11DRL (7DRL + 4 Drinking) - GRogue

[Todd Page]

No work for 11 days, so I'm announcing my 11DRL here. It will probably
end up being a 7DRL thanks to the holiday(s), but on non-consecutive
days. Also 11 rhymes with 7 so, there you go.

Depending on the time of the day, Grogue is either "Gnome rogue", a
single-character follow up of my 7DRL *GnomeSquad*, or "GROGue", a
pirate-themed follow up to my terrible 2010 7DRL *AarrrRL*.

Either way since it's the holidays the game will involve lots of
drinking. And firearms. (!)

My current thought is to take up a challenge from one of the roguelike
radio episodes I was listening to, and try to work in a good
randomized crafting system. As of now the idea is to have the game be
heavily drink-oriented. You'll be able to find various alcohols,
mixers, voodoo spices, etc and combine them in a crafting system. The
"recipes" are randomized before the game similar to potion colors in
nethack. So, one game rum (safe to assume a common item) may be a key
ingredient for a throwable fire potion, but one game it may only be
good for making a potion of lameness. What you can build will depend
on what recipes you've found and also what ingredients you've found.

Does that sound fun, or too random? Maybe I'll find out.

I'm using javascript because I am tired of using python and the
incredible slowness of pygame. (Yes I know libtcod is great :)

I will post daily updates on my blog: http://heroicfisticuffs.tumblr.com/

Happy rogueliking to all. Cheers!

- HF

[Todd Page]

Day four (but feels like day one thanks to christmas + boxing day)
progress is here: http://heroicfisticuffs.tumblr.com/post/14884107926/grogue-11drl-day-4

In case anyone cares :)

- HF

[Todd Page]

Day six update: http://heroicfisticuffs.tumblr.com/post/14998127863/grogue-11drl-day-6

Playable version here (see above post for full controls):
http://www.heroicfisticuffs.com/grogue/

Works on chrome but probably no where else (for now)

If anyone has suggestions or comments, I'd love to hear 'em, drop me a
line on tumblr, or here. Thanks!

- HF

[Todd Page]

Day 9 Update #1:

http://www.heroicfisticuffs.com/grogue/

WASD - Movement
SPACE - Automatically reload or Pickup item
Inventory - Click to equip/ready, shift-click to drop
Combat - Click to shoot, melee to bump, shift-click to throw

http://heroicfisticuffs.tumblr.com/post/15096548329/grogue-11drl-day-9-update-1

Should work in Chrome, but probably not anywhere else.

[win]

On Dec 31, 12:52 pm, Todd Page <twp...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Day 9 Update #1:
>
> http://www.heroicfisticuffs.com/grogue/
>
> WASD - Movement
> SPACE - Automatically reload or Pickup item
> Inventory - Click to equip/ready, shift-click to drop
> Combat - Click to shoot, melee to bump, shift-click to throw
>

> http://heroicfisticuffs.tumblr.com/post/15096548329/grogue-11drl-day-...

>
> Should work in Chrome, but probably not anywhere else.

works in safari but I don't know how to pick up items

[win]

never mind, source diving told me it is space. Everything that is
supposed to work seems to work.

[Todd Page]

Ah, thanks win! Good to know safari is working. I still haven't spent
any time in anything other than Chrome. The game itself seems to run
in Firefox, but there is an odd bug with the graphics, so you can't
actually see anything. :) I also don't know how to pre-load audio so
the first time it plays any of the sound there is a noticeable delay.

So, day 11... the last day. I’d call GROGue a qualified ‘successful
failure’ as an "11DRL". Failure in that it’s not actually a “real
game”. But success in that I’ve proven to myself that the general UI
is fun and coding in javascript is very fast and extremely rewarding.

If you have comments/bugs/etc I’d love to hear it, drop me a line in
the comments or e-mail me: heroic DOT fisticuffs AT gmail DOT com.
Cheers!

At this point, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the promised
'crafting' system... it just seems too random to me whenever I've
sketched it out. But, if I think of a way to work it out, or an idea
for another fun piratey gimmick (suggestions?) I'll certainly continue
development.

You can play (and read better instructions!) here:
http://www.heroicfisticuffs.com/grogue/

[Todd Page]

Also follow progress here: http://heroicfisticuffs.tumblr.com/post/15211190198/grogue-11drl-day-11

happy 2012!

[Hamish]

Instead of crafting you could have limb replacement. If a monkey bites
off your hand you can only wield one weapon until you attach a hook,
voodoo claw, iron chain, etc. I don’t know what substitutes could be
made for legs and eyes, perhaps an eye that can see all the gold on a
level.

Also I find hats quite piraty, maybe the pirates fighting prowess is
linked to how splendid a headpiece he has on, so finding larger hats
and adding bits of flair (feathers, voodoo beads, jolly Roger patches)
increases various stats ...admittedly this makes for pretty camp
pirates.

2012 will be a better year if you finish this game, keep going

[E. Liddell]

On Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:26:29 -0800, Todd Page wrote:

> Ah, thanks win! Good to know safari is working. I still haven't spent
> any time in anything other than Chrome. The game itself seems to run in
> Firefox, but there is an odd bug with the graphics, so you can't
> actually see anything. :) I also don't know how to pre-load audio so the
> first time it plays any of the sound there is a noticeable delay.

Chrome and Safari both use the Webkit rendering engine, IIRC, while
Firefox uses a different one (Gecko), so I would bet that any Webkit-based
browser would work with your code in its current state.

[Todd Page]

Hamish, thanks for the encouragement! I was thinking about hooks and
hats as I was writing the game... I had to resist the urge to add an
extra equipment slot for a 'foppish tunic' ala Dungeons of
Dredmore. :)

I will certainly add "armor" (clothing, really) in a future version. I
also like the idea of hooks.. the only reason I didn't add them in was
because I liked the dual-attack system of melee (keyboard) combined
with shooting (mouse). I guess the hook could just replace the melee
attack... but really couldn't you just wield a sword in your non-hook
hand just as easily?

In my head there are all sorts of fun modifiers, I would rather the
game be item-based as opposed to class- or skill-based. e.g. your game
experience is defined on what items you happen find and how you choose
to use them. Brogue is a very big influence on me in that regard.

I do like the idea of random crafting in theory, I guess my problem
was I couldn't really conceptualize a pirate sitting around mixing
potions (er.. I mean alcohol). However, I think if I expand the
definition from 'brewing' to something more like 'voodoo rituals' I
could be on to something. Instead of just recipes for booze/potions,
you'd find voodoo recipes that could generate potions, but also
talismans, and non-tangible things like curses, blessings, etc. So
these recipes would have random ingredients... in my head I'm
picturing all of the random crap on the old 'mix n' mojo' DRM wheel
from the original MI2 game (yes I still have the box..)

http://thefloppydisk.com/games/monkey_island_2_le_chucks_revenge_ibm_525/mix_n_mojo.jpg

Anyways, thanks to anyone who checked out the game. I'm all ears on
what you liked/didn't like. Cheers!

[edenicholas]

On 1/3/2012 7:30 AM, Todd Page wrote:
>
> Anyways, thanks to anyone who checked out the game. I'm all ears on
> what you liked/didn't like. Cheers!

I like the pirate theme! Good idea on the single shot pistols too, the
choice to carry extra makes a nice decision for the player in terms of
inventory management. Looking forward to seeing more.

[Hamish]

When I was playing I didn't notice any conspicuous effects of alcohol,
have you set any yet?

I was thinking it might be interesting to have booze alter all of your
stats at once, so that getting drunk would increase you attack
significantly and decrease your defence somewhat, at the same time it
would ruin your aiming, reducing the distance you can successfully hit
a single target and also restore a small amount of HP.

you could reflect this cocktail of effects in the message log: "you
lunge wildly at the monkey, dashing out its brains" " you stumble into
you attackers fist" "your drunken shot misses totally"

I thought it might encourage some piraty behaviour and make alcohol
consumption a strategic pivot for the game. Have there been any other
roguelikes where the only potions available have a combination of
status effects that need to be calculated for and managed? It would
make a nice change from the precision, side effect free
pharmaceuticals doled out by other fantastical apothecaries.

[Todd Page]

@edenicholas: Thanks! I certainly am going to keep that dynamic. I
love the one-shot pistol concept, and having to manage your inventory.
The first time I went through 3 missed shots then ducked behind a cave
wall to reload I knew I had a good mechanic. Now to just make the rest
of the game fun. :)

@Hamish: The booze-o-meter doesn't actually do anything yet. Well... I
think maybe I put some code in there that you don't heal if you are
out of booze. Originally I was just going to have 'booze' be a generic
replacement for 'food' in most roguelikes, but only because I hadn't
come up with a better use for it yet. I do like the idea of having to
constantly be drunk if you are a pirate :)

However, I also like your idea... I wonder if it would be managable
and fun if the player needed to maintain a certain 'drunken' level?
Say, you want to be above level X (drunk) but not over level Y (three
sheets to the wind!) Over level Y you start getting into the trade-
offs like you said.. worse agility and shooting-accuracy but more
melee damage and better damage absorption? If you go BELOW 'X' (a
sober pirate! gasp!) then you suffer some traditional roguelike hunger-
based mechanics; not healing, eventually dying, etc.

Or if I want to get really fancy I guess different types of booze can
have different effects. at this point I am going to have a more
general 'voodoo ritual' mechanic that replaces the standard 'potion/
scroll that does stuff' concept. The rituals will be certain ways of
combining the various voodoo ingredients you have found scattered
about.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I appreciate it!