Roguelike on Erebus

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UPDATE: forget to turn off debug messages, fixed downloads.
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nice!
I will try it when I find some time

Jarrema said:

nice!
I will try it when I find some time

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Wish you luck! It is hard to survive for starting characters.

Small save game fix.
Saved games were fixed from 500mb to 45 mb.

Updated first post.

This looks nice (from the gameplay point of view), at least like a base for a bigger game . Now it's more like a test run of the engine and gameplay, because there's not a lot to do (you know what I mean).

The things you need the most:
1) More consistent graphics, it looks like a lot of sprites come from different places, and they look weird when the game makes them smaller. You could find a proficient spriter for this, I am sure many people would like to help.
2) A spellchecker. A lot of errors here and there, in most basic words. It's not the most important thing, but it would be nice to fix.

All in all, it looks good. Good luck to you!

P.S. DF dwarves looked strange for me here, definitely .

P.P.S. Sprites need a dark outline if you plan to have so much snow, just an advice which I use all the time in most of my spriting endavours .

Deon said:

This looks nice (from the gameplay point of view), at least like a base for a bigger game . Now it's more like a test run of the engine and gameplay, because there's not a lot to do (you know what I mean).

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Yeah, I definitely know, what are speaking about. Roguelike games passes many stages of development, such as:
“Look guys! My @ is walking on the screen” to “We have monster and labyrinth”. It tech pre alpha.
Then comes early (crap) alpha, like FFHtR was from realize to 0.0.5.
Later comes promising alpha, early beta, gamma and so on, until shining 1.0.

If my feelings right, FFHtR crawled from crap to promising last month, with 0.0.5 version.
I am planning to hit beta at one year anniversary of FFHtR with completing all plans for 0.1.0 version. Who knows.

Deon said:

The things you need the most:
1) More consistent graphics, it looks like a lot of sprites come from different places, and they look weird when the game makes them smaller. You could find a proficient spriter for this, I am sure many people would like to help.
P.S. DF dwarves looked strange for me here, definitely .

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Well, good pixel art artist working on FFHtR. Without of him it would be hundred times uglier than now, but pixel art take lot of time, and it understandable, that it is nearly impossible for one person to fulfill all pxel art needs of FFHtR at reasonable time.

When game stays at alpha stage, It is hard to “capture” somebody to the development team. For example I say: Hello, I need pixelartist for FFHtR, it is crippled alpha stage, but hey, can you spent good portion of you free time and make art for this?
Result is a little bit predictable.
But! If the game would develop, at least to beta stage and later, more and more people would be happy to contribute. So, right now, it time to clench teeth and work hard.
It would be, and maybe in our lifetime.

Deon said:

P.P.S. Sprites need a dark outline if you plan to have so much snow, just an advice which I use all the time in most of my spriting endavours .

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There aren’t enough objects for normal climate, right now, but with development of the game, snow will melt (contribution for vanilla FFH).
Also, at 0.0.6 new southern region would be open and It would be not frozen, and player would start there at Calabim territories. Frozen residents would be significantly rise in power, so PC should prepare for travel.
So, most part of the game would take place at more FFH like universe.

Deon said:

2) A spellchecker. A lot of errors here and there, in most basic words. It's not the most important thing, but it would be nice to fix.

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Oh yes. I got disturbing feelings, that using computer spellcheckers for years significantly hit my grammar, as foreign, as native languages. I am fixing it, yes, by myself and from feedbacks, but FFHtR has crippled grammar.

Deon said:

All in all, it looks good. Good luck to you!

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It is hard to make something good without of help of other people feedback and most important – ideas, so, thank you very match for your help with development!

PS
We are living in same city, you know?

That's grand, maybe we could arrange some kind of "beer meetup" to discuss the matters .

About sprites: how big should they be for a 1280x1024 window? I can help with some of the missing ones.

And the dark outlines is a good idea for any background, they make the creatures to look much clearer.

Deon said:

That's grand, maybe we could arrange some kind of "beer meetup" to discuss the matters .

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Would be happy to participate! Do you like Guinness?

Deon said:

About sprites: how big should they be for a 1280x1024 window? I can help with some of the missing ones.

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Can't say for sure, but 32x32 or bigger works well. Smaller sprites (taken from DF) looks ugly in FFHtR (sceletons, zombie etc )

Deon said:

And the dark outlines is a good idea for any background, they make the creatures to look much clearer.

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There is dark outlines, but I am using black as color key, maybe should change to alpha channel. hmm...

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Fixed unpleasant bug (empty caves) in 0.0.5_SaveFix, realized 0.0.5_SaveFix_2.
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NB. New look for frozen forest:

The terrain looks great, but is it me, or the main character sprite is strangely distorted? Or just zoomed?

And yeah, I like Guinness and I should finish my documents for a science grand this week so probably the next week.

Deon said:

The terrain looks great, but is it me, or the main character sprite is strangely distorted? Or just zoomed?

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Well. All sprites in FFHtR can be divided on two parts, temporary sprites, found in the internet (that character sprite) and finished art for the game (terrain).
So, that guy looks ugly and needs replacement as nearly all other character art (except dwarfs, DF art was replaced yesterday by very cool art!).

Deon said:

And yeah, I like Guinness and I should finish my documents for a science grand this week so probably the next week.

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Yep, no problem!

I meant that this sprite looks different in the sprite sheet, do you scale the tiles?

Deon said:

I meant that this sprite looks different in the sprite sheet, do you scale the tiles?

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Yes, It was good Nethack tiles, until they fallen in my hands.
Just altered for 32x32, crudely.
I let myself to spent only five minutes per image, because It useless with my pixelart skills, I’ll better code something.

It's generally a bad idea to scale pixel art tiles, because some pixels disappear and the image becomes weird and unrecognizable or just ugly . If you could have fixed 32x32 tiles in the game window, it would be grand.

Happily, pair of good guys are helping FFHtR with tiles.
0.0.6 will look much better:
(zombies are old ones, from DF)

Hell yes, the skeletons and the dwarf are awesome.

OMG! Current version is broken. Some dungeons, like Broken Sepulcher aren't saving.
Bug has been fixed, but I don't think there is real need in fix realize, before 0.0.6

HAY GUISE

I'm the one making new pixels for this game!

Creatures, icons, terrain, new font... you name it!

Right! We didn't realize it yet, of course. It needs lot of work, until 0.0.6 can be shown to people, but yes, It looks different:

Copper Golem said:

When game stays at alpha stage, It is hard to “capture” somebody to the development team. For example I say: Hello, I need pixelartist for FFHtR, it is crippled alpha stage, but hey, can you spent good portion of you free time and make art for this?
Result is a little bit predictable.

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Except me, I jumped at the opportunity

I've been pixelling for what, *checks roguetemple PM inbox* ¡two months and a bit!

First I tackled the dwarves, and after a week or so I began to make creatures in earnest.

I've made dwarves, humans, a fudgton of undead, trolls, and now I'm making elves and faeries.

On the terrain department, I've made a vanilla brick wall tileset, and a creepy tileset for dungeons. I'm now making doors, and I should make soon some floor tiles.

I know it's cheesy that I say so myself, but this is going to look kickass

Copper Golem said:

Right! We didn't realize it yet, of course. It needs lot of work, until 0.0.6 can be shown to people, but yes, It looks different:

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Hey, looks great (it just needs the "floor" tiles). I especially love those torches on the corners, a great touch .