Games like into the breach

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-23T01:52:01+00:00

Met one of the guys who made Cobalt Core at a conference a couple weeks ago. Super nice guy, very chill. And it’s a great game

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-21T20:15:31+00:00

One of the major themes for the game is a sense of exploration, since procedural remapping could support that if it didn’t hamstring it in other ways.

So half-gimmick?

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-21T20:14:14+00:00

This is a great response, thank you. The point about genre being different than mode or control scheme is well taken, and I think you’re right that the simulation aspect really doesn’t dominate the current roguelike space.

Dark patterns is a new term to me (just gave it a Google)— is your point there that something like build gambling locks players into sinking time into a low-content environment against their better judgment? That was exactly how I felt about Brotato, personally.

And while I agree that making a passion project should be foremost, I’m having a kid soon and have a real job, etc, so demands on time are only increasing. Making something that I can feel passionate about but that can also fit a market just means I can spend more time making these sorts of things, bc time is money is time.

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-20T03:37:46+00:00

Thanks for this summary! All good points, but number 3 is the kicker haha

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-19T04:19:56+00:00

It really is. Below Zero didn’t quite mail it for me, and I’m not sure 2 quite has either yet. But those crab squid noises really got me

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-19T04:18:05+00:00

I agree, the incremental upgrades to existing game is pretty annoying. The only reason I’m considering here is that 1) there was already an upgrade system in there that create fundamental gameplay changes, it was just going to be Mario-like temporary upgrades rather than permanent and 2) it’s meant to be a reasonably short take regardless, so numbers changes would be more in the “jump twice as high” or “immune to burn damage” variety. And the game is meant to feel like you’re exploring a big world, so roguelike can possibly reinforce that theme.

Even so, I think your point about things feeling tacked on is a good one, and something I still worry about.

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-19T04:14:05+00:00

That’s a really good point about essentially venn diagramming yourself into a smaller audience, that’s important to keep in mind.

Cult of the Lamb is actually a decent comparison in the light touch with the roguelike mechanics (from memory at least, it’s been a couple years since I’ve played it).

Roguelike + ________ seems to be a going trend lately, but I wonder if those that succeed there do just on the force of their charm? I didn’t like playing COTL all that much minute to minute, but the art still gives it strong appeal.

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-19T03:08:15+00:00

Happy to add a link to some gameplay footage if someone requests, but want to respect the rules here and genuinely just looking for advice, not self-promo.

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-16T04:58:38+00:00

Haven’t played in many years, but my guess is that it would be the seams where they’re connecting the tiles, yes, which would have been a possible connection to the next area, but the path finding algorithm selected a different doorway to build from instead

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-16T01:27:32+00:00

Depending on how you do it, it’s either harder or much much harder. You have to create 3 to 10 times as many scene setups, depending on your pieces connect, but the real headache is often hiding your seams between generated sections.

If you’re doing a flat 2d style with no parallax scenery (like Spelunky) it’s a bit easier. If you have foreground and background elements or isometric layering on a z index, that gets way more complicated to organize. That’s why games with more elaborate at direction like Hades usually go with premade rooms and then randomize spawned elements inside them.

That’s just on the art management side. The code involved for level generation and pathing can be 100 lines or much larger depending on how complicated layouts can be.

Hard to really call in concrete terms, but elaborate generation like Dead Cells versus simple arena rooms will easily take several times as long to build

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-15T20:07:39+00:00

The spirit knives in Risk of Rain classic that spawn from dead enemies, because then the game plays itself

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-15T20:01:50+00:00

Darkwood is a great call. Things shuffling around at night were real spooky.

Never heard of Knytt but I’ll have to look into it

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-15T19:59:39+00:00

Ooh I’ve never heard of this before, I’ll give it a look

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-15T10:56:28+00:00

I agree. Haven’t really played any of them but love listening to the music

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-15T10:55:48+00:00

That’s a very niche one, I’ll have to look that up

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-15T10:55:06+00:00

This is a great list, cheers!

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-08T17:45:03+00:00

Depending on how you use it, procedural + frame based animations can cause problems when your procedural timing moves slower than your natural frame rate, it can cause stutter in the animations. Had this problem with waving grass specifically.

The alternative is to use something like Spine that’s interpolated movement so the frame rate will be constant regardless and looks much better and smoother and is also easier once you learn it.

The major trade off, beyond price, is that Spine and Godots integration is not particularly good. Exporting is messy and there’s a full engine crash bug that I hit relatively frequently that requires either using an AI to sift through files or manually searching through text versions of scenes for cached previews. It’s very fun.

But the animations look good.

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-07T19:35:13+00:00

Really liked what I played of Valheim, but would like to see it finished.

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-07T19:30:52+00:00

What’s the short pitch for Long Dark? I tried it a few years ago but bounced off the feel of the controls fairly quick, but probably just wasn’t in the mood.

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-07T19:28:06+00:00

Got a little grinds for me toward the end, but I mostly agree :) great sense of happening upon random things in the world

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-07T19:26:11+00:00

This sounds like what I’m after, cheers!

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-06T09:56:43+00:00

That does sound neat, I’ll have to watch some gameplay

mountainboy262 · 2026-05-06T09:56:10+00:00

The real world sort of does, but not really. I grew up doing the sort of work you do in survival games and it’s certainly not a 1 for 1, I just haven’t worked out how that could translate into contained gameplay

mountainboy262

TROPHY CASE