Episode 62: How to Make a Good 7DRL part 1

This is episode 62 of Roguelike Radio, where we talk about How to Make a Good 7DRL. Talking this week are Darren Grey, Tom Ford, Numeron, Eben Howard, Ido Yehieli and Jeff Lait.  Due to the length of the recording it has been split into two recordings - the second part will be out in a few days.

You can download the mp3 of the podcast, play it in the embedded player below, or you can follow us on iTunes.

This episode follows up from the "How to Make a 7DRL" episode from last year, which had practical tips on organisation and time-planning.  An overview of the guests for this episode:
 - Tom Ford (DDRogue, PrincessRL)
 - Ido Yehieli (CryptRover, Fruits of the Forest, A Most Peculiar Adventure, Detribus, Fuel)
 - Darren Grey (Toby the Trapper, Broken Bottle)
 - Numeron (Crown of the Forest, Domination, Domination Empires, Man in the Mirror, Nightfall)
 - Eben Howard (Excitable Digger, Earl Spork, EmoSquid, Wyrm)
 - Jeff Lait (You Only Live Once, Letter Hunt, Save Scummer, Fatherhood, Jacob's Matrix, Smart Kobold, Vicious Orcs, Sword in Hand)

Topics discussed in this episode include:
 - The upcoming 2013 Seven Day Roguelike Challenge
 - The evaluation criteria used by the judging committee: Completeness, Aesthetics, Fun, Innovation, Scope, Roguelikeness
 - The elusiveness of Fun
 - The importance of not putting too much stock on the judging committee criteria
 - Coming up with new and unique ideas, especially in the realms of pushing the roguelikeness of a game and breaking tropes
 - The suggestion of an updated Berlin Interpretation at the next International Roguelike Developers Conference
 - How to grab people and keep them playing, and not wasting time in getting to the good stuff in a small game
 - Knowing your audience, and choosing to go "full geek" or wider appeal
 - Seeking feedback on the sixth or seventh day to pick up obvious and important issues
 - Polish, polish, polish!
 - The community spirit during the week on the #rgrd IRC channel
 - Doing things like tiles, visuals and writing when tired instead of the dangers of late-night coding
 - Story in 7DRLs and designing a 7DRL as a short story
 - Playing with permadeath and permaconsequence and death of different stages
 - The open space for innovation, especially when focusing very narrowly on one little area or feature
 - The alternative approach of everything including the kitchen sink and making a content-rich roguelike
 - The challenge of making a mobile roguelike


Join us next time for part two of How to Make a Good 7DRL, where discussion includes what we think was so good about our past successes and our plans for this year.