By Terry
Yay! So, the week’s over, and my seven day roguelike is now just a roguelike. What happens next?
I’m still planning to keep this game pretty small – it may not be a 7 day roguelike anymore, but I’m not planning to let it get too far into double digits. It’s definitely tempting to let this grow into a big elaborate thing – but this is literally my first ever roguelike, and I feel like I’d learn more by finishing it than by endlessly tweaking it. I have bigger ideas for future things. This was just a warm up!
Here’s what I’m gonna work on next:
Better level generation!
The current dungeon level generator is a thing I hacked together in day one – sometimes it kinda works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m gonna do a lot of work on making that better. I think a lot of problems in the game (guards getting trapped in little rooms, corridors that you can’t see the end of) aren’t problems with the enemy design; they’re problems with the level design. And they’re very fixable.
More enemies!
I basically can’t have enough enemies in the game, I think. If I want this to be longer, then I need a lot more enemy variety – also, bosses!
More items? Possibly also less items!
There’s definitely room for more interesting weapons and items, but also probably less? Having a bigger selection of stuff to try out will give me a better idea of the stuff that just isn’t any fun. Like, the dagger, for example – it’s way too overpowered, and using it makes the game a lot less fun to play. I’m also not so sure about the sniper rifle – although I think the pistol is great!
A better inventory system!
I think part of playing the larger, framing game around the levels is going to be making decisions about what’s in your inventory – so I’ll probably make that whole system better – and by better, I mean more restrictive. I want people to make decisions like having to leave behind first aid kits so they have enough room to bring a fire extinguisher, etc etc. Also, playing around with a hunger mechanic…
Finish the overworld!
In theory, the overworld should be difficult to transverse, and somewhere you spend as little time on as possible. It should also be as varied and fun as the levels themselves. The fire people are the start of that, I think.
Overall structure stuff!
I wanna quickly get this to a point where you can play through from start to finish – which means having some concrete GOALS. There’s a bunch of work to be done in making sure all that works…
Secrets!
Er, *cough*, forget I said that. There will definitely not be any secrets in this game.
I think it’d be interesting if, when using the dagger on a guard, the guard cried out, alerting all other guards to your position. (Or you could replace the dagger with a chainsaw or something if this seems a bit weird.) This would make it worse than the pistol in that it’s short ranged, but better in that it requires no ammo.
Hah, I must not be understanding how to play at all, if the dagger is OP. I can pretty much ONLY make any progress when I manage to find a dagger tazer combo. Hitting guards with any of the club variants seems nearly pointless — doesn’t let me get past them in narrow hallways, and anywhere I’d move before they wake up I could probably get to without hitting them at all.
If the only way I’m getting anywhere in this game is by using a weapon you say sucks the fun out of it, i’m probably failing to develop a core skill of some kind.
I agree with Stephen’s comment.
I’m also surprised you didn’t mention anything along the lines of upgrades (or checkpoints) for the future-I think it’d make the game fun, addicting.
BTW, slowed the game way down by having the level generate tons of guards that couldn’t find me. I shot a pistol off and sent them all in a panic. Screenshot is in my website link.