So this year, I decided to do something a little different.  I'm creating a tabletop miniatures roguelike.  The idea is that you can download, print, and assemble you own miniatures (or use your own if you have them!), and then play the game with them.  A companion web app provides the random dungeon generation, and you play through the adventure, trying to complete an objective before dying.  If you complete your objective, you level up, and when you level up five times, you ascend and win.

Here's some photos of what the game looks like right now.  First, two heroes have come through the door and are now facing two zombies. (The final game may not have rules for cooperative play, but the miniatures rules I'm writing won't have a problem with it!)

Here, a horde of undead are protecting the entrance to another room. Skeletal archers and warriors are commanded by a pernicious wight!

Right now, the game is not playable with the companion web app, because it still has a lot of work to go on the procedural death labyrinth generation code, but I've tried a few skirmishes with just the miniatures rules, and it seems to work well!  The final game will (hopefully!) include the web app, a nice PDF of the miniature rules system (usable outside the context of the game!), and downloads for the paper miniatures so you can print, assemble, and play them yourself!  (And when you're done, you can turn around and use them in your D&D game, because they're 1" scale, used widely by other miniatures.)

"But will it really be a roguelike?"  Sure!

• Turn-based, tile-based play?  Check!
• Procedurally generated death labyrinth?  Check!
• Inventory management and dungeon crawling? Check!
• Permadeath? Check! (Subject to honor system.)
• Progression system and ascension? Check!

It should scratch every roguelike itch you have, and look really cool on your table while doing so!

Ambitious, looks so good already!

Worked on some of the UI for the web app today, and got a lot done on the procgen for the dungeons.

When you go into the dungeon, the web app will generate a series of rooms for you to battle through.  Each room will have enemies, exits, and other points of interest, and you'll click buttons to indicate that you're doing that "thing", whatever it is, like going through a door, successfully killing an enemy, or searching a pile of refuse.  Here's what the current iteration of the interface looks like:

I also spent some time tonight doing a playtest of the miniatures system with real mini's and terrain.  It was a lot of fun!  I fought a small pack of undead creatures (a zombie, a skeleton warrior, and a skeleton archer), and then fought the wight.  It was down to the wire, but I managed to defeat the wight, and got some valuable insight into some equipment values that needed tweaking.

Overall, it's coming along swimmingly.  I'm really enjoying working on it, and I think it's going to be a solid offering (assuming anyone bothers to download it, assemble it, and play it!).

I am looking forward to printing and playing this.

Okay, today, I reached first playable, at least for one level.

The way the game is structured, you will play through a single dungeon level with an objective. If you survive the level and complete the objective, you gain a level.  When you level up five times, you win.  I was able to play my first procedurally-generated level.  Here are some photos of what the game looks like right now:

In the foreground, you can see my hero (the viking character) has come through a door into a crypt containing three zombies and two rat swarms. Along the back wall is a catacomb that the hero can search for treasure, and there's a passage leading west out of the room, assuming he survives the fight with the zombies and rats.

In the background, you can see the web page that told me how to set up the room.  On the right is the map – showing what tiles to place where – and on the map are numeric icons showing where to place the enemies and other features like doors and the catacombs.  On the left is the "legend" for the map, indicating what exactly should be placed at each location.  Each item on the map also has an action button you click to interact with it. (For instance, for the rat swarms, the button says "Defeat", so when you defeat them, you click the button to see if that yields anything.)

I'm really liking how the game plays and looks on the table.  It's very satisfying to move the minis around, and the dungeon levels are feeling like they are about the right level of challenge and length.  I have a mechanism for injecting more content into the game, so over the coming days, I hope to flesh out the level generator with more options for throwing interesting situations at you.

Got lots of work done on the game today.

The main thing is that I've finally gotten around to naming the game.  It's called "FABLE ON YOUR TABLE".  So look for that name for future communications about the game.

I got a lot of under-the-hood work finished for the parts of the game to help make it extensible.  It's still not where I think it should be, but cutting corners during a game jam is par for the course, sadly.

Finally, there are two YouTube videos up for the game showing:

•  How to play "Fable on your Table"

• How to assemble "Fable on your Table" miniatures and terrain

Check them out and let me know what you think.  I should have downloads for the game documents available sometime tomorrow for those of you looking to download the game and try it out.

The videos are brilliant :)

Okay, the game is released!  "Fable on your Table" on itch.io