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[wzol]

Those menus really needed that polish. You are absolutely right about developers sometimes forget how much the UI adds value to the overall gameplay experience. A friendly UI can often change a previously good game to awesome.

[DangerMomentum]

Back after disappearing for a month- real life got crazy, I'm switching jobs, and moving all at once. Website is fixed, my email is fixed. Updates will still be scattered for the next little while, but after 7DRL I'll be back to a steady development pattern.

Not too much to show off because of all that, although I did switch to Ubuntu, so I managed to set up my new dev environment. Although I'm using the DawnLike tileset, I'd like player classes and important NPCs to have unique sprites, so I tried my hand at making some original sprites that match. Here's a screen of my first attempt:



Speaking of 7DRL, anyone else participating? I've got my idea all planned out, hopefully it's roguelike-enough to count. I'll post a little bit about my project here, but most of that will be on my Tumblr / Twitter.

[Kyzrati]

Great sprites work, fits perfectly!

Sadly I'm moving during 7DRL (and my own project is at a particular involved stretch of development), so I guess the ideas I was so eager to try out will have to wait until another year...

[TopherPirkl]

It's still impressive how much you improve the game from update to update. It's been really fantastic watching this game develop over time. Keep it up!

[deab]

I'm planning my first 7DRL. Started creating some art assets to use, and will be prototyping some mechanics I plan to include in  The Ever. Looking forward to a small, simple project for a change of pace.

EDIT: sprite looks great btw!

[flipswitchx]

nice new sprites =)

[DangerMomentum]

Giant, image heavy post incoming! Today I'm ready to show off how item fusion will work in Roggle. I've just finished completely overhauling it, giving the player far more control over the old method. Gifs would be too much and I don't have a way to record video at the moment, so screenshots it is!



I've found a Beacon, where many services (including Fusion) are made available to you. Beacons are aligned, so your standing with the different factions will affect cost and available services. The Entropic doesn't seem to mind me too much, so we can go ahead and use this for Fusion.




Fusion starts with you selecting two items to fuse. Pretty simple, really. I'm going to combine my club with this sword. I'm playing a Strength character, and both the club and sword scale off of Strength, so this should be a good choice.




Once I've selected my items, I get a few more choices. I can optionally add a Catalyst or contribute some money towards the fusion. Among other special effects, a Catalyst will affect the abilities and stats of a fused item, but not its type. Let's add a Catalyst.




That Scythe has an ability I'd like to get on this weapon, so I'll use that. Let's hit Fuse and get a preview of the result.




Alright, so it looks like we're going to get a one-handed melee weapon for our Main Hand slot. It'll have a Strength bonus, scale off of Strength, and a base damage of 8. Before I actually pick which ability it should inherit, let's back up and contribute some money to the fusion.




I'm pretty rich at this depth, thanks to debug magic, so let's blow all of our money on this. I wonder what kind of difference that will make?




Whoa! Now our weapon is going to give a bonus to Strength, Dexterity, and Delay. Plus, look at that base damage- 37 is a lot better than 8!




Here's our final result- not bad! This came out pretty overpowered because of the money I dumped into it, but now I'm broke for the next few floors. Plenty of time for the dungeon to catch up with my power level.

[TopherPirkl]

That's a really slick fusion system. I like the flexibility it offers the player, seems like there's a lot of risk/reward involved in how much you're willing to put into the fusion that could either put you in a good position for multiple floors or bankrupt you immediately.

[Kyzrati]

That seems like it'll be a really fun system.

How are the resulting items named? (and their sprites chosen)

And is there any randomness to fusion or are the results 100% determinative based on the inputs?

[michelmohr]

Really liking this, the UI could use some more fantasy feel though.
Some liquid filled crystals for the health bars and such maybe?

It reminds me a lot of what I'm doing with Dungeon Sweeper, but mine is a lot simpler.

[DangerMomentum]

How are the resulting items named? (and their sprites chosen)

And is there any randomness to fusion or are the results 100% determinative based on the inputs?

Every stat scaling combination has a type- for example, DEX vs DEX is always a one-handed dagger, while STR vs STR is always a main hand blunt weapon. Each type has a table of nouns, like "Shank" or "Crusher", and a broader pool of adjectives for the first word, like "Heavy" or "Partially-Digested". It works pretty well for Diablo-style naming. There's also a table for sprites for each weapon type. On fusion, each of these are selected at random. It can lead to some pretty entertaining names:



As for the fusion result itself, it used to be 100% random, but this didn't leave any real room for planning or tweaking your build. You just ended up making due with what you got, which ended up making every character feel mostly the same. There was no way to focus on a specific build, so every new character ended up as a mushy hybrid of every playstyle. The only randomness in the current system is with bonus effects- for example, if you use a Burning Bottle as the catalyst, there's a chance your resulting item will give the Burning status effect on hit. The chance to inherit an effect is the same as the chance to proc it, while contributing extra Rogs to the fusion will buy you extra rolls. I'm aiming for something Pokemonish, where the systems are almost completely controllable and predictable, but not made completely transparent to the player. That way there's still a sense of discovery without having to rely on RNG.

Really liking this, the UI could use some more fantasy feel though.
Some liquid filled crystals for the health bars and such maybe?

Thanks! I'm actually intentionally trying to avoid traditional fantasy tropes / styling. I think we've had enough roguelikes / RPGs based on D&D and Tolkien, so I'm trying to go for something a little different. Some more observant people may have noticed that Altars changed to Beacons- the actual setting I'm aiming for is something like "magic-using world on the brink of space travel" than ye olden fantasy world. I'm also not using traditional fantasy races or monsters. As for the UI, the default skin is inspired by SNES/PSX RPGs, particularly Chrono Trigger and FF8 (I always preferred the grey menus to the blue). I posted some examples of menu skins on the previous page though, including ones inspired by FF, Persona, and Dark Souls, so everyone should be able to find a skin they like.

[DangerMomentum]

I took a break from Roggle to whip up a prototype for 7DRL. This is The Hunger. Upon reaching the treasure at the bottom of the dungeon, an evil wizard curses you with the world's fastest metabolism. Moments away from starvation at any point, you must now make your way back to the surface!



The controls are as follows:

Arrows: Move
0-9: Eat Food
Enter: Use Stairs

http://dangermomentum.com/hosted/TheHunger.exe

I made this in Game Maker, didn't have that much time to work on it over the week but it was a nice break from Roggle. Each step you take decreases your food clock. Eat food to get special benefits and fight your way through the dungeon. There are three enemy types and six different types of food. If people like it I might give it some more work and release it as a mobile game.

Anyways, I'm back to work on Roggle. Game jams are a great way to mix it up and get a little variety in what you're working on. I know I needed it.

[MegaTiny]

Bulging Pounder...

Looking forward to seeing what other weapon names will crop up! Are you going to have unique epic weapon drops too, or does that go against the spirit of a traditional rogue-like game?

[DangerMomentum]

Roggle isn't dead, life just took over for a while. I've dusted it off and started to chip away at the last 10% that turns a pile of code into an actual game. Here are a few gifs showing where it's at:







Programming menus gets pretty tedious after a while. Only a few more to go!

Looking forward to seeing what other weapon names will crop up! Are you going to have unique epic weapon drops too, or does that go against the spirit of a traditional rogue-like game?

I might add them in a post-release update, but right now the plan is to just have enough equipment for the player to have interesting fusion choices, and leave the rest in their hands.

[TopherPirkl]

Glad to see it isn't dead! I was just thinking about the game the other day when I was looking for a new roguelike to play, and I was worried that you had to put it on hiatus or something.

[Kyzrati]

Welcome back! Was wondering where Roggle went after such a rapid and consistent buildup. Nice to see it was just dormant

[DangerMomentum]

Here's a few quick gifs showing off weapon fusion with a catalyst. I make a bow that inflicts flying, then launch some bugs into the sky. Flying enemies are easier to knock around and keep out of range.

[DangerMomentum]

Started on character creation today:



The list of features required for a release is getting smaller and smaller. A few more things here and there and then it's time to start preparing for Greenlight!

[DangerMomentum]

Finally hooked those window skins into the in-game menu.