Our group has an annual game development challenge. During our “holiday hiatus” our members each work to develop original games around a certain theme or genre we select. The results are shown at the first meeting of the new year, which is January 28th, 2016 this year.
This year’s theme is:
We created the “Hilo Interpretation” of what makes a game fall into the Rogue-like Genre. For us, the three main criteria are:
1.) Procedural Generation of the game environment: maps, items, monsters, etc.
2.) Turn Based: that is to say, driven by thought and decision making rather than manual dexterity.
3.) Permanent Death: you can save a “session”, but once your character dies, the game ends and you start again.
Develop a game using these three criteria and present it to fellow game developers at our January 28th meetup in Hilo. Your game can be on any platform: PC, Web, Mobile, even board games or card games. Get creative.
If you want an additional challenge, try to incorporate some of these other common Rogue-like elements into your game:
• Resource Management & Decay – Torches burn down, food and water run out, etc.
• Exploration and Discovery – These are major themes in most rogue-likes
• Complexity is Emergent – simple rules interact forming complex gameplay opportunities.
• Random conflict outcome – weapons do variable damage, there is an element of chance.
• High Fantasy Narrative Setting – Warriors, Thieves, Mages, Inns and Quests are common elements.
• All Numbers Shown – Hit points, armor class, damage and so on are all shown.
• Hack’n’slash – player vs. world or player vs. environment conflict
• Monsters & Players follow same rules – movement, inventory, combat
• Single Player – Turn taking is between the player and world, not multiple players
• Non-modal, Keyboard Interface – no “combat mode”, all commands available on keyboard
• ASCII, Symbol or Tile-based graphics Grid-based player/monsters take 1 tile
Looking forward to seeing your games and hearing about the techniques, technology and tools used to create them.