itch.io

Thank you for playing and for your kind words.

You are right that rules variants would be a good addition. I think as far as this PICO-8 version goes, though, it's not likely to happen. I was already running up against the "token limit" that PICO-8 enforces. Worth exploring, though, thank you.

I think for this version the next step is ironing out the bugs, getting the UI/UX a little tighter (for lack of a better word), and then getting it on the PICO-8 BBS: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?cat=7

As for a retail version, I'd probably rebuild it in something like Unity. Lots of options. I don't know the details of selling a PICO-8 game, and it generally seems (imo) against the spirit of the whole thing. I'd also want to arrange a deal or something with the rules creator since he did most of the work!

For the Steam Deck specifically, I might be able to get it working on there with this version. I have one available to try it out at least. I know I got this running on another smaller, cheaper Linux handheld. I will investigate and report back.

Thank you for playing, and I'm very glad you enjoyed this! I found your game so fun, a real inspiration.

Thanks so much for playing.

If you are a complete GB Studio beginner, my first bit of advice is to try making something simpler first to get familiar with the tool. You can probably, maybe make this type of game just using the visual scripting in GB Studio, but it would take a long time!

My second bit of advice is join the GB Studio Discord server and learn to love the search feature.

This game heavily relies on GB Studio custom script events that I wrote to load level layouts, loot placement, monsters stats, and really all kinds of other stuff. I also used plugins that others wrote.

Basically this game has a scene for every room layout, a title scene, a shop scene, an inventory scene, a battle scene, a game over scene, and a win scene. There are very few actors, triggers, or colliders. Just lots of scripting and game state tracking.

If you have more specific questions, I may be able to help. But that's the high level look.

Grabbed this a couple weeks ago and had a blast making some tarot cards. Inspired me to make this PICO-8 adaptation: https://gym.itch.io/the-fools-journey

Hey Thraka, thanks for reaching out. Big fan of your library, much respect.

That is a very generous offer. I took an extended break from working on this project for a variety of reasons, and one of the other things I've been working on in the meantime is a different roguelike (really more of a toy/engine) using a newer version of SadConsole (9.1.1, though I'm quite tempted to get the newest version). This includes using GoRogue, another terrific library. I've actually really jumped back in the past couple months or so with the intent of porting this game over to that "engine". It's quite embarrassing that I mentioned this a year ago (!) but have only got to it in earnest recently.

All this is to say that I intend on pulling this game out of "abandonware" status if my circumstances continue to allow it. Like many here, gamedev is a hobby for me, so "how long will it take" is an open question haha. If I ever do decide to truly move on, I'd hand this over to you in an instant.

Thanks for asking. Regrettably development on this, and all of my personal game projects, has stalled. It really did not occur to me that anyone might be anticipating updates. This game only gets a few downloads per week.

If I started back up, I would migrate the content to a newer (unpublished) engine I've partly built. Benefits would include cross platform support, vastly improved performance, and a simpler, more robust content pipeline. I considered putting it on Steam as well  I think roguelike players are spoiled for choice these days, though.

The game is really multiple console objects, and the dungeon map window is really a "viewport" that limits what the player sees. Each console gets its own font, etc. The way I did it is probably different than the way it's done in the current version, since IIRC there were some big changes between major versions. I recommend reaching out to the SadConsole guys and checking out their documentation and demo projects.

I used Monogame's IntermediateSerializer library, which I don't really recommend. Look up game serialization, object serialization, etc. Lots of solutions out there. Your goal is to get all the objects you care about saved into like an XML or binary file that you then load into your game later. It is one of the more annoying things to build yourself, though.

I don't have any plans to release the source code at this time. Basically I use SadConsole to render and build menus, and Roguesharp to do all the fiddly work I didn't want to write myself (FoV, probability/rolling, ICell). The bigger stuff like map generation, game systems, saving, and content I created myself. For what it's worth, I moved into using SadConsole very early into development. The creator of that library is very friendly and can probably answer any questions you have about it. He actually posted in this comment section below!

If you have more specific questions, I might be able to help. Thanks for checking out the game.

Cool. I’ll try to reproduce your issue in 0.3 to get it fixed. Thanks for playing!

I made alpha 0.2 available for download again if you'd like to give that a go. I'm away from my dev environment for the holiday weekend. I may be able to debug this some more for you later if you can give me a few more details about your issue. Can you get past the title screen? Click 'New Game' > 'Premade' > pick some character type. This is the fastest way to get in the game.

There should be a debug log file in your game folder. You can open it in any text editor, like Notepad. If you want to post the content here, I may be able to help more.

Mouse controls would be a bigger task, but I’ll put it on my list. There’s no in game key rebinding, but you can edit Keys.config in your game folder to change them.

I really like working with SadConsole! You should be proud of the excellent library and documentation you created.

There is a page on RogueBasin: http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Tenebrae_et_Mors though I have not added too much info to it. I have considered turning this comment section into an itch.io "forum", but I believe that hides all the posted comments.

If you type ‘?’ while on a dungeon screen, you’ll get the controls list. There’s also a “keys.config” file in the game directory where you can change the keys to whatever you like. It’s just a text file, so you can open it with Notepad or another text editor.

One thing I know that isn’t obvious from reading the key list is that you can attack a hostile monster by walking into it.

Adding an in-game key setting configuration is on the to-do list. Thanks for giving the game a go!

Hi, Asin. After a bit of research, unfortunately I don't want to claim support for Windows Vista as the last .NET version on Vista was 4.6. One of the libraries I use, SadConsole, requires 4.6.1! Here's the official MS .NET requirements matrix: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/get-started/system-requirement...

Having said that, .NET 4.7.1 (the version the game currently targets) may work on Vista anyway. I don't have anyway of confirming this, though.

As for 32 vs 64 bit, the game should run on either. Sorry for the bad news, but thank you for checking out the game anyway!

Going forward from version 0.1.14, which I just uploaded, the game should generate a 'debug-log' file in your game folder if/when your game crashes. I'll figure out a way to share this file with me, probably just by emailing it.

Sorry to hear. Are you playing 0.1.13? And it happens for both the premade and user made characters? If you go to the game folder, then drill down to the "Data/Save" directory, are there files in there?

One possibility is that you either don't have .NET installed (not likely since the game wouldn't run), or you need to be on a more current version. Locally I have .NET 4.7.2 installed. You can get the runtime from Microsoft: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-framework/net472 Just one idea!

Thank you, though I take no credit for creating the tileset. That was done by the fine people at kenney.nl

D'oh! Looks like even the title is in alpha! Oddly enough I got it right on the banner for this page and in game. Just messed up my URL.