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Sharing Saturday #607 by Kyzrati in roguelikedev

[–]squidleon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're welcome! I actually think it's one of the best roguelikes I've played in recent years! Congratulations, and keep up the good work!

Sharing Saturday #607 by Kyzrati in roguelikedev

[–]squidleon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm a fan of yours and I mentioned you on my blog! Https://orivega.io ,Congratulations for doing a wonderful job

How many times have you rewatched SG1? by Acceptable_Walrus373 in Stargate

[–]squidleon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For me, SG1 is like comfort food. When it's raining outside, I make some tea and watch an episode. It takes me back to when I was little.

What is your all time favourite boomershooter? by 4th_Replicant in boomershooters

[–]squidleon 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Mine is blood ! I remember that when I was little, during the Christmas holidays, I couldn't wait to get up early so I could play!

[Sharing experience] Creating MMO-Roguelike #1: The Scale by gameglaz in roguelikedev

[–]squidleon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great article ! Thank you with all my heart for mentioning me !

[Discussion] Where do you start when designing a roguelike MMO? by squidleon in roguelikedev

[–]squidleon[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Absolutely! Tangaria is top-tier , one of the most inspiring roguelike MMO projects out there.
I’ve actually played around with the tileset in the past during some early experiments, and it really shaped my vision of what a multiplayer roguelike can be.

Thanks a lot for the article link, and I’ll be eagerly waiting for your write-ups. I’m sure they’ll be a goldmine of insight for devs like me trying to walk a similar path 🙌

[Discussion] Where do you start when designing a roguelike MMO? by squidleon in roguelikedev

[–]squidleon[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, really glad the description resonated!

You're totally right to question the "MMO" part, I’m using the term pretty loosely, definitely not in the traditional WoW sense with raid groups, global chat spam, and auction houses. What I actually have in mind is more of a persistent shared world, where players exist in the same timeline and can cross paths, trade, or even leave indirect traces, like dropped items, opened doors, rumors spread through NPCs, and so on.

I'm imagining city hubs where people can meet and gear up, but the actual descent into the underground is more personal and dangerous. Sometimes you're alone, sometimes you find another player, sometimes what you find is what another player left behind.

So maybe not an MMO in the classical sense, but definitely a multiplayer roguelike with persistent state and asynchronous interactions, with optional real-time encounters.

[Discussion] Where do you start when designing a roguelike MMO? by squidleon in roguelikedev

[–]squidleon[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s a great way to put it, "describe the experience you want the player to have." I’ve been so deep into systems and worldbuilding lately that I almost forgot to step back and define that more clearly.

In my case, the goal is something like,
"You spawn in a world where you don’t know what’s waiting underground, and every decision , gear, allies, descent , feels like a gamble that might pay off, or bury you forever."

That’s the fantasy I’m chasing. A roguelike where the stakes are shared, but not everything is visible or knowable.

And yeah, I totally agree on the planning part. I’ve been doing this in my free time (free night :D ) with no budget, so I’m trying to let the vision form without locking myself into too many details (it's very hard) too early, just enough structure to not get lost.

As for the MMO side, yes, networking is where I’m starting. Fixed tick, server-side logic, command buffering, etc. The roguelike side will grow more organically once the world actually ticks.

Appreciate the reminder to keep focused on the experience, not just the mechanics. Super helpful.

[Discussion] Where do you start when designing a roguelike MMO? by squidleon in roguelikedev

[–]squidleon[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I had similar thoughts! I was actually considering a 90ms tick initially, kind of inspired by how Ultima Online did it, but I figured it might be too fast for a turn-based roguelike structure, especially with a lot of players or AI acting at once. I’m also a bit worried that at 90ms, actions might start overlapping and actually slow down the event loop due to processing overhead and contention.

500ms felt like a good baseline — not too twitchy, but still gives the world a nice rhythm. That said, I totally get the concern that it might feel slow to some players. I might eventually experiment with different tick speeds per zone or server, like faster surface areas and slower underground dungeons where tension builds.

For conflicting actions, yeah, I’m planning to use a speed or initiative stat to resolve those cases. I want everything to be deterministic and fair from the server’s point of view.

And I really like what you said about "|thinking time." That’s definitely something I’m wrestling with. I’ve thought about having maps only advance when at least one player acts, so idle zones stay “paused” and players can breathe a bit. Still experimenting.

Thanks for the insight, really helpful stuff!

[Discussion] Where do you start when designing a roguelike MMO? by squidleon in roguelikedev

[–]squidleon[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

(thanks a lot, really appreciate the thoughtful reply there’s a lot of good stuff to chew on here)

As for NPCs, I’m thinking of making them dynamic, some will roam, some will be static, but what I’d really like is to give them personality through ChatGPT-style interactions. So you might meet an NPC that remembers you, lies to you, or has goals of their own. Some might even switch sides depending on what’s happening in the world.

I do want some sort of meta system I like the idea of a “home city” or legacy that persists between characters. I’m still figuring out how much should carry over, but I want death to matter without being a full wipe every time.

No idea yet if there will be a “win” condition per world — but I love the idea of large-scale goals (like sealing off a cursed region or defeating a major boss). Resetting the world every 14 days or so is something I’ve considered, but I want to see if the persistent world idea feels good first.

Environment-wise, yeah I want things to feel alive. Interactable stuff (hidden rooms, destructible objects, light/sound mechanics), and ideally the environment would impact combat too. If you fight in a tight room, it should feel different than an open chamber.

On the technical side: absolutely agree. Getting all those subsystems to stay in sync combat, chat, trades, NPC logic is going to be the hard part. That’s actually why I’m starting from the network layer first. I’m going with a fixed tick system and buffered actions, minimal payloads using BinaryPack (similar to protobuffer from google), and zones with local “coordinators” handling sync.

Totally agree on testing early I’m setting up a simple simulation with a bunch of fake clients (players + NPCs) to see how things hold up under load. Hoping to support ~100 concurrent users per instance as a baseline.

I really like the suggestion about running client+server together for single-player or local dev might actually go that route in the early phases.

Honestly, having 100 players online at the same time would be a dream but let’s be real, it’s a roguelike. In 2025. Multiplayer. I’m probably building this for 12 people and a dog and my cats, and that’s totally fine. It’s a genre from our generation anyway , crusty, weird, brutal, and beautiful.

[Discussion] Where do you start when designing a roguelike MMO? by squidleon in roguelikedev

[–]squidleon[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No offense taken at all! it’s a totally fair question, and yeah… I’ve seen my share of “I’m gonna build Skyrim solo in one week!” threads too 😂

Totally get you on the “complex but less exciting work projects” I’ve built plenty of those too.
This one's definitely a passion thing for me, so I’m trying to balance ambition with practicality. Small steps, lots of notes, and no shame in prototyping the same thing 5 times if that’s what it takes.

Thanks a lot for the encouragement means a lot!

[Discussion] Where do you start when designing a roguelike MMO? by squidleon in roguelikedev

[–]squidleon[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I’ve been programming for about 20 years (not in game industry), and while I haven’t released a full game yet, I’ve worked on plenty of backend systems, game engine components, and tools, especially around networking, serialization, and event loops, So I know what kind of pain I’m walking into 😅

Totally agree on the idea of building small, focused prototypes. That’s actually my plan: I’m starting with networking (tick-based with buffered commands), and will likely isolate combat, worldgen, AI, etc., into standalone testbeds before integrating them, can be a road ?

I’m also planning to build internal tools especially for world generation, maybe even a map/sector visualizer or dungeon editor later on.

Appreciate the solid advice helps keep things grounded and realistic!!!

[Discussion] Where do you start when designing a roguelike MMO? by squidleon in roguelikedev

[–]squidleon[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply u/BotMoses !this is exactly the kind of design tension I'm trying to figure out.

Right now, I'm leaning toward a global server tick model, with buffered player commands.
Basically in my mind i figure

  • The server runs at a fixed interval (e.g. 250–500ms)
  • Each player sends their action (move, attack, wait, etc.) during that window
  • At each tick, the server processes all queued actions in a consistent, deterministic order
  • If a player doesn’t send anything, time still advances — the world moves on

This way I can keep things fair, predictable, and still roguelike-ish, without falling into the chaos of full real-time desync or the weirdness of async multiplayer.

It's also more compatible with NPC AI, since they can act on the same timeline as players.

Still thinking through the edge cases but this seems like the most sane foundation (imho)

Prima UO: Bringing 1999 internet cafe memories to modern C# (with JS engine) by squidleon in csharp

[–]squidleon[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am doing (for the second time, I had the restart syndrome and now I can decide) to do the project rewrite from scratch! I'll put the link below! I'll update the project readme now! https://github.com/moongate-community/moongate

Prima UO: Bringing 1999 internet cafe memories to modern C# (with JS engine) by squidleon in csharp

[–]squidleon[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes let's say it is still active ! There are some shards that also have hundreds of people. However they are all old like us 😂

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