New game challenge...

TL;DR: I'm starting a 3d web game Rogue-like project. OK, no pictures, you can go away now. :)

Next stop, 3d and more complete game dynamics. The previous release was a retro-inspired title, so it is fitting that we continue along that vein, but this time on a more serious note. This project will tip its hat at all the Rogue-likes out there...

The great thing about Rogue-likes is that you can still get away with using ASCII characters, and by providing a text description, you can convince a player that a "@" character is a human. I've had the experience of playing Dwarf Fortress for 2 hours where I would imagine a dog instead of the "d" character actually running around. Reading a book has a similar effect. Your eyes sees words, but you imagine worlds.

But I'm not just doing it for the snob-appeal, it also allows me to develop a game-play experiment without having to expend massive amounts of energy on modelling lots of items and characters, but rather focus on the game-play and game-dynamics... and attempt to do so in under 3 weeks.  It is also for this reason that I believe concept art would be pointless for this post. ;)

Project brief (Man-band (working title)):

• Rogue-like 
• ASCII character sprites to represent creatures
• Simplified physics using box2d-js
• 3d environment, though all character interaction and AI will happen on the horizontal 2d plane
• no enter-able buildings, all structures effectively block or spawn creatures.
• Game-Play:
• Real-time (possible turn based option, but not a priority)
• all action is top-down 
• aswd/arrow keys to move. (Relative and absolute options)
• mouse to aim and attack. (full-screen, but no need for pointer-lock API)
• troop commands:
• assign to/select squad
• move to (move to selected spot -behaviour affected by hold/free)
• hold/free (stick to formation or chase enemies for a certain radius)
• rejoin
• chain commands.
• Game-Dynamics:
• Simplistic revenge plot with minimal dialogue and lots of fighting and looting.
• Simplified statistics and items (no magic/acid/flame/etc... just physical damage)
• Arenas represent basic location blocks. The player moves his troops from arena to arena to progress.
• Creature generator structures in arenas will cause creatures to be spawned. Creatures will also periodically spawn in neighbouring arenas. You need to destroy  generators to stop the spawning and gain loot.
• Game progress involves clearing arenas of enemy creatures, saving people and recruiting followers and arming them with loot. When you have enough stats, weapons and followers you can take on the boss arena, upon whose clearing the game completes.

Agreeably not a unique idea, but I hope to implement it so the game-play will be satisfying despite the lack of "real" graphics.

For now, implementation details and plot details will be held back until I have more to show.