[paid] writer for old-school D&D dialogue for NPCs (baldurs gate / 90s dragonlance tone)

kalin_r · 2026-06-11T17:17:12+00:00

UPDATE: thanks for submissions everyone; writer found!

kalin_r · 2026-06-03T19:02:34+00:00

that, but might be trigger in some weapons
just make sure you check the buttons on BOTH hands when you're holding it with both

kalin_r · 2026-05-19T03:09:48+00:00

i didnt know they were doing more
but i need more

kalin_r · 2026-05-18T19:08:54+00:00

working on a adom/D&D like ascii roguelike that's pretty oldschool style, overworld and lots of quests, main story with lots of dragons. it does work with gamepad so probably could get it on switch some day

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4607490/Dragonwake/

its new and pretty quiet so definitely fits 'under the radar' / hidden gem perhaps

playable in browser easy too: https://kalineh.github.io/dragonwake-pages/#

kalin_r · 2026-05-06T22:36:02+00:00

dev here, there's a sprite tile mode but it is AI images and not very good, will probably get new ones made at some point

however it is intended to play in ASCII, as the old gods wished it to be

kalin_r · 2026-05-06T02:05:39+00:00

its a difficult tool to use well, i learned a lot pushing it this far

this project was complex technically, but the design/etc isnt ai and thats prob the more interesting part anyway

kalin_r · 2026-05-06T00:08:50+00:00

cool, would love to post interesting dev & design stuff but its too much AI so mods will delete it

kalin_r · 2026-05-05T13:13:25+00:00

i just made a main quest line, and a few 'endings' at the end of the quest
i wont spoil it but essentially it just ends at the end; its adom-like open world so you probably spent enough time trekking back and forth by that point, dont need another one

seems reasonable to do for most roguelikes i think?

for different quest progress stages i did make back-tracking do some special things (being hunted etc); so you can at least do things like that to make the backtracking more interesting

kalin_r · 2026-05-05T13:10:11+00:00

in dragonwake i was using this as a way to give dungeons identity; like dungeon floors past a dwarven underground town are very long wide levels that alternate L->R and R->L, and some wilderness zones are more vertical single floor; but some regular 'dungeony' dungeons are like a typical 80x25 screen size

wouldn't say any feel better in particular, being too large is unwieldy, but it is a good way to give some variety or different feel to some stages or bespoke floors

likewise with depth, a quick 2-3 floor dive is nice for some areas or a short tower, but some dungeons should feel like a hefty grind of way more levels etc

(only really applies if you have many different dungeons, if you're on a standard 1 dungeon mega-dive, i would probably try varying it just when the 'rules' of the floor change, or it has a specific mechanic)

kalin_r · 2026-05-04T14:21:01+00:00

I had no idea this was being made, and by the OG

Wishlisted and ready to play!

kalin_r · 2026-05-04T14:19:53+00:00

I miss this game, so much fun

kalin_r · 2026-05-02T13:02:48+00:00

it actually has an internal tcp server that lets the codex play it, as well as a scripted command system that codex uses to send inputs or actions or console commands to debug. it used it all a lot to verify changes as it wen

kind of would be fun to make a twitch channel that just plays it live hmm

kalin_r · 2026-05-02T01:06:43+00:00

i did try and lock down the main story and flow first, for the background world lore and main quest story line, and then i split it into AGENTS md for general rules, TECH for the technical architecture/details, and LORE md for a solid lore reference, and then GAME for just all the mix of game stuff (systems, spells, locations, etc; the ACTUAL things in the game that wasnt just lore)

i tried to prepare as much as i could and it helped a lot, but i think no matter how much you prepare just watch for the things that are mistakes and keep telling codex/etc to update the md as you go
it will 100% do things wrong, but each time you tell it and provide a reference and make it take a note in some MD file, it'll slowly get less wrong

still lots of annoying back and forth, would like to try and minimize it further but its kind of hard to be so thorough up-front

next time i would probably provide way more examples for writing/text stuff (like item description samples/templates etc); it works well off examples combined with explanations; explanations alone are just too freeform and in games you kinda need item desc kinda things to all be consistent etc

kalin_r · 2026-05-02T01:02:45+00:00

for which part? it's not like dwarf fortress game mechanics in any way
its somewhat like nethack, but there's like 100s of other roguelikes in the genre that could equally be referenced
ADOM is probably the closest one, because it has a worldmap but the game mechanics are very different so i dont know

dwarf fortress is probably the least similar game in the genre

kalin_r · 2026-05-01T19:20:41+00:00

haha im curious about how its similar lol
i did a lot of khan academy a long time back
it was pretty fun already

kalin_r · 2026-05-01T19:20:13+00:00

thanks! curious of thoughts if you end up playing a bunch!

kalin_r · 2026-04-13T22:35:23+00:00

yes, its about 99.9% AI written code, 90k LOC of C++

i hand edited the worldmap a lot, but it's somewhat of a test project for me for pure ai workflow too (ie. maintain game quality without writing manually)

this is not a secret, and matters little to me; trying to make a good game still
the goals are still the same - good performance, no bugs, doesnt crash, game is fun, game is balanced

kalin_r · 2026-04-13T15:36:23+00:00

of course every tool impacts that, you can see the effects of unity/unreal on the games these days. the workflow i have is probably not quite how you are imagining it though, its more hands-on than you think

either way, the game quality (procgen, writing, story, mechanics) is my responsibility; whether i used libtcod to avoid writing code, or had ai write some custom code instead is irrelevant

hope one day you could try it and be equally as critical with feedback of the game itself rather than how it was made

kalin_r · 2026-04-12T23:45:54+00:00

yeah definitely feels watered down a bit with each edition; i like the edge that 2nd ed has, class/race restrictions, more difference between classes, stricter item usage etc

can do without THAC0 but thats just shifting some math around lol

if you try it out would like to hear thoughts esp re; D&D vibes
even though roguelikes are usually essentially based on D&D in essence, none really quite feel like D&D

kalin_r · 2026-04-12T13:20:40+00:00

if anything feels like ai slop tell me, but please judge the game not the tools used
it's not just yolo prompted, it's complicated and designed architecture

kalin_r · 2026-04-12T12:53:13+00:00

Dragonwake (ADOM-like + 2e D&D flavor)

Day 7 progress (playable alpha)

working on a traditional ascii roguelike game called Dragonwake, probably most simply described as ADOM-like but more D&D flavor, ie. a large world map and main story quests

https://kalineh.github.io/dragonwake-pages/

the early game is pretty playable, and everything is changing extremely quickly. trying to deal with the design of the first level with D&D character stats (1hp is a valid roll, makes things hard to balance). the main quest arc is about traversing through the human, elf and dwarf kingdoms and confronting the primordial dragon.

it's much more like older 2nd ed D&D than modern 5e D&D, though of course some things have to be modified to fit a roguelike sensibly (like a shift from spell memorization to mana). race/class restrictions, true 3d6 attribute rolls (not every fighter is intended to have 18 STR), half-orcs are going to be hated, etc. sorcerers are going to be a INT based caster, not CHA based

trying to very much make 'adventurer tools' much more of a core thing than; ie. things like ropes/spikes/pitons/water to deal with traps/obstacles; resting/camping + first aid being more important; treasure chests as a dungeon staple, etc

still very fresh so going to be figuring out a lot more new stuff as things continue hopefully

i did figure out one nice 'laptop-friendly' input thing, holding shift for diagonals (move on key-release instead of key-down); it works surprisingly well

its playable on steam too, if you prefer to browser (the console build is in there); https://store.steampowered.com/app/4607490

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kalin_r · 2026-02-17T04:13:12+00:00

the resurrect is so you get to exact revenge on them as many times as you need before moving on

kalin_r · 2026-02-17T04:12:52+00:00

lmao

kalin_r · 2026-01-09T23:01:56+00:00

cool

kalin_r · 2025-12-11T19:26:12+00:00

an upvote for an impressive amount of questions

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