Legerdemain interview

[Rune_74]

Hey guys,

I did another interview, this time with the creator of Legerdemain...a roguelike fiction game.

Check it out if you are interested.

http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article?ar ... f=0&id=465

[BasiliskWrangler]

Wow, that is a great-looking roguelike. Every time I see these I want to make one!

[Rune_74]

Wow, that is a great-looking roguelike. Every time I see these I want to make one!

You are not allowed. You have book 3 to work on and that unnamed unannounced scifi game I don't know anything about to work on.

In all seriousness this game isn't really a roguelike in the traditional sense. It reminds me of a raw old ultima. I'm hoping this can generate some more interest in the game for him, as well as sales since then maybe he will be motivated to make a new one....he did that one all himself.

[CrazyBernie]

Sci-fi roguelike, anyone... ? >.>

[CrazyBernie]

Reading the interview, I do like how he's eschewed the traditional roguelike elements to develop a roguelike/rpg hybrid.


Also, I would support the idea of BW "developling" a roguelike... I think it would be great practice for whatever programming language/engine he chooses to take on for the "Next Big Thing" to come out of Basilisk Games. It'd also be good for portable systems... since RL engines are pretty lightweight from a system requirements standpoint. There's a roguelike on the Android Marketplace called Dweller that looks like it has a lot of promise... but perhaps there needs to be a little more competition? ^_^

[Painted Lady]

I am going to display my ignorance and ask "what exactly is a rogue-like game"? And, how does it differ from an RPG?

[CrazyBernie]

The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many monsters, items, and environmental features. Computer roguelikes usually employ the majority of the keyboard to facilitate interaction with items and the environment. The name of the genre comes from the 1980 game Rogue.

Roguelikes are sort of the grandaddy of Action-RPG's like Diablo. Generally very light on story, and heavy on the randomized gameplay.

*** Edit ***

When I called Legerdemain a Roguelike hybrid, it's because the developer is taking the graphical style and gameplay of a roguelike and removing the randomization as well as adding story. So technically it's a regular RPG that just looks like a roguelike. Think of it as Eschalon, but played from a completely top-down view with less pretty graphics.

[Painted Lady]

Roguelikes are sort of the grandaddy of Action-RPG's like Diablo. Generally very light on story, and heavy on the randomized gameplay.

So, would you say that a person who really is addicted to BW's games would probably like Legerdemain? Or, is it going to be heavy on fighting and light on plot?

[CrazyBernie]

Lol, see my Edit that I made at the same time you were posting a response. Here's a quote from the developer:

In exchange, I've been able to concentrate on the things I find most important, like interesting NPCs, and storyline, and a huge, original world.

[BasiliskWrangler]

Roguelikes are sort of the grandaddy of Action-RPG's like Diablo. Generally very light on story, and heavy on the randomized gameplay.

Correction- True Roguelikes are purely turn-based. I actually based Eschalon on a pseudo-Roguelike turn system.

So, would you say that a person who really is addicted to BW's games would probably like Legerdemain? Or, is it going to be heavy on fighting and light on plot?

Sure, depending on what aspect of Eschalon you enjoy. Roguelikes are usually devoid of storyline or NPC interaction, but have a very deep character development system and thousands of items to find. Generally the goal of a standard Roguelike is to go as deep into a 100 level dungeon as possible to locate a particular item of value, placed all the way at the bottom. Each level is randomly generated, so no two games play the same.

[Rune_74]

If you are wondering if you will like Legerdemain why not just try it? The ascii version is free...and the version with the awesome cluebook is 20 and comes with basic tiles in place of ascii characters.

http://roguelikefiction.com/

You can get it there.

Basilisks example above is more the standard roguelike....legerdemain is not like that. It really reminds me of some of the older ultimas personally.