No Time To Play

It’s been almost a year since I last looked into IF authoring systems, and the market has shifted again. A Hugo title became the most talked about game in 2011 — one that features extensive multimedia and random combat to boot. Yay for Cryptozookeeper! There is also an ever-increasing number of (choice-based) Web games, outnumbering those written for my new favorite platform, TADS 3.

Speaking of that, soon after a new release of TADS came out with Web play support, thus bringing the old powerhouse in line with its main competitor, the news spread like fire that a new online service came out enabling people to author Inform 7 stories online. To top it all, mere days later the young Quest system announced official support for a similar feature!

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As promised last time, I got around to setting up a new website for Ramus. Right now, it contains the exact same information as the original web page, except this time it has room to grow. And because it’s a wiki, you can suggest additions directly inline! See you there, and thanks.

Remember Ramus? I can’t blame you if you don’t — the last update was half a year ago. But recently, a new user (hi, John!) pointed out some missing stuff in Ramus, such as an example of how to link to multiple fragments at once, or include a fragment inside another. (The latter doesn’t work, by the way. See the F.A.Q.)

I also want to write some documentation, including a getting started guide, but that will require setting up a proper website for Ramus first, instead of a simple homepage. I’ll get around to it, just not right away. Thanks for your patience.

Well-known game developer Raph Koster starts 2012 with a 6-point guide to making cheaper games, to which the Rampant Coyote responds thoughtfully as ever. Here at No Time To Play, we are definitely interested in this particular topic, though we prefer to frame it as making games faster instead. Since time is money, that’s the same thing in the end: both come down to making games with less work. That’s especially important nowadays, as development times/costs are skyrocketing towards unsustainable levels (as Shamus Young points out at every turn).

But how can you do that? Let me add my own two cents first.
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This is undoubtedly no big deal for most game developers, but all my games have been mute so far. Not by choice, either. I know people who are equally good programmers, artists and musicians, but that’s hard. Those of us who are more specialized have few real options:
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Buzz Grid running on MicroEmulator

Last time I announced taking a break from programming. And I have… for about a weekend. During which time I caused a pretty sweet raytraced scene reminiscent of a 1990-something adventure game. Reading a book about Myst the weekend before must have something to do with it.

Then, of course, my mood to program came back. Or maybe it was the vitamin supplement I’ve been taking. Fact is, less than a week later I can play Buzz Grid on my Nokia E51. And boy, that makes me happy.

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After a week of barely adding anything to Dungeon Romp, I have to admit being overtaken by burnout again.

On the plus side, I’ve added the all-important time management, and it shows. Also, mobs can now have natural armor, and defense is no longer based off the same attribute as attack. That should allow considerably more tactical diversity… once I get around to taking advantage of it. The bug where a mob other than the player could trigger the end of the demo is gone, too. Last but not least, now there can be non-portable items, good for making signage and such.

On the minus side, it’s obvious to me now that three levels aren’t nearly enough even for a demo. So much for my code size target. Of course, adding another set of levels is a whole can of worms. And I still have to add ranged combat. At least now I know how. Probably.

But first, a break from programming. See you around.

I think it’s safe to say that anyone who is passionate about tabletop games has at some point tried to design their own. And anyone who did try knows it’s not in any way easy. But what goes into the rule system of a game? How do you make it fun? How do you make it balanced? Come to think of it, what do “fun” and “balanced” mean, anyway?

I had to answer these questions while designing a system of rules for Dungeon Romp. Which was a choice in itself, as the more obvious option was to go with an existing system. But it wasn’t the right one.

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I’m up to my ears in work again. All those shiny projects. On top of that, what little I did to Dungeon Romp is mostly refactoring work. In the way of user-visible improvements, now the game tells you when you’ve reached the end. You also get light sources and poisonous food (which is nevertheless useful). The really good news? I still have those extra 200 LOC, enough to fit another level generator, or else the much needed ranged combat and time management, for which I’ve just came up with an idea.

I also realized that until now there was no indication whatsoever that Dungeon Romp is open source. But like all my other games, you can have it under the terms of the MIT License. Enjoy!

Despite sacrificing a weekend’s work to a mini-vacation, Dungeon Romp is pretty much where I expected it to be by now. There are three levels of two types, variable lighting and experience gains, and mobs now have the option to swim or fly (which for now only enables them to cross water).

Unfortunately, the source code has almost reached my self-imposed limit of 2000 lines. Which means I will soon have to make a decision.

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