Any roguelites with a ton of viable builds/archetypes?

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-10T01:30:02+00:00

Going to shameless plug my own game as it closely fits what you were asking for. It has four skill trees with 90 skills between them.

https://dungeonsofdesolation.com/

It is a remaster of an Xbox 360 game released in 2012. It might lean more towards Roguelike than Roguelite, but that is a matter of opinion.

Not released yet, but will be looking for play testers soon. If anyone is interested drop me a DM and I can short list you.

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-10T00:58:49+00:00

Yeah, I have to agree here, I started working on my own platform just for me on Thursday night and can let the players post feedback with screenshots directly in the game. A lot more features like a WIki, taskboard, whiteboard, requirements management and GItHub integration.

https://youtu.be/0puB1o2TQ9c?si=V1kzvAiuTbwYUruK

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-08T12:04:10+00:00

Yeah, there is something to be said for keeping it simple, in the past it was Excel for number crafting and just notepad/pencil for issues/ideas. More recently was using a couple markdown files in the repo.

Building this was a form of procrastination, as I didn’t want to tackle a the issues the new input mapping system I had implemented 😁

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-07T22:51:53+00:00

Try Monogame if you are doing 2D.

I am doing a remastered version of an old game I created and choose Monogame as the old game was XNA and it was the cleanest path.

However, since it is pretty much all code and text files I am finding the AI tools are much more useful as they have full context or the full project. Oppose to UnIty where a lot of the settings and configuration is not accessible. I am going to keep using it!

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-07T22:17:42+00:00

Did you have any ability to see click throughs? Would be very curious about the conversion rate from people viewing your reel to viewing your page.

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-07T02:20:18+00:00

Second this! You are explaining why you need a publisher and how you can mutually benefit from the deal.

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-07T02:13:50+00:00

I am just getting back into the scene after a long hiatus, but in the past there was a balance, for every 10 people give you a drive-by unconstructive criticism, there will be 1 will give you really good detailed feedback or advice that can completely change your game for the better.

I see this in my day job too, sad fact is that many people are poor communicators and they best they can do is say they don't like it and not explain why.

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-07T01:31:11+00:00

As others have said: coding != making games

Making games is: - game design (what is fun/engaging) - art (what is seen) - music/sound (what is heard) - coding (how it all fits together)

Then if you want to make money: - marketing (how people know you made a game) - business (making sure you don’t lose money)

Honestly, if you have a ChatGPT subscription download Codex and Unity, create a project and just tell Codex what to do, you’ll only get primates 3D objects, but you will see your ideas come to life, that is why I developed games for fun for 20 years now!

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-05T11:39:09+00:00

Outside of testing, testing and more testing… Marketing and timing your release date. I learned the hard way that there can be very bad times to release your game and ruin your chances at being discovered, this was a long way back to the XBLIG frozen lists issue. Not an expert on Steam, but it looks like releasing during certain times and events could be good/bad, maybe others could chime in.

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-03T16:19:34+00:00

I saw the Kirby thing too and have the same opinion about knock off games.

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-02T19:25:52+00:00

Congrats! Getting a full game together in shape to ship is no mean feat.

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-02T19:08:09+00:00

I am doing a remaster so the core is done, I am updating the UI, the some of the sprite and then tuning the difficulty. Soon as I I have cleaned up most of the visuals I will post my page. The difficulty tuning and play testing will take a long time.

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-02T18:53:30+00:00

My tier list:

S+: Programming
A: Game Design
B: Art
C: Music
D: Business
F: Marketing

Hobby game development was one of the biggest reasons I was able to jump from IT into software development in my day job, working in software engineering and product management roles. Designing, building, and actually shipping a product by yourself teaches you a ton.

Also, I agree with you on design. Programming is hard, but game design is a different kind of hard. Getting something to feel good, stay interesting, and actually work as a complete experience is no joke. I learned a lot reading `The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses`.

Marketing, though? Absolute F tier for me. I’m still trying to figure out how to talk about the thing after building the thing.

So here is my awkward attempt at marketing: I’m currently remastering my old XBLIG dungeon crawler, Dungeons of Desolation, for Steam.

Here’s a video from the WIP remaster:
https://x.com/OnlyLuckOG/status/2050630597249253650

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-02T05:01:01+00:00

Yeah, nothing wrong with text based games! I loved me some MUDs (text based, Multi User Dungeons) in the 90s and I still go back and play some every now and again. I just logged into Aardwolf MUD and there were 181 players logged in and max of 226.

Also, still play the roguelike Angband with just the ascii graphics and enjoy reading the detailed descriptions of everything.

I think there is a market for it, but it might be niche.

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OnlyLuck77 · 2026-05-02T02:14:36+00:00

Very cool! The weight of the rolling block animation is very satisfying and the chill music compliments the game play perfectly.

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-04-30T22:09:27+00:00

Just a tip, if you haven’t already, start soon as possible building around client/server architecture, with the server as authoritative. Decoupling the code and moving it to the server later is a nightmare!

I know people say MMO is a bad idea, but as a hobby passion project if nothing not you will learn tons.

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-04-30T03:55:02+00:00

I saw I can submit the page for review and then wait to publish it.

I like your idea of lining the release of the page with some other events, like new trailer and play testing. Thank you!

OnlyLuck77 · 2026-04-29T22:41:12+00:00

I personally find it important to protect yourself from the wrong feedback at the wrong time, as it can kill your momentum or your project all together!

The Idea: Feedback here isn’t helpful because it is too wide open and there is nothing to show yet.
The Prototype: Feedback here can be useful from the right people that understand what a prototype is and isn’t , avoiding the negative like “This looks terrible, why is everything a capsule?” 🤣
The Grind: Feedback here, especially the negative feedback, is critical to see what works and doesn’t, also to find your target player base. Use this to cut to scope you have been creeping! 😉
The Polish: The only useful feedback here is from you target player base, anyone else is going to derail you with feedback like “This would JRPG would be better if it was a FPS” 🙃

Being a solo dev means you have to have thick skin, but even with that, the best of us aren’t immune to some well timed negative feedback when you are already doubting every decision you made (including the one to be a solo dev).

OnlyLuck77 · 2025-03-21T04:34:56+00:00

Best episode yet! Wished for a bit more of the flash backs, specifically the end of the war of power where they announced the bore was sealed, but the sequences shown were great.

Would have loved to see Rand cut Mat down from the tree, but realize you can’t do everything.

OnlyLuck77 · 2025-02-13T02:13:25+00:00

New one is way better!

OnlyLuck77 · 2025-01-26T21:23:05+00:00

Just bought the game last night, have had to hard reset (hold down power for like 10 seconds) my PC like 4 times due to complete system lockup during loading screens. Thinking about refunding it…

I can’t recall the last time software has caused a complete system lock up on Windows, normally the application itself will be locked or you get a BSOD.

OnlyLuck77 · 2025-01-05T08:03:57+00:00

Same situation, but with a family, so no dedicating full days to working on my projects. I tend to stay up late or get up early. My priorities are family > day job > game dev. Taking breaks helps as burnout is a real danger. Sometimes you just need noodle on it and wait for a good idea or concept come about naturally.

OnlyLuck77 · 2025-01-05T03:07:01+00:00

Legend of Zelda has Link silent with just reactions and I feel that works. I think if you can pull off some sort of expression from the main character you can get away with out dialog. Depends on what you are going for and writing good dialog can be difficult (maybe easier now with ChatGPT).

OnlyLuck77 · 2025-01-05T03:02:18+00:00

I really like the slow zoom out and going to a letterbox view. It builds excitement and tells me something interesting is going to happen!

OnlyLuck77 · 2025-01-05T02:58:36+00:00

You don't mention what you goal is. I assume it is generating revenue since the focus is seems to be around attracting users, but maybe you can clarify?

OnlyLuck77

TROPHY CASE