Monday, August 7, 2017

Episode 138: Golden Krone Hotel

Episode 138 of Roguelike Radio, where we interview Jeremiah Reid, creator of the vampiric Golden Krone Hotel.

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



Topics Discussed
  • Golden Krone Hotel - sparkly/flamey explodey vampire roguelike, now in Steam Early Access
  • Unique duality of character in the game, switching between human and vampire mode
  • Use of moving sunlight as a mechanic - a weapon in human mode, a terrain obstacle in vampire mode
  • Accessibility-building integrated into design - four way movement, contextual ‘use’ key, single key for wear/wield etc, modern-style UI Design
  • Identification system where unknown items shown as having one of three possible identities
  • Jeremiah's great design-focused blog series - 'Things I Hate About Roguelikes'
  • Discussion about how a magic system can genuinely make a player feel *powerful* as opposed to being just another ‘mechanic’
  • Evolution of the game since it first appeared as a 7DRL
  • Steam Greenlight process and Early Access (launched last Hallowe'en!) and plans for full release Hallowe'en 2017
  • Difficulty in Roguelikes - catering to all demographics and casual vs mastery play
  • Jeremiah's previous 7DRLs - A False Saint, an Honest Rogue, DUMUZID The Only Shadow that the Desert Knows, Zurvivors
  • Vampire and Romanian theme, and trying to have a unique flavour to the game's vampires
  • The @ sign is called 'arobase' in French
  • How far away is peak roguelike?
  • Music courtesy of Christopher Loza (who also composed for KeeperRL)

Join us next time for more procedurally generated discussion!

9 comments:

  1. I wish there were a Mac version of this game -- or even a non-Steam version that I could shove into a Wine bottle. I've long wanted to play it, but system inaccessibility has kept it out of reach. =(

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    1. Here you go: http://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791456071238/announcements/detail/1446075097608659692

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  2. theturninggate, I hope to have Mac and/or linux support within the next couple months. I was saving it towards the end of development.

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    1. That's the best news I've had all day. I'm glad to hear it's in the cards, and I will be very much looking forward to it! Thanks!

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    2. Jeremiah mentions a game he likes at 45:30 called something like "Oro". Anyone have a link to that game (or a properly spelled name)? I can't find it.

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    3. It's called Auro. It's dirt cheap at $1.99, tightly designed, has amazing pixel art, and will keep you busy for a while. At first it may be frustrating because killing enemies is very hard to pull off, but you just have to use your spells very wisely. It's a brain burner.

      Only real problem I have is the game has a handful of bugs that will occasionally pop up, several game ruining, and the dev has no intention to fix them due to poor sales (even though fixing them would seem rather easy to me).

      http://store.steampowered.com/app/459680/Auro_A_MonsterBumping_Adventure/

      I'd say it's similar to Hoplite and 868-Hack. I should have mentioned those games as well.

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  3. Alfakrøll, @ in norwegian. Translates to alpha curl.

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  4. Thanks for another great episode!

    The book "Shady Characters" by Keith Houston has a chapter on the history of the "@", and mentions a variety of names for the symbol across different locales. Among them are:

    * "snabel-a" in Danish and Swedish, which translates to "elephant's trunk-a";

    * "apestaart" in Dutch, which translates to "monkey's tail";

    * "zavinác" in Czech and Slovak, which translates to "rollmop herring";

    * "klammeraffe" in German, which translates to "spider monkey";

    * "strudel" in Herbrew, which translates to "roll-shaped bun";

    * "kukac" in Hungarian, which translates to "worm";

    * "gül" in Turkish, which translates to "rose";

    * "anfora" in Italian, which translates to "snail".

    In contrast to Hainn's earlier comment, Houston claims the Norwegian term for the symbol is "grisehale", which translates to "pig's tail". Maybe there are multiple names?

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  5. In macedonia in it's called majmunce. Which translates to small monkey.

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