Welcome to the start of a new podcast dedicated to roguelike games. Each week we will be playing and talking about at least one recent roguelike game, and discussing some aspects of the genre based on that. Every now and then we'll also be having guest interviews with major developers and other highlights. This week Darren Grey, Andrew Doull and Scott Edgar have been talking about Cardinal Quest, the recently released commercial game by Ido Yehieli.
The mp3 is available for download here, can be played in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.
Topics covered this week include: - How can roguelikes improve their UI? - Supporting commercial roguelikes - The importance of complexity
Apologies for any rough edges, in particular the rather abrupt cut-off at the end - we shall endeavour to improve at this over time. Tune in next week when we shall be discussing Desktop Dungeons.
Great show guys! Spot on cardinal quest, p.s. I have played it and finished it (Wizard with some spell combos against minotaurs on level 8) and it has a lot of potential. I think we definitely should support Ido and buy the game now (rather than later) especially since he said he was committed to updating/extending on the game content.
Great initiative. I was hoping to be able to listen to it while at work (as a Flash developer) but it proved impossible using the player embedded on the site. The player spews out huge amounts of debugging information (trace()) many many times per second, and it obviously makes it very hard for me to actually pick up on any real debugging info I need to care about in my daily work :-) Example of a single entry:
P.S. One thing again listening to the podcast you were wondering the difference between the classes - I believe the wizard has an incredibly fast recharge rate (on the spells), not sure what the rogue abilities are.
Björn: My apologies for the flash errors - the perils of relying on external code (even if that code is from Google). Only thing I can find to help is this:
Far from optimal though :( If anyone knows of a good alternative flash mp3 player I'd be welcome to hear it. Alternatively you can disable flash on the page and it should back up to a HTML5 player instead.
Abe: The only real differences between the classes are starting stats and spell. The wizard has a fast spell regen time because he has a high Spirit stat, the rogue has a high Speed stat.
If you point your RSS feed through feedburner it should make enclosures (that's the part of RSS that allows file attachments) out of your links to mp3 files in the post. This is required if anyone not on iTunes wants to subscribe.
Also, I hereby call y'all out on your roguelike gamer credentials. If we don't get some evidence that you've beaten at least a few hardcore RLs, I'm going to have to assume that you haven't even met your Quest giver in Nethack ;)
Hey burzmali, I have actually ascended in Nethack twice. I have gotten very far in others, though never finished any of the other big hardcore games. Nethack has always been the one I have put most of my time into.
Burzmali: Doesn't being a developer count for anything? :P My biggest experience is in ADOM, which I've won numerous times (I think I've gotten all the endings, including chaos wretch), and for which I've completed numerous challenges such as speedruns, drakeling spit restriction and Platinum Man (I think I'm still the only person to win the latter legitimately). I've also gotten quite far in ToME4 a few times, but alas I don't get the time to play it as much as I'd like...
@Scott and @Darren Grey That's what I'm talking about, and no, being a dev doesn't count, according to my back of the envelope calculations, there are 2.345 RL developers per RL player, but I might have forgotten to carry a one in there somewhere :P
Thanks everyone & in particular Darren, Andrew and Scott for their (mostly) spot-on analysis.
I'm actually going to introduce some of the changes you've came up with & the new content will make the game almost double its current size.
Other than bug fixing & adding content I'm going to put some more emphasis on balancing & further differentiation between character classes (with much appreciated assistant from Hellband developer Tom Demuyt and many others).
First thing tho I'm trying to get a bug-fix 1.1 release as soon as possible, with most gameplay/content changes following shortly in 1.2.
Nice show, looking forward to more. Haven't listened to the second one yet, but one suggestion: If you do a show that's aimed at the general listener, the gamer who doesn't necessarily know what a roguelike is but who may (or may not) have heard the term and wondered about it, you stand to pick up a lot of listeners you might not reach otherwise. I'd love to hear more general discussion about the underpinnings of the genre as part of each show as well. I think you get close to touching on those things here (e.g., the whole question of UI in roguelikes generally, not just in the one under review), but it could be very cool to hear more on general questions in each show, as well as the specifics of the game you're reviewing. In any case, great stuff, keep up the good work!
I really enjoyed this! Our podcasts should network! I've been co-hosting a podcast on portable gaming for the past couple of months. Check us out and let me know if you'd like to post links to each other's podcasts on our sites or something.
Going back and listening to this episode again made me want to get the game, next time I have some spare change. I do think it's worthwhile to buy an indie game even in an early stage (as it was when you reviewed it) to spur development of games in an otherwise niche genre. Great work guys
I was recently turned on to this podcast and after only the first episode I love it. I've got a ways to catch up but I'm here for the long haul.
You guys only briefly touched on it but I love that you are willing to help out developers creating commercial roguelikes. I've always held this belief and they totally deserve it.
Well done, now I'm off to listen to the next episode.
Great show guys! Spot on cardinal quest, p.s. I have played it and finished it (Wizard with some spell combos against minotaurs on level 8) and it has a lot of potential. I think we definitely should support Ido and buy the game now (rather than later) especially since he said he was committed to updating/extending on the game content.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the itunes link? :) I did a search on it, but didn't find it there.
ReplyDeleteGreat initiative. I was hoping to be able to listen to it while at work (as a Flash developer) but it proved impossible using the player embedded on the site. The player spews out huge amounts of debugging information (trace()) many many times per second, and it obviously makes it very hard for me to actually pick up on any real debugging info I need to care about in my daily work :-) Example of a single entry:
ReplyDelete[07:33.35 FLASH TRACE] Scrub-10(9): calcPos: 0.0403159804403491 between 3 and 156 = 9.16834500737341
Scrub-10(9): ScrubControl::repositionPlayMarker - 0.0403159804403491 => 9.15
CtlBar-5(20): sc height = 18 cb height = 27
CtlBar-5(20): timeDisplay(_level0.mediaPlayer.controlBar_.timeDisplay_) w=67 tw=63
Scrub-10(20): tr._x = 168.5tr._w = 2
Scrub-10(20): tr._x = 168.5tr._w = 2
CtlBar-5(20): timeDisplay _x=229.5 = sc._x=126 + sc.tr=170.5- td._w=67
MediaPlayer-3(10): Buffer region = 0 - 1
CtlBar-5(10): ControlBar::bufferStart set to 0
Scrub-10(9): ScrubControl::bufferStart setter = 0
Scrub-10(10): ScrubControl::size - this = _level0.mediaPlayer.controlBar_.scrubControl to 183x18
I'll download and listen to the MP3 instead, but it is damn annoying when you encounter things like this...
I'm submitting it to iTunes now... we needed an episode in order to go through the approval process.
ReplyDeleteP.S. One thing again listening to the podcast you were wondering the difference between the classes - I believe the wizard has an incredibly fast recharge rate (on the spells), not sure what the rogue abilities are.
ReplyDeleteBjörn: My apologies for the flash errors - the perils of relying on external code (even if that code is from Google). Only thing I can find to help is this:
ReplyDeletehttp://yoavgivati.com/2009/09/disable-flash-debugger-error-messages/
Far from optimal though :( If anyone knows of a good alternative flash mp3 player I'd be welcome to hear it. Alternatively you can disable flash on the page and it should back up to a HTML5 player instead.
I'd like to be able to use this blog's feed in a podcast reader (for example, Google Listen).
ReplyDeleteIt seems that you are using blogspot's "default" feed settings, and the feed isn't a "podcast-type" one, but a regular "html text" one.
I'm not 100% sure of this, but I think you need to activate the "show link" option in the feed settings, as specified here:
http://google.about.com/od/googleblogging/ss/podblogger.htm
Regards!
Abe: The only real differences between the classes are starting stats and spell. The wizard has a fast spell regen time because he has a high Spirit stat, the rogue has a high Speed stat.
ReplyDeleteIf you point your RSS feed through feedburner it should make enclosures (that's the part of RSS that allows file attachments) out of your links to mp3 files in the post. This is required if anyone not on iTunes wants to subscribe.
ReplyDeleteWe're using feedburner: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RoguelikeRadio
ReplyDeletekikito: I'm not sure why the basic blogger feed isn't appearing as a podcast but you should be able to use the above feedburner address.
Also, I hereby call y'all out on your roguelike gamer credentials. If we don't get some evidence that you've beaten at least a few hardcore RLs, I'm going to have to assume that you haven't even met your Quest giver in Nethack ;)
ReplyDeleteHey burzmali,
ReplyDeleteI have actually ascended in Nethack twice. I have gotten very far in others, though never finished any of the other big hardcore games. Nethack has always been the one I have put most of my time into.
Burzmali: Doesn't being a developer count for anything? :P My biggest experience is in ADOM, which I've won numerous times (I think I've gotten all the endings, including chaos wretch), and for which I've completed numerous challenges such as speedruns, drakeling spit restriction and Platinum Man (I think I'm still the only person to win the latter legitimately). I've also gotten quite far in ToME4 a few times, but alas I don't get the time to play it as much as I'd like...
ReplyDelete@Andrew Doull: the feedburner rss feed worked fine with Google Listen. Thanks! I can now easily follow this podcast ^^
ReplyDeleteLove it, can't wait for more.
ReplyDelete@Scott and @Darren Grey That's what I'm talking about, and no, being a dev doesn't count, according to my back of the envelope calculations, there are 2.345 RL developers per RL player, but I might have forgotten to carry a one in there somewhere :P
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone & in particular Darren, Andrew and Scott for their (mostly) spot-on analysis.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually going to introduce some of the changes you've came up with & the new content will make the game almost double its current size.
Other than bug fixing & adding content I'm going to put some more emphasis on balancing & further differentiation between character classes (with much appreciated assistant from Hellband developer Tom Demuyt and many others).
First thing tho I'm trying to get a bug-fix 1.1 release as soon as possible, with most gameplay/content changes following shortly in 1.2.
The podcast is now on iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/roguelike-radio/id461288283
ReplyDeletePlease review there, leave a comment etc. I'll need to clean the entry up a little, change the graphic, etc. Not sure how I do this yet...
Nice show, looking forward to more. Haven't listened to the second one yet, but one suggestion: If you do a show that's aimed at the general listener, the gamer who doesn't necessarily know what a roguelike is but who may (or may not) have heard the term and wondered about it, you stand to pick up a lot of listeners you might not reach otherwise. I'd love to hear more general discussion about the underpinnings of the genre as part of each show as well. I think you get close to touching on those things here (e.g., the whole question of UI in roguelikes generally, not just in the one under review), but it could be very cool to hear more on general questions in each show, as well as the specifics of the game you're reviewing. In any case, great stuff, keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this! Our podcasts should network! I've been co-hosting a podcast on portable gaming for the past couple of months. Check us out and let me know if you'd like to post links to each other's podcasts on our sites or something.
ReplyDeletehttp://pocketoid.blogspot.com
Going back and listening to this episode again made me want to get the game, next time I have some spare change. I do think it's worthwhile to buy an indie game even in an early stage (as it was when you reviewed it) to spur development of games in an otherwise niche genre. Great work guys
ReplyDeleteI was recently turned on to this podcast and after only the first episode I love it. I've got a ways to catch up but I'm here for the long haul.
ReplyDeleteYou guys only briefly touched on it but I love that you are willing to help out developers creating commercial roguelikes. I've always held this belief and they totally deserve it.
Well done, now I'm off to listen to the next episode.
Hah, you do indeed have some catching up to do :) Hope you enjoy it!
DeleteI'm up to episode 3 now. Loving it
Delete