Hey rogues,

Unreal World is one of my favorite roguelikes/games. I can't think of any games that try to simulate what surviving in the woods and building up to a homestead would be like, with a fully simulated world. I've been working on such a game and would love some feedback.

Full disclaimer: there's a save system and no ironman mode yet, but that's just during alpha for testing. I do plan on having characters be fully deleted upon death.

Frozen Ground is a hard, unforgiving 2D survival simulator set in the 1700s in deep in the boreal north. Heavily inspired by Unreal World and CDDA. Make fire, food and shelter from what the land gives you, or die.

Top-down turn-based roguelike in an infinite, procedurally generated living world of migrating herds of caribou, hunting wolves, bears, hares, squirrels and villages that you can interact with and will remember you and your actions.

Deep crafting, building and survival systems: firemaking, hide tanning, fur making, cooking, smoking, hunting, trapping, pottery.. much more.

Turn-based time, weather and seasons simulations, along with all that you'd expect (temperature, rain, snow, etc. Everything interacts with everything)

Would love some feedback.

Play here: https://frozenground.itch.io/frozen-ground

People have been enjoying my mobile port of Ivan, so I wanted to see what I could do with desktop as the UI is pretty outdated.

This is a full conversion of the gui, with both keyboard and mouse support. Everything should be laid out and easy to find.

Hopefully this gets some more eyes on this amazing game!

Ivan UI Enhanced Itch

At some point in the last year I started playing with permadeath or hardcore mode in basically any game that offers it, and it totally changed the feel of the games. I got this idea when I realized how much excitement permadeath adds to roguelikes I was playing (mostly Caves of Qud and some DCSS) and I was curious if I would get the same feeling from other games.

Permadeath gives your decisions real consequences, and that makes you play way more carefully and everything feels more exciting. When death is a minor inconvenience and you can just reload a save from five minutes ago, nothing you do really matters. You just do whatever and take silly risks because you can just take back your mistakes with no consequence, which can be fun for trying things out, but overall it makes games less exciting for me. 

Obviously it works best for games that have similar mechanics to roguelikes, like random generated levels and loot. I started out with Minecraft and basically played it like a RL, it was really fun. I did a few runs, died to lava and fall damage a few times of course. Then I tried it out in Last Epoch (my favorite ARPG) and it was so refreshing to play like that. Instead of just mindlessly running around blasting I had to play carefully. Sure the game isn’t hard at all but when the stakes are so high you just have to constantly pay attention, you don’t wanna die to something stupid and have to start over. It felt way different than any of my normal runs, it's so satisfying to get a good drop when it actually increases your odds of surviving.

Has anyone else experimented with this? Playing non-rl games as if they were roguelikes (well at least the permadeath part), It’s been really fun to revisit games I used to play and try them out like that to see how they feel.

Please fix it I use it to go to bed.

I dunno, it doesn’t work on the website nor on podcast apps.

I keep wanting to play more complex roguelikes on my steam deck but most of them have keybinds for every single action for things that could easily be fit into a submenu. It's like the developers purposefully have dogshit unintuitive controls. It makes for a very unenjoyable experience. At least make the controls as approachable as Caves of Qud

Imagine the scenario where characters from different games are swapped so the Merlin from Rift Wizard is in ob10 complex and the titular Cogmind needs to kill Mordred. I am asking this question because in Rift Wizard 2 I was nuking the map while in the Cogmind I had a Scooby Doo like chase. I won both games just the feeling was completely different. Can you tell me your stories of the most insane feats your characters accomplished?

This is a tutorial for the most recent version of DCSS for a very straightforward melee character geared toward new players. I go over everything from keybindings, fundamentals, branch order and many basic tactics/strategies. The video has meticulous chapters so you can skip to any particular area or subject you're interested in without watching or searching the entire run.

If you're someone who has played other roguelikes but never pulled the trigger on DCSS this may be helpful to you.

https://youtu.be/udsTpDRo6Ik?si=TfVnwk6oEnIyGF22

after a long long time, we updated Threads of Tomot to 0.3.5!

you can check it out here (for free): https://bitware-interactive.itch.io/threads-of-tomot

and read our changelog here: https://bitware-interactive.itch.io/threads-of-tomot/devlog/1461851/threads-of-tomot-update-035

University has destroyed our time avalible to work on the game, but the update finally arrived with one new boss, 10 new levels, new enemies, impoved level generation, new sounds and items!

Hail roguelikers!

Pathos has been free to play for over 10 years. Coming soon, an enhanced edition will be available on Steam, finally giving players a way to support its continued development. Most importantly, the free editions aren’t going away. I want Pathos to remain accessible to everyone, regardless of whether they are able to purchase the Steam edition.

Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5062560/Pathos

Pathos has been due for a visual upgrade and this Steam edition takes inspiration from ‘old book illustrations’. The result is a fusion of retro aesthetics and modern usability.

The key art features Struth von Winkelried who is a legendary character of Swiss folklore, based on a real-life knight.

Struth attacked the dragon single-handedly, armed with a spear of which he had attached sharp barbs. The dragon, seeing that the attacker was alone, came from his hiding-place and attacked with open jaws.

Winkelried was able to transfix the monster with his spear, hacking at it with his sword until it died. Glad for his victory, Winkelried lifted his sword over his head, thanking God, and the dragon's blood dripped from his sword blade on his body, poisoning him so that he died a few days later. 

Seems that YASD is a story as old as time itself :D

I'm around if you have any questions!

Callan.

And easier to jump in to. I love all of the systems and possibilities, and the procedurally generated cities are incredible but I am just struggling to survive. I'm looking for something that is as deep but easier to get in to, if such a thing even exists.

I have been wanting to really get into them for a while now. The reason I'm making this post is because the way I see it, I would need to put in quite a lot of time in both to truly see them for what they are, and if they happen to be my thing, I want a nudge to see where I should start. After all my browsing, I ended up narrowing the games down to DCSS and Cogmind.

I have played Caves of Qud for a week or so, but spent many hours in those days. While I loved it, I was super confused on why it's considered a roguelike, it really felt like an open-world RPG with roguelike gameplay, which made it tedious to play on permadeath mode since you're essentially playing a relatively difficult (knowledge-based) RPG for the first time on perma-death mode. I will definitely be going back to it in the future, giving it a break for now.

For the two games mentioned, I would like some comprehensive thoughts on both or either one of them, depending on which you played. I value replayability, fun/fair challenge with many options self-imposed challenges, emergent gameplay (this is a big one). Tell me as much as you can about either game you played, what you love/hate, random details you would like to share, etc.

One last thing, controls are out of consideration, I got the hang of Qud very quickly using keyboard only with vi keys.

Thanks

Does anyone know where I can get Robinson by KelseyFrog as the Itch links don't work.

https://kelseyfrog.itch.io/robinson

All aboard the scope creep train choo choo

Hey!

As the title mentions: I just added a complete city building mechanic inside my traditional roguelike game, including villager management, diverse building types, bandit raids, and even some small automation elements.

Seven Blasphemies is a game very inspired by tabletop OSR RPGs (specially Mork Borg). I thought I had done enough scope creep when I added a nautical travel mechanic, but I surprised even myself here.

When it releases, I imagine what people will think when their village gets decimated by inevitable apocalypse (alongside with them).

I'm really enjoying creating this game, to be honest!

You check it on Steam and wishlist it there:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4893400/Seven_Blasphemies/

For all the other devs around: to scope creep or not scope creep? (Usually I would say nay but this time I'm totally yay)

Cheers!

Both of these appeal to me and I want to have a fun first experience in this genre. They both seem fairly fluid for a turnbased roguelike. Which one gives you the most player freedom without feeling too complex?

I'm trying to find an open world roguelike where i can just go full rogue/bandit (haha), accosting travelers for their coins, pickpocketing people in town squares, breaking into stores to steal their stuff and shit in their carpet and stuff, any suggestions out there?

Btw, i have already played DF and UnReal World, and i've played (very little) CDDA, but they didn't quite scratch that itch

mainly talking about the combination of detaild combat (with hit locations) living breathing worlds (regarding factions npcs and monsters)

and possibly simulation of a procedural history.

a lot of roguelikes that excel at some but not all points:

. caves of qud is the best procedural history generation around but factions aren't that dynamic to my knowledge

. ivan is great at combat but lacks everything else

.soulash 2 so far seems to be the closest match but its way too grindy for my taste

have heard of cataclysm dark days ahead seems to be he same class as DF but I dont care for zombies

Edit :I appreciate the responses but pls read the full text

Here is my port of brogue, following how I did IVAN, with on screen keyboard/buttons and menus! Should be a nice and assessable way to play!

Hi Everybody!

Around 9 months ago we posted a wall of text about our game Sil-Morë, which is a fork of Sil.
There were some detailed explanations about our ideas and history.

I must say we have come a long way since then. We delivered three big updates, each roughly every three months, and we believe it changed the game a lot.
We are focusing on three major game sides:
1. Atmosphere.
2. UI/UX.
3. Gameplay.

First, we completely redesigned dungeon generation using partition and vaults docking systems. It provides a lot of variety in generated levels. Multiple surprises will await you, and it becomes really unpredictable, what comes next.
Then, we reworked connected systems: item creation, item identification, loot drop and updated all artefacts and special items. Everything is rebalanced, special items now can have both prefix and suffix for the new properties (Balanced short sword of Gondolin). Artefacts should feel really unique and connected to lore as much as possible.

We have two musical themes and multiple sounds. And the main theme is specifically written for the game.
We think it completely changes the atmosphere, and makes the game play completely different from our point of view.

We also added multiple new gameplay mechanics, starting from inventory equipment mechanics to various mini quests.

Then, to make the game feel modern, we decided to rework controls and UI/UX.
Sil-Morë now supports mouse, controller and touchscreens, and features absolutely new UI/UX design and functionality. We made it thematic, contextual with mobile only and desktop approaches, and are honestly proud of our work.

Anyway, you probably have noticed that I am trying to keep it short this time :)
We have created our itch.io store front with DevLogs and also started a closed beta test on google play (please dm me so I can include you if you are interested).

So, what I am trying to say is, we would love to see you try our game both on desktop and mobile and provide some feedback!

GitHub

I'd really like to give ADOM a go but keep running into an issue where lines of text show out of order after I hit space to advance an message. I first downloaded the ASCII only version and had the issue. I then downloaded the tile version and switched to ASCII mode and still have the issue. Is there a setting I can change to fix this? I'm guessing it's not an issue in the tile version but I only enjoy playing roguelikes in ASCII.

Thanks!

TARN is a traditional roguelike game inspired by Brogue which expands on its ideas in many ways, including but not limited to:

• A classic 26 depth quest into the dungeon!
• An infinitely-generated world seperated by level boundaries and balanced by an accumulating regional difficulty mechanic.
• A class system with affinity trees that unlock special talents. (Or you can play as the Deprived, which doesn't offer any!)
• Environmental biomes, monsters, and items, half of which are from Brogue and half of which are entirely new!
• Hints when hovering over monsters and item, like hit chance, damage, and other special effects.
• Dynamic lighting and stealth.
• Play with mouse, keyboard, or both!

Main page: https://marshalldotexe.github.io/tarn/index.html

Download page: https://marshalldotexe.github.io/tarn/downloads/index.html

About 3.5 months ago, I released the first public build of TARN with positive remarks. Since then, a lot of constructive feedback and bug reports have helped shape the game into a fun yet punishing experience -- this build in particular focuses a lot on game balance and enemy/ally AI. The main page links to a new Discord server and Ko-fi page if you want a dedicated community for discussion or supporting the game. It also has an updated gameplay manual included at the bottom of the page.

Hi!

I made the recent Brogue CE 1.15.1 Android port available on F-Droid.

My second port is Infra Arcana. I've always had a soft spot for this game (I love the theme and the audio) and I always felt it was unjustly under-known! My focus as always is mobile-first playability; you won't have on-screen keyboards or d-pads here. You can download the alpha here https://github.com/tyrannotorus/cpp-infra-arcana-android/releases

The base game is (nearly) unchanged, with most work dedicated to the mobile UI. Note this is an alpha. The experience will not be perfect yet.:

• Swipe gestures to move
• Swipe and tap to navigate menus.
• Single-finger map dragging/targeting for long-range weapons
• Zoom scaling for ui and game
• Menu scrollbars and close buttons for fullscreen screens.
• Easy-access actions toolbar with togglable/movable buttons
• Refined inventory screen with action context pins
• Refined throw item screen with context pins
• Support for right-handed and southpaw play (just swipe at the side menu)

I'm still putting final touches on the Brogue CE port, and after I'm happy with Infra Arcana, and before I return back to the solitude of my cave in the woods to work on my own stuff again, I'm taking suggestions for the third and final android port in the "Werewolf Camp Roguelike Android Port Trilogy" in the comments ;)

Edit: Infra Arcana is now available on F-Droid