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[tonnot98]

What about graphics-wise? Will there be ascii or actual graphics?

[Shadowlord]

The key, as with all game design, is not punishing the player or making it a chore - if you do those things, then it's not a fun game regardless of what it's about. DF/Roguelikes are hard, but the good ones don't needlessly punish the player or make it a chore - the fun is in achieving against difficult odds. As you say, it's all about risk vs reward.

The last time I played Nethack, I died on the first level because I couldn't find the fucking stairs (I eventually died of poisoning from eating a corpse because it kept saying GOSH YOU'RE FEELING HUNGRY* even though it had only been like 30 minutes and I had already eaten a month's worth of rations and several bodies). Virtually every time I tried playing Nethack, I died of either poisoning or starvation. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

If that's not needlessly punishing the player, I don't know what is.

* Earlier my character was passing out from starvation, somehow.

[nenjin]

Graphics is my main question as well. I'm sorry but, there are just so many ascii roguelikes out there that, even though they have solid gameplay, fail to stand out. I'm happy with tiles even as long as it can express something about a game's flavor and style.

[Retropunch]

The last time I played Nethack, I died on the first level because I couldn't find the fucking stairs (I eventually died of poisoning from eating a corpse because it kept saying GOSH YOU'RE FEELING HUNGRY* even though it had only been like 30 minutes and I had already eaten a month's worth of rations and several bodies). Virtually every time I tried playing Nethack, I died of either poisoning or starvation. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

If that's not needlessly punishing the player, I don't know what is.

To be very honest (and to the shock and horror of many people here I'm sure) I don't particularly rate nethack. I understand that it was revolutionary at the time, but the fact that winning is almost entirely based on spoilers/meta-info makes it pretty awfully designed in my book.

For me, for something to be 'challenging but fun' the player needs to be able to see where they've gone wrong. It's like DCSS - most of the time when you die you can point to the reason why and, if you're good, learn from your mistakes.

[Spehss _]

On the ascii vs tiles discussion, I absolutely hate tile graphics. No matter how pretty the tiles may be, if a roguelike doesn't have an alternate ascii option, I usually don't play it much, if at all.

So having multiple choices is best to appeal to both player groups, ascii players and tile players.