A downloadable game for Windows
No Name:
This is an experimental prototype. It is a rogue-like which will be a different game every time you play. It has no name, because each time you play it is a different game.
Right now it just creates a new title, a new map with roads, region and city names and allows the player to go on a unique quest.
Controls:
- WASD - moving
- Enter - Zoom in to local view, enter/exit caves
- Space Bar - Activate Cursor - used for Combat and Dialogue
- E - Attack Enemy
- Q - Dialogue with NPC
- ESC - Open Menu/Save game
Overall Gameplay:
There are monsters that will kill the character on contact, so avoid them (or fight them if you happen to be in a version of the game that allows that). There is an NPC who will grant the character a quest to slay a dreaded beast. Talk to friendly NPCs and other entities to learn about the history of the unique world, and to hear rumors about the locations of quest objectives.
Currently each terrain tile allows you to zoom in and investigate the detailed landscape, and enemies will ambush you and draw you into the local view as well. There are towns, ruins, caves and some other more general terrain features to visit.
Randomized Game Mechanics
Game mechanics are randomly selected at the beginning based on a list of possible options. Currently there are just a few, and they are outlined in the mechanics panel on the upper left corner of the screen after the world generates. For instance, in some games you can attack monsters, and others in which you cannot. If you see damage as one of the stats, then that means you can attack. Otherwise you will have to carefully avoid monsters at all costs.
Another example is ranged attacks. If you see attack range in the stats, that means you can attack monsters by throwing a rock at them. Some games have an ammunition counter, while others may give you infinite ammo. Each game is slightly different.
In this prototype, the game will save files once the game is started. It should have a unique name for each player. Once that game is started the same files will be loaded the next time you play, so your game will be unique.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Update 0.1.0312 days ago
- Update12 days ago
- Game Overhaul15 days ago
- Updated PrototypeJan 11, 2024
- Version 0.0.8 UploadedOct 31, 2023
Comments
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on further inspection, I think this is a decent game, although I will say the enemies are a bit excessively hostile, and it is significantly safer to explore in local view
also, I noticed enemies will not move pass the edges of the "macro tiles," and can then be escaped and killed at the edges of these tiles, although loot dropped at the edge of tiles like this cannot be picked up as it will disappear when within pickup range. perhaps this it related to how loot will reappear on the same space of every macro tile if not picked up?
overall, decent game, I always like to see the effort for random generation games like (though typically more on the puzzle side of things, but any strategy game can become a puzzle).
I disagree. You have to find the quest.
at least give some guidance on where direct your attention, or why you should explore. exploring is much more dangerous than staying put at this stage. all games should be motivated either by discovery or by maximization (preferably both to varying, probably unequal degrees).
I don't like starting off by telling the player what to do. I like when they get to figure it out for themselves. But also, right now, I am just getting started on gameplay. The game generates different quests, but right now there is only one "type" and it is revealed through dialogue.
But realistically, it might not always be winnable just yet. I've added some items that let you get health back and stuff in the most recent version. The whole point is that there are different game mechanics in each game, and these are not fully tested yet.
This is a free prototype right now, so it is not something I am committed to even finishing right now. It's an idea that I've been working on, off and on, for several years, but not my main project. I appreciate your feedback, but likely will not be changing the game into what you might be looking for. This is meant to have a randomness and inconsistency between play-throughs.
I'm with the dev on this one. Modern games have lost this "discovering is part of the journey" vibe. Haven't delved into this project much yet, but I personally like the discovery aspect of it. However, not to knock your personal take @account_to_comment, but being spoon-fed everything in a game is a bit dull, especially for a project like this, which is all about discovery and exploration in your uniquely generated world.
maybe just have it told to the player that they should seek things by: talking to villagers.
if the player is informed of other elements of the randomization that pertain to them, like attack range and type, then why not this too?
I like the idea of locating the quest being a quest in and of itself
why does virustotal flag the exe as malicious?
From what I understand that can happen to any exe file that is not known. Are you using the itch desktop app?
Cool! Thanks for sharing. Yeah it is beyond rough right now, but I am excited about the terrain generation stuff. Gameplay is coming soon!
Your Welcome. Can't wait to see what comes further. What a cool concept
Just played it, I loved the idea and the randomization is very high quality, I've tested resetting the game and the results were very nice to explore in terms of not being in a very similar pattern.
I liked the retro style graphic, it reminds me the commodore or nes era which is very nostalgic to me.
though the thing that was interesting but soon became bothering is line-by-line rendering which as an example I could see this in my mind like this, everything is rendered only for the first time but next time it is read from the memory and you have it rendered all at once on the screen. I think in this case not only the retro effect is still there but it won't have negative impact in the gameplay flow.
I'm looking forward to test the updates and future prototypes.
I totally agree. I found it a bit too slow to play after a while. But I do like the slower generation when you open a map the first time. It does take a little longer and the other option is for the game to freeze. I plan to add a little "generating region" text that will appear at the bottom or something. Thanks for the feedback!
Exactly, slower loading for the first time feels exactly like commodore 64 or nes or Pentium 386 for exsmple, some tape and/or floppy drive read/write sound fx can even make it more retro/nostalgic.
text files and data structures need to get more organized and improved as it might later on tend to very slow iterations if data must be saved it's better to be saved as binary not plain text for sure, other formats like json or csv are also helpful as well, let me know if you need more information.