Derelict Rogue. Day 1

This is the first post in what is somewhat a devlog series, about creating a submission to this year’s roguetemple’s Fortnight game jam (or 14DRL, as it is otherwise known).

The task is to create a traditional roguelike game in two weeks. The detailed restrictions are on the page, and I would say they are rather permissive.

If you look at the date of the post and the start of the jam, you can see that I didn’t start on time. The previous week was full of other worries, and all that went into the game was some thoughts and discussions with my co-author Smoreg.

We are still not completely sure what the game will be about, other than that it will involve exploring derelict spaceships as a drone (or a small party of drones). But with the power of AI slop, we tested some of the design decisions, and Smoreg was able to complete a full run in his version.

The UI of the slop version of the vision. You can see a hex map with doors, an action menu, inventory space, and a log.

I was mostly fascinated by a ship generator I found online, and by the fact that at least some of the design tiles are free to use in non-commercial projects. And I decided to explore what I could generate with those tiles, given some additional restrictions.

A screenshot of the ship generator with a hexagonal map overlaid. For now it can generate 1xN long ships or NxM stations; maybe I will update it for a greater variety of derelicts.

As you can see, it is a slow work in progress. I am not sure which direction the game will develop in, but at least it is fun to explore concrete implementations instead of mind-bending game designs.

This post is part of my #100DaysToOffload challenge.

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