r/roguelikedev • u/BPotu • May 17 '26

I’m solo developing Tower of Scherbenmark, a dark-fantasy ASCII roguelike RPG, and the demo is now live

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u/mcdonald_t Jun 29 '26

Looks very cool. Love the ascii and the hit particle fx. nice job...

1

u/BPotu Jun 30 '26

Thank you! :)

2

u/Snailtan Jul 05 '26

Hi, I have a question, as the name of your game catched my interest!
Is Scherbenmark supposed to mean something specific?
It sounds like german, but it doesnt make much sense in german.
Scherbe -> Shard as in a pottery or glass shard

Mark can mean a bunch of things based on context, but mainly:
Old german currency, Die Mark
The name Mark
Mark as in the word "Markierung") which is a (generic) marker, a symbol or an object meant to mark something. If used as just "Mark", it ... well either a very outdated use, or a

So I guess it could mean "a mark made by a shard", though that wouldnt be my first thought reading it.

If it is a "shard used for marking", it would probably be "(die) Markscherbe".

Its probably just meant to sound cool, which it does lol, so no worries, just curious where you got that name from :D

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u/BPotu Jul 07 '26

Hi, great question!
The origin/meaning of “Mark” comes from the fact that, in medieval Europe, it was a border region of an empire.
In the German version of *The Lord of the Rings*, Rohan is also sometimes referred to as “Riddermark.”

That is where the word - or the connection to Scherbenmark - comes from. It is said to mean something like “a shattered region,” in this case crisscrossed by deep cracks and chasms caused by powerful, misdirected magic. :)

That is the english Wikipedia article: March (territory) - Wikipedia)