dpeg interview

[Klown]

So I have this little wordpress page where I've begun interviewing developers of roguelike games. ToME's darkgod was the first, which can be found on the left side of this link. But this one is DCSS's dpeg Thanks for taking the time to type out lengthy answers, dpeg, I know it took a good while.

http://beyondthedungeon.wordpress.com/2 ... view-dpeg/


@ rest-to-heal: Have health orbs drop from dead enemies that heals a certain amount of health...enemy HD x 2 ?

[Hirsch I]

Dpeg likes gorgoroth? this is a huge surprise

[dpeg]

Hirsch: Maaneskyggens Slave on repeat, my friend. I've seen them live on the Antichrist tour, and I wish I would've known their oeuvre better already then.

[Hirsch I]

amazing. you always striked me more as a classical music guy. maybe because you are so pacific.
well, I love metal as well, and try to beat Elvylion to the title of "most pacific guy ever" so it should not be that surprising.

[stickyfingers]

jpeg got a real-life job because of Beogh? That's intriguing. Could you tell something more about it, or is this info classified?

[Hirsch I]

a bunch of orcs beat the guy who refused him until he changed it's mind.

[jpeg]

jpeg got a real-life job because of Beogh? That's intriguing. Could you tell something more about it, or is this info classified?

Nothing fancy. I'm a gameplay programmer, and when I was asked to give examples of my programming experience in the interview for my current job, I talked at length about "this god I programmed". For some reason, the project manager was greatly impressed. =D

Btw, whatever dpeg might claim, my nick has nothing to do with school. Quite the contrary, I thought it up when I needed a nickname for the internet. It's a simple extension of my initials, and I liked that the result had something to do with computers.

[Psiweapon]

We are in sore need of a mpeg here.

[dpeg]

jpeg: Blammo! I always though eg = Einstein-Gymnasium or something similar. Whatever, my story is cooler, so it must be true!
(Thanks for chiming in.)

[nicolae]

jpeg got a real-life job because of Beogh? That's intriguing. Could you tell something more about it, or is this info classified?

hr was staffed by orcs

[Grimm]

affirmative orction

[Grimm]

19) Is there any chance of purchasable DCSS t-shirts, miniatures, and other cool items in the future?

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=8217

[Klown]

So there can only be 27 gods/species/backgrounds?
Why is this?

[moocowmoocow]

Thanks for doing the interview... enjoyed reading.

[dpeg]

Klown: No really deep reason, but Crawl always had this fixation with the number 27 (27 skill levels, 27 experience levels, formerly 27 dungeon levels, still 27 levels in a ziggurat). That's not so bad in itself, even if a little silly: as a cube, 27 is a much more beautiful number than something like 25 or 30

As an arbitrary cap on the numbers of species, backgrounds and gods, it does serve a purpose: I believe that 27 interesting and well differentiated entities of any of these is quite a challenge. Having the cap in mind forces us to address the existing species and backgrounds, rather than just adding new ones. That's worth a lot!

There is also a limit to the mass of data we want to expose new players, too. (And I believe that limit should actually be smaller than 27.) I am convinced that putting someone with video game experience but no prior roguelike experience in front of Crawl will have him/her intimidated from the choices of the species and background screens already. We try to alleviate this, but it's certainly a lot.

[Klown]

So in the future if we hit 27 gods or species, and some good design ideas pop up.
They won't get added without killing something already there?

[dpeg]

There will also always be some ideas about what to cut, don't worry
Admittedly, it never happened to gods yet.