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[Biag]

'Allo! I'm guessing that, if you're here, you most likely checked out the February event as well. If not, recap: the time limit was 72 hours, the theme was mostly focused on AI. Everyone agreed that 72 hours was pretty short, so this month we've got a week! And, of course, a new theme.

This is a 7DRL festival (not contest, since there's no winner)! That means exactly what it says on the tin- entrants have seven days to start and finish a buggy, non-optomized, incomplete roguelike. There is no barrier of quality; it's all about getting your programming juices flowing! You can enter whenever you like in the month of March. Just post when you're starting, maybe some progress reports, and let us know when you've finished! At the end of the month, I'll post a listing of all the entrants, as well as accolades.

So, without further ado, here are the festival specifics!

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Administrated By: me, biag. Post if you have any questions, or if you want to help out!
Entry Deadline: I'll be accepting entries all through the month of March. PM me a download link, or post it here (for a good file host, I recommend Mediafire)!
Theme: take a genre convention and turn it on its head, a la Yahtzee's excellent Leveling Backwards article.
     Specific Guidelines:
          -Post something about the rule you're subverting whenever you make your idea reveal.
          -Be creative!
          -Guidelines are flexible; above all, try to make something you want to make! This is a starting point.
Additional: not required, but when you put up your "Finished!" post, it would be neat if you also posted any interesting problems you came across and how you solved them. You may be as open or secretive about your development as you wish.
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Any questions? Post them here, or PM me! Any suggestions? Post them here, or PM me! Interested in signing up? Post here! Don't PM me about that one.

Tutorials, Tilesets, Libraries, Etc.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Roguelike Development Megathread has pretty much all the resources you could possibly want for this, here.

However, I know it looks a bit intimidating, so here are some of my personal favorites. Feel free to suggest your own!

Roguebasin is basically the best thing ever for roguelike devs. Pages and pages of tutorials, examples, and even unused design notes! If you haven't been there already, go now. You'll thank me for it.

Python is my language of choice, mostly because it's pretty. It can be a tad slow, but that doesn't matter much for roguelikes, unless they become massive like DF. The Python site has loads of well-written documentation.

C++ is industry-standard for pretty much anything. That site (reportedly, I don't know C++ so I've never been there) has some helpful stuff.

libtcod is my library of choice. It's designed specifically for roguelikes; its functions deal primarily with rendering to the console, handling mouse & keyboard input, and pathfinding. Basically, it takes all the tricky-but-boring stuff about programming roguelikes and does it for you. This is a brilliant tutorial for Python and libtcod; it's perfect for complete novices and Python pros alike. I can't believe I actually used that line.

libjcsi is supposedly similar to libtcod, but in Java.

And finally, Oryx's Graphics Set and Open Game Art are great resources for those in need of tilesets. Remember to give credit!

Some Questions That Will Probably Become Frequently Asked

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Can I work as part of a team?

Absolutely!

Can I put in more than one entry?

As long as they're separate pieces of code, sure.

What about assets- fonts, tilesets, music, etc.? Do I have to do those in the 72 hours, too?

It depends. You can use stuff you've created outside the 72 hours as long as you make it available to everyone; no cheating! If you don't want to share, then you must make it inside the time frame.

Can I reuse code from previous projects?

The traditional answer is "Everything must be typed within the time frame." So, the official mantra is the Everything Must Be Typed Within The Time Frame, and you can interpret that however you want. Some people have had the idea of using the time to add a feature to their already-existing project, and then specifying what they actually added within the time limit; this is totally fine. It's a pretty laid-back festival.

Are there prizes?

No. There aren't awards, either- I won't be saying someone got first place, or whatever. On the other hand, I will be highlighting projects that I think handled something really well. Again, I won't be awarding myself any of those. If you'd like to help "judge," pop me a PM and we'll talk about it!

Now hop to!

Current Entries

GTM's Mad Mage

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I did a dual-entry for the 7drl and the bay12 march competition - Mad Mage.  The !sdrawkcaB element is that you start with over 250 scrolls and potions which are all identified, but as you go through the game you'll slowly forget them.

Forgotten items have a 50% chance of just getting a ' ? ? ? ' added to the real name and a 50% chance of being misidentified as an entirely different item.  So a Scroll of Mass Death could become 'Scroll of Mass Death???' or 'Scroll of Friendship???'. 

The inventory system is a little weird in that you have a pack with space for 256 items, but you can only access the 'top 8' items.  Periodically, your pack shifts around as you move, changing those 8 items. Plus, you can stash a few items here-and-there on your static clothes.  You can hide a scroll or a potion under your hat, one in each boot, etc.  There's a strategic element of moving your semi-random pack items into more stable locations elsewhere on your body if they're spells you think you'll need soon.

Game balance is a little off, so you'll generally want to either avoid enemies or blow them away with overpowered spells.  The game in general is pretty buggy.  Save a few powerful Cold Blasts (or Kill, perhaps) for the end boss.  The RNG is seeded by your name and which options you click on the title screen, so try something different if you keep crashing early on.

Link to downloads (windows/linux): http://www.wiglud.com/download.html

Levi's Cursed Painting

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I ran out of steam.    I consider this a failure as I didn't get most of the interesting bits in, but it is semi-playable so I figured I'd upload it anyway.  This was my first real program in python, and I'm starting to get used to programming in python now.

http://www.mediafire.com/?tlt2mcf5q84aer6

Instructions:

Requires Python to run.

- Arrow keys(or keypad) to move.
- Shift movement for fast walk along hallways(will stop if you see a monster)
- inventory: i
- attack: 1
- pickup: ,

Walk onto a staircase to go up or down.

---------------------------------------------

The title was "Cursed Painting" and it was about a Painting that was brought to life by a gypsy curse.  You were supposed to go down through the dungeon, find the item that was needed to un-animate yourself and return to the surface.  The theme bit was implemented as you can only walk in the walls, not in the rooms.  Paintings don't have legs so you can only shimmy along wall surfaces. 

Features missing:
- Saving/loading
- Balancing
- Any item other than heal potions
- Win condition
- Magic system
- highscores

So its playable in its current state if you just want to wander around the dungeon fighting monsters, but its pretty boring.  I got a lot of work done the first few days, but I ran out of motivation as time went on.  I did learn a bunch, and using libtcod was a treat so it wasn't a complete loss. 

White Kitteh's Almight 12x9

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Almight 12x9

Whilst I'm sure that I could bore you for several hours with my incredibly deep and complex sci-fi universe, Lets skip all that and get to the point, since barely any of it made it into the game and it's not like anyone cares.

(i) open your inventory, I trust you can figure it out.
(g) get items
(f) to select a target, (f) or enter to fire. numpad +- to lock onto a target

There is not all that much to do, other than wander around marvelling at the wonderful day-night cycle and getting one shot-killed by rainbows.

[pat]

the annual 7 day roguelike contest is also happening during march (5 - 13 to be precise): http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php?title=7DRL_Contest_2011

[Virex]

Unless I can come up with something more original, I'll probably be reusing the concept I was going for in the previous contest, since it's essentially the inversion of a whole genre, but now with more time (yeah I really want to make that game):

Several FPS games, like Unreal Tournament or Quake 3 have profiled themselves as a blood sports tournament, where gladiators fight for the viewers of the future. My idea is to take that concept and put you, the gamer, in the seat of the organizer of such a tournament. You'd have to hire gladiators, plan maps, get weapon and power-up contracts and arrange for some epic fights, so people will watch your blood sports channel instead of the opposition. Gladiators, weapons and power-ups will be generated procedurally, so you always have plenty of things to chose from. Spawning them and respawning gladiators would cost money though, so you've got to balance fight time (which would get more interesting fight shots) with the expenses associated with it and make sure your camera's are always at the right spot.
If I've got the time I'll see if I can also implement some side events, such as getting contracts for army practice, organizing special annual tournaments or setting up your own leagues in which fighters can participate for prizes.

As a bonus, there's a week of vacation coming up for me next month

[Jack_Bread]

I'm thinking of making a city-building game or should I say a wilderness-building game.
Hm... you would start off with a fully-constructed town with a bunch of villagers that are really happy.
You would then start deconstructing buildings to make room for the trees you're going to plant.
Farmers would be ordered to collect tree seeds and breed wild animals like deer and such.
Soon, it will be a race against time as you try to plant as many trees as you can before everyone leaves the village because you're ruining it.

Also, relevant.

[GTM]

Slightly off-topic but: I wonder if Yahtzee ever played A Quest Too Far from the 2010 7drl - that's almost exactly what he's talking about

[freeformschooler]

We need more games like this. I don't think my roguelike programming skills are quite up to for for a 7DRL contest but I will be watching this (great concept).

[squeakyReaper]

Hmm.  I'll see if I can come up with a good idea...

[Siquo]

I love the theme. This is going to be fun.

How about unexploring a dungeon?

[freeformschooler]

Or better: backwards Zelda. You've defeated the final boss, and now you have to return all ye artifacts of lore that you used to get there back to their rightful places in each dungeon. When you're done, you hand in your sword.

Oh, and Jumping on Mushrooms is great.

Man now I'm gonna have to make a game like this, but outside of the contest 

[Siquo]

Super Oiram, Plump Helmet Farmer: Jumping on flat mushrooms to make them grow?

[Cthulhu]

You're Moloch and have to hide the amulet of Yendor at the bottom of a dungeon.

There was a 7DRL already made that fits this.  Something like the last adventure, I think it was called, where you're a retired adventurer with great gear and stats who has to go on one last adventure to save his kids.  Instead of leveling up you throw out your back, sprain your ankle, and suffer similar old people problems.

[Siquo]

You're Moloch and have to hide the amulet of Yendor at the bottom of a dungeon.

There was a 7DRL already made that fits this.  Something like the last adventure, I think it was called, where you're a retired adventurer with great gear and stats who has to go on one last adventure to save his kids.  Instead of leveling up you throw out your back, sprain your ankle, and suffer similar old people problems.

Damn, I was already thinking of something that makes you "level down".

[freeformschooler]

Yeah, it's already been mentioned in this thread but Cthulhu probably didn't recognize it by name. It's A Quest Too Far.

[Cthulhu]

You're one of the king's soldiers, and you must fight your way through the swamp to kill Shrek and his family.  Along the way you slay such strange and dangerous uniques as a talking donkey and a swashbuckling cat.

[USEC_OFFICER]

Well, I'll probably join this. I do need the experience with C++.

You know, so many games these days are about brutally crushing your enemies. We need a game that forces you to brutally make peace with your enemies. In other words, I'm going to have to code up a half-decent political simulator.