I've started working on what I hope will eventuate to be a western roguelike. Knowing me, there is very little hope that the project will ever see the light of day.
I've so far reimplemented a basic console and message display using SDL. Its a solution I'm surprised more people don't do - the console library I've written whilst not being fantastic is less then 300 lines of code (pascal) - and you get so much flexibility with it. Suddenly you can use any other graphics etc to add some extra flavour to the look.
Really - I've done no actual games programming on this project as yet. I've reimplemented console functions and the message display. But I've uploaded a screenshot to show how backgrounds could potentially be used to make a roguelike look a bit better. The console doesn't even have a fake roguelike on it - its a test pattern I made for the console itself. But its possibly worth a look if you're thinking of trying something a bit different with your RL.
> I've started working on what I hope will eventuate to be a western > roguelike. Knowing me, there is very little hope that the project will > ever see the light of day.
> I've so far reimplemented a basic console and message display using SDL. > Its a solution I'm surprised more people don't do - the console library > I've written whilst not being fantastic is less then 300 lines of code > (pascal) - and you get so much flexibility with it. Suddenly you can use > any other graphics etc to add some extra flavour to the look.
> Really - I've done no actual games programming on this project as yet. > I've reimplemented console functions and the message display. But I've > uploaded a screenshot to show how backgrounds could potentially be used > to make a roguelike look a bit better. The console doesn't even have a > fake roguelike on it - its a test pattern I made for the console itself. > But its possibly worth a look if you're thinking of trying something a > bit different with your RL.
It looks pretty cool. To answer your question, people just don't bother! There's the lure of curses' multi-platformism and possibility of playing through telnet; also, many RL tutorials are still based on curses and many people have their own wrappers for curses as well. The only serious attempt at using SDL for console rendering is libtcod, and it was well received.
Are you planning to tie the background image to the current location? Canyons, desert, town, saloon... I wonder what would be the effects on player immersion. I think it would be analogous to DoomRL's use of sound effects, and if done well it could be awesome!
> I've started working on what I hope will eventuate to be a western > roguelike. Knowing me, there is very little hope that the project will > ever see the light of day.
> I've so far reimplemented a basic console and message display using > SDL. Its a solution I'm surprised more people don't do - the console > library I've written whilst not being fantastic is less then 300 lines > of code (pascal) - and you get so much flexibility with it. Suddenly > you can use any other graphics etc to add some extra flavour to the > look.
> Really - I've done no actual games programming on this project as > yet. I've reimplemented console functions and the message display. But > I've uploaded a screenshot to show how backgrounds could potentially > be used to make a roguelike look a bit better. The console doesn't > even have a fake roguelike on it - its a test pattern I made for the > console itself. But its possibly worth a look if you're thinking of > trying something a bit different with your RL.
Nice looking background images you've got there. I'm ready to post the whole McQuown gang out of town right now. A western could be fun.
As for SDL, perhaps some people don't use it because then they would feel it incumbent on them to include a lot of graphics they don't feel up to doing.
I believe Dwarf Fortress also uses SDL (and OpenGL) for drawing a console look. As does my own game at www.asciisector.net (which is also programmed in Pascal! Yay!). I absolutely love it. The combination of SDL + FreePascal means that I can compile the same code for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux with only commenting/uncommenting 2 lines for the Mac OS X version. That's right; 2 lines is all I have to change to compile for three different operating systems. I'm not doing any background images and stuff like that -- it's pure console look -- since I feel that if you first go down that path, you might as well go fully graphical. But that's just my personal preference. I absolutely love working with SDL + FreePascal!
On Nov 5, 7:17 pm, "lochok <\"lochok\"@optusnet." <"NOSPAM!> wrote:
> I've so far reimplemented a basic console and message display using SDL. > Its a solution I'm surprised more people don't do - the console library > I've written whilst not being fantastic is less then 300 lines of code > (pascal) - and you get so much flexibility with it. Suddenly you can use > any other graphics etc to add some extra flavour to the look.
SDL is piss easy to use and more people use it than you think.
looks pretty cool. do we get to play the AT with no name??
>> I've started working on what I hope will eventuate to be a western >> roguelike. Knowing me, there is very little hope that the project will >> ever see the light of day. <SNIP>
> Are you planning to tie the background image to the current location? > Canyons, desert, town, saloon... I wonder what would be the effects on > player immersion. I think it would be analogous to DoomRL's use of > sound effects, and if done well it could be awesome!
> Jotaf
Hmmm - I hadn't considered that. I like the idea - it could work well - but I'm going to aim first to have a playable game. I'm liking the idea of sounds (if I can find under good licenses or produce myself) and music (I play guitar and compose - doable) too.
In general - I think because I've been [losing] playing a bit of DoomRL as recent, some of it will creep in (if I can actually get it to a playable state). There are some things which it does which could work well in a spaghetti-western style RL but I think some things will need to be done a fair bit differently to make it more then a shoot-em-up (think Clint Eastwood as opposed to John Wayne...). But that's all in my head still... I have to get past getting a working engine first!
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