First! (Introduction and vision)

Well, here I am, I guess.

This first post should define my general vision for the game, and so it shall.

Vision

Here Be Dungeons is supposed to be a classical roguelike, with most of the genre's staple features. Permadeath, random generation, turn-based gameplay, bare-bones visuals. I'm a big fan of ADoM (despite never completing it) and similar games, and so I will strive to preserve the wonderful spirit of old school dungeon crawling goodness and channel as much of it as I can through my game.

It's not just a roguelike, though. I have a vision for a game that's part roguelike, part Zork and part MUD. If that sounds a bit bizarre - let me explain. The game I see when I close my eyes allows you to experience the traditional roguelike aspects of dungeon crawling and exploring, while also presenting you with rich textual descriptions of whatever is going on. Those descriptions will be the game's primary UI - read the paragraph, choose an option, repeat. There will be a map, of course, but it's more of a minimap than anything else.

Here's what I mean:

Looks decent, does it not? The primary action is going on in the middle of the screen, with text paragraphs appearing from the top and sinking down as newer ones appear. The MUD-like minimap and a bunch of relevant stats keep you in the loop on where you are/what year is it/how healthy you are/how much beer can you afford.

Fightin'!

Combat in this game will involve a chain of decision points, each decision followed by its execution and the enemy's reaction. Pick an action, watch the results unfold, pick again. Here's how it looks now:

Right now, there's not much the player can do in a fight. Wizards can do a Fire Bolt, clerics can Heal. Those are just some proof-of-concept spells I implemented to make sure I got the mechanics right; the actual magic system will come later when I figure out the correct approach. Suggestions are most welcome!

Gameplay Loop

The actual gameplay loop will consist of exploring the world map, entering locations such as dungeons and towns, killing monsters, getting loot and better equipment and just generally being a brave hero. I probably have to figure out some kind of endgame, like they did in ADoM, but I'm not sure what it should be. Not sure a grand story would fit in here - something like "find The Amulet Of Awesome Badassery" would be much more in keeping with the spirit of traditional roguelikes, I guess.