Wyrdysm Games

Righto, I have to do a project in C# for Uni, so I'm building a Rogue-like.
And I want opinions on the idea and naming and stuff.

The games name isn't decided yet, so ideas would be greatly welcome.
Also the theme/story isn't set yet, so ideas and improvements on my base idea would be great.

The idea I currently have is that your a dwarf stuck 50 floors or so underground due to a cave-in.
Or just down there because your a freaking Hermit Dwarf.

The goal will be to get to the surface to buy some more booze, because your supplies of booze are empty.
I am planning to allow players to dig through rock so that they may make their own underground fortress as seen in DF if they wish.
Players will have to feed and booze their dwarf so it stays alive and fight the hordes of mindless green Orcs who live in some caverns above.

Unfortunately I am not aloud to use external libraries other than the .Net framework so cross-platform will not be in the Uni release, however if it proves popular I will endeavour to make it cross-platform.

Currently I have a basic cellular automata based cave generator but this will be improved, also working on implementing a FOV and lighting system so you can see things.

Do you plan to have the game as a side-scoller or from a top-down perspective?

Imaillusion wrote:Do you plan to have the game as a side-scoller or from a top-down perspective?

Have you ever heard of sidescrolling roguelikes, I sure as hell have not, how would one play such a roguelike.

Anyways, good luck on your project.

Imaillusion wrote:side-scrolling roguelike

Another wonderful idea from Imaillusion. He's a bottomless well of wisdom.

Anyway, Silverware: If you gave the game a death-based plot progression akin to the Saturn roguelike Baroque, I would love you forever and you would probably earn a couple awards.

If you want my advice (do you?), instead of coming up with grand ideas, focus on planning everything out (gameplay, mechanics, implementation) and then start coding it. If you keep adding to the concept, youll never get anywhere. Get the basics done first - level generation, moving around, fighting, death/winning etc. When you're done with that, if you still have time, you can start adding fancy features, but no earlier.

Mind you, ASCII roguelike won't impress anyone, and sprites/textures/models are time consuming. Unless its supposed to be something basic and not really meant to impress, in which case this is all beyond the point.

Silverware wrote:Unfortunately I am not aloud to use external libraries other than the .Net framework

Allowed.

And how are you gonna do graphics without external libraries? Or is it console-only, or, gods forbid, GDI?

AlphaDetisMegas wrote:

Imaillusion wrote:Do you plan to have the game as a side-scoller or from a top-down perspective?

Have you ever heard of sidescrolling roguelikes, I sure as hell have not, how would one play such a roguelike.

Uh, Spelunky? Ive seen some others, but can't remember the names right now. And i don't see whats the problem here, i can easily imagine such a roguelike. You move left, right, can jump up or fall down, climb ladders, stairs etc... other than that, not much different from classic top-down, really.

I personally wouldn't consider Spelunky a Roguelike, but rather a side scrolling adventure game of sorts.
Roguelikes are are after all like the game Rogue, the top down ascii rendered hack-n-slash game type.

Since I can only use the .Net framework It will have to be GDI drawing onto a console, as the console itself renders far too slow.
Oh and thanks for the proper spelling Im really bad with Allowed for some reason.

I like to look at the basic idea first then grab the parts that I will need to fit that together.
Combat is likely to be D20 like, since Im rather comfortable with how that works, and the Fov system is using Restrictive Precise Angle Shadowcasting, movement will likely just be simply you move one square they move one square.

It also isnt designed to show off graphically but rather be impressively coded. Since it is for a programming class I am doing it not a visual design class or anything.

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Depth based plot progression would be interesting but I don't see how It could be built around a thirsty dwarf wanting some booze =P. Unless its an evil mage making him thirsty... lol

...well, I didn't actually know what a "rogue-like" game was, so I probaly should have looked it up first

Agreeing with Kaelis, just work on the basic functions of the game first, you can add the storylines, character/weapon/monster stats, etc, later on