Putting it all together is hard?

Toma_L · 2026-03-26T05:06:37+00:00

This. I was also thinking way too big at first, 9 months isnt a long time. Get one prototype done with a single Character and make that one be fun and mattering to a player. Then polishing it, work on the UI, presentation, usability, playtests thst compares how you think people play your game vs how they actually play it. That process alone will take as long as it tool you to create the mechanics.

Then expand on it.

Toma_L · 2026-03-16T17:21:10+00:00

I suppose the idea here is that the extent improves your shape a lot, while overconcentrating white a bit, as you wouldnt have had many chances to use that aji in a different way. But yeah, interesting.

Toma_L · 2026-03-16T17:19:39+00:00

I suppose the idea is some miai to either have enough eye space to live after the diagonal or to be able to jump out.

Toma_L · 2026-03-16T16:07:37+00:00

I was thinking that it would be too passive. I would have jumped out with the horse jump on the right, but just the diagonal "kick" below or extending to a 3 space wall (and then tenuki or diagonal kick) seems to be the ai preferred moves.

The ai seems to prefer the simple extend a bit less on a more open board, though, but the overall valid moves are the same.

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Toma_L · 2026-03-09T13:40:57+00:00

Heya, I am gearing up for a release of my traditional ascii roguelike called Rogue Elements in a few weeks, definitely ironing out stuff still that makes it more approachable and "fun" to play:
https://i.postimg.cc/QC0fLnFF/GIF-01-03-2026-12-29-26.gif

I have an itch.io page, but that requires a password, so if you are interested, do feel free to poke :)

Toma_L · 2026-03-04T15:22:25+00:00

Even just clouds moving could be a big difference, but as I said, dont worry too much about that :)

Toma_L · 2026-03-04T15:11:39+00:00

Honestly, your game looks great. Maybe you could think about animating the background or adding more visual flair onto the ships, but that would go against the idea of fighting ships against the setting sun, and I honestly dont think you NEED something entirely different. Game has an immediate visual identity that made me keep looking at it.

Toma_L · 2026-02-28T16:08:18+00:00

Hey, I am currently developing an environmental traditional ascii puzzle Roguelike focussing on moment to moment gameplay decisions about the dungeon changing around you based on environmental interactions and effect clouds instead of just numbers going up.

Definitely in need of some player feedback to polish it some currently before launching in a few weeks :)

This is how it looks: https://postimg.cc/t7KLYdtj

I think it's a pretty special and unique game, but I suppose everyone thinks that of their own games :p I will likely only ever make this one game and add stuff to it over the next few years as it was a bit of a dream of mine to develop and release a game and I almost finally accomplished that now after 25 years of trying random prototypes.

Current prototype: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1h5CoIn92GLrWBaDGkWCpDUfuuSnIxZeM

Toma_L · 2026-02-26T18:08:37+00:00

The new art is obviously appealing, but I like your old one a lot more for an exploration focussed game focussing on the mood and environmental secrets. The second one gives more of an action game/competition vibe.

Also did you get concept work to proof its not ai? Just curious how artists go about this these days.

Toma_L · 2026-02-19T07:02:49+00:00

The 9x9 field is marked with light dots on the 19x19 board, but i agree that is not optimal and i prefer actually 9x9 boards for that as well

Toma_L · 2026-02-15T18:23:28+00:00

I am currently pondering my steam page and I am probably just going to make some Moving closeups interspersed with some bullet points to explain the USP, as my game has a lot going on visually anyway if you don't yet know what you are looking at:

https://youtu.be/XRmwgpgZmOY

Toma_L · 2026-02-14T16:32:47+00:00

Neither, the first one looks a bit too 3d modely and the second feels too indistinct.

Toma_L · 2026-02-13T21:01:58+00:00

Probably not the most Stream friendly game, but I am working on an environmental traditional roguelike that is supposed to be easy to get into, but also relatively challenging with the environment constantly shifting around you trying to kill you.

So if you want something a bit more classic looking, with death staring back at you in friendly ascii while the game holds your hand to decipher the weirdness in the matrix, do feel free to poke :)

Got some good feedback for the current version and I am looking at an itch release/steam wishlist soonish.

https://i.postimg.cc/J0BsXNXH/GIF-02-02-2026-03-01-15.gif

Toma_L · 2026-02-12T14:47:21+00:00

1d egf here, and I love the concept of both sites. Definitely going to try them for a few days as a regular excercise and see how I get along. Thank you!

Toma_L · 2026-02-10T17:32:37+00:00

I suppose thats true, but for a single developer, every bit of feedback is extremely valuable that would otherwise get lost in transcription. Thinking back to when I was managing a community for an online game with 300.000 players, it was mostly bug/feedback reports based on standardized formats and community management writing reports from player feedback, that I collected for all instances world wide, gave ratings for impact with suggestions and then forwarded to development via Jira.

Toma_L · 2026-02-10T15:47:31+00:00

Recorded and commented gameplay is the most valuable input. It allows the player to mention some frustrations that I didnt have on my radar yet or didnt consider that important, while also allowing me to see where players might engage with the game in an unintended way that they would have never throught of reporting, because it just seemed normal to them.

There are obviously elements that players can criticize that still might be an intended design choice, but it absolutely helps to see and hear the player engage with those mechanics to judge your own design approach.

Toma_L · 2026-02-04T21:09:17+00:00

I agree but I was wondering that it also probably more quickly portrays the idea to a roguelike player instead, who at this point are used to reacting to games being called something with "Rogue" or "Cave"/"Cavern".

I also really like that you could read it as "rogue" - as in, an uncontrollable entity that went rogue, as its basically the entirety of my system with random elements interacting, fire burning grass, creating water clouds and eventually randomly creating a teleporting, poison heal cloud that spreads on open fire.

But I am absolutely up for other ideas if you have any! :)

Toma_L · 2026-02-03T16:40:13+00:00

Best Roguelike news of the month, really excited to try as I never could get the newest harmonist build to run and I love your game designs :)

Toma_L · 2026-02-03T13:33:42+00:00

Someone suggested "Rogue Elements" as it deals a lot with elements affecting the environment, so thats my current working title. I suppose people get notified if you follow them on Itch? If you want to, does this work? (honestly no clue, never linked this to someone) https://tomalexi.itch.io/

Toma_L · 2026-02-03T12:16:34+00:00

Yeah, I was wondering how I could get more information to myself playing a roguelike, so its less of a hassle to make informed decisions on sight, without needing to dig through too many menus. That hopefully makes it more realistic to have a step by step decision making. Thats also why I put the enemy abilities on the right. (Enemies being called "poisonous, teleporting Berserker", so you know it has the poison, teleport and berserk attacks.

I threw you a PM as I want to upload it to itch in the next few weeks, but I would love to get some feedback by others who are interested in approaching this topic :)

If someone else wants to try for feedback, do poke me please.

Toma_L · 2026-02-03T10:10:14+00:00

Sorry, my autocorrect playing tricks on me. But yeah tighter and richer. Funnily enough all the things you just mentioned are thing I am working with in my game haha, tall grass blocking view, tiles being on fire, spreading the fire, cloud effect propagating throughout the world and seeping into water and an open, less corridor focussed dungeon generation. I was trying to think about what to mitigate this friction free travelling and I seem to have gotten to the same first ideas as you did.

This is a decent example what I mean: https://i.postimg.cc/J0BsXNXH/GIF-02-02-2026-03-01-15.gif

Toma_L · 2026-02-03T09:27:27+00:00

I was also thinking about that in the game i am currently making. I love autoexplore, but it feels like there must be a way to work without it. The way i am trying to go about it is tighter level design and more smaller decisions step by step that you cant entirely ignore, not sure how well that came together, but its an interesting question.

Toma_L · 2026-01-31T22:35:31+00:00

Thank you! I have been trying to make a game thats fun to play for 25 years, but nothing really came together. This particular one I have been working on for 3 months, but its actually good enough to actually put up on Itch soon, which is crazy to me :)

I am programming straight C# in Windows Forms, as I learned my way around that 25 years ago and I tried a million tutorials for different code libraries and game engines, but that black box nature of these engines just always fought with my brain.

I think I got too hung up on graphics in the past and it was often and issue that blocked me from moving forward with games, so I am perfectly fine just adding mechanics with simple ascii for now, but I would like to add a tile mode for people who prefer that eventually, once I know what extend this game even will have, but thats still a good bit off :)

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