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jeremiah
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« Reply #20 on: October 14, 2016, 04:46:34 AM »

^Thank you! By the way, I checked out your game. It's pretty cool. Looks nice and the controls are pretty simple (though a slight bit confusing with a keyboard as the instructions are for controller).

Today we landed on Rock Paper Shotgun

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/10/14/golden-krone-hotel-vampire-roguelike/

 Crazy Screamy Who, Me? Toast Left
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Jalapenosbud
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« Reply #21 on: October 14, 2016, 05:37:36 AM »

Quote
^Thank you! By the way, I checked out your game. It's pretty cool. Looks nice and the controls are pretty simple (though a slight bit confusing with a keyboard as the instructions are for controller).

Oh cheers for checking it out! :D and yea its just a minor fix ill do soon, add some keyboard images to the tutorial. Right now im working away on the full version of the game.. anyways that was a little hijack! xD

Onto your post.
Getting featured in RPS! grats man, thats huge, especially when the reviewer say they'll be revisiting it on EA launch! gj!  Hand Point Right Hand Thumbs Up Right
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« Reply #22 on: October 14, 2016, 06:32:49 AM »

Just learned about this thanks to the RPS article. Looks really cool. The human-vampire dynamic sounds quite interesting. Are there ways to manipulate sunlight, like mirrors or solar bombs, stuff like that?

And that trailer was nice too. Reminded me of Crypt of the Necrodancer with the voiceovers, so that's a good sign Smiley
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« Reply #23 on: October 14, 2016, 09:36:09 AM »

Thanks for mentioning Necrodancer! That's one of my favorite trailers of all time and I seriously get chills when I hear the last line. So I used that as a model when making my trailer and its awesome to hear someone noticed.

There is a potion that creates sunlight for a few turns. I considered mirrors early on but the beams move too fast to make it worthwhile. The main way you control sunlight is by breaking windows and position in yourself.

I see you have a games site. I'll send you a code if you want.
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jeremiah
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« Reply #24 on: October 18, 2016, 04:40:51 AM »

Golden Krone Hotel comes out in one week.

Here's a final set of changes that have been pushed (excluding any major bugs that come up in the next few days):

  • Better game over screen. You now get tips about things you might have forgotten to do. Also, "Amazing Plan" (the hilarious silent film track) has been brought back for this.
  • High level spellcasters have been toned down significantly (particularly, there should be less chance to have repeated chains of damaging magic)
  • Noise now travels half as far in Easy mode, which should make it far less likely to get surrounded
  • Jack o'lantern torches have been added back as an option.
  • Added tooltip to the books icon that appears when you pick up books as a vampire
  • Water damage has been toned down in Easy mode, which just barely removes the only instakill potion
  • Fixed some bugs with tooltips staying after the game ended
  • Shift tab fixed (I think)
  • Fixed a bug with duplicated music
  • Fixed a rare bug with rebinding keys
  • Revolver wasn't making noise on a miss, but this has been fixed
  • Pressing Escape on the screens after the title screen takes you back to the title screen

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jeremiah
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« Reply #25 on: October 25, 2016, 04:50:37 PM »

Golden Krone Hotel is now available on Steam Early Access: http://store.steampowered.com/app/497800

$4.99

 Beer!

And I totally had the obligatory panic attack when the first thing I hear about someone trying my game is they can't download it. I hadn't setup the 32-bit version properly. Fixed quickly, but gosh it seemed like a nightmare for a few minutes.
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jeremiah
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« Reply #26 on: December 03, 2016, 09:43:59 AM »

The first big update for Golden Krone Hotel has been released! Version 0.6 includes several content additions, control enhancements, and a save system.



Changelog

  • Save system added
  • Renown System added - Unlock disguises (classes) by leveling up your renown level
  • The game is now fully playable with mouse: mouse can be used for all actions including movement and selecting magic directions
  • Sharpshooter class added
  • New branch: The Grotto. Stairs to this branch will appear much earlier than others.
  • Two new monsters: Electric Eel and Crocodile
  • Auto-run has been added. Hold down shift and a direction to move up to 7 tiles.
  • Mouse movement and auto-running is cancelled when taking damage or when first seeing a monster
  • All magic damage has been toned down by about 15%
  • Fire damage now has a chance to cause Burning
  • Monsters now attempt to get closer even if they don't have a direct path to the player
  • Reduced the number of gold coins and bullets generated
  • Clicking outside of a menu closes it
  • The class table has been refactored to prevent erroneous descriptions and several typos were fixed as a result
  • Death menu improved
  • Fixed the issue where the last few seconds of your death weren't shown
  • Fixed a bug with the throw ability
  • Fixed an issue with 0 damage attacks not being logged
  • Fixed an issue with the tile selector flickering
  • Added some additional error handling functionality

A note on the save system:
It was quite complex to write, so there's currently no bells and whistles. You're allowed one save at a time, for now. Given how complex the code is, there may be bugs lurking in there. If you want to totally avoid the system, then don't save or exit a run before it ends. If you run into any problems with loading a current save, there's a button to delete your save in the options menu.

Save systems suck. I'll probably write a few more words on why...
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jeremiah
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« Reply #27 on: December 07, 2016, 05:34:36 AM »

Wrote some words about saving: 7 Reasons Save Systems Are Garbage

While writing that post, I decided to screenshot every minimap in the game (remember the levels are procedural though). I think the result is pretty nifty:

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« Reply #28 on: December 07, 2016, 04:15:19 PM »

Wrote some words about saving: 7 Reasons Save Systems Are Garbage

Oo i love the write up! It gave me some thoughts about my own saving system. At first when i read it i thought to myself, yea how many things can there be to save. But when you mentioned super mario and compared it to a roguelike i realized it.

I forgot what you're using to make your game in. But i'm using Unity. And i found some small tricks to avoid bigger serialization data problems, like storing the enemy monsters' start position at the start of the game in the respective class files, corresponding to where i placed them in the editor, so that when the player dies, they just respawn at the position.

Theres also a checkpoint system that respawns all enemies (i guess this is a more of a design question) but when you spawn in, all enemies are there, and that is handled by the engine, not by an external serialization system.

Things i need to serialize is current health, max health, checkpoint id (which again sets the position of the checkpoint in a script at startup), whetever a health boost has been activated, so i store a boolean to activate / deactivate at startup.

And yea thats pretty much it, it got pretty long and didnt mean to hijack your thread! Just wanted to give some feedback on your well written post, i also love the benjamin franklin quote "Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other".

P.S I guess serialization can get pretty huge, and a complicated mess. But a save system is well deserved, because some may not  have the time to do full sittings playing the game and want to come back to where they left off, so i guess its good you did it Smiley kudos!
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« Reply #29 on: December 07, 2016, 07:01:47 PM »

Quote
And yea thats pretty much it, it got pretty long and didnt mean to hijack your thread!
No, not at all! I hate blogging and hate it even more when I get no response, so I really appreciate your feedback.

You're absolutely right. I only touched on it briefly, but if you can design your game to have checkpoints or something like that it will be dramatically less work to save.
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« Reply #30 on: February 01, 2017, 05:01:19 AM »

Version 0.7 is here! There's a tutorial, a new branch (the Gallery), new monsters, a new boss, and level generation has been rewritten completely.



Changelog
  • A tutorial has been added.
  • New branch: The Gallery.
  • Gorgons have been added. Their combination of GAZE and BLAST is quite deadly....
  • A new boss, the Gorgon Queen. There's now 5 rings to collect, meaning one is optional.
  • New class: warp mage
  • The level generation system has support for "prefabs" (hand drawn templates that are combined procedurally)  - each branch now feels a lot more unique and the regular floors are more interesting too. Hopefully fewer pointless loops and wacky dead ends.
  • Pits. They can be a great escape, but be careful not to fall into them accidentally
  • Since spells were still quite overpowered (and too safe), spell failure has been added. Failing to cast a spell can cost both HP and MP
  • Double doors that open simultaneously
  • Monsters refuse to swap places with you if doing so would hurt them
  • The summoning ability of the Strigoi has been reworked to use mana, so that he can't endlessly summon enemies
  • Fixed a bug with eels climbing stairs (thanks bozar!)
  • Water is brighter on the mini map, chests now show up as green
  • Minimap rendering has been optimized
  • Jack 'o lanterns have been turned off for now. In several Let's Plays, it seemed that people had confusedly started with them on even though they were intended to be off by default.
  • Soul elixir wording clarified
  • Compressed saves were removed as there was a major bug with them and they were quite slow anyway
  • Some more music for different branches
  • Fixed a game ruining bug that could happen if a boss died in water



The tutorial was a challenge. Hard to script all those events without anything built in the engine yet to do it. As a prerequisite, I decided the entire level generation needed to be rewritten to handle prefabs. That would make it easier to construct the tutorial levels precisely. We'll see how well it actually teaches people the game. It's supposed to briefly touch on resting, walking around, bump combat, magic, potions (and food), sneaking, and sunlight.
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jeremiah
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« Reply #31 on: April 23, 2017, 09:20:55 AM »

Due to popular demand, Golden Krone Hotel now has morgue files and an online leaderboard. This update also brings 3 new monsters, a new class and branch as usual, and...  bounciness?!?




While testing some jumping behavior for the Toad, I realized the animation looks a lot more lively by having all characters bounce around like they're all on pogo sticks. This is something you see in games like Crypt of the Necrodancer, but it makes a lot more sense there. Even so, other games like Dungeonmans have used it in place of a walk animation. It seems to work well with a game that doesn't take itself too seriously... and mine certainly doesn't.

I've made the "bounciness factor" an option, but by default I'm going to add in at least a little bounce. It'll be interesting to see how people like it!



The River should be an interesting challenge, since it's completely dark and mostly water filled. The darkness obviously poses an issue for humans but in vampire form, water is your biggest enemy. For now, there's not much reason to go to this branch. Eventually it'll lead to the Maelstrom and then the Underworld, which will be the hardest branch in the game.




Changelog:

  • Morgue files have been added, which can (optionally) be uploaded to http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/morgue.php, shared with friends, and ranked acording to score.
  • A new branch: The River, which sits below the Grotto.
  • A new disguise: Alchemist. Start as a vampire holding several unread books.
  • Three new monsters: Wolves hunt in packs, Toads jump around and attack from range, and Goblins are a plain old monster.
  • Monsters have been reshuffled to make the first floor much easier and less annoying! The standard monsters on Floor 1 are now Grunts (weak vampire), Rats, Bats, and Goblins. Baby Spiders should be less common.
  • Bounciness. All characters bounce around. This can be increased or turned off completely in the Options menu.
  • All characters also have shadows. This can also be turned off if desired.
  • Pharmacopoeia and Mausoleum have each been extended to 2 floors.
  • Some late game bosses and monsters have increased in difficulty to match the extra XP now available.
  • The Varcolac is now always in werewolf form at night.
  • Moroi were way too weak. They now have a ranged attack, which can't be dodged. It can't reduce you below 50% health though.
  • Wooden wall sprites have been redrawn and darkened to enhance contrast and readability.
  • Potion tooltips added to unidentified potions in Primer and Hawker menus.
  • Book sprites have been made clearer to distinguish.
  • Options menu now remembers your previous spot.
  • Pressing escape during the logo/title screen jumps straight to the Start menu.
  • Fix a bug that allowed you to save after death and then walk around like an invisible ghost spraying blood everywhere.
  • Credits and Help moved to Options menu to reduce title screen clutter
  • Fixed a scrolling issue with some screens like the Disguise menu.
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« Reply #32 on: April 23, 2017, 10:07:08 AM »

Almost forgot. I recently wrote this blog post about rewriting the level generation: http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wordpress/2017/02/18/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-prefabs/
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« Reply #33 on: May 08, 2017, 05:00:10 AM »

Golden Krone Hotel now has 14 achievements. There's an achievement for beating the game with each disguise and an achievement for killing each boss. I might add a few more over time.

I was surprised at how easy it was to add them. The icons are required to be 64x64, which matches pixel art sprites pretty readily. Configuring them only takes a few minutes and setting the achievement is a single API call in greenworks, the library I'm using to interface with Steamworks.

Later I'm hoping to add Trading Cards and I expect that to be a lot more difficult. Strongly considering commissioning some artwork because I can't draw.
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« Reply #34 on: May 21, 2017, 05:49:14 AM »

Working on making THE MAELSTROM, pretty much a rip off The Abyss from Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

The terrain will be shifting randomly and it will appear to the player as if they are in an infinite map with no overriding structure.

I decided to write a little cellular automata to create and mutate the landscape as you play.

First attempt:



Trying to write Conway's Game of Life and failing (really stupid bugs):



Oh wait I got it:



So I took the algorithm of Life and started modifying the parameters to get something I liked:



And how it'll look in game.... so now all the places I would upload gifs convert them to a format that won't embed here lovely

http://i.imgur.com/KXvLh8r.gifv
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« Reply #35 on: May 30, 2017, 06:44:23 PM »

Here we go with a pretty huge update!



The newest branch is THE MAELSTROM, an everchanging dimension that spawns portals to random locations throughout the Hotel. Frankly, this branch is heavily inspired by DCSS's Abyss. There's several ways to get to the Maelstrom and not all of them are voluntary...

The Merchant was added, a new disguise that starts with 4 unidentified potions.



Five monsters have been created including Goblin Anarchists, Prismatic Masses, and three kinds of Toadstools (wandering mushrooms that shoot various types of poison).

And there were plenty of small changes. This month, I reviewed dozens of old (and new) Let's Plays with a more critical eye. Polish has been added with the goal of making mechanics easier to learn, easier to understand, and simply more fun.

Changelog:

  • The tutorial has been improved with some handholding removed and "blended" right into the game itself.
  • A Hints system has been implemented to help explain several crucial mechanics.
  • Blue, Yellow, and Red Toadstools added. Green Men turn into "Husks" when dying, which can transform into Toadstools at night.
  • Prismatic Masses added. They do all 10 kinds of damage and can only be found in the Maelstrom.
  • Goblin Anarchists added
  • Merchant disguise and achievement added.
  • THE MAELSTROM is the new branch, reachable from the River. It uses a kludgy cellular automata to reorganize itself.
  • Monster generation has been corrected. With the introduction of wolves last patch, waaaayy too many monsters were getting spawned. Woops!
  • Bats, toads, and baby spiders have all been made a bit less annoying.
  • The transition between human/vampire and vice versa has been clarified visually. Previously, it was especially confusing because of unread books.
  • A less annoying door sound has been introduced. The old one can still be heard occasionally.
  • Fixed a game locking bug that happened when the user clicked on Menu while in another menu. Thanks Mitchfynde!
  • Difficulty is now on the character sheet
  • Added descriptions to each difficulty mode
  • Balaurs have been removed from the Pharmacopoeia
  • Fixed Stupefy mouse range indicator
  • Pools of blood stick around slightly longer.
  • Fixed an issue where music wasn't switched out when teleported, only when taking stairs
  • Tooltips show up for identified potion icons on the Potion menu
  • Blood potion gives a small HP boost when humans drink it
  • Right before turning vampire, regeneration goes up 4x. This should prevent a lot of bad experiences when going vamp
  • Vampire disguises get to start at night now.
  • The Shapeshifter starts during a full moon and Lycanthropy lasts much longer.
  • Reworked disguise menu to use relative rather than absolute stats.
  • Animated the key icon on disguise menu to make it clearer when unlocks are available.
  • Hawkers weren't actually resistant to sunlight, but that's been fixed.
  • Instability effects (resulting from repeated teleport magic) have been softened.
  • A nifty teleport animation has been added.
  • Moroi have been made much weaker, but now give the Vulnerable status.... which is really scary!
  • Examining a sunlight/moonlight tile now says something about the light there.
  • Miasma has been buffed a lot, but has a chance to poison now instead of confuse.
  • Combustion and particularly Volatile Poison have been made MUCH more useful. Hint hint.
  • Added a Confusion icon
  • Monsters are now generated away from staircases to discourage a reliance on stairdancing.
  • Put in a decent message in case save file loading fails.
  • Fixed a common problem where players would fire their revolver in the wrong direction because they moved their mouse when intending to just click.
  • Apparently several monsters that shouldn't have been regening health were in fact doing so. That's fixed.
  • Lore books are now collected in the Books & Letters menu. The opening letter will no longer be shown by default.
  • Drop caps (the super cool huge letters that begin chapters in old books) have been added.
  • Some file writes have been made asynchronous, which should prevent some hiccups.
  • Stritiba renamed to Cragsbellow to help with pronunciation.
  • Death tips font made much bigger.
  • Cancel option added when trying to forget a spell.
  • Plate and leggings auto-equip wording clearer.
  • Beds give a hint about how to rest.
  • Input delay added to certain menus to prevent accidental selections.

A couple last housekeeping notes:

The plan is to release by Halloween. so we've gotten well past the halfway point of Early Access. If you have any feedback or ideas for the game, the time when that can make a meaningful impact is quickly running out.

Also, don't forget about the recently added achievements and the Morgue sharing system. Feel free to share your runs in the forums or on the official subreddit.

Enjoy!
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« Reply #36 on: May 30, 2017, 07:07:58 PM »

Protip: Gothic Leaf, a 20 year old free font is amazing for making drop caps.

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« Reply #37 on: June 01, 2017, 08:18:40 AM »

Starting a series on roguelike design:

Things I Hate About Roguelikes – Part 1: Burden of Knowledge

Quote
I love roguelikes. Traditional roguelikes. Turn based, grid based, punch-you-in-the-gut roguelikes.

The complexity, depth, and emergent gameplay in these games rival any other genre out there. The heavyweights like Nethack, Crawl, and ADOM can be played for years without mastering them… or sometimes without a single victory. And in the last decade, roguelikes have proven beyond all doubt how valuable their ideas are. Despite being a genre invented in 1980, new games are constantly borrowing roguelike ideas and even the name itself.

And yet we haven’t seen a big adoption of traditional roguelikes. Roguelite action has done gangbusters of course. Games such as Binding of Isaac sell millions of copies. Nuclear Throne and Spelunky aren’t too far behind. But where’s our Binding of Isaac? Where’s the turn-based dungeon crawler blowing up the Steam charts? Clearly, permadeath is something many gamers are willing to stomach. Games like Civilization are proof positive that they enjoy turn-based stuff too.

I’d argue that there’s nothing inherent in the structure of traditional roguelikes that is holding them back from mainstream success. It’s simply that, for the most part, the genre is still stuck in the 1980s...
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« Reply #38 on: June 02, 2017, 03:48:51 PM »


Hi Jeremiah! I read and commented on your article yesterday - again great read and thanks for pointing me over to your Dev Log. Been reading through and am just finding your overall banter and design process intriguing. I haven't played very many rogue likes, Desktop Dungeons was the last one I got really into (I was surprised you hadn't mentioned it given the many titles you discuss), but I am a huge fan of turn-based fantasy strategy games and a lot of your commentary rings true to me for this genre as well. Also sounds you've got a nice pace to your development, balancing a day job and working on this on the side from what I gather, yes? Nicely done, I'll be keeping watch on your progress and rather entertaining articles.
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« Reply #39 on: June 03, 2017, 07:02:36 AM »

Quote
Also sounds you've got a nice pace to your development, balancing a day job and working on this on the side from what I gather, yes?

Yup, it's hard to juggle gamedev and work, but also the security of a day job makes things less stressful overall. You have to keep your scope very small. I'm very impressed by people who do take the plunge though and go fulltime. Maybe one day.

Anyway, thanks for your comments! Your game looks very cool by the way. Awesome artwork and surely people love cards. I'm sure you'll do well.
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