Welcome to this week's episode of Roguelike Radio. Episode 14 focuses on resource management in roguelikes, including food clocks, items and variations on these. Talking this week are Andrew Doull, Darren Grey and Ido Yehieli. The mp3 of the podcast can be downloaded here, played in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes. Sincere apologies for some audio issues in this episode (which aren't helped much by my cold).Topics covered this week include: - Food clocks and their alternatives (including cold, light, corruption, and big scary ghosts) - Making resources important in play - How to do a roguelike without enemies - Traps and diseases in roguelikes - Many many games, including: Frozen Depths, ADOM, Cardinal Quest, Toby the Trapper, Dungeons of Dredmor, Angband, Unangband, Brogue, CryptRover, Spelunky, Run from the Shadow, GruesomeJoin us next week for discussion of Quickband and some of its bandy cousins.
This week's episode of Roguelike Radio covers a classic commercial game relatively unknown in the U.S., Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Furaai no Shiren, a.k.a. Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer. Although part of a long-running Japanese series that's still fairly obscure (in its non-Pokemon forms) in the West, this did receive a recent U.S. release as Mystery Dungeon. The participants this time are John Harris and Keith Burgun. They had a blast covering this one -- although it's just two people this time they talked for an hour and a half, and could easily have gone on another hour. The two of panelists are devoted Shiren fanatics, and John argues particularly think it's one of the best games of the 16-bit era. Note -- this is not the recent Wii release, which is an inferior game in our opinion.
The mp3 of the podcast can be downloaded at here, played in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.
Topics covered this week include:
- Monsters and items in Shiren
- Different ways of making a game complex
- An alternative approach to plot in roguelikes
- How great the game is
Additional links:
- Amazon page for the U.S. Nintendo DS re-release
- aeon genesis' translation patch for the Japanese ROM
John Harris has written extensively about this game in the past, for @Play, including most of a playthrough:
- Part 1
- Part 2
Welcome to this week's episode of Roguelike Radio. Episode 12 takes a look at how traditional rogue-like mechanics are put to use in games outside of the genre, with some reflection on how these mechanics work within roguelikes. Talking this week are Darren Grey, Andrew Doull, John Harris, Ido Yehieli and Keith Burgun. The mp3 of the podcast can be downloaded here, played in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.
Topics covered this week include:
- Procedural content
- Lovely lovely permadeath
- Real-time vs Turn-based
- Loot, glorious loot
Games mentioned include:
- Dwarf Fortress
- Diablo
- The Binding of Isaac
- Desktop Dungeons
- Spelunky
- Legerdemain
- Triangle Wizard
- EarlSpork
- Auro
- The Archive - the space roguelike Andrew mentions around 1:04:40 in development by Surprised Man (not Suicidal Man!)
Join us next week for discussion of the SNES classic Shiren the Wanderer.
[Edit: Mirrored at archive.org. (direct link)]
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Welcome to this week's episode of Roguelike Radio. Episode 11 features the Binding of Isaac, a roguelike shooter inspired by in part by the Biblical story of the same name. Talking this week are Ido Yehieli, Oddmund Strømme and Andrew Doull and we are joined by the designer and artist of the Binding of Isaac, Edmund McMillen. This week's episode is a little longer than usual because we both discuss the game and interview Edmund within the single show - there's also some swearing, if you are concerned about that sort of thing. The mp3 of the podcast can be downloaded here, played in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.Some of the topics covered: - The honour code of independent developers - The dark theme of the game and the inspiration behind it - Whether the Binding of Isaac is a roguelike-likeFor further reading about the Binding of Isaac: - Edmund McMillen on gameplay and progression in the Binding on Isaac - The blog post on Isaac's theme that Andrew mentions at the start of the episode Next week we'll be talking about roguelike influences in other games and what we'd like to see other games learn from roguelikes.
Welcome to this week's episode of Roguelike Radio. Episode 10 focuses on deity systems in roguelikes, with particular attention on Nethack, ADOM, DCSS and Powder. Talking this week are Darren Grey and Jeff Lait. The mp3 of the podcast can be downloaded here, played in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.Some of the topics covered: - Active praying vs passive piety effects - Scumming the gods - Interacting deities - The player's relationship with the RNG - TrueGod, a 7DRL focusing on the RNG as a godNext week we'll be talking about The Binding of Isaac, a top-down shooter with some roguelike influences.
