Snake Sneak
Posts: 124
Joined: Monday, 14th March 2011, 11:14
Re: feels like alot of indie games are now called roguelikes
Ayutzia wrote:I argued with the Catacomb Kids developers about marketing their game as a roguelike. It's just a dungeon-themed action platformer, therefore lacking the two most defining attributes of roguelikes: turn-basedness & item destruction. I'm not so sure about that second one, but gammafunk insists.
According to your definition, Worms is more rogue-like than Catacomb Kids . Item and environment destruction? Check. Permadeath? Check. Random loot? Check (crates drop from the sky).
In what sense does CK not have item destruction? You can close a door to decapitate a corpse. You can put most items on a pressure plate and wait until the falling block destroys it. Potions break when thrown against a wall. You can destroy traps and stuff with Break spell, burn wooden bridges, freeze lava solid. In the second stage, Anticropolis, there's more environment destruction.
As for what is Roguelike, I think it's not binary, but rather continuous. The most rogue like game is Rogue. Rogue is the most like Rogue. The more in common a game has with Rogue, the more Rogue like it is.
Catacomb Kids is a magic system with a platformer attached. CK has many of the traits Rogue has - leveling up, unidentified scrolls and potions, a dungeon filled with monsters, traps; staircases, random level generation, random loot, permadeath. CK is not turn-based but the world is tile-based.
Diablo is more rogue-like than CK in the sense CK combat relies on skill and Diablo only on stats. On the other hand, consumables in CK are found randomly like in Rogue, while Diablo has a boring set of consumables you can buy in town. CK has only pressing forward like Rogue, while Diablo lets you return to town and DCSS lets you backtrack. Neither Diablo nor CK have a food clock - DCSS does. Multiplayer Diablo doesn't have permadeath. Catacomb Kids, Diablo and DCSS have a single hero character. DCSS and CK have a goal - get to the last level, Diablo does not, really.