Author Archives: Nicholas

On the Commercialization of Roguelikes (And Some Other Stuff)

April 24, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

(David recently did a State of the Dungeon post, and I guess this is my State of the Dungeon.)

For the most part it is rewarding for us, as developers, to hear that people are excited about the work that we’re doing and how badly they want to pre-order our title. (See, we’re listening!) I think that this is true of any creative endeavor: the artist thrives on the energy of his or her public. At the same time, it is also worth noting that it is very easy for a developer to get unexcited about a project when people keep telling you that you’re doing a lousy job. Most developers will tell you that the secret to this is not to listen to people on the Internet – after all, what do they know? That said, most successful developers – Valve springs instantly to mind, under the capable direction of Gabe Newell – will tell you that the success or failure of a game, and of a game company, is dependant upon your fans and your customers. Listen to people, get them excited, and you will prosper. Alienate your fans and you will alienate your customers, and your customers are the people who pay you money (or who will pay you money once we get the pre-orders going.) So that’s why we listen: we secretly want to be Valve. (Who doesn’t? Ben McGraw, our executive producer, recently pointed out that Valve is one of the few game companies in the so-called “Industry” that he would work for. Like indies, Valve brings joy to people. Other companies, he says, just make games.)

So what are our users saying? In a recent poll on our Twitterfeed – which you should all be following, because it really is the best way to keep tabs on us – one user wanted to know more about our development process, and the day-to-day decisions behind game development. We hope that this will oblige you, but today’s blogpost is *really* inspired by something from The Internets.

In a recent online discussion about Dungeons of Dredmor, somebody said – and I paraphrase: “Commercial roguelikes will never be as good as free roguelikes because the multi-year, evolutionary development process that results in amazing games like Crawl will never be commercially viable.” Here we have somebody who likes roguelikes, and who should like Dredmor. Hopefully,  he will support us – here is a man, after all, who could be a customer, and any failing to attain him as a customer is a failing on our part as a business – but his concern is legitimate. Can a commercial roguelike be as good as Crawl, or Nethack? Well, I think we can… but let’s talk about this.

{ read this article }

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Game Design, Games, Gaslamp, Other Games, Programming | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
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On 64-bit Linux

April 21, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

(from the comments, but I’m copying and pasting it here. — N.)

Two people have asked so far: will there be a 64-bit Linux version of Dungeons of Dredmor?

Short answer: “Maybe.”

Longer answer: “Sure, but only if you’re okay with an EXE where you can’t save. Fortunately, this is a roguelike.”

Longest answer: I’m still looking into this one.

{ read this article }

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Dredmor 0.94 done!

April 6, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

We’ve finished Dredmor 0.94, and are busy trying to figure out what we need to fix for Dredmor 0.94.1 (a handful of minor bugs that weren’t worth stopping the build today for) and 0.95 (???) Based on where we are right now – the start of the game is looking good and polished, but the end game and middle game is still in need of work. We’re looking at how to address that with 0.95, but here’s where it gets encouraging: most of what is left in the TODO for the game – the entire game! – is scripting and content creation. Not much code appears to be needed from me, which leaves me relegated to bug fixes, little pieces of polish, and of course tackling some of the last few little design issues. I’m sure that my bugtracker will fill up again, but it’s very nice having only seven code issues sitting between me and shipping.

Be advised: we may start mining the beta list shortly for more testers. You lucky, lucky people.

 

100% natural fiberglass compounds.

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Games, Gaslamp, Programming | 5 Comments

Gaslamp Games Press Release: Dungeons of Dredmor is Not an April Fools’ Prank

April 1, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

April 1st, 2011 – Gaslamp Games, an independent game development company based out of British Columbia, Canada, has regrettably announced that its upcoming Roguelike Dungeon Crawler, “Dungeons of Dredmor”, is not an April Fools’ Day Prank. In fact, the game exists, is being actively worked on, and is still on track for a release on major digital gaming distribution services some time in April 2011. Members of the gaming press, understandably incredulous that anybody is actually trying to make a roguelike that makes money, have recently been claiming that Dredmor is an elaborate practical joke on the PC gaming community; Gaslamp’s cofounders have therefore been forced out of their bunkers and parents’ basements to inform the public that this is not the case.

“Yes,” said Nicholas Vining, Gaslamp’s technical director, “we at Gaslamp genuinely believe that you will actually want a game with 8-bit graphics, stored in antiquated file formats, where you run around a dungeon and eat Lutefisk while trying to kill an evil sorcerer. We deeply regret the error of our ways.” David Baumgart, Gaslamp’s technical art director, was heard to gnash his teeth and wail in dulcet tones at this pronouncement, before running out of the office to seal his claim to fame as the independent game community’s version of Toulouse-Lautrec. Daniel Jacobsen, Gaslamp’s technical business director, was technically unavailable for comment, being technically asleep at the time, lulled into peaceful slumber by the soothing songs of the Space Whale.

“We understand that this is a painful time,” Vining added, “and that Dungeons of Dredmor is probably the cruelest non-April Fools’ Day Joke not committed in the history of not-jokes. We apologize to our audience for not tricking them, and for actually making this thing, but we actually believed that you wanted to play a game with eighty-seven bazillion cheeses in it. I have erred grievously in mixing my business projects with my personal hobbies, and my fascination for the bovine product has doomed the company and sullened its reputation by casting it as nothing more than a band of merry pranksters. I feel that this announcement, clarifying that we have actually built this game in deathly, earnest seriousness, will go a long way towards improving our company’s reputation as being perfectly serious as well as my reputation as, technically, Gaslamp’s technical technical director.”

“Woe is the life of the starving technical art director artist,” Baumgart commented miserably and technically. “I told you we should have ripped off Minecraft.” The Dungeons of Dredmor codebase was unavailable for comment, having impaled itself on a version control system some hours earlier and remaining in critical condition.

Dungeons of Dredmor will be available for purchase in case anybody wants to buy it. The game is rated “T” for technical.

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Game Design, Gaslamp | 4 Comments

Late Night Dwarven Infomercials? Say It Ain’t So!

March 30, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

In celebration of Dwarven Craftsmanship Month, we at Gaslamp Games are pleased to present our new line of Late Night Dwarven Infomercials. Each video is lovingly seared with Potent Runes of Advertising and guaranteed to help you make the finest, most informed decisions about where to spend your entertainment dollar.

This video features the new Spring 2011 Trap line up, suitable for any discerning dungeon builder. Many have not heard that Dwarven Craftsmanship is finally available at rock-bottom prices, so please feel free to spread the love.

We will have some information about where to actually buy Dredmor, and how much it will cost, VERY shortly. Stay tuned!

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The Sound of Progress

March 24, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

Version 0.93 of Dungeons of Dredmor just hit our stream of beta testers. We are exhausted, but happy, having resolved one hundred and eighty six bugs and minor TODOs since the start of the new year. Will we hit our April deadline? No idea, but I think we’ll go gold some time in April and it will take a little while to get the distributors sorted out. Famous last words.

This week, the plan is to deal with 0.93.1 (bugfixes for 0.93 – including, finally, the mysterious thrown weaponry crash that has been plaguing David’s father! – and anything that comes up in the immediate feedback for 0.93), hopefully by Friday, and then onwards to 0.94 (“higher level gameplay”, which as far as I am concerned means adding in a batch of new sound effects, making a number of improvements to monster AI, and trying to deal with our unpleasantly large memory footprint. I don’t know why it’s gotten so large recently – probably, it just means that we’ve been adding stuff – and now I get the unpleasant task of trying to retrofit the game with a garbage collector for sprite memory. Lessons learned…)

I’m very happy with this latest release; I find myself using things that I didn’t previously use, relying on skills and magic to save the day instead of simply trying to collect six artifacts and beating the tar out of monsters with a fistful of fireball-shooting amulets. A new smattering of interesting, entertaining traps – most of which shoot lightning – makes the dungeon more dangerous. Buying and selling gives you somewhere to dump your stuff, and there’s lots of random stuff to have fun with. Players are actually enjoying themselves, without us needing to pump them full of drugs.

The newest problem? The game is *too easy*.

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You can’t have a Podcast without Pod People

February 3, 2011 by Nicholas Vining

David and I are being interviewed next Wednesday for the “Immortal Machines” podcast over at Colony of Gamers. If you have questions about Dungeons of Dredmor, Gaslamp Games, or anything else that you want to know about, head on over to their forums and get askin’.

The best part? Ask a question – if it gets answered, you’ll be entered to win a free copy of Dungeons of Dredmor!

Go now! Heed the call of the Wizard-Kings!

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