Waltorious Writes About Games

Game-related ramblings.

Tag: Roguelikes Page 1 of 4

Scratching That Itch: Realm Of The Ghost King

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On March 16, 2024

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This is the one hundred eighty-first entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our one hundred eighty-first random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality has appeared with a whole menagerie of monsters. It’s Realm of the Ghost King, by Mantis-Eye Labs, and its tagline in the bundle reads:

A quick-play roguelike

Long-time readers will know that I’ve been writing about roguelikes since before they were cool.

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Another Expedition Into Qud

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On March 16, 2022

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You may read my earlier posts about Caves of Qud here. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

I last wrote about Caves of Qud almost two years ago. But I’ve been following the weekly updates for this excellent far-future roguelike about scavenging ancient sci-fi technology the whole time. There have been some big ones. A whole new segment of the main storyline was added, centered on the Tomb of the Eaters, where the ancient rulers of Earth and the stars beyond are interred. A large swath of the southeastern jungle has been replaced by a vast lake, hosting a new area known as the Palladium Reef on its eastern edge. This even includes a new friendly settlement known as the Yd Freehold. Then there are some big mechanical changes: the option to ease up the punishing permadeath mechanics by playing in RPG mode, where the game is checkpointed at towns, or even Wander mode, where no experience points are awarded for combat and most factions start out neutral to the player.

All of that was tempting, but not quite enough to lure me back, since I knew that once I started playing it would devour my free time. No, what finally convinced me to dive in again was the announcement that the early game areas of Red Rock and the Rust Wells had finally been redesigned. Many new characters meet their deaths in these relatively uninteresting caves, meaning players may never see the much, much cooler stuff to come farther along the storyline. A redesign hopefully meant the early quests were brought up to par with the rest of the game. I decided to find out.

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An Updated Approaching Infinity Is Out Now On Steam Early Access

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On August 6, 2020

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Well, this was a welcome surprise! Long time readers may remember that I quite liked the space exploration roguelike Approaching Infinity; I wrote about it shortly after its initial release, and then again once I’d tried out its v1.3 update. The biggest problem with the game was that it was stuck with niche wargame publisher Shrapnel Games, so it was only available direct from their site with a high price tag, greatly limiting the number of players it could reach. Well, no longer! Developer Ibology has re-acquired the rights to the game, and has brought an updated version to Steam Early Access. The new version now appears in full widescreen 1080p resolution, instead of the rather low original resolution, and also features a redesigned user interface, new quests and procedural generation algorithms, and many more additions planned during its stint in Early Access. Since the original version was already great, now is an excellent time to check out the game.

I haven’t had a chance to play the new version yet, but I certainly intend to and will be sure to share my thoughts on it here. If you’re curious, check my earlier posts about the original version, and visit the Steam page for more info. And stay tuned for more writing about the game here!

Once More Into The Caves Of Qud

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On May 31, 2020

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Readers unfamiliar with Caves of Qud should read my earlier posts about it first, as this post doesn’t bother explaining what it is. As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

It’s been nearly five years since I last played Caves of Qud. But I’ve been following its development, and always intended to return to see how things were progressing. Developers Freehold Games were kind enough to give me a free copy of the game in Early Access on Steam back then, but when I saw it had also released on GOG I decided to buy it there to support development (it’s now available on itch.io as well). I was still busy playing other things, however, and didn’t actually fire it up. Finally, the periodic patch notes convinced me to dive back in. Notes like:

–Being in the same cell with slippery liquids no longer causes chairs, beds, iron maidens, and psionic sarcophagi to malfunction.
–There should be fewer game-breaking problems when you dominate a creature and a spacetime vortex consumes your dormant body.
–Cooking with the gland paste of various bearded lizards no longer forcibly removes your beak if you have one.

I was overdue for another trip to Qud.

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Back To Infinity: Approaching Infinity v1.3

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On September 16, 2017

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If you haven’t already, you should read my earlier post about Approaching Infinity first. And, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Longtime readers may remember that I quite liked the space-faring roguelike Approaching Infinity. I’d always planned to return to it, especially after it received some major updates, but kept getting distracted by other games instead. Now I have finally returned to it, prompted by a reader comment, so I can tell you what I think of the updates and give some more publicity to a great game that I fear may disappear into obscurity.

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On Learning

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On June 14, 2016

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As always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

I haven’t played Paradox Interactive’s grand spacefaring strategy game Stellaris, but I have enjoyed reading about it. It’s great at generating stories, like the one recently chronicled over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun. They’ve written a lot about the game, in fact. Writer John Walker, intrigued by comrade Adam Smith’s enthusiastic assessment of the game, decided to try it, despite his general dislike of and inexperience with strategy games. He wrote about his frustrations with its user interface and general obfuscation, concluding that “Stellaris, it turns out, doesn’t want new people. It wants people that already understand how to play Stellaris.”

After reading his account, however, I had a different conclusion: “Ah, so it’s like Dwarf Fortress, then?”

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Roguelike Updates: This Time It’s Personal

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On June 1, 2016

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Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre, and possibly peruse some of my Roguelike Highlights posts. And maybe read about why we might want to start calling them deathcrawls instead. Also, as always, you can click on images to view larger versions.

My favorite roguelike, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, has updated to v0.18.1. For many players, the most exciting part of this update may be the new god, Pakellas, who specializes in evokable devices like wands (and the associated changes to wands in the game). Or it might be the new monsters and items, or the revamped Charms spell school, or the changes to the Orcish Mines, Elven Halls and Abyss branches. It might even be the improved interface graphics and tiles. But I will remember v0.18.1 for another reason: it was the version in which I had my first successful foray into the “extended game”, going beyond simply winning in favor of tackling the toughest challenges the game has to offer.

There will be spoilers in this post, like last time. And you’ll want to read that post too, if this post is to make much sense.

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More Magical Misadventures

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On February 21, 2016

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Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes (or should I say deathcrawls?) may wish to read my introduction to the genre first. I’ve also posted about Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup a lot, so you might want to read those posts too, but keep in mind that the game is continually updating so the older posts may not reflect the current state of the game. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

In my last real post (no, I’m not counting the obvious filler) I wrote about my first, clumsy attempts to seriously play a magic caster in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. I was even gently mocked for my ignorance over at the official forums. I don’t blame them; it’s kind of ridiculous that I’ve played the game for so long without ever learning the art of spellcasting.

To be fair, however, there is a lot to learn. And once I finally started to learn it, I was drawn into the game more strongly than I’ve been for a long time. I kept playing new Conjurers instead of finishing the other games I’ve been meaning to write about. So I decided to write about the things I’ve learned about magic in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, and the story of my latest Conjurer, who came painfully close to winning the game.

This post will have spoilers (although not as many as Urist Redbeard’s epic saga), so players who are new to the game and wish to learn about magic themselves should probably skip this one.

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Roguelike Updates: Square Dancing On Stilts

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On January 11, 2016

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Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre, and possibly peruse some of my Roguelike Highlights posts. And maybe read about why we might want to start calling them deathcrawls instead. Also, as always, you can click on images to view larger versions.

I haven’t had as much time to play roguelikes as I’d (rogue) like, so this coverage of recent updates is far from comprehensive. But I have managed to follow the latest developments for Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, Caves of Qud, and Approaching Infinity. Read on for some thoughts.

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Roguelike Updates: Caves Of Qud Goes Commercial

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On August 24, 2015

In Uncategorized

Readers unfamiliar with roguelikes may wish to read my introduction to the genre, and possibly peruse some of my Roguelike Highlights posts. And maybe read about why we might want to start calling them deathcrawls instead. Also, as always, you can click on images to view larger versions.

Long-time readers will remember that I quite liked Caves of Qud when I played the original freeware release back in 2013. I also lamented that it hadn’t seen any updates in a while. Well, developers Freehold Games have resumed work on Caves of Qud, releasing it on Steam Early Access with regular updates. They also must remember that I enjoyed the freeware version, because they sent me a copy of the Early Access version for free. Sweet!

While there are a lot of updates, the core experience of the game is largely the same, so if you are unfamiliar, I direct you towards my earlier post about it, which describes what it is (a very-far-future roguelike about searching for ancient science-fiction technology) and why it’s great. Here I will focus on what’s new, and what I hope to see in the future.

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