Friday 29 June 2012

Dreaming

The whole point of the Ascii Dreams Roguelike of the Year is so that non-roguelike focused websites can write headlines line 'Award-Winning Roguelike ‘Tales of Maj’Eyal’ Updates To Beta 41'

Sunday 17 June 2012

Roguelike Incubator

Contrast this with the discussion and debate following Darren Grey's announcement of a Roguelike Incubator project which should result in a Roguelike Bundle later in the year; and the slightly more energetic discussion around his article about Designing for Non-Roguelikers.

(Although note the obligatory whine about post line length. Are people incapable of configuring their Usenet reader to handle this?)

Kotaku discovers permadeath

I noticed that this video at Kotaku about a character dying in hardcore mode in Diablo 3 at level 60 had 516 comments, and thought 'Wow. That must be some pretty insightful discussion about permadeath and the consequences of failure'.

No.

It's one guy asking 'hey, do you lose your character permanently in Diablo 3?' and 515 people giving him the same two sentence explanation of what hardcore mode is.

You can read the featured comments below the article. I'm guessing these are the ones that have been modded up as being the most intelligent variations of the same answer.

Wednesday 6 June 2012

Kickstarter fatigue

I feel like I have spent more money on imaginary games this year than real ones. You should too. But I think it is time to stop, until at least one of the projects I've backed actually comes out. I mean, honestly...
Oooh. Traveller 5.

Monday 4 June 2012

What should Jon play?

The topic of roguelikes comes up towards the end of the latest Three Moves Ahead podcast. I remain convinced that the topic of roguelikes would make for a great Three Move Ahead episode. I remain unconvinced that Diablo III on hard core mode would make a great roguelike (unless you could skip the first 30 levels).

Related: David Sirlin on what is great about the Diablo III skill system.

[Edit: Also why Diablo III isn't addictive enough. And game design analysis.]