I've had the most fun working on this game than any other game project I've done in the last 5 years or so. I think I will just keep going with it for now and see where it takes me.

Just as a teaser, the screenshot above is some semi-working alpha code for the next version (0.3 or 0.4). I originally intended to have the Cloak and Jetpack systems in there as secondary systems. Eventually I decided that the Cloak was so much fun as a mechanic that it got promoted. But I ran out of time to add the Jetpack... which I think all good games should have.

We'll also see how many of these original ideas I can get in eventually.

Fixed a few semi-critical bugs (no power regeneration during exploration)
Added some 'easter egg' names for certain 'hero-class' enemies. :)

You can play both versions (original 7DRL and "7DRL+") here:
http://www.heroicfisticuffs.com/robocaptain/

Too tired to type anything else, go play it!
http://www.heroicfisticuffs.com/robocaptain/

Ye official usenet post.

I put up a playable prototype here:
http://www.heroicfisticuffs.com/robocaptain/ 


It's not a true "game" yet, but there is lots of "gameplay". Only one (randomly generated) level, but I like the AI a lot. marines will keep their distance and apes will run right up and maul you.



For now the controls are: 
Movement - WASD
Rest / Pickup - SPACE
Cycle system - Q
Cloak/Uncloak - C
Shoot - Click
Melee Attack - Just bump into stuff, roguelike style


Q will cycle which sub-system is being charged. If you don't want to charge anything, leave it on Power. 


Clicking on stuff in the inventory after you pick it up will use it (fuel cells), or equip it (rockets, melee weapons)


I think that's it for now? I'm still on the fence about the cloaking.. it was not in my original design but I had an "invisible mode" for debugging and it was so much fun that I just made it part of the game, replacing the "engines" sub-system.


Obviously not finished but if you want to mess around with it I always love first impressions. The control system will probably change to numpad soon, so that you can move diagonally. I'll also probably add a keyboard-only way to shoot stuff so you dont HAVE to use both keyboard and mouse.


Cheers!

Game looks mostly the same but the AI is beyond my expectations. At this point, the marines will try to stay away from you, just inside their firing range. This makes the Marine Commander (green m shown here) especially difficult since he can shoot farther than me. You will need to equip rockets, which have farther range, to take him out. Or manage to corner him.

I am really enjoying the power-management mechanic, even in these simple one-level play-throughs I find myself ducking behind corners and trying to recharge my shields. At this point nothing is very balanced but I'll try to have a playable version up somewhere tomorrow morning.

(BTW in this shot I am about to die if that marine takes more than 1 rocket)

A lot of progress under the hood, but the level (just one so far, no stairs-code) looks the same. Player can pick up rockets and use them against enemies.

Biggest item of the day was AI. I changed the bad guys from monkeys to marines and via the Incredible Power of Dijkstra Maps, they will try to keep you in range of their weapons without getting too close. Other enemies can path-find intelligently now instead of the terrible x/y-diff method.

Of course, they don't actually SHOOT anything yet, but it's a start! Trying to decide if I have time to draw actual projectiles.. the engine I am working with isn't really designed for it but it would certainly make the game more fun.

I started late Saturday afternoon, got to this point by Sunday. I feel pretty good so far! (The basic engine I already had but I ripped out a lot of the guts)


What is RoboCaptain? The short version:
A tactical shooting-based roguelike with a powerful systems-management sub-game ala the old LucasArts X-Wing/TIE Fighter games.


I like my roguelikes to look like roguelikes so expect mostly-traditional look & feel; nothing crazy except for the power mechanic.


As for why there are monkies... they are leftover from the pirate game I was making they are escaped from the (evil) human science labs!!


Official rec.games.roguelike.dev post here.

I'm doing the 7-Day Roguelike Challenge again, started yesterday and will have a finished roguelike game by the end of Saturday the 17th.

There is also a Google+ page which has been quite fun.

Andrew Doull over on ASCII Dreams has a great post with all sorts of useful other links.