Yet Another Humble Bundle – Voxatron, Blocks That Matter and The Binding of Isaac

I've written before about the Humble Indie Bundles and their many advantages, pay whatever you want, support charity, DRM-free Indie games that deserve our support, and these are all still true. I've purchased every one of the bundles I've encountered since I became aware of them, and have been extremely happy with my decision. Though "bundles" that are initially released as just one game, but frequently get more content added gradually are happening more regularly, they've consistently been a great value and the Voxatron Debut bundle is no exception. In this case, unlike the Frozen Synapse Bundle, the "main" game is the weakest of the titles (for now) included, so paying more than the average to get the bonus games is a must.

Let's start with that main event, available for any price, as low as $0.01, the Alpha release build of the Robotron-inspired voxel-based shooter Voxatron. The 3D graphics combines with an old-school aesthetic not unlike Minecraft in a shooting game that is unlike most of what I've played on the market. You play a character with a basic gun, the ability to move in all directions and jump, and when you shoot, it locks your direction of aim and movement together into a strafe based on where you are pointing. It feels like the arcade classic it takes its name from with the way movement and shooting interact, but the controls end up feeling extremely clunky, and that takes a lot away form the game. I've also suffered a few crash bugs and framerate slowdowns, but I expect these will be corrected in future patches. The one thing that saves this game from mediocrity is the fact that players can use an editing program with building blocks to build and add their own content and custom levels, and turning a community's creativity loose on your project is a sure way to ensure a lot of content (quality, and otherwise.)

The Binding of Isaac is a twisted little game that combines features of shooters, the original Legend of Zelda dungeons, and roguelike RPGs. The story is that of a child whose mother hears God's voice telling her to murder her son to prove her faith, and the weeping, naked boy escapes into his basement, which is filled with awful things. There are disgusting and hellish elements from bosses based on blobs of flesh with cleft palates, enemies weeping blood or vomiting flies, and upgrades related to the occult and implied child abuse. The arenas are randomly generated every time the game starts, power-ups and bosses are different with each playthrough and there are tons of unlockables and achivements to earn. The game is tinged with a disgusting dark sense of humor but it is never funny, images which could (and perhaps should) be shocking are rendered with a cartoon style that robs them of their power and just makes them part of the game world. If the concept of playing as an abused child using his tears as a weapon against demonic creatures and confronting his own fears and personal demons doesn't offend, you may find that the overall solid game design makes this one a lot of fun to play.

My personal favorite game in the series is the platform/puzzler Blocks That Matter. The game combines elements of Tetris and Minecraft to form a unique experience that directly pays homage to its inspirations. Indie Developers Alexey and Markus have been kidnapped, and their secret project, the Tetrobot is the only way they can free themselves. The robot can destroy and collect many blocks such as sand, wood and dirt, and is able to replace them elsewhere in the level, but only in shapes of four consecutive blocks, like tetris pieces. Parts of the four block designs may again be destroyed and collected, leaving bits to stand and jump on to reach other parts of the level. As levels progress, there may be massive spots where there are blocks that cannot be drilled through, but, like Tetris, any line of eight (or more) blocks can be made to vanish. Figuring out how to make the various types of blocks interact and being efficient with them allows for progress through the games many stages.

This bundle will be available until Monday, November 14^th, 2011 and the bonus games both have Steam and Desura activation codes. Like other bundles, bonus titles are available if the price chosen for the bundle is higher than the average for all bundles purchased thus far, so about $5.50USD (as of the moment) gets you all three titles, and any of these games is worth at least twice that.

Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup. Not just another roguelike, and a new project!

 Not so long ago, I wrote a little article about the roguelike RPG genre. In the course of doing a little light research to write that post, there was a roguelike that I hadn't mentioned but kept encountering the name of over and over again. No worries, I could do a second article someday, call it “roguelike roundup” or somesuch and profile a few more. So, with all the mentions of this particular game on Reddit and around the web, I figured it had to be pretty good, might as well try it out. Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup is on its surface a roguelike RPG just like the others. Swords and Sorcery, ASCII graphics that can be replaced with a simple graphical tileset, random dungeon generation, etc. Lurking just beneath the surface of Dungeon Crawl is a game of astonishing complexity that is defined by a set of differences that don't seem to be such a big deal... until you try playing with them. I set aside all other roguelikes, and indeed, most other video games, and wow did I ever get into DCSS, setting aside games I paid for in favor of this free masterpiece.

A.. splash screen? For a roguelike? Yes, this is something different.

The first thing someone loading Dungeon Crawl (current version at time of this article is 0.9) will notice is the unusually high number of different races and classes to choose from when creating a character. There are 24 different species to choose from, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses, aptitudes for learning various skills and rate of level advancement. From fantasy staples such as human, elf, dwarf and orc to the more exotic merfolk and kenku, traditionally evil mummy, vampire and demonspawn, each species plays distinctly different. There are 27 different classes, or backgrounds, though it is worth pointing out that 9 of them are different flavors of wizard. Through updates, species and backgrounds are constantly being evaluated to make sure they are different enough in terms of how they play to justify their inclusion, and those that don't make the cut are excised from future version updates. The group that is in the game now are a solid stable of potential combinations for play.

This game is hard. Not hard in a “I can't figure out the controls or options” sort of way like Dwarf Fortress, and not arbitrarily difficult in an unfair way. After the initial few dungeon levels, most character deaths are the fault of a mistake in the player's tactics or strategy. Dungeon Crawl balances choosing equipment and trained skills, managing resources and effectively analyzing which threats are too difficult and escaping them for success. Unlike in other roguelikes, characters don't have to kill everything they encounter on a level. Sometimes, teleporting to a nearby stairwell and skipping a dungeon level is the best way to go. In the quest for the Orb of Zot, there are 27 main levels of the dungeon, and many side-branches and sub-dungeons arranged by theme, picking which of these to explore and how deep to go into them is key to success. By the end, a player will need three runes minimum from the deepest level of the branches to get into the realm of Zot and get the Orb.

Many different skills to train, choosing the right ones is key.

Another key difference between this game and other roguelikes is the existence of online play. Not online multiplayer, mind you, it is strictly a single player game. Playing online allows tracking of your various characters lives and deaths, a scoreboard and other players can observe and comment live, giving advice as you play. In addition to these features, rarely on certain levels of the dungeon, you may encounter the ghost of another player's character who met their end on a particular floor. In a way, even your failed characters live on as foes, providing a passive sort of PvP. “Busting” these player ghosts is an experience that always provides a thrill, because many of the spectres are much harder than a typical enemy. Takedowns of these monsters as well as Unique named monsters mark moments in a character's career that suggest a great story. There may be no default “plot” here, but some of the procedurally-generated drama is still compelling.

Dungeon Crawl has vast databases of knowledge about the creatures, spells and weapons, as well as the many gods available for characters to worship. There are 18 gods in the pantheon, some of which restrict worship to particular races or backgrounds. Each deity has criteria for worship, such as sacrificing corpses of foes or valuable magic items, learning spells or just killing things. There are sins against the gods that will turn them against you, the foremost of which is renouncing your devotion to their service. Gods make their displeasure known to those who cross them, in some brutal and spectacular ways. Advantages to service may include unique equipment, special powers, summonable allies, or in the case of Xom, god of chaos... you might just get messed with. Choosing a god (unless you play the demigod species) is as significant a choice as background and species, though aside from backgrounds that start with religion, the choice is delayed until you find an altar to the deity you wish to pledge yourself to.

A screenshot of my Orc Priest, with a recruited army of loyal followers on a jihad through the Orc Mines.

This game has inspired a small side project, represented by a second blog, Tales of the Cursed - Crawl For the Orb of Zot, that I've put up here. In addition to allowing me to do some writing outside the typical scope and theme of the posts I do here, the other site let me play with the layout and add things I wanted to here, but couldn't without a dramatic redesign. One of these features is a blog roll with popular posts from sites that follow me here and comment, links back to people who have supported what I'm working on here. Bounce over, check it out and add it to your subscriptions if it is something you might read now and again. I won't update that one as often as I publish here for sake of my free time and sanity, and may occasionally say something on this site when something new goes up over there.

Roguelikes: The RPG Ancestors of Diablo. Free, Complex... and still relevant.

With the release of Diablo 3 on the horizon, I've done a lot of thinking. Some of it has been about the recent controversy regarding a persistent internet connection required for even single player, and the in-game shop where players can buy and sell in-game items for real money (Blizzard takes a cut, of course.) These issues are important to the geek community, but there is little I can say about those at this point that hasn't already been said many times by many other people. What the bulk of my thoughts has turned to is the history behind games like Diablo and Torchlight, from humble origins as games nearly as old as I am to the current state of massive releases that can inspire Geek Holy Wars like the one that rages on as we speak. Before there was Diablo, there was Nethack, and before there was Nethack, there was Rogue. These early descendents form a subgenre of RPG gaming on computers that is easily overlooked, which is a shame, because nearly every game in the category is free.

Rogue, text symbols only edition. I played this on my Palm Pilot years ago.

Rogue is remembered for giving the name to the category of RPG that it spawned, though when it released in 1980 it wasn't actually the first in its subgenre. The “roguelike” games are characterized by permanent character death, turn-based movement, typically text, ASCII or simple tile-based graphics, and randomly generated content for maximum replayability. “Random” is sort of a misnomer, as a truly random dungeon would inevitably have unplayable features like rooms with no possible way through, stairs or doors that go nowhere, etc. A more correct term is “procedurally generation” where content is randomized with a pre-set series of rules in mind making the dungeons and their inhabitants playable, if not necessarily “fair.” The first game in the roguelike genre was on the Apple II in 1978, called Beneath Apple Manor. It is worth mentioning that neither of the men developing Beneath Apple Manor or Rogue knew about each others' projects while making their games.

Early roguelikes were different from purely text-based dungeoneering games in that they had graphics, after a fashion. Symbols drew out rooms, the player was represented by the “@” symbol, and all manner of foul creatures from rats and slimes to vampires and medusae were typically represented by letters roaming the procedurally generated dungeons. Gold, food, armor, weapons, torches and magic items found in the dungeon all have their own symbols, and typically treasure is nearly as dangerous as the monsters. Items may be cursed, potions actually deadly poison, unidentified scrolls may have unpredictable effects... between the traps, creatures and rewards, sometimes the life of a character in a roguelike game is short and extremely unfair.

NetHack displaying a simple tileset translating the ASCII graphics to simple  image tiles.

Later games improved on the formula and added shops, more character options and depth to the gameplay. Angband, which was heavily influenced by Lord of the Rings, and Hack were early standouts for addition of new and fun features. Hack was followed up by NetHack (the Net added to refer to UseNet groups that distributed new versions of the game,) which enjoyed continued content updates from its original release in 1987 through 2003. In addition to refining the mechanics and systems behind this style of gaming, graphical tilesets became popular. A simple front-end could be added to the base game to translate ASCII symbols into specific graphical tiles to improve the graphics somewhat, though many players prefer the extreme “low-fi” option of playing without a tileset.

I'd be remiss in not mentioning a further offshoot of the roguelike genre that really deserves an article all its own. Dwarf Fortress (full title: Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress,) is, along with Infiniminer, the direct inspiration for Minecraft. Dwarf Fortress combines roguelike graphics, procedurally generated worlds and turn-based gameplay with city-building strategy in a uniquely complex and difficult game. Dwarves dig into the ground or mountains, fashion goods and living spaces, encounter and trade with or war upon other races, and have to deal with threats to survival that range from monsters to starvation and insanity. Someday, I'll be ready to give this game the sort of full writeup it deserves, but despite many hours of trying to get the hang of it, the learning curve has defeated me several times. I have time, however, as even though the game started development in 2004, the most recent update in March 2011 is still an early alpha stage of a game still being worked on.

Dwarf Fortress with a Tileset. Civilizations, trade, economy, even gravity
and erosion are modeled in this ludicrously detailed game.

Though I've played every game I've mentioned in this article with the exception of Beneath Apple Manor, there has been one in particular that has grabbed my attention. As I've said before, I love zombie gaming. Most roguelikes are fantasy, swords and wizards, but my current favorite doesn't have any of that. Rogue Survivor is a zombie apocalypse survival simulation where “treasure” is food, weapons, medical supplies, and fighting is necessary occasionally, but most of the time... you run and hide. There's a lot of work left to do on this game, but in its current state, it is a blast. Your survivor gets skills like “light eater” to consume less food, “hauler” to get extra inventory space, “leadership” to get others to follow, and you get a new skill each time the sun rises.

Rogue Survivor puts you against the constant threat of zombies, the need to scavenge for supplies and find a safe place to sleep. In addition to zombies, skeletons and zombie masters, players need to stay on their guard against biker gangs, other hungry survivors willing to murder for food and employees of the sinister CHAR Corporation. Exploring residences and stores can get some basic equipment, as can picking through what is left over by those unfortunate enough to be cornered and killed by undead. You can barricade buildings, explore the sewers, race to army supply drops when food gets short, hide your cache of goods from other scavengers... There is a lot of depth already in the unfinished version of the game available right now. My personal best time so far is 13 days, when my hardware store base was found by 2 zombie masters, a zombie lord and 5 shamblers and I died with an empty shotgun and six of the eight creatures at my feet.

A public park littered with corpses, a street with cars aflame, and a nearby
skeleton ready to attack in Rogue Survivor. 

Open source, free and infinitely replayable games with constant content updates that have inspired some of the greatest computer games of the current era. Roguelikes are unique in that the existence of the games they inspire doesn't make them obsolete, or any less fun. Most of them are labors of love from a single programmer/designer or a very small team, and I think that a lot of them will never be completely “done”. The time investment from character creation to probable death in a lot of these games is short, with the exception of dwarf fortress. These aren't 30 hour epics, but there's no padding to the content. It is pure, undiluted gameplay. You'll die and curse, and restart again. I'll play Diablo 3 when it comes out, but I'll almost certainly play my roguelikes long after I've become bored with it.