My attempts to create roguelikes in different mediums have resulted in very varying degrees of success when it comes to the purity of the roguelike as such. I do however like all of the games I have created to completion, even if some of them really are just maze-games. Let me introduce you to each of them.
Choose Your Own CaveVenture
I was originally intending to create a roguelike that you could play by text only. I hate typing in commands so it had to lay out all the choices you had for you. But it wasn't supposed to be a linear story. I even dreamt of including a screen reading function and voice control so you'd be able to roguelike it up while driving a car. It didn't get quite that far but what Niels and I created is a rather nice little niche-game that I still fire up from time to time. It's also rather roguelike, even though it lacks ASCII-graphics.
We're Going On A Fucking Adventure
(Boardgame; Team Roguelikelikelike)
This started as a project to make a roguelike based on lots of cards. I used index cards for the prototype that even had ASCII-symbols on them (using the syllabus from Dwarf Fortress because I can read that fluently). The dungeon level would be created by cards that were revealed during exploration, the player character was made up out of cards, loot and weapons were cards, monsters were cards that were modified by other cards. I really love this game and I love it even more since I learned how much fun it can be to play _with friends_. So I added a boss monster (and seven more later) and decided to make it a nice board game for up to five players. A friend made graphics. I have yet to finalize an actual written manual and fix some mistakes on some of the cards so there is as of right now only my ASCII-prototype and a printed, fully-artworked prototype by The Game Crafters.
Der Dornengarten (Garden of Thorns)
(Book with add-ons; Turned out to be more of an adventure game)
My first attempt at creating a fully analogue roguelike you could play on the go. I invented a way of having an adventure book actually memorize some bits and then used that to randomize the layout of the titular thorn garden and the encounters you have therein. It is, however, not a roguelike. There is no combat, there are no HP, the medium is much more useful for what it became: An interactive fairy tale where your actions have consequences that play into which of the four endings you get. Also, every time you read yourself through the garden, you will meet other creatues and have different adventures. It was made with a young-adult reader in mind and the sometimes gruesome outcomes of encounters mean that I will have to wait for a few more years before I read it to my older son. I'm rather proud of it and intend to offer it to some publishers soonish.
Das Höhlenabenteuer (The Cave Adventure)
(Boardgame; Cooperative randomized riddle)
I made this for a contest in board game design and also because I felt I could make a more child-friendly and much simplified version of We're Going On A Fucking Adventure. Gone are all cards except for the tiles that make up the dungeon. The dungeon is also smaller in this one, 4x4 instead of 5x5. There are not character classes but four actual characters to play. Each has a strength and a weakness, as do the two monsters. The game features mechanics to outrun/trick/trap the monsters and about 80-90% of tile configurations are solvable, meaning that all four kids can get to the exit and take the key and treasure with them, if no mistakes are made. I think it gives a nice adventure vibe and I have grown to like the four characters but that's because I was born in the 80s and this kind of fiction is engrained in my upbringing. Still, it's worth breaking out every once in a while and it also inspired my son to created dozens of his own tiles where only he knows the rules.
Cupquest
(Engraving on a Mug; Labyrinth Game)
Now here is a game that you could easily print on a single index card. Hey, perhaps I should do that and make an entire book of these? Anyhow, it's just a maze that I prepared by randomizing it on paper and then engraved on the steel mug I use at work. To make things at least somewhat interesting, I added monsters, treasure chests to bribe the monsters, a key and a locked exit at the end. Also, some very brief rules next to the entrance. As my son pointed out when I finished the thing "Oh, the finger is the play figure!". It's a simple labyrinth, not at all a roguelike. Yet, I sometimes find myself tracing the paths of the labyrinth after a coffee break, beating the game in less than 12 seconds. Also, I have made a twine-version of the game that, as it runs from a first-person-view, is much more difficult than just running your finger over a labyrinth where you can see half of it at all times.
Die Labyrinthmaschine (The Labyrinth Machine)
Upon finishing my cardboard pinball I tried to think of ways to create more arcade machines from cardboard. When my wife and son were on a vacation I sprung into action and spent way too much time binge-watching Dirk Gently on Netflix and building the most ambitious cardboard machine I have ever seen in person. The Labyrinthmaschine is monstrously large and has a maze with actual walls set on a drum with 30 centimeters diameter. You can, however, only see it through a small lense of plastic that you can move sideways by twisting one nob. The angular movement happens when you twist another nob as the entire drum then spins. You cannot go through walls because the lense has a pin that reaches into the labyrinth and in between the walls. To make things more interesting, there is a switch in the middle of the maze that you need to move with the pin in order to open the exit on the opposite site of the drum. There are also seven images of treasure in the maze that you can find and check off with flip-cards on the top of the machine. It lacks any post-creation randomization and there is no combat, so it's not a roguelike at all (but imagine what a version designed by an actual mechanical engineer made not of cardboard but laser-cut wood with the drum filled with mechanism could be like!). Also, since we moved houses it has gotten a bit damp and the sideways motion needs to be reworked. If I ever get around to it, I cannot tell. But it's a project that does fill me with some pride. More on the Machine in a later post, I promise.
I don't know what's next. I have been playing around with ideas on how to try to make another roguelike book and keep it more roguelike than Der Dornengarten turned out. Or perhaps I get around to code something in twine again – I have after all created both randomized labyrinths and combat systems in that platform before. We'll see what comes around. I do intend to blog more regularly for the rest of the year but with now two childreen, let's not kid ourselves. I will keep you, my fives of readers, posted as regularly as I can. Whatever that means.
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