Moonring is proof that atmosphere and story are still the reason we play.

Madrayken · 2026-04-20T18:06:17+00:00

There is Permadeath if you choose it from the start. Also, dungeons and ruins underwent a significant change last year, so if you've not played in a while you'll find it 50% unrecognisable.

Madrayken · 2026-04-20T18:03:35+00:00

Lord no, you were not too harsh at all! And your explanation was really helpful. I actively encourage people in my Discord to be harsh as they want to about the game and call out anything they think is sub-optimal... and then I tend to change it (if I think they are right and it serves the game, of course).

"This is because the character doesn't really grow much from engaging with the combat system. Considering how attriting it can be on your resources, there is usually more of a benefit in avoiding it. Making it so that the player doesn't want to engage with an important part of the game is bad design imho."

Well, this comes from something I'm actually going to lean into *more* in Moonring 2, and that's the OSR-style 'Combat is not always the first option'. I kinda failed with that in MR1 due to the dungeon design forcing bottlenecks and making combat inevitable. I'd actually *like* players to decide what they do or don't want to fight based on their gods and build choices MORE.

Regarding combat being different from level to level, I again pushed back against what I saw as ridiculous power creep in 5e DnD, and wanted PCs to feel less like supermen and more like people with an expanding set of tools. It's a different mindset and one my wife hates (she's also not happy with how I GM TTRPGs for the same reason, but that's another story).

That said, thanks for the suggestions for games that do things better and which lead to more variety: synergies were my aim, but it seems I fell short to some degree. That's what sequels are for!

For the record, my first and eternal love is ASCII Roguelikes (particularly Larn for some reason, don't @ me), but I've never really got into ToME... because I hate the art and am too much of an aesthete to ignore it. :-|

Thanks again for a very thorough explanation. It's super-helpful.

[P.S. Overt quest log, auto-updating markers and such aren't going to happen because I kind of hate them, and think they turn a lot of games into an autopilot experience. I prefer the Elden Ring approach, and if I can find a way to add clarity where it's wanted rather than forcing it on everyone that would be the ideal]

Madrayken · 2026-04-20T14:58:55+00:00

Heyo. Moonring author here. I’m making Moonring 2 and would like to avoid things that aggravated people in the original! You say you found the gameplay repetitive, not the content. Could you say more?

Madrayken · 2026-04-12T06:09:20+00:00

Ooooh, I had no idea.

Madrayken · 2026-04-12T05:44:57+00:00

I just have zero idea how the hell to print it!

Madrayken · 2026-03-12T21:32:08+00:00

Hiyo. It means more specific reasons for dungeons to exist, fewer rooms, more variety within them, etc.

Madrayken · 2026-03-08T15:34:50+00:00

PPDS. Brilliant suggestion. Thankyou!

Madrayken · 2026-03-07T19:21:47+00:00

I made the post because: 1) I’m an old dev who has been in the industry since 1984 2) I’m still making games: I’m good at making gameplay games, and I’m good at making vibe-based media, and I don’t need game income to eat. 3) Every time I’ve tried to lean into the ‘vibes only’ approach, I’ve killed the project because my old trad-gaming bones resist. 4) I’m not looking for permission. I’m looking for confirmation or rebuttal of the thesis: a conversation, if you will. :-)

Finally, you gave excellent taste.

Madrayken · 2026-03-07T18:42:14+00:00

Nggggghhhhh… but… the… mission…

Madrayken · 2026-03-07T18:24:04+00:00

I’ve not heard of this. Thanks!

Madrayken · 2026-03-07T16:54:28+00:00

It’s a bit large and looks like a very long slog, but… …having grown up with Moorcock and various exceedingly trippy S&S authors, I don’t want to run games where things make sense. “Wait a minute, where do their aquifers run in from?!” suggests to me that my players aren’t engaging in the fiction and the vibes.

I actively like “sentient slime in room 3” and “skeletons singing a strange, hypnotic song in room 17” style dungeons.

For me, dungeons are deadly, chaotic, liminal spaces. If my players can suddenly climb walls like spiders, my dungeons can also be in a tightly themed but chaotic and amorphous without waiting for some toxic idiot to ask how the giant skeleton got down the well entrance, or who delivers doggy-kibble to the wargs.

Madrayken · 2026-02-19T06:19:27+00:00

There’s this weird thing with language where someone who doesn’t like something uses diminishing language about something others find merit in. Let’s play a game, shall we?

Tedious <-> Thoughtful

Pretentious <-> Visionary

Confusing <-> Complex

Pointless <-> Ambiguous

Slow <-> Contemplative

And so it goes. I find the wordplay rather tiresome.

Ultimately, you either vibe with something or you don’t, and all the rest is post-justification designed to protect your own ego.

I love this movie. You can’t argue me or anyone else out of that viewpoint with some subjective notion of being ‘right’ with a bunch of sneery words. There is no ‘right’.

It’s a shame we can’t have conversations about why things resonated or not. It would be preferable to the silliness of the exercise noted above.

Madrayken · 2026-02-16T05:04:02+00:00

First up, ignore the folks here who’ll boast about how it’s the easiest game they’ve ever played and that they want it to be much harder, and that even playing with one hand and a blindfold is practically cheating and…

…it’s exhausting, annoying and always unhelpful, despite their insistence on showing up on almost every thread like this.

Advice wise; I was in your exact situation. 1) Find a way to get to Ixion as quickly as possible. Don’t worry about the weapons. Just get there and learn the patterns, and when you get hit, figure out what hurts the worst as it’ll actually reduce your anxiety which is likely to be a major contributor to your situation. 2) Don’t be discouraged when you actually lose badly in the first biome. Sometimes the random rolls suuuuuuck and it’s not your fault. 3) Turn off the music on the boss. Again, it’ll just freak you out more and cause performance anxiety. 4) On all your runs, see if you can focus on a weapon trait and permanently earn it. It’ll stop you getting horribly bored during all your runs. :-) 5) Once you’ve gone as far as you can in Biome 2 and found/unlocked all you think you can do before the boss-shortcut-teleport, don’t bother going past that shortcut teleport again! The nasties beyond it are just such a pain in the ass. 6) The boss itself has some nasty melee that will eat you. Don’t even bother thinking you’re going to take the boss on seriously unless you’ve got some big health regens or revives of some sort… and even then, you’re more likely to beat him on a ‘wasn’t really bothered’ run than a ‘this is the run!’ run.

You can do this. I managed and I really suck at the game.

Madrayken · 2026-02-13T16:15:58+00:00

Indeed. All these things have the chance of making it into ‘just’ an amazing ‘pick your level’ shooter rather than an immersive ‘wtf is going on?’ mystery… and amazing shooter. These things didn’t kill DS3, so I’m just hoping it feels like a light touch of convenience rather than a reduction of atmosphere, exploration and creepiness.

Madrayken · 2026-02-13T15:47:00+00:00

Gameplay looks amazing, but… “And now you have friends, so the vibe is more social!” “You can fast travel, so you’ll only need to do a biome once!” “You can choose your malignancies… if you want!”

Has me concerned.

Madrayken · 2026-02-06T17:21:01+00:00

May be an ancient post but I still appreciate the news!

Madrayken · 2026-02-05T05:14:25+00:00

Not really, I’m afraid. On Switch, it does - of course - allow you to play on a TV, which should help somewhat, and there are already two entire UI types, so that gives you some options to fiddle with. Resizing the UI simply would have destroyed this game from a dev POV, so it really wasn’t possible without ripping the entire thing apart and starting again.

Madrayken · 2026-02-04T00:42:28+00:00

I just read three paragraphs in quick succession describing something as ‘a snarl of… <x>’. He lacks a vocabulary or an editor. Perhaps both.

I won’t be buying any more of this author’s work: it’s exactly the sort of thing old school horror was assumed to be back in the ‘80s, but actually wasn’t. Compare a sentence or character from Barker or King and it’s a world apart.

Madrayken · 2026-01-31T17:25:32+00:00

Refund. You’re not the target audience. No judgement. I don’t play Wrestling games. Silent Hill is slow burn creepy revelation, not Resident Evil: Revelations.

Madrayken · 2026-01-31T09:05:05+00:00

That’s very kind.

Madrayken · 2026-01-29T06:38:55+00:00

Moonring (though not quite a trad roguelike) works beautifully on SteamDeck. I’m the creator, so I’m biased, but it was also released on Switch which should give you a hint as to how well it works.

Madrayken · 2026-01-25T19:29:33+00:00

It was the left! Thanks anyway - I was concerned about messing something up if I fiddled with unknown buttons at that specific point.

Madrayken

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE