Posted by Derek Yu Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:40:00 GMT
Now this is a dream coming true right here! Stonesense (alpha) is an open source isometric visualizer for Dwarf Fortress, created by jonask and Solifuge. It can run side-by-side with the venerable roguelike/sim to provide a graphical view of the game. The sprites are being contributed by various members of the DF community.
Here’a video of the mod in action:
Thanks, Michael Komalarajun, for the heads-up!
Posted by Derek Yu Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:28:00 GMT
The latest version of DoomRL has been released. The last version was released over a year ago, so this is nice surprise for fans of the fast-paced roguelike. Version 0.9.9 has a lot of neat additions, including weapon and armor mods, unique items, new levels, new traits, new alt-fire modes, and a badge/medal system, among other things. Lots of balancing and tweaking has been done to the game, too.
This is the coolest version of one of my favorite roguelikes, so I recommend it.
TIGdb: Entry for DoomRL
Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:10:00 GMT
First of all, Derek Yu’s super popular platformer-roguelike Spelunky has finally reached version 1.0! I’m assuming everyone here has played the game. If not, give it a try already—it’s one of the best freeware titles ever, absolutely.
You can find the latest version here, at Spelunky World.
The other, almost bigger news is: Spelunky will be coming to XBLA in 2010. Derek says, “it’s going to be much more than a straight port of the PC game – I’m planning on stuffing it with new graphics, audio, and other features for XBLA users.” The game will be developed under his new label, Mossmouth. (Support of the original will continue, of course!)
All in all, pretty exciting. Check Spelunky World for more information as it’s released.
Posted by Derek Yu Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:06:00 GMT
The annual 7-Day Roguelike Challenge ended last month, and there were a whopping 25 finishers this year (out of 45 participants). You can find a list of all the finished entries here, at Rogue Temple. Cymon has also written reviews for all 25 games, which you can access here.
Shown above is Jeff Lait’s entry, Jacob’s Matrix, which is a really unique and fun roguelike. The game is turn-based, but you are racing against a real-time clock. There are some other neat twists, too, like the orientation of the map, which is always changing, and your ability to change classes at any time. Jeff is best known for his more traditional roguelike, Powder, although I enjoy his 7DRL’s more!
Posted by Alehkhs Sat, 10 Jan 2009 09:23:00 GMT
Are you tired of dying in the winter?
Tired of tree-hugging elves murdering over a simple wooden chair?
Tired of moody dwarfs striking in the workplace?
Do you try and try again to play Dwarf Fortress?
Do you say to yourself over and over, “Maybe next year,” or “If only the interface made sense”?
IF YES, then you need
With these simple, ten-minute videos, you TOO can enjoy the pleasures of a sustainable mountain fortress!
Just listen to these satisfied viewers:
And now a message from captain_duck:
“I remembered how hard it was to get into DF, to learn the basics, and how I really wanted some video help with that instead of just a FAQ.
So why not make one myself? ... since I wanted a walkthrough, others probably wanted it too. So I just started making these videos.
And I was right apparently, I’m getting tons of comments and messages about people who couldn’t get into DF at all, but my videos really helped them to understand the game.”
Posted by Alehkhs Sat, 06 Dec 2008 06:39:00 GMT
Ah, new-age meets old-school!
It’s Rogue for the iPhone/iPod Touch.
Free from Gandreas Software, this iteration of the father of dungeon crawling is advertised as being faithful to the original. This version is controlled via touch using a ‘Commands’ menu for actions such as opening doors and climbing stairs, although these actions also have a gesture-based ‘hotkey’ for those of us just barely patient enough to play a traditional roguelike.
Playable in both the original ASCII as well as a nice tileset.
Posted by Derek Yu Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:55:00 GMT
A couple of neat roguelikes went 1.0 recently. One is Legerdemain, which we covered previously on TIGSource. It’s a story-based, IF-influenced RL, and is definitely worth checking out.
The second is MageGuild, which, as you may guess, is a magic-centric dungeon crawl. My experience playing wizard classes in roguelikes is that it’s generally too complex for my tastes. Reading books, having spells fizzle, getting my ass handed to me by weak enemies – I like sorcery about as much as Conan the Barbarian, which is to say, put that staff away and give me a sword to cleave a mage in twain with!
So it was a pleasant surprise to find out that MageGuild is one of the more easy to get into RL’s that I’ve played. The interface is clean, the controls are simple, and there’s a tutorial. The game also supports mouse control and graphical tiles (I may make a tileset, actually!).
What makes the game interesting is its focus on mixing spells and potions. At the beginning of the game, you pick up to two schools of magic that will decide which spells you can learn. Then during the game you can combine potions with a variety of objects to create new ones. Want to become a werewolf? It’s as easy as mixing a Potion of Change with some Hair of Wolf.
Having only made a few runs into the dungeon, I can’t comment too extensively on this system, but my initial impression is quite favorable. It’s a pretty fast-paced roguelike that encourages experimentation without being too overwhelming to beginners. I recommend trying it. (Keep in mind that it requires the .NET framework!).
TIGdb: Entries for Legerdemain, MageGuild
(Source: Slash, via Temple of Roguelike)
Posted by Paul Eres Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:44:00 GMT
Notrium, an obscure but very high-quality freeware game released in 2003, is a survival game where you have to choose between one of four body types: human, alien, android, and psionic, each with its own drastically different abilities, and try to survive on a planet. You have to manage resources like energy and food, and your body temperature, and can scrounge around for items and combine them.
I recommend the alien for first-time players, as that’s the one I managed to survive the longest as—it has the strongest starting weapon, good resistance to temperature, and evolves new abilities as the game goes on. The human is probably the hardest, because he’s the most fragile and can’t survive for very long without a lot of technology.
The music is nice and ambient, although the graphics feel a bit cut and paste (they appear to be rendered 3D sprites, which can look a bit disjointed). The writing is very clear, although there may be a little too much text for the tastes of some, especially when starting out and learning about all the different items. The item placement on the maps appears to be randomly generated, which makes it somewhat of a roguelike, and which combined with the drastically different character types makes it very replayable.
The game takes a while to get into, but it has a good amount of depth to it, although you’ll probably die many times before you make any significant progress. There is a FAQ here.
TIGdb: Entry for Notrium
Posted by Terry Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:05:00 GMT
Posted by Derek Yu Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:07:00 GMT
A man called “Weizsacker” has created a downloadable html English manual for the Japanese roguelike Diavolo no daibouken. The manual looks completely comprehensive and also includes pictures. Even if you’re not necessarily interested in playing the game, it’s worth checking out as an oddity. Thanks, Weizsacker!
