Epilogue

[Mikko Lehtinen]

I want to recommend the roguelike Epilogue to people who like Halls of Mist (or Sil). The design goals seem to be quite similar. I loved this forum post by the author.

I just cleared my first dungeon level. So far it looks like Epilogue is a better game for me than Brogue.

[buzzkill]

So far it looks like Epilogue is a better game for me than Brogue.

That's high praise in my book. I was going to take a look at FA, but now...

[Mikko Lehtinen]

That's high praise in my book. I was going to take a look at FA, but now...

If you try it, pay attention to the healing and fatigue mechanics. You might like them.

[buzzkill]

I gave it 10 minutes, admittedly not a fair shake. However, I didn't like the graphics, and it's too far removed from traditional Angband controls. In other words, I didn't feel like figuring out how to play it. I don't want to have to play with the mouse. I did try reassigning a few keys so that I could move via arrow keys, but it wouldn't let me, so meh. Plus, the full version costs $$... not free.

On to FA 1.3

[Magnate]

I gave it 10 minutes, admittedly not a fair shake. However, I didn't like the graphics, and it's too far removed from traditional Angband controls. In other words, I didn't feel like figuring out how to play it. I don't want to have to play with the mouse. I did try reassigning a few keys so that I could move via arrow keys, but it wouldn't let me, so meh. Plus, the full version costs $$... not free.

I went to have a look at it and was quite surprised by that - I don't think I've ever seen a paid-for roguelike. I guess it's entirely plausible that it doesn't have any code from any of rogue, moria, hack etc., but even then it seems weird. All the basic tropes (hitpoints, AC etc.) are there.

No reason you can't charge for one I guess, but who'd pay for it when there are soooo many others out there - and if you don't like them you can edit the source to your heart's content!

[Mikko Lehtinen]

It looks different, yeah.

But the demo version is essentially a full game. Only three people have managed to beat the level 10 big boss on normal difficulty. Full version opens up a bonus level below that and harder difficulty levels. Only thing I'd want from the full version are the two extra character classes and some extra monsters.

I'm going to pay once I get it working on Linux. It requires a newer version of glibc than what Debian Squeeze or Wheezy have. I'm planning to install Slackware on a secondary computer anyway ('cause I like both XFCE and KDE, and Slackware has really good versions of both).

[Mikko Lehtinen]

No reason you can't charge for one I guess, but who'd pay for it when there are soooo many others out there

Epilogue is on Steam Greenlight together with some other roguelikes. It changes the game rules and might double the paying customers.

There aren't that many roguelikes that are challenging from the start and require tactics every minute. Epilogue fills a niche.

[getter77]

There is a rich and ongoing history of commercial Roguelike projects....in Japan(The Fushigi Dungeon series, largely their prime thing of influence was Nethack then mysteriously slim to nothing else...)...whereas the US and Europe are only now starting to get it together with the likes of Dredmor, Binding of Isaac, and others to come after some very much ahead of their time projects from decades on back like the somewhat successful Ragnarok/Valhalla (eventually went free, never merged, partial remake attempt by someone else a few years back) and the absolutely crushing loss that was the sad fate of the Jaunt Trooper series.

For Epilogue, the commercial edition is essentially..well....the Epilogue, or the old PC RPG equivalent of an Expansion pack. Base game is chock full and has had tremendously vigorously dev progress since the decision to have a commercial edition from a ways on back.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

I always like it when the money goes directly to the author of the game. Creator-owned ("indie") games are a phenomenom I like to support. All the tabletob rpgs I own nowadays are creator-owned.

[buzzkill]

I gave this more of an in depth run last night, probably a couple of hours, and though I still don't care for the 8x8 graphics (which is probably in the end why I won't play it) or the controls (even after I configured the arrow keys to work), it's not bad.

• It's got a nice interface (once you get used to it), but the mouse-over info is almost too much. I kept looking for a place to park the mouse so it wouldn't display anything.
• You can't move diagonally, which really takes some getting used to.
• Haven't played Sil, but I imagine it's a lot like Sil in the fact that there don't seem to be easy escapes. You fight and win or die... or try to run. I died a bunch of times before I cleared the first level.
• There are a lot of open-ish areas, which makes it easy to get surrounded. It doesn't help matters that almost every enemy has a ranged attack.
• Enemies can shoot at you from (what I would say is) around corners. It works both ways, but I was constantly surprised by at the same time never took advantage of it.
• The stairs are an escape (down only) but the difficulty ramps up quickly, so escaping will probably just lead to death anyhow.
• I felt inundated with equipment options (everything drops stuff) and didn't really know how to discern which pieces were better, or to be more precise, which would be more useful to me.

I could see myself getting in to this if I tried, but I probably won't. After playing this for a while, switching back to 'normal' variants seemed a little odd at first... which put me off a little.

I much prefer Brogue to Epilogue. I think I nailed it in my first post. The controls, the mechanics are just a little too far removed from a traditional Angband variant, which are the only RL's I ever play.