(no subject)
Aug. 29th, 2012 09:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingSo! ADOM, the best roguelike game ever, is doing a kickstar Indiegogo campaign to fund development. Two days left! Into the Stretch Goals! Thomas Biskup deserves your money!
Seriously: ADOM is a Roguelike, which is a very old-school genre of games named after "Rogue", the original. Nethack is probably the most famous, but ADOM was always easily the best. Best story, best gameplay, fewest stupid puns leading to instant death (which is to say, "none"), fewest crashes... It's a seriously great game, even if development has slowed to a crawl over the last few years because the designer had some kind of "real job" teaching "computer science" at "a university" or some other lame excuse. He'd like to fix that!
The game is a Roguelike, which is to say the graphics are amazingly detailed and informative but also all ASCII[0]. It also means that the learning curve is nearly vertical at first[1], and that there's no save points: When your character dies, you need to start over. Saving the game is so you can continue later, not restore your progress. You will lose, a lot, and that's okay because large parts of the game are randomly generated so you're not replaying the same things, you're playing new and different things.
Seriously, try it.
EDIT PART 1: If you don't enable Javascript, the IndieGoGo site doesn't display anything but a login box, and that's crap. Enabled jscript and you should see the project without logging in.
EDIT PART 2: Oh come on, people, $1053 to go before STEAM SUPPORT. Who doesn't want Steam support for a Roguelike? Isn't that AWESOME?
[0]: There are tile sets, which use graphics instead of ASCII characters, available. There's also a really nice tile set being created as part of the NotKickstarter. At the same time, this is not and has never been Dwarf Fortress. The game is completely playable without a tile set.
[1]: Critical commands to start: Start with a Troll Barbarian, which will probably starve to death before dying in combat. It's a great choice to get started. You are the @ sign. Use the keypad to move. Use > and < to go "down" or "in" and "up" or "out". "i" for inventory. If you want to attack something, walk into it. "e" eats. The game is turn-based - the universe is paused while it waits for you to act. Inventory manipulation takes no time. Yes, you can have a weapon, a shield, a bow, arrows, and torch all equipped at once and all usable, while casting spells with both hands - all ADOM characters are master jugglers or something. "w" is "walk" - tap that then a direction and you will walk in that direction until something happens or you take 50 steps. You will go around corners if there is only one path. "w" then "5" is "wait" - you've just given a command to walk 50 steps in no direction, so you wait 50 turns (or until something happens).
Seriously: ADOM is a Roguelike, which is a very old-school genre of games named after "Rogue", the original. Nethack is probably the most famous, but ADOM was always easily the best. Best story, best gameplay, fewest stupid puns leading to instant death (which is to say, "none"), fewest crashes... It's a seriously great game, even if development has slowed to a crawl over the last few years because the designer had some kind of "real job" teaching "computer science" at "a university" or some other lame excuse. He'd like to fix that!
The game is a Roguelike, which is to say the graphics are amazingly detailed and informative but also all ASCII[0]. It also means that the learning curve is nearly vertical at first[1], and that there's no save points: When your character dies, you need to start over. Saving the game is so you can continue later, not restore your progress. You will lose, a lot, and that's okay because large parts of the game are randomly generated so you're not replaying the same things, you're playing new and different things.
Seriously, try it.
EDIT PART 1: If you don't enable Javascript, the IndieGoGo site doesn't display anything but a login box, and that's crap. Enabled jscript and you should see the project without logging in.
EDIT PART 2: Oh come on, people, $1053 to go before STEAM SUPPORT. Who doesn't want Steam support for a Roguelike? Isn't that AWESOME?
[0]: There are tile sets, which use graphics instead of ASCII characters, available. There's also a really nice tile set being created as part of the NotKickstarter. At the same time, this is not and has never been Dwarf Fortress. The game is completely playable without a tile set.
[1]: Critical commands to start: Start with a Troll Barbarian, which will probably starve to death before dying in combat. It's a great choice to get started. You are the @ sign. Use the keypad to move. Use > and < to go "down" or "in" and "up" or "out". "i" for inventory. If you want to attack something, walk into it. "e" eats. The game is turn-based - the universe is paused while it waits for you to act. Inventory manipulation takes no time. Yes, you can have a weapon, a shield, a bow, arrows, and torch all equipped at once and all usable, while casting spells with both hands - all ADOM characters are master jugglers or something. "w" is "walk" - tap that then a direction and you will walk in that direction until something happens or you take 50 steps. You will go around corners if there is only one path. "w" then "5" is "wait" - you've just given a command to walk 50 steps in no direction, so you wait 50 turns (or until something happens).
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-29 03:13 pm (UTC)The farthest I ever got in that game was a 50th level Orc Farmer. Challenging to get started with, but a very rewarding game playthrough, that one. (Even if he did get ripped apart by the c***s m*****s.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-29 03:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-29 07:13 pm (UTC)(I got the first straight-up human fighter win in 1.0.0 on that game. Still grin over it.)
And congrats on getting an orc that far. I never managed it--they always seemed to get old. >.<
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-29 05:58 pm (UTC)Regardless, it sounds interesting. I used to play ZangbandTK, and while I never really got into that, it (and more arcade-y titles like DoomRL) made me appreciate the genre.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-29 06:06 pm (UTC)The second link is to the download site for the current version, which is free and should not require Javascript.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-29 06:07 pm (UTC)