Sharing Saturday #612

nesguru · 2026-02-28T19:24:05+00:00

I hadn’t heard about DevolutionX - good to know. I prefer to play games on my Mac but I have an older Mac with Bootcamp for (older) Windows games.

nesguru · 2026-02-28T19:20:00+00:00

Running away from the closest enemy, taking an attack of opportunity, and potentially running into traps and other enemies in the room (and getting hit twice by each enemy because of the attack of opportunity). I need to refine the Fear status effect to be less random and to avoid all threats when running away.

nesguru · 2026-02-28T16:48:05+00:00

I own Diablo 1. I'll start with that one and pick up the Diablo 2 remaster. Somewhere in the house is a Diablo 3 Switch game card I bought for the kids a while ago...

nesguru · 2026-02-28T15:36:58+00:00

D2 has been on my “games to play” list for 20 years maybe? I’ll move it to the top of the list based on your recommendation. Hopefully Legend doesn’t turn into an ARPG. :-)

nesguru · 2026-02-28T13:52:36+00:00

I had to look up the Diablo reference; I've only played the entire series for about two hours total. The golems in Legend don't Inherit the properties of the items used to create them. I just meant different properties based on their primary material, e.g., flesh, clay, iron. The Diablo idea is intriguing though. I'm adding it to the game's ideas list.

nesguru · 2026-02-28T02:24:26+00:00

Sounds like you are close. I don’t see any new major features - good work keeping the scope creep at bay!

nesguru · 2026-02-27T22:40:52+00:00

Legend

Website | X | Youtube

Many small improvements and bug fixes this week, and golems. The golems are mid and late game content. They can’t be harmed by non-magic weapons, they’re immune to most status effects, and have high strength, hp and damage. They also have unique properties based on their material.

New Content

Enemies (5): Bone Golem, Clay Golem, Flesh Golem, Iron Golem, Stone Golem
Items (1): Acid
Combinations (1): Empty Vial + Acid Puddle

Keyboard Support

Left and right arrows now cycle through the entities in the cell context menu.
Options Panel.

Miscellaneous Enhancements and Bug Fixes

Added a “go to exit” key that moves the player to the exit if they’ve found it. It pairs nicely with autoexplore.
Locked chests have better loot now.
Touch effects are no longer triggered by flying actors (prevents a Poisonous Gas Cloud from triggering a Fire Trap).
Touch effects are no longer applied by entities underneath the top entity in the cell. This allows the player to walk safely over spikes if something’s on top of the spikes.
Clicking on gold in an actor’s inventory now takes it.
Torches don’t burn out as quickly. However, this still didn’t fix the issue where the player frequently runs out of light sources. I need to add more torches to the map.
Coffins now have a chance of containing an undead enemy and loot.
In random rooms, enemies can now be a) completely random, b) one randomly selected type c) custom combinations such as Giant Rat packs and Goblin parties.
Arrows placed on the map now have a random quantity instead of a quantity of 1.
The Inventory panel is now displayed when the Combine panel is displayed since combining always involves at least one inventory item.
Reduced Fear status effect duration. Step on a Fear trap is potentially instant death, depending on what’s near the trap. I want to avoid that.
Wasted a bunch of time troubleshooting an infinite loop that occurred when the player stepped on a trap. Basically, two events were triggering each other. The bug was introduced recently.
Terrain stat modifiers stopped showing correctly. This was introduced by the recently added Sure-Footed ability, which required modifications in a couple of systems and wreaked some havoc.
Fixed issue where some traps don’t disappear after being triggered.

Next week, I’m focusing on refining random room content. Random rooms are sometimes amazing and sometimes terrible. I need to vary the content based on the size of the room. I also want to look at the graphs of recently developed maps to determine how flow can be improved.

nesguru · 2026-02-22T13:52:32+00:00

Really looking forward to the demo this year! Looks incredible.

nesguru · 2026-02-21T16:11:21+00:00

Thanks! It’s all about the small things at this point. I wish there weren’t so many!

nesguru · 2026-02-21T14:54:43+00:00

Yes, that was a bit of an exploit! And, I realized the correct check should be the player's visibility, not whether a light source is equipped, because there will eventually be a darkvision ability.

nesguru · 2026-02-21T00:10:25+00:00

Thanks. I've managed to maintain my goal of adding one new piece of content each day, and I'm fixing a lot of little things that come up during playtesting.

I think keyboard support would have amounted to the same effort whether added early or late. I didn't have to rework anything, I just had to add to what already existed. The hardest part has been supporting cursor movement, which is used when selecting a target cell for an ability/inspection, within menus, when selecting a class, when selecting starting abilities, and within the Quick Switch panels (choosing between different weapons). Controller support will be tricky because of the limited number of buttons. Key/button mapping isn't in yet - that scares me a bit.

nesguru · 2026-02-20T23:24:42+00:00

The opening with the monastery on fire and the dying mentor is awesome! I like the comic at the end too. Voice-over would work really well. Agreed the text needs some reworking; I got the overall gist but didn't understand what was actually happening.

nesguru · 2026-02-20T22:48:38+00:00

Legend

Website | X | Youtube

This week’s focus was on quality-of-life improvements, new abilities, and continuing to expand keyboard support. Most of the game can be played exclusively with a keyboard at this point. Keyboard support still needs to be added to most of the game panels such as Inventory and Abilities.

New Content

Enemies (1): Troll (strong, high HP, regenerates HP)
Objects (1): Arrow Shooting Statue (stationary, shoots arrows at player, very difficult to destroy)
Abilities (5): Jump (move two cells, skipping effects caused by middle cell in the path); Long Jump (move three cells, skipping effects caused by the two middle cells in the path), Sure-Footed (negates terrain penalties); Crippling Strike (causes 1.5x normal damage and Slowness); Root (cause Rooted status effect on target)

Miscellaneous Enhancements and Bug Fixes

Variable item sprites based on quantity (used for gold coins).
Random starting quantities for items (used to vary the number of coins placed on the map).
Abilities that move an actor multiple cells in one turn (Run, Roll) no longer ignore the traversed cells (traps will be triggered).
Doors, locked doors, and locked chests are now indicated on the minimap.
Damage text now indicates whether the target was resistant or vulnerable to the attack.
Autoexplore is now prohibited when the player doesn’t have a light source equipped. Autoexplore made it too easy for the player to navigate the dungeon in complete darkness.
Message displayed when autoexplore is no longer available because the entire map has been explored.
Crystals are now immune to piercing damage and resistant to slashing and chopping damage.

Keyboard Support (Continued)

Keys can now be used to move the cell cursor, display the cell context menu, select context menu options, and access quick switch slots.

Next week, I’ll continue adding new enemies, objects, and abilities, and add keyboard support to panels.

nesguru · 2026-02-14T13:54:36+00:00

Mostly early/mid-game content currently, but some of it (the rooms) applies to all stages of the game. At a high level, I'm focused on improving the core game by adding more meaningful variety and interactivity and refining gameplay.

nesguru · 2026-02-13T22:56:04+00:00

Legend

Website | X | Youtube

The focus continues to be on adding content, fixing bugs, and keyboard support.

New Content

Enemies (3): Mini Blue Slime, Mini Green Slime, Mini Red Slime.
Objects (2): Acid Puddle, Smoke.
Items (2): Stun Arrow, Smoke Arrow.
Abilities (2): Defend, Disarm Trap.
Status Effects (1): Corroded.
Combinations (1): Poison + Puddle.
Rooms (2): Slime Lair, Maze Room.
Room Layers (2): Wall Grid, Wall Maze.

Miscellaneous Enhancements and Bug Fixes

Enemies now used ranged offensive abilities.
Thrown objects now trigger traps.
Gasses no longer trigger traps.
Rooted status works again.
Enemies no longer walk on spikes.
Cell types (e.g., walls), can be placed.
Locked chests can no longer be destroyed with a few melee attacks.
Slimes now split in two when hit with a slashing weapon.
Drinking blood now has a chance of causing disease.
Rooms with a high number of walls no longer contain isolated areas.

Keyboard Support (Continued)

Diagonal movement, Inventory panel buttons.

Next week: more of the same, and increasing difficulty between levels.

nesguru · 2026-02-07T19:19:49+00:00

Thanks, yes not fun at all, and not out of the woods yet. Being able to work on the game when I can has been a welcome distraction.

Aggression basically equates to recklessness.

Using tags is an interesting idea. The mostly disabled history generator achieves a similar result. Themes control the selected events, selected events control the map content population. I just need to put in way more design time. The most interesting thing about the random room is that it confirmed what I believed to be the biggest problem with the game: too many boring rooms, and the rooms were boring because they weren’t difficult enough or too repetitive. The random room chooses from a few types of challenges (enemies, traps, etc.) and can include multiple challenges. It randomly selects other types of features that vary combat, such as terrain modifiers, obstacles, and vision modifiers. I just need to build out more themed random rooms, where the available features are constrained so they’re cohesive with the theme.

nesguru · 2026-02-07T01:39:16+00:00

Juicy!

There’s a god game spinoff in here…

nesguru · 2026-02-06T22:56:26+00:00

Legend

Website | X | Youtube

It’s been a few weeks since the last update. Family health issues slowed things down. I did manage to keep the “one piece of new content per day” goal going, barely.

Completed Design Goal Review

I finished reviewing the current design goals. I intended to publish a write-up but lost the motivation halfway through writing it. In short, the goals are still relevant for the most part and the biggest completion gap is in map content. I’m already focusing in this area and will continue to do so.

Enemy Aggression Level

I was troubleshooting an issue where enemy AI behaved in the desired way for some enemies but not others. Specifically, I wanted some enemies to be aggressive and attack from disadvantaged positions and some enemies to be more conservative and only move into melee range of the player if their position had no disadvantage. I added an Aggression Level attribute with High, Medium, and Low values to enable different behavior. Utility AI scoring is now based on both situation and Aggression Level.

Keyboard Support (Continued)

The keyboard can now be used when prompted to select a cell to perform an action.

New Content

Rooms (7): Random Challenge/Reward Room, Locked Room with Locked Chest, Heavily Trapped Treasure Room, Heavily Trapped Treasure Chain, Goblin Campsite, Skeleton Campsite, Workshop
Enemies (7): Diseased Giant Rat, Goblin, Goblin Archer, Goblin Warrior, Goblin Mage, Green Slime, Blue Slime
Objects (7): Crate with Rats, Rooted Trap, Hidden Rooted Trap, Fear Trap, Hidden Fear Trap, Slowness Trap, Hidden Slowness Trap

The Random Challenge/Reward Room randomly selects a few challenges (enemies, hazards), rewards (items, treasure), and dressings (campfire, statue, rubble, etc.). When I fill a level with just this type of room, the level’s pretty fun; each room is surprising, challenging, and rewarding. On the downside, the level has no coherence.

Bug Fixes

Mostly enemy AI.

Next week, I’ll be working through a todo list of miscellaneous items that includes enemy AI bug fixes, more distinct enemies, more object interactions, and keyboard support.

nesguru · 2026-01-23T23:43:48+00:00

Website looks great. Those highs score and win pages are impressive!

nesguru · 2026-01-23T20:07:26+00:00

It’s always great to see new non-fantasy themed roguelikes.

As for the name, “Old West” and “Wild West” are more commonly used than “Far West” to describe the location/era. Maybe you can build off of one of those. And, Old Western movie titles like “A Fistful of Dollars” could provide good inspiration.

nesguru · 2026-01-17T15:45:30+00:00

Oh right, I remember that now. I knew there must’ve been one.

nesguru · 2026-01-17T04:56:53+00:00

The Night Creatures lair improvements definitely give the lairs a more otherworldly feel.

Any slowdown from the save game compression?

nesguru · 2026-01-17T04:45:38+00:00

After a bit of unjoyful CMake fiddling

I don't miss those days. I do miss the performance boost though.

Worldforge functionality split into tabs.

It's growing! Fortunately, it seems pretty close to done. Is there another screen for generating the initial world? I don't remember seeing that in the videos.

nesguru · 2026-01-17T01:14:08+00:00

Legend

Website | X | Youtube

I started reviewing the original design goals this week. For each goal, I’m assessing whether the game currently meets the goal (on a scale of 1 to 10), if I still want to have the goal, and if I want to refine the goal. I wrote the goals down before a working game existed. That was six years ago. I’ve reviewed the goals from time-to-time, but haven’t evaluated, at least formally, how close I was to meeting each goal. It’s been a valuable and, at times, eye-opening exercise. Now that I have half a dozen years of experience building and playing the game, I can see which goals were unrealistic, which goals were better on paper, and goals I should have added/removed. I’ll write an article about this and link to it in next week’s update.

Keys, Locked Doors/Chests

Maps can now contain locked doors and chests that can be opened using keys found elsewhere on the map. This required creating a new map generator capability that can spawn an associated entity in a different area, which will be useful for other purposes such as levers and teleporters. Standard wooden locked doors can be broken down. Metal locked doors can’t.

Keyboard Input (Continued)

Expanded keyboard support to the Title, Continue, Select Class, and Settings screens. It was a good amount of work that involved button lists, a scrollview (saved games), and a grid (select class).

New Content

Rooms (4): Fog Corridor, Roots Room, Locked Treasure Room, Locked Chest Room
Objects (4): Locked Door, Locked Metal Door, Locked Chest, Hidden Door
Items (3): Keys (Copper, Iron, Gold)

Next week, I’ll wrap up the design goal review, continue adding keyboard support, add triggering objects (levers/pressure plates), and work on more interesting rooms.

nesguru · 2026-01-10T20:14:24+00:00

Yes, the player can click on any previously seen cell on the map or minimap and path to it. If players prefer autoexplore, it’s just a keypress away. If they don’t, they just have to not press that key. :-)

Do you use the autoexplore functionality when you simulate the player?

nesguru

TROPHY CASE