Davis and Ma wrote up a long list of one-paragraph game pitches to prototype. They would be small, manageable games that two people could complete on their own. The game they chose to go with would have to be finished within a year, because that was all they had budgeted for. Among the pitches inspired by board games, roguelikes and all the genres that excited them was a 2D, top-down management game called FTL. The Opposite of Fail
- The making of
FTL (
Previously)
posted by Artw
on Mar 17, 2013 -
19 comments
Take the twitch out of platforming with
Bump, a delightful new little turn-based randomly-generated roguelikelike by clever game dev and creative fellow
Aaron Steed. Jump at or on or over things! Collect diamonds with head-bumping! Avoid and/or destroy spikes and bad guys! Try not to die! Die anyway! It's a good time.
[more inside]
posted by cortex
on Mar 17, 2013 -
12 comments
If Doom and Nethack lived in Estonia and had a baby, it'd be named
Teleglitch, a recently released pixelated action roguelike that will completely murder you if you're not
very careful about how you explore its procedurally-generated corridors, fighting off former coworkers, crafting spare parts into new stuff and hunting for ammo and food and clues as to what the hell went so terribly wrong at the Militech R&D facility on Medusa 1-C. The game has a 4-level
demo (Windows and Linux,
Mac too apparently) which will probably kick your ass plenty all by itself.
[more inside]
posted by cortex
on Feb 26, 2013 -
56 comments
Ultima Ratio Regum is a middle-ground between roguelikes, RPGs and strategy games.
It has no fantasy elements and seeks instead to be closer to a realistic history simulator, and a strategy/4x game which just happens to be in ASCII. Combat is rare and deadly – whilst these mechanics are modeled in detail, exploration, trade and diplomacy factors will have just as much effort put into them.
posted by boo_radley
on Dec 7, 2012 -
23 comments
Mercury is an experimental roguelike. How is it experimental? Let's have the creator, Jason Lantz, explain :
" all the game’s content is winner-generated. That means that the game starts out barren. One class for players to play, one monster to fight, and one item to use. But every round, the top two scoring players use a tool built into the game to make a monster, item or class and then that object is automatically inserted into everyone’s game, and players fight for new high scores in an entirely different game every round."
posted by boo_radley
on Aug 26, 2012 -
16 comments
Cardinal Quest [Flash] is an 8-bit tribute to
Gauntlet, Roguelikes and the 2E D&D core rule-set. Open chests, battle opponents and descend the stairs in an effort to find the
Amulet Shield of Yendor Malificent Minotaur!
posted by Smart Dalek
on Dec 27, 2011 -
15 comments
Do you like the wholesale destruction of everything you cherish? Do you like roguelikes? Then you're in luck because two new roguelikes are yours to play, the zombie-apocalypse city survival fest
Rogue Survivor, and the Gamma Worldesque ASCII-Fallout-analogue
Caves of Qud. Both are still in beta, both will keep you away from the dinner table over the holidays.
posted by Kattullus
on Dec 22, 2010 -
23 comments
Popular open source roguelike Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup
has updated to version 0.6.
It is a variant of the older game Linley's Dungeon Crawl, and is regarded by many as one of the best roguelike games out there. Unlike its rival game
Nethack it is undergoing rapid development. Also unlike Nethack, the game retains a more consistent difficulty level (hard) throughout, and has a much greater variety of character types.
[more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Mar 28, 2010 -
61 comments
Desktop Dungeons offers an unquestionably unique approach to
Roguelike games by taking compactness to the extreme. It distills the entire genre to a few core ideas which pay homage to the greats while forging new ground with gameplay similar to that of Oasis or
Tower of the Sorcerer. It also features emergent complexity that rewards truly skilled and thoughtful players.
posted by painquale
on Mar 16, 2010 -
61 comments
"Demon's Souls, an Atlus-published action-RPG out this week on the PS3, is way too hard for you. We say this without knowing a thing about your skills and with no equivocation." Demon's Souls was released this week in North America, and its
reviewers are coming to terms with its staggering difficulty level.
[more inside]
posted by Prospero
on Oct 8, 2009 -
59 comments
ChessRogue =
Chess +
Rogue. (Open source, versions available for Linux and Windows.)
This console-based game takes the pieces of chess and puts them into a Roguelike environment. You start out with a weakened King who can only move and capture horizontally and vertically, in a randomized board full of multi-directional Pawns. As you capture more pieces, the king slowly gains additional powers, like diagonal capture and movement, Knight jumping, and eventually even Rook movement, among others. The opposition gets tougher too, until eventually the entire selection of pieces is out to get you.
Originally created for a three-day programming challenge on
rec.games.roguelike.development, it's surprisingly cool, and works rather better than you might expect. It's useful as a break between
Nethack fatalities.
posted by JHarris
on Aug 2, 2005 -
19 comments
Asidonhopo hits! --more--
-------- -----------
|...d.%| ----- |.....%.%.|
|K.....-##### |..<| ############-...%??!))|
|..@@.%| #####+.%.| # |.!%..(%.+|
|.>...%| # |%..| # -----------
|K..KKK| ##-...-#######
|F.KK%.| -----
--------
posted by felix
on Apr 13, 2005 -
93 comments
