Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Episode 25: Permadeath

Welcome to Roguelike Radio episode 25, where we look at Permadeath, both how it applies in roguelikes, and other game experiences. Talking this episode are Andrew Doull, and Ben Abraham of Critical Distance, joined part way through the episode by Darren Grey and Nicolas Casalini (aka DarkGod).

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:
- Ben Abraham's permadeath play through of Far Cry 2
- Failure in games, sparked off by Troy Goodfellow's recent essay Rub Some Dirt on It
- Both versions of You Only Live Once (flash, 7DRL)
- Amidst the numerous non-roguelikes and major roguelikes discussed, Darren mentions in passing his 1 hp roguelikes although not by name: Gruesome, and Toby the Trapper.

Join us next week for the first in a month long series of podcasts about the 7DRL competition.

5 comments:

  1. It's super cool that you kick off discussing playing a mainstream game with permadeath discipline. It never fails to give you a new perspective on a game when you can't reload.

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  2. VVVVVV has a "no death mode". People have beaten it. Those people are insane.

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  3. Crikey... Y'know as much as we consider ourselves hardcore in the roguelike community, there are always people out there even crazier than ourselves.

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  4. I think Spelunky is the hardest game I've beaten. I've heard it is not really that hard. Beating Ninja Gaiden might have been harder, but that was when I was a kid. When frustration was tolerable and even enjoyable in a game.

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  5. When you discuss permanent there is one other important PC game genre that utilizes this. The simulators.. You will see that most people(i believe) plays simulators(Il-2, Silent Hunter,..) with permadeath meaning that once they die in a campaign they restart.

    Actually the importance of permadeath in simulators is actually big that the release of Silent Hunter 3(submarine simulator) had to be prosponed by 6 months since all the fans insisted on including a dynamic campaign(prosedual content)

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