Sunday, February 23, 2014

Episode 85: 2013 Retrospective

This is episode 85 of Roguelike Radio, where we look back on the happenings of 2013. Talking this episode are Darren Grey, Eben Howard, DarkGod and Jim Shepard.
[This episode was recorded 7th January. My extreme apologies for the delay in publishing and the general radio silence - becoming a homeowner and many other life distractions have gotten in the way of editing and scheduling. - Darren]

You can download the mp3 of the podcast, play it in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.




Topics discussed:
 - A review of everyone's years
 - Tales of Maj'Eyal released on Steam, with a record number of achievements for the platform
 - Dungeonmans successfully Kickstartered (and now attempting to be Greenlit)
 - Reaching out to people who've never heard of roguelikes
 - Greenlight success for Cardinal Quest 2 and WazHack (which has now been released on Steam!)
 - Mobile roguelikes! 2013 has had some big hits, including Ending, Hoplite, 868-HACK, Dungeon Plunder, WazHack.
 - 7DRL explosion, and looking forward to 7DRL 2014 (8-16 March)
 - 2013: The year of the Roguelike-like? Roguelike mechanics are getting combined into wider and wider bases of games. Will 2014 see more hardcore roguelike success?
 - UnReal World released for free in 2013! With a deserved big expansion of fanbase.
 - Everyone's plans for 2014
 - Winners announced for the T-Engine Module contest and the Trials of Oryx contest
 - The ASCII Dreams Roguelike of the Year poll, and some of the drama around the top 3. Check out the more interesting list of games with 10-100 votes!
 - Roguelikes in the media, especially on Rock, Paper, Shotgun and IndieStatik.
 - Upcoming International Roguelike Developers Conference on 9-11 May 2014 in Berlin - sign up!
 - Upcoming games: FTL Advanced Edition (a free and meaty expansion to the game), Crypt of the Necrodancer, ToME Steamtech Orcs campaign, Jupiter Hell (spiritual successor to DoomRL)
 - Lots of cool procedural games coming up (No Man's Sky, Clockwork Empires, Sir, You Are Being Hunted, Everquest)
 - Anything we missed? Comment below!


Join us next time on Roguelike Radio for discussion of Angband, with much of the current devteam joining the show.

13 comments:

  1. Very interesting, as always. Keep up the good work !

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  2. "Is it worth mentioning the ASCII Dreams poll? ....ffffuck -_-"

    Sorry again 'bout that :)

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    1. Hah! I wasn't sure whether to cut that bit out or not :P

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  3. In terms of nomenclature I personally just use the term "roguelike" as a descriptor that includes what we call "roguelike-likes." When I want to specify games like Angband or Nethack I say "traditional roguelike." I think that's a good, well-established term that doesn't involve having to push your way up a waterfall by trying to force a term like "Rogue blender."

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  4. Having listened to both the RAW and the edited version, I'll give the needed praise and a 'Thank You' to Darren for his work.

    Hope to see more.

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  5. I'm tempted to attend IRDC but the thing is I'm not a developer or even a programmer. I've never made a game and wouldn't know where to start. I might be out of place. Thoughts?

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    2. I'm sure it is a case of the more the merrier! This is my first year attending as an RL developer (as well as player), but I'm sure if you know your roguelikes, you'd be welcome.

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  6. The idea of the 7DRL is making me a little excited this year. I've never made a game before...but I think I have the ability to make /something/ now.

    Some sort of a goal, such as getting something functional out in seven days, sounds like just the thing I'd need to get myself going.

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  7. Non-devs have joined in before! The development side of things is mostly to do with the talks. Mostly it's just a good excuse to get together and chat roguelikes :-)

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  8. (shakes fist) Rogue Legacy is not a Metroidvania! Metroidvanias require hand-crafted content that involves increasing your powers allowing you to unlock areas you previously couldn't negotiate while playing an action game. ;-)

    (flame bait section over)

    Darren, thanks for UNLEASHING the joys of Hoplite on me. That game is absolutely fantastic. I've got premium already of course, the unlocking is amazing.

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