AarrrRL Development Roadmap

Since entering and (barely) completing the 2010 Seven Day Roguelike (7DRL) Challenge contest, work on AarrrRL has been slow.

However, I would love to release a version of AarrrRL for the 2010 Annual Roguelike Release Party (ARRP), as discussed on rec.games.roguelike.development shortly after the 7DRL contest.

After receiving some help (thanks!) from the surprisingly-active (and aforementioned) roguelike developer’s usenet group I’ve come up with a rough development roadmap for AarrrRL and been slogging away at it. I figure if I post something it will inspire me to stay on task. (Maybe)

VERSION 0.1

• Message Buffer w/ Scrollable message history screen
• Fix lighting bug
• Equipping weapons – sword, pistol
• Basic Monster pathfinding

VERSION 0.2

• Monster info stored in basic SQLite database (I’m attempting to keep as many things data-centric as possible)
• Basic on-screen player status
• Welcome screen
• Save/Load
• Reloadable weapons
• Help Screen

Piratey Must-Haves

• Braces of pistols – player should be able to carry around multiple loaded pistols and unleash them as necessary (long reloading time will be a tactical issue)
• Insults – Should function as low-level “spells” in other RL genres. Insults could temporarily unbalance an opponent or cause aggro
• Booty – Lots and lots and lots of treasure

Large Outstanding Questions

• How do the player-as-ship game and player-as-pirate game mesh?
• How much should the game focus on ship combat versus sword & pistols combat?
• What is the best way to work on a multi-player aspect (in the vein of bones files, not actual multiplayer). Maybe especially successful player pirates get passed around into other games as notorious enemies. Maybe especially successful player pirates can leave behind maps to ridiculously booby-trapped treasure troves. Other ideas?

Wish me luck!