Whats your favourate roguelike?

[tom-son]

dwarf fortress.
it is in horrible ASCII,and hard to learn,but alfter that...
you only sit for hours,forbidding the eye blinking function.

[nigmashumma]

Dwarf Fortress and Ancient Domains of Mystery are the most favourite. But sometimes I like to play DoomRL, NetHack and many others too.

[geishaboy]

ZangbandTK and Stone Soup

In my opinion a commercial rougelike probably wouldn't sell.

Perhaps if the you took the eschalon engine and made into a Diablo like rougelike then you might be able to pawn off a few copies though

[CrazyBernie]

I think a roguelike could be commercially viable if the following conditions were met:

1: Prettier graphics than the majority of the roguelikes out there today. Let's face it... pretty sells. It may not be the reason that roguelikes are so sought after, but it would certainly increase the organic growth opportunity (people who wouldn't normally look at a roguelike but might still enjoy the gameplay). The graphics wouldn't have to be amazing, just mesh well together, similar to the Eschalon games.

2: Both a "Hardcore" and a "Story" mode. The typical randomly generated 100 level grind to the end, as well as a mini (or major if the time/funding is there) story mode with quests and whatnot.

3: A "Why Not" purchase price. It would need to have that "it's only 5 bucks, lemmie give it a go" lure. Take the Serious Sam games, for instance (a first person shooter). They pretty much just recylcled the gameplay of Doom I and II (hordes of enemies and lots of guns/ammo to mow them down with), added prettier graphics, and sold the games for $20 when most other games were coming out at $40-50. Lower price = more copies sold. More copies sold = more people talking about the game. More people talking about the game = more copies sold.

That all said, it might be a bit of a juggling act to release a game that appeals to both the eye and the brain at a low price point, but I think it would be far from impossible.

I find it amusing that I was working on an idea for a game several months ago (as something to do, not really with any particular intent to create); when I picked up the "plans" a few days ago, I realized that I was outlining something similar to what I've just stated here. >.> If you're interested BW, I can send you what I was messing around with... maybe it could offer some inspiration. Heck, look at Notch... he was just messing around with what turned out to be a runaway success.

[bit_abuser]

Also, could a Roguelike be commercially successful? Would Roguelike fans pay for a high-quality graphic Roguelike?

It definitely could be, but maybe that's not the right approach. Desktop Dungeons seems to be very popular and it's a very simple game. I think the best bet would be to develop something for Android/iPhone.

[Ixnatifual]

Ragnarok (Valhalla) was awesome. I don't want to think about how much time I poured into it.

I think a high quality Roguelike could do quite well. I think the Diablo series are pretty much light, real-time versions of Roguelikes.

[getter77]

http://www.gaslampgames.com/ Dungeons of Dredmor looks to be pretty much the next great hope of commercial Roguelike doings, aside from the ones floating about the Mobile/Tablet space I mean.

Their final trailer before release should be coming out sometime relatively soon...

[Painted Lady]

So, this post inspired me to try a rogue-like, and I picked Stone Soup. I like the fact that it plays nicely on a Mac, and I like the fact that the graphics are decent - and there is good mouse control. I am SO BAD at this game it is pathetic! I die constantly! It is the biggest challenge I've ever seen!

Okay, I feel better after my rant. I'm now going to go and try to not die immediately....

[Painted Lady]

I am a fan of Roguelikes, but I haven't played too many in the last 5 years.

What makes Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup so good?

Also, could a Roguelike be commercially successful? Would Roguelike fans pay for a high-quality graphic Roguelike?

You know, I think there could actually be an interesting market for a rogue-like game - on the iPad. You could use it as a way to figure out how to program for that platform, and you could probably charge $1.99 for the game. There isn't much out there now, and they are charging for some of the games.