Elderlore

Source: rec.games.roguelike.announce Google Group

I wrote a 7DRL "last-of-candle".
[link]
Only the source code is available; you need to compile it
with gcc and ncurses to play it.
The time now is Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:21:41 +0900.
The Challenge began at Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:35:10 +0900.

Source: rec.games.roguelike.announce Google Group

Well, I was first to announce my start so I guess its fitting that Im
first to announce my success.
As I noted in my first post I took the week off of work and so I took
the opportunity to really push myself. 12 hours a day, and last night
no sleep, a full 30 hours infront of the computer trying to get it

Source: Lisp Games Development Et Cetera

The puzzle generator is taking shape. This is a 45-second video.

Source: Lisp Games Development Et Cetera

This pencil-and-paper design thing could be really useful. Now that I have a puzzle generator, it's time to start thinking of the interesting gameplay situations it could create. I have seven or eight different parts in the design---Oscillators which generate tones when struck, Resonators to receive the tones, Pulsators to generate beats which activate objects, rotating Turrets which fire on the beat and can be manually turned by the player like synth knobs. The interaction and mutual placement of these objects can set up rhythmic sounds, open and close gates, and so on.

Here's a sketch of one type of puzzle I could generate easily:



You want to turn on the oscillator that's on the other side of that impassable wall. But all you can do is fire sound waves into the room---your tank can't get in. To solve this room, turn the turret so that it points at the disappearing block, and get it to fire repeatedly so that your way to firing at the oscillator is cleared. Then turn on the oscillator, which will open a gate elsewhere. Also, the final exit can have gates corresponding to oscillators, some of which fire WHEN a "bad" tone is on!

Here's a few screenshots for the non-youtubey:




Now... how is my contest entry's progress overall? A bit slow. I reviewed some of the XONG videos and realize that on day 5 of that challenge, I was much further along toward a finished 7DRL than I am on day 5 of this year's contest. And that's got me a bit worried in that I need to tie together these gameplay elements into a coherent game in just over 48 hours! But I'm going to try designing a few more puzzles on paper. If I get a few good schemes, I can feed them into the level generator.

I'll keep you posted here and on youtube!

Source: Dwarf Fortress Development Log

I went through the purring maggot process from animal trap capture to storing the milk in barrels in a food stockpile. Of course, the issue with this has been dwarves just up and eating the maggot at any point in the process. I changed it so that they would only eat purring maggots if they were starving and nothing else were close by. I tested the change by having the starving dwarves stand in a meeting zone with the food up in a stockpile to the north. In between the stockpile and the dwarves, a succulent purring maggot tempted from an animal trap. They performed well, passing up the maggot for other food. At the end, there were seven dwarves, five pieces of food, and the maggot. I made them starve again -- five dwarves ate regular food, the doctor ate the purring maggot, and the fisherdwarf ran downstairs, caught a live cave spider and ate it on the spot.

I also handled a gremlin pathing problem and some strange things like the dwarves tanning mussel shells to make mussel leather.

Source: Ascii Dreams

Also David Sirlin's blog features some unmissable writing this week - his own coverage of GDC and more importantly pre-GDC, and someone else's compelling story.

Source: Ascii Dreams

Amidst all the praise for Valve's marketing for Portal 2 there has been very little mention of the person I suspect strongly of being behind most of the hidden message concept. I realise that Valve has a strong tradition of shared creativity and responsibility and on one level it is unfair to single anyone out, but consider the following sequence of events:

1. Independent developer starts releasing messages to his fans using a mix of obscure encoding schemes which decrypt to text, images, programs and other codes.
2. The independent developer is hired by Valve.
3. Some time later, Valve starts a marketing campaign by releasing messages to their fans using a mix of obscure encoding schemes which decrypt to text, images, programs and other codes.

That independent developer is, of course, Adam Foster.

Source: News - RogueBasin

Interhack 2.1.39a released

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Source: Numeron Reactor

OK... Ive been awake since yesterday morning and I basically havent left my chair. Its now 8.30pm and Im too tired to continue playtesting, it will just have to go in as is... Its without a help screen and without scoreboard but everything else seems good. I reworked the display routine and had to do a lot of optimising for the AI because it was slooooow. It still kind of is - in the later levels there is lag nearly every turn, its only partly from AStar I think - thats blitzing fast now.

Ive updated my download site so now on to post my success, and then GO TO BED. I hope it doenst have any severe bugs left, but I think its good.

Ill probably do a bit more balancing and bug squashing post challenge to put the finish on, but this was definately a sucess. Hopefully a showstopper.

Source: Slashware Interactive - Development Log

Settlements now grow over time and collect resources from their surroundings, they also train specialists; units also level up now.

First available version! Download for testing purposes from here !

The end comes near… I’ve started cutting unneeded scope. For some minutes today, I thought I had lost control of the project and the scope was too big again… but I regained hope some minutes later, it can be done!

Aprox Work Time: 15:30 (12:30 + 3:00)