The Seven Days of Roguelike
I like Roguelikes. Currently I've been playing Caves of Qud, now that they've released version 1.0.
In the past, I've made some very simple Roguelike games, including one for a game jam, but I've never built anything too complex.
Like I mentioned last issue, I'm looking to do more programming for fun this year. To that end, I'm participating in the 7DRL Challenge in March where participants are invited to make a Roguelike game in 7 days.
I'll be using my free time in February to prepare. My plan is to use Nim and Raylib, but I don't have a ton of experience with either. I have built games with compiled languages and SDL2 before, though.
If I don't feel comfortable enough with Nim by the end of next month, then I'll just use C/C++. I learned to program in C and made games in C++ in my teens, so I'll be rusty, but not navigating anything I haven't done before (if it comes to that).
As for my idea for the game, I've got a few ideas. I've come up with some card-based mechanics where you play "hands". Each card in the hand represents and action by the player. As you progress in the game, you'll add/remove/modify the cards in your deck to become stronger.
I've also been toying with an idea where you have "instructions" and are "programming" your player character. You'd have access to some kind of goofy, simplified virtual machine system. I'm not sure if I'm clever enough to make that work, but it could be fun if done well. We'll see.
I've got other, simpler ideas kicking around too. Still a month to decide on a course of action.
In the meantime, I'm going to share what I'm learning about Nim in upcoming issues. Stay tuned for that!
This week's music recommendation is Imperial Triumphant's new track, Lexington Delirium. I had tickets to see them in Vancouver a couple years ago, but caught COVID a couple days before and missed it, so they remain on my bucket list.