Two problems

It looks like I run into two main issues in roguelike development. It happened with Kaduria and now with Teemu. First problem is the way I'm trying to write "perfect" source code and move from hacky to more pure style of source code. It would be good of course, but it's taking time, moving release date away to distant future.

Second problem is the role-playing system. When you try to develop one from a scratch it's not easy. I think most roguelikes have something like D&D or similar which is taking the easy way. But when you try to figure out everything yourself and build a rpg system it's just chaotic. The current system in Teemu is really simple so it wasn't hard to do, but anything more complex than that means you need to plan and think hard. And as we know, thinking is not something I do.

Random monsters

Update scheme and whole GUI class actually is now in much better shape than it was before. The gameplay feels a bit faster.

I've moved on random monsters and trying to create a generic system which then accepts any new monsters added in the data, except special monsters made only in special level themes. In more generic creation there is a need for automatic balancing which prevents creating too many difficult monsters. Or another option is non-balanced and make the game more difficult.

Update scheme almost ready

New GUI update routines are now ready, but there is a clean-up of old manual update routines yet to finish. One major thing I noticed was that there was a call to world->Update (now Redraw) which cleared the screen and then redraw everything in each turn. The new version is designed to prevent that kind of stuff which is slowing down the game even it can't be noticed on modern PC. Another thing I need is the actual redraw of elements to have same kind of notification that FOV rebuild has. I think gameview (Level::Show) needs it at least. It could be called Level::Request_Update to mimic World::Request_LOS_Rebuild.

There are quite number of manual updates which have to be resolved by better program flow with less calls to update routines, mostly concentrated running only once per turn. It's time consuming trying to build a "perfect" solution, but I think it's worth the effort.

Teemu 1.3 on its way

After a while of thinking I decided to finish Teemu 1.3. It deserves that, because I already had refactored it and didn't want to forget it like that. I think I have to reduce some of the original plans, but let's see what happens. The main difference to previous version will be more complex game engine and role-playing system, which I hope is transforming Teemu more a roguelike.

Good thing is that my job begins later than I thought, it's taking yet a month so I guess it could be a nice amount of time to spend on Teemu.

To rogue or not to rogue

With Teemu I proved that I can release a game. While Kaduria is under development I would also wish to prove that I'm a good game designer. I think now it's the time to do that with all new game project. With it I'm stepping out of the narrow roguelike style and simply create a game. I wouldn't be writing this if I had not come up with an excellent idea. The best thing I guess is that with my current knowledge about game design I can and will plan the game before writing any code. I can also do that at least in three stages and also possibly release the game after each stage.

Got a job

I've got two weeks free, then I'll return to my work where I was more than a year ago. I "promised" myself not to do that again and find a real job somewhere with more income. Well that didn't happen and I was kind of forced to accept this job, because the way unemployment system works here in Finland. If you don't accept a job they stop giving you money, so it's a lose-lose situation for people who are not active enough to find a proper job. Low wage jobs are the result of current right-wing politics. These people want to return to good old slavery times, really. Not only that, I met my new boss briefly and there is something wrong with that person. He pulled me away into a corridor to explain what were my tasks in the job, as if it was some kind of secret no one should hear. What a creep.

I'm actually quite depressed. Maybe I need to be more to get out of this situation. I don't like what's happening in my life.

7DRL dev diary - days 6-7

For 7 days this project was a failure, but I will continue it later. One thing I'm waiting for is bmesh for Blender. I've pretty much stopped making 3D stuff until bmesh gets into official release. For those who don't know it's n-gon support for Blender which this far has had only triangles and quads, making certain type of models hard to do. Also with bmesh comes vertex based bevel which for me is the number one tool to build models.

I feel bad about roguelike development right now. It's a phase that will come sometimes, but it should pass in couple of days or weeks. In the meantime I try to concentrate on Brick Atelier which is in many ways a lot easier project than games.