How complicated are these rogue-likes to make? I use Godot, and i am very interested in learning how to make roguelike games. Is this something i could have enough knowledge about in a months time to enter the jam? I'm excited about the prospects of making something like this! I know this is probably a very common question and it's extremely vague, but i just want to know if it's worth entering when i'm new to this.
If you're familiar with Godot already then I'd say it's very feasible and you will have fun! The most important thing is to do some planning before the jam starts. For example, do some game design, planning out your main mechanic and deciding how will you put your own spin on the genre. Decide what assets you might use (color palette, sprites, sounds etc.). I just found this tutorial for Godot peeps. Definitely check that out (or others that may be around) and try to make it through before the 7drl. It will give you some experience on how to organize your code and offer a chance to come up with unique ideas for the jam.
Absolutely!
However, *TEMPER* your expectations. An impressive success for a new developer is the @ - on - a map level of contribution. Focus on making the absolutely minimal viable game first. You need extremely few mechanics to have a fun roguelike (especially if you make it yourself, and play it yourself!) When you get a simple "wander on a random map, smash monsters without being smashed first" game play done; it is time to start layering on the design. You can keep this up after the 7DRL - for the 7DRL, get the bare bones walking. It is incredibly important you can play your game yourself early - this is the motivation that keeps you going. Don't worry about your own spin. Make it beige-basic.
After a few months, you'll end with a huge ball of mud and realize you should have planned properly in the first place. So you'll throw it away and start over again and plan properly with engineering principles you learned. You'll design very detailed documents of how everything should work; and begin on a proper "clean" design. This will then fail with you never actually getting an @ to walk on a map as you were too busy writing PerambulationFactories to get any actual real code done.
Then, after throwing away the over engineered system that got nowhere; and the under engineered prototype that got tangled up in its own bootlaces; you'll be ready to tread the middle ground :>
Cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-system_effect
My main complaint is too many people lead people to their second system first. Your first system should be the ball of mud that gives you positive feedback. If your first system is the bloated over-engineered system, it is really hard to have the desire to keep going.
I agree with you! Putting your own spin on the genre is the least important thing for a first time rouguelike dev. Getting that @ symbol to move around and bump things is so exciting and fundamental.
Thanks for introducing the concept of second system syndrome. I hadn't heard of that. It feels related to feature creep, but more like architecture creep? Either it's clearly an area for improvement and discussion amongst rougelike devs at large.
