All posts tagged with "rambling"

The State of the Dungeon

April 21, 2011 by David Baumgart

I have answers for a few questions that may be kicking around. Read on! (And here’s an image of various skill icons to distract you.)

 

So how is Dredmor coming along?

More slowly than we hoped, but steadily.

{ read this article }

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,
19 Comments

The Nefarious Devices of Dredmor’s Dungeon

November 9, 2010 by David Baumgart

Or: Mortality & Happenstance via Mechanical Means

Traps are a bit of a conundrum because it’s not generally good game design to aggravate the player by having them randomly die. Aye, The Grand Tradition of dungeon crawlers demands traps in some form, but they pose the problem of being hidden surprise! damage-dealers. If a player is walking along and gets offed by a Dwarven land mine, hilarious though it may be to randomly explode, their agency has been taken away and this is frustrating to a player.

What is one to do with traps? Read on!

{ read this article }

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Game Design | Tagged , , ,
3 Comments

The Essential Attributes of a Dubious Hero

November 5, 2010 by David Baumgart

In which David rambles about why Caddishness is a character attribute in Dungeons of Dredmor

I was listening to some podcast on RPG design a while back, I forget the name of it (killer opening, eh?), and there was a line of thought brought up that went something like: “What is your RPG about?” “Hope.” “Why isn’t that a stat in the game?”

And this struck me: A game is about the mechanics of the game, regardless of what overt theme is overlaid in stilted cut-scenes. The optimal gameplay path is the message.

{ read this article }

Posted in Dungeons of Dredmor, Game Design | Tagged , , , ,
1 Comment