Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.development (More info?)
I've been playing a lot of games lately, and have had a lot of fresh
inspiration. One thing that I'm particularly interested in toying
with right now, are ways to fuse roguelikes with other genres.
Roguelikes are, in my opinion, one of the best genres of games ever.
They have shown more development and depth of gameplay than any other
genre. Because of this, I think that a well-implemented fusion could
breathe some fresh life into one of the many stagnant genres out
there. Following are some of the more popular genres, and my ideas of
how to mix them with RLs.
Action/Platformer: There are a few of these already in existance, but
most end up giving us a poor action/platformer combined with a poor
RL. The key is to take out a lot of the RL mechanics that only serve
to interfere with the action, and keep things simple. Ideally, you'd
remove most statistics, other than a few bare-essentials. Combat
should ideally be non-random, and lean more towards the skill-based
side of things. Of the major RL influences that are necessary, random
dungeons is important. Also, making sure to supply the player with a
nice assortment of weapons/armor/items/etc to uncover can add a lot to
the game. Keeping it level-based would probably be a good idea, since
it can add some gradual power increases, to help deal with the
ever-escalating difficulties of the enemies.
One big advantage of such a hybrid RL is the possibility of _very_ fun
mini-boss and boss encounters. Of all the cross genre possibilities,
this would be one of the easiest to make right. My vision of an ideal
platformer/RL hybrid would be somewhat reminiscent of Metroid.
Slowly, more powers/weapons become available, allowing access to new
areas. If you can create a solid random dungeon generator, as well as
adding the possibilities of leveling/stat increases/etc, then you'd
have it.
Strategy: This would be an interesting hybrid, if done right.
Fortunately, due to the wide range of strategy games, a lot of
possibilities exist.
One possibility that I like, would be to make a Defense-type game,
with a strong central character. For example, the player would have a
small fortification, which he is charged to protect from increasingly
larger attacks. He intercepted the enemy's plans, so he knows on
which days an attack is coming. You start off with a small wooden
fort, which is empty. The first attack is just a few scouts, which
you have to fight with the main character. You can loot the scouts,
to increase your funds. Luckily, there's X days before the next
attack, giving the player time to build up his defenses.
Coincidentally, he also just heard of -foo- artifact, which he can
find in some nearby ruins. So the player gets to go and play,
standard RL style, to adventure through the ruins to find the
artifact/gold/band of soldiers/etc, which will aid his defense
greatly. Obviously, he's on a tight time-limit, since another attack
will come soon. When he returns, he can use his gold to buy upgrades,
build new defensive structures, hire soldiers to assist, etc.
Obviously, this game lacks realism of any sort, but, not all games
need to be realistic. It'd be fun, and simple.
Another possibility would be to make the game more tactical, with a
squad-based system. This has been done before (can't remember the
name), but it's not done too often, and rarely done right. Ideally,
for a game consisting of a small team (4-8 guys), the levels should be
designed to reflect this. Wider corridors, more open areas, etc. If
you take a game like Angband, and give the player a bunch of
teammates, the game falls apart. Narrow corridors cause teammates to
become a nuisance, getting in the way. Having a team becomes useless,
since they can only attack one at a time in hallways, and it can
become a hassle to always have to lure enemies into rooms, to take
advantage of the strength of numbers. Ideally, you'd also make the
enemies more team-oriented, or increase their power significantly, to
make good teamwork a necessity.
Sports: I have to admit, I've never been much of a sports fan, but a
hybrid sport/RL game would be interesting enough, to say the least.
You'd want to create an interesting enough sport, otherwise the player
gets bored. Whether teambased or not, character development becomes
very important. Also, providing an interesting method of training or
gaining experience between matches would be vital. Possibly adding in
a town to explore between games would be cool, with small quests to
perform for needy townspeople, in exchange for
training/money/equipment/maneuvers/etc. This kind of game would be
best done in a silly, light-hearted manner.
Well, that's all I really had to say about that. I seem to post an
awful lot of ideas and stuff, but, oh well. ;-)
Hopefully, I can get my I/O routines ported to SDL soon enough, and
then I'll actually have a finished product coming soon, so I'll
actually be able to claim that I have some clue what I'm talking about.
--
"There are of course many problems connected with life, of
which some of the most popular are `Why are people born?'
`Why do they die?' `Why do they spend so much of the
intervening time wearing digital watches?'"
-- The Book.
I've been playing a lot of games lately, and have had a lot of fresh
inspiration. One thing that I'm particularly interested in toying
with right now, are ways to fuse roguelikes with other genres.
Roguelikes are, in my opinion, one of the best genres of games ever.
They have shown more development and depth of gameplay than any other
genre. Because of this, I think that a well-implemented fusion could
breathe some fresh life into one of the many stagnant genres out
there. Following are some of the more popular genres, and my ideas of
how to mix them with RLs.
Action/Platformer: There are a few of these already in existance, but
most end up giving us a poor action/platformer combined with a poor
RL. The key is to take out a lot of the RL mechanics that only serve
to interfere with the action, and keep things simple. Ideally, you'd
remove most statistics, other than a few bare-essentials. Combat
should ideally be non-random, and lean more towards the skill-based
side of things. Of the major RL influences that are necessary, random
dungeons is important. Also, making sure to supply the player with a
nice assortment of weapons/armor/items/etc to uncover can add a lot to
the game. Keeping it level-based would probably be a good idea, since
it can add some gradual power increases, to help deal with the
ever-escalating difficulties of the enemies.
One big advantage of such a hybrid RL is the possibility of _very_ fun
mini-boss and boss encounters. Of all the cross genre possibilities,
this would be one of the easiest to make right. My vision of an ideal
platformer/RL hybrid would be somewhat reminiscent of Metroid.
Slowly, more powers/weapons become available, allowing access to new
areas. If you can create a solid random dungeon generator, as well as
adding the possibilities of leveling/stat increases/etc, then you'd
have it.
Strategy: This would be an interesting hybrid, if done right.
Fortunately, due to the wide range of strategy games, a lot of
possibilities exist.
One possibility that I like, would be to make a Defense-type game,
with a strong central character. For example, the player would have a
small fortification, which he is charged to protect from increasingly
larger attacks. He intercepted the enemy's plans, so he knows on
which days an attack is coming. You start off with a small wooden
fort, which is empty. The first attack is just a few scouts, which
you have to fight with the main character. You can loot the scouts,
to increase your funds. Luckily, there's X days before the next
attack, giving the player time to build up his defenses.
Coincidentally, he also just heard of -foo- artifact, which he can
find in some nearby ruins. So the player gets to go and play,
standard RL style, to adventure through the ruins to find the
artifact/gold/band of soldiers/etc, which will aid his defense
greatly. Obviously, he's on a tight time-limit, since another attack
will come soon. When he returns, he can use his gold to buy upgrades,
build new defensive structures, hire soldiers to assist, etc.
Obviously, this game lacks realism of any sort, but, not all games
need to be realistic. It'd be fun, and simple.
Another possibility would be to make the game more tactical, with a
squad-based system. This has been done before (can't remember the
name), but it's not done too often, and rarely done right. Ideally,
for a game consisting of a small team (4-8 guys), the levels should be
designed to reflect this. Wider corridors, more open areas, etc. If
you take a game like Angband, and give the player a bunch of
teammates, the game falls apart. Narrow corridors cause teammates to
become a nuisance, getting in the way. Having a team becomes useless,
since they can only attack one at a time in hallways, and it can
become a hassle to always have to lure enemies into rooms, to take
advantage of the strength of numbers. Ideally, you'd also make the
enemies more team-oriented, or increase their power significantly, to
make good teamwork a necessity.
Sports: I have to admit, I've never been much of a sports fan, but a
hybrid sport/RL game would be interesting enough, to say the least.
You'd want to create an interesting enough sport, otherwise the player
gets bored. Whether teambased or not, character development becomes
very important. Also, providing an interesting method of training or
gaining experience between matches would be vital. Possibly adding in
a town to explore between games would be cool, with small quests to
perform for needy townspeople, in exchange for
training/money/equipment/maneuvers/etc. This kind of game would be
best done in a silly, light-hearted manner.
Well, that's all I really had to say about that. I seem to post an
awful lot of ideas and stuff, but, oh well. ;-)
Hopefully, I can get my I/O routines ported to SDL soon enough, and
then I'll actually have a finished product coming soon, so I'll
actually be able to claim that I have some clue what I'm talking about.
--
"There are of course many problems connected with life, of
which some of the most popular are `Why are people born?'
`Why do they die?' `Why do they spend so much of the
intervening time wearing digital watches?'"
-- The Book.
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