his game he also plays other people's roguelikes (among other things I don't actually remember). He's a chill dude.

[Norfleet]

Metaprogression aka grind based safety net is opposed to the fundamental idea of roguelikes, which is that you lose everything when you die--it's ridiculous that metaprogression is now thought of as a defining element of fake roguelikes.

Metaprogression isn't a thing of nu-Roguelikes. It's also a thing in other genres as well. Because it's not only losing everything when you die. You also lose everything when you win.

[Lich]

Truth be told I don't really see the appeal of Cogmind but its dev has a YT channel where other than showcasing his game he also plays other people's roguelikes (among other things I don't actually remember). He's a chill dude.

I tried Cogmind a few times but couldn't get into it. I watched his videos on Shadowed, which were interesting since he knows a lot about the genre and game development. Same with ROGUELove, the developer of Caverns of Xaskazien II.

[OGchan]

Last night I bought Path of Achra and Zorbus on Steam as they were on the cheap side of things thanks to some sale, it was the last day too so I feel very lucky. I have an account but I've been using it basically never, let's say I have other preferred means of acquiring games... But some nice titles as far as I know are only available on Steam so here I am. Oh if you guys want to add me on there let me know, I believe it's via a code or something but I genuinely have no idea how it works. Beware that it's a pretty miserable display of both financial prowess and gaming skills as I'm not really an avid gamer, I game on my own terms.
Ok, so Zorbus for now I just installed it to see how Proton is like when you drink it straight from its mother's tit, PoA on the other hand I played for a bit and I can say that it's a lot of fun, someone compared it to crack in one of the reviews and they might be onto something. For me though it's leaning more on the side of the coffee-break roguelike (on crack), I'm still a neophyte and saying this might be like opening pandora's box in the roguelike community but **** it, I don't really want to count it as a "traditional" one. At the end of the day to be one it would require a big *** dungeon/area to explore in my humble opinion. But here the maps are tiny and thanks to featuring an autobattle mechanic the runs are very fast and dynamic, plus there's an option in the settings to make things go even faster. After playing that way I tried the "slow way" with the numpad and it becomes a bit tedious honestly but maybe I simply need to spend more time with it. The real treat here is the amount of compositions you can conjure for your character, so far my coolest run has been an armorless ape specialized in blood magic, followed by another with a dude who can summon dead skin, both obviously died like little ******* the moment I started to feel good about them, as per tradition lol.
Zorbus is kinda the complete opposite and that's okay, from the minuscule amount of it that I've seen it seems very competently made.



EDIT: Hell yeah after fiddling a while with the Steam client I can now say I have a better understanding of how it works, my friend code is removed if you wanna add me!!!

EDIT: @rusty_shackleford I tried to add you since you have it in your signature.

EDIT: Now I am also Member No.130 of the RPGHQ Steam Group.

[OGchan]

Found 3 coffee-break roguelikes from one called anaseto:
https://anaseto.codeberg.page/games/boohu/
https://anaseto.codeberg.page/games/harmonist/
https://anaseto.codeberg.page/games/shamogu/
They seem very well crafted, offering both graphical tiles and ASCII. Some pretty cool features too (destructible terrain, noise, stealth...). On Boohu's page it says that

The game draws inspiration from several other roguelikes such as DCSS and Brogue: see the credits file for details. Boohu itself first influenced Harmonist, which was originally based on the same code, but is now a completely different game focused on pure stealth. Some (but not all) of Harmonist UI improvements have been backported into Boohu. Both games influenced Shamogu, featuring both combat and stealth like Boohu, but more polished and carefully designed.

The author mentions a duration of half an hour for all of them. Definitely worth checking out.

In Harmonist you play as a monkey.

[Algol]

Has anyone played this?
The Cogmind developer says it's "a traditional roguelike one might describe as Infra Arcana mixed with CDDA"

I despise utterly meaningless blurbs like this one. Why should I play your ******* game if this is the best you can come up with?

[rusty_shackleford]

I despise utterly meaningless blurbs like this one. Why should I play your ******* game if this is the best you can come up with?

I think it looks neat.

[Algol]

I despise utterly meaningless blurbs like this one. Why should I play your ******* game if this is the best you can come up with?

I think it looks neat.

Not certain if you're being intentionally contrarian or not. That said, based on that blurb... what is the game about?

Now, I clicked on it because someone posted it here (meaning it might be worth playing). Otherwise, I wouldn't have. Not good as far as marketing goes.

[rusty_shackleford]

I despise utterly meaningless blurbs like this one. Why should I play your ******* game if this is the best you can come up with?

I think it looks neat.

Not certain if you're being intentionally contrarian or not. That said, based on that blurb... what is the game about?

Now, I clicked on it because someone posted it here (meaning it might be worth playing). Otherwise, I wouldn't have. Not good as far as marketing goes.

Haven't played it, just watched the video. Looks neat.

[DreamMachine]

I left a review almost a decade ago saying the game was never going to be finished, when it ""released"" the dev left a catty note on my review saying it has been ""released"", must have really been making them butthurt all these years.

It's still not finished, it's basically the same exact game it was all those years ago. They did ******* nothing.

Was this political correctness or were you talking about multiple people?

[rusty_shackleford]

I left a review almost a decade ago saying the game was never going to be finished, when it ""released"" the dev left a catty note on my review saying it has been ""released"", must have really been making them butthurt all these years.

It's still not finished, it's basically the same exact game it was all those years ago. They did ******* nothing.

Was this political correctness or were you talking about multiple people?

it's multiple people

[OGchan]

Hmm yes, from the videos I've watched, Door in the Woods definitely feels like an odd one. The tagline mentions an "alternative timeline in which graphics and sensible game design were never invented" and I can see that, dev is definitely not lying on that front. It's like the mentally challenged turned drug addict incestuous child of other more famous roguelikes (IA and CDDA influences are very apparent). I have no idea what the hell is he trying to go for here. First of all the map does not seem to be randomly generated but your spawn point is. As a survival rl it's way too punishing for no real reason and it's also aimless to a disgustingly unnerving degree. As a horror rl I guess it's somewhat acceptable as the atmosphere is not all bad but it still lacks some real meat. The 2.5D (???) ASCII style is cool at first but after a while I have the feeling one could even start to get annoyed by it. The monsters are words and when you kill them the letters splatter around, a nice touch. Some change in coloring when the day becomes night and for other status effects. Other than that there's no variety, the game is pretty lifeless and soulless, could do with at least some ambience sounds for better immersion.
The UI is ****, sorry but I have to say it. The Equipped panel doesn't differentiate between weapons and clothing as far as I can see, Inventory is also just an unsorted list without any form of info available outside of quantity and condition (maybe good for some). There's stats but I have no idea what the hell they do. Sanity depletes too fast for my tastes. There's also some kind of "story" going on.
Honestly I don't see myself ever investing the time and effort to master this game, maybe some of you guys can buy it and play it and even like it, lemme know how that goes.

EDIT: Probably some Neo Scav influences too now that I think about it. Some things I enjoyed from the vids I watched are: this dude wanted to enter a building but the entrance was blocked with a piece of furniture. So he tried lighting a bonfire right next to it to burn it down but that escalated very quickly and he ended up burning up the building and some of the vegetation around it. Turns out there was a mimic inside the building. Another one said that you can chop trees for firewood if you find a hatchet. Most notable thing is that you can equip a zombie carcass and move around other zombies without alerting them. You can also hide in bushes, zombies are dumb anyway. Vampires can apparently smell your presence so it's pointless to hide. Crafting can be done but the extent of it is not clear to me.

[Oyster Sauce]