Infra Arcana - An H.P. Lovecraft/Horror based Roguelike

[non]

Hello-
I've made a Roguelike based heavily on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. Today marks the release of the 6th version, and it has finally reached a state worthy of the attention of the refined ladies and gentlemen here.

The game can be downloaded from https://sites.google.com/site/infraarcana/

Here is a brief description quoted from the game's web page:

Infra Arcana is a Roguelike computer role-playing game set in the early 20th century. The goal is to explore the lair of a dreaded cult called The Church of Starry Wisdom. Buried deep beneath their hallowed grounds lies an artefact called The Shining Trapezohedron - a window to all secrets of the universe. Your ultimate goal is to unearth this artefact.

The theme and inspiration for this game comes mainly from the horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft. There is a Lore section on this site that describes some of his mythology. It's not a pure H.P.L game though, as it also draws flavour from various B-horror movies, as well as the 1997 first-person shooter Blood.

As a Roguelike - the game adheres to the virtues of the genre, such as high replay value and challenging tactical game play.

And since this is a guaranteed question - yes it's an ASCII game.

Edit: The game also comes with a tileset.

Now bring the or the

 

[Haba]

Where is my tile-set, god damn it!

Anyway, made it to dlevel 3 before dying (out of ammo, diseased, confused). Seems interesting, though there doesn't seem to be much variety to the stuffies and thingies.

 

[Kawaii Theurgist]

Where is my tile-set, god damn it!

This.



Other than that, downloading.

Here's hoping the result will be some Defender of Boston like adventure.

 

[non]

Here's hoping the result will be some Defender of Boston like adventure.

It's a Roguelike. You go around killing things.

 

[Haba]

Here's hoping the result will be some Defender of Boston like adventure.

It's a Roguelike. You go around killing things.

It would do good to actually experiment a little around that. Uncovering ancient horrors and maybe even occasionally talking to someone.

And I hope that endgame foes are not the kind that you simply slash/shoot to death.

 

[Fowyr]

I was clawed by an undead creature after reaching second level. Also fuck tile set, your ASCII is beatiful.

 

[Excidium]

Hey, this is fun.

I was clawed by an undead creature after reaching second level. Also fuck tile set, your ASCII is beatiful.

Indeed.

But one thing that could be used to make the game feel more lovecraftian is sound. DoomRL and AlienRL have sound effects and it does add a lot to the atmosphere.

 

[asper]

LINUX VERSIOn

 

[non]

And I hope that endgame foes are not the kind that you simply slash/shoot to death.

If you mean gun down Cthulhu with a machine gun, then no that's not going to happen.

Hey, this is fun.

Good to hear!

But one thing that could be used to make the game feel more lovecraftian is sound. DoomRL and AlienRL have sound effects and it does add a lot to the atmosphere.

That is actually very possibly happening. I was contacted by a guy who does awesome ambient noise music and other sound production, and he wanted to to sounds for the game. I've also collected free (high quality) sounds for shotguns, tommy gun, zippo-lighter etc.

LINUX VERSIOn

I know. I should really get to it. :/
Did you try it in Wine?

 

[Excidium]

But one thing that could be used to make the game feel more lovecraftian is sound. DoomRL and AlienRL have sound effects and it does add a lot to the atmosphere.

That is actually very possibly happening. I was contacted by a guy who does awesome ambient noise music and other sound production, and he wanted to to sounds for the game. I've also collected free (high quality) sounds for shotguns, tommy gun, zippo-lighter etc.

Nice.

 

[Haba]

Made it to dlevel 5 now... I found no food at all, so starvation finally did me in.

You seem to lose sanity a bit too fast, I was already down to 15% by that point. Not much I could do either, with creepy crawlies spawning all over the place. Bit too many mobs spawned for my liking.

 

[Excidium]

Something strange happened. I was fighting reanimated corpses and only had 1 HP left, so I read a scroll hoping for it to save my ass and it turned out to be an scroll of corruption and I was reduced to 0 HP, but I still could act ( luckily my other scroll was a healing one and I proceeded to rape the zombies). Anyway, was it a bug or you only die if you reach a negative HP?

also, fucking Keziah Mason.

 

[non]

Something strange happened. I was fighting reanimated corpses and only had 1 HP left, so I read a scroll hoping for it to save my ass and it turned out to be an scroll of corruption and I was reduced to 0 HP, but I still could act ( luckily my other scroll was a healing one and I proceeded to rape the zombies). Anyway, was it a bug or you only die if you reach a negative HP?

Normally you are dead at 0 HP. But the corruption scroll doesn't check for death, it just affects the HP directly. I'll fix that.

also, fucking Keziah Mason.

Sometimes she's super easy though. Firearms + dynamite seems to be the key.

Made it to dlevel 5 now... I found no food at all, so starvation finally did me in.

I need to add guaranteed food. Though I rarely run out of food myself.

You seem to lose sanity a bit too fast

Yeah it's a new feature so it inevitably needs some balancing. Good to get some feedback on it.

 

[Excidium]

Something strange happened. I was fighting reanimated corpses and only had 1 HP left, so I read a scroll hoping for it to save my ass and it turned out to be an scroll of corruption and I was reduced to 0 HP, but I still could act ( luckily my other scroll was a healing one and I proceeded to rape the zombies). Anyway, was it a bug or you only die if you reach a negative HP?

Normally you are dead at 0 HP. But the corruption scroll doesn't check for death, it just affects the HP directly. I'll fix that.

Alright!

also, fucking Keziah Mason.

Sometimes she's super easy though. Firearms + dynamite seems to be the key.

Yeah, but the situation was kinda against me: Bitch blinded me just as I turned the corner ( or maybe it was that cleverly placed trap, I don't remember), and with her minion blocking the door I didn't even know what the fuck was going on for a few turns.

Here's the memorial:

Joseph
   *Advanced to character level 3
   *Gained 309 experience points
   *Explored to the depth of dungeon level 3
   *Had 76% sanity left
 
 Cause of death:
   *Gnawed by a very strange rat
 
 The last messages:
   Wield which weapon [a-e]? [Space/esc] Exit 
   Brown Jenkin bites you!!! Brown Jenkin misses you completely. 
   Brown Jenkin bites you. 
   You see here: Brown Jenkin. Press 'l' for description. 
   You see here: Keziah Mason. Press 'l' for description. 
   You fire. Keziah Mason is hit! Brown Jenkin bites you. 
 
 The final moment:
********************************************************************************
*                                                       ###########            *
*                                                   #####.........#######      *
*                                                   #.............#.....#      *
*                                              ######..##.........#.....#      *
*                                            +....................+.....#      *
*                                               #.#######.........#.....#      *
*                                               #.#  .............#.....####   *
*                                               #.###+###.........###/####.### *
*                                               #.#.....############...#.....# *
*                                               #./...../........../.../.....# *
*                                               ###.....############...#.....# *
*                                                 ###+### ###########/####.### *
*                                                 #.....###...........#  ###   *
*                                                  .....#.#...........#        *
*                                                   ... #.#...........##       *
*                                     *             #/###./............#       *
*                                     .             #.....#.........(.##       *
*                                    #r# #############.####...........#        *
*                                    #@..^.............#  #...........#        *
*                                    ### ###############  #############        *
********************************************************************************

You seem to lose sanity a bit too fast

Yeah it's a new feature so it inevitably needs some balancing. Good to get some feedback on it.

I didn't have much problem with sanity, I just find it a bit weird that seeing wolves affect it...

By the way, the blood effects are really cool. I also like the monsters banging on jammed doors, do they eventually break in?

 

[non]

I didn't have much problem with sanity, I just find it a bit weird that seeing wolves affect it...

Ah, no they don't. But you do lose a little "mental stability" every couple of turns (call it constant paranoia).

Yeah, but the situation was kinda against me: Bitch blinded me just as I turned the corner ( or maybe it was that cleverly placed trap, I don't remember), and with her minion blocking the door I didn't even know what the fuck was going on for a few turns.

Haha that's great.

I also like the monsters banging on jammed doors, do they eventually break in?

Yes they do. Putting two doors between you is pretty much guaranteed safety, while one door tend to go either way. They give up after a while if they fail too long.
And of course, smarter monsters can simply open the doors.

You seem to lose sanity a bit too fast, I was already down to 15% by that point. Not much I could do either, with creepy crawlies spawning all over the place.

Btw there are two things you can do about it:
1. The short-term mental state is restored when travelling to the next level, so not exploring every level more than the character can handle is important.
2. Invest in fortitude.

 

[Lord Rocket]

OK played it for a bit (release 5). It's alright. Reanimated Corpses did me in on level three. They respawn a bit too fast for my liking - either slow down the rate or allow a chance to decap them, maybe based on damage done. This would make the exploration less annoying and prevent potential infinite XP exploits as well. The character system is quite dull (hit more! take less damage! See secret doors and shit better!), consider maybe designing a new system with lots of minor 'powers' that synergise with each other. So you can have stuff like 'quick reload' + 'bless bullets' or some shit and suddenly your character is better at fighting undead with guns (and later on when you get other weapon enhancement powers or whatever he can swap his ammo type around as necessary to maintain effectiveness) than say mr. 'swap melee weapons really fast' + 'penetrate armour (melee)', who is better at fighting heavily armoured enemies but can swap to a faster weapon when he needs to. Armour seems p. shitty compared to just pumping Toughness as well. Maybe it should start off better but degrade over time (also allows niche for crafting type characters). Also I'd drop the hunger aspect, from what you've said you're already on a dungeon timer because of Sanity, and make first aid stuff a consumable resource (say start off with 200 first aid items in your inventory, each turn spent in recovery reduces the count by one, so if you're interrupted while healing you lose a bit of shit but not so much it's insurmountable). Also, as long as food is in, E to throw dynamite, e to eat please. For serious.

Basically it's a good effort but not much to differentiate it from other roguelikes so far (notably DoomRL). Seriously, concentrate on the character system and theme up the mechanics more.

EDIT: just noticed there's a later release because I am stupid. What I said still goes, probably.

EDIT2: It occurs to me that the potential infinite XP exploit I bought up is countered by the Sanity thing. You could sit in a room with a Z and a < until your San gets too low, but that's not so bad. The respawn rate is still pretty ridic.

 

[Excidium]

1. The short-term mental state is restored when travelling to the next level, so not exploring every level more than the character can handle is important.

This is what I like the most.

 

[non]

They respawn a bit too fast for my liking - either slow down the rate or allow a chance to decap them, maybe based on damage done.

If they leave a corpse or not DO depend on damage done. If you use one of the high damage melee weapons you will often crush the zombies into pieces.
A zombie can also only rise again once. The second time they are killed, they stay down whether they are crushed or left a corpse (in version 6, this is also changed so that they never leave a corpse the second time they are killed.)

Regarding infinite XP exploits, I have of course taken this into consideration for every feature I've added or removed. I've tried to exploit the game myself in this way, but it doesn't seem to pay off at all, especially with the new sanity system.

The character system is quite dull (hit more! take less damage! See secret doors and shit better!)

I agree that the character system is very simplistic. For me, the excitement comes from the fact that you are in desperate need of most of the bonuses, so it's a tough choice. You need "Melee" early because there's usually not enough ammo around to go all firearms. You need "Firearms" early too to get you out of some shitty situations. You also must pick "Fortitude" and/or "Toughness" early enough, otherwise you'll be ripped apart by spell casters and traps. "Agility" is also very nice since it lowers the threat of melee monsters considerably (the main threat in the game).

Also I'd drop the hunger aspect, from what you've said you're already on a dungeon timer because of Sanity

I am considering this. It doesn't seem to serve much purpose other than atmosphere.

and make first aid stuff a consumable resource (say start off with 200 first aid items in your inventory, each turn spent in recovery reduces the count by one, so if you're interrupted while healing you lose a bit of shit but not so much it's insurmountable).

First aid used to be a resource in an earlier version. I found it pretty annoying, because the game could easily give you either too much or too little. I like the current system and I've gotten lots of positive comments on it.

Also, as long as food is in, E to throw dynamite, e to eat please. For serious.

Yep, this was a problem alright. But it was solved in version 6 where an new explosive was added (Molotov Cocktails), so the game always asks you what explosive you want to ready. This works perfectly as a safeguard against accidentally lighting the fuse when you meant to eat. Also, using explosive is more common than eating, so it makes sense to have "ready explosive" be one key press less.

Basically it's a good effort but not much to differentiate it from other roguelikes so far (notably DoomRL).

AFAIK it's unique in combining DoomRL-like gun combat with scrolls, magic, sanity, traps, and (eventually) potions.
But of course the game is a long way from done and much can/will happen. I'm taking your ideas into consideration.

The respawn rate is still pretty ridic.

The feeling I'm going for here is that of the 1999 Aliens vs Predator fps for PC. You rarely get a calm moment, always hunted, and death can come at any time. I may have overdone it tough.

 

[Easily Amused]

I like it so far. This way of replenishing sanity on progressing down into the dungeon is good gameplay-wise.
Also Tommy Gun is fun

 

[PandaBreeder]

Here's hoping the result will be some Defender of Boston like adventure.

It's a Roguelike. You go around killing things.

That's not very Lovecraftian, is it?

 

[non]

Here's hoping the result will be some Defender of Boston like adventure.

It's a Roguelike. You go around killing things.

That's not very Lovecraftian, is it?

As I state in the game description, it is not a pure Lovecraft game. It is first and foremost a Roguelike, which to me is a hack and slash game. But it does draw a lot of inspiration from H.P.L., mainly in the monsters you face.

You're not supposed to be some ordinary wimp here. Basically you're Ash from Evil Dead or Caleb from Blood.

I need to find some way to drive this point home in the game...

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

It's pretty nice. I find it weird to not lose some significant amount of sanity from meeting a zombie (at least for the first time).

 

[non]

It's pretty nice. I find it weird to not lose some significant amount of sanity from meeting a zombie (at least for the first time).

I thought about having a big "first contact" sanity loss per monster type. But I came to the conclusion that it would force some awkward behaviour on the player. Specifically; you would try to discover all the new monster types that were introduced in the current level, or else there would be a bigger stack of surprises in the next.

One can imagine that the player character has done some research before visiting the site, being somewhat prepared to meet weird things.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

It's pretty nice. I find it weird to not lose some significant amount of sanity from meeting a zombie (at least for the first time).

I thought about having a big "first contact" sanity loss per monster type. But I came to the conclusion that it would force some awkward behaviour on the player. Specifically; you would try to discover all the new monster types that were introduced in the current level, or else there would be a bigger stack of surprises in the next.

One can imagine that the player character has done some research before visiting the site, being somewhat prepared to meet weird things.

I see. A significant sanity drop when encountering an unnatural monster for the first time would be nice, though. For example meeting a zombie and having the sanity drop but then not having such drastic sanity drops when encountering further unnatural creatures unless they are something horrible horrible.

Have you considered going the DoomRL route and implementing sounds and some nice music (for example some ambient or noise)? There is some Lovecraft-inspired music on the internet archive - maybe its creators would be interested in making a soundtrack for your game.

 

[non]

It's pretty nice. I find it weird to not lose some significant amount of sanity from meeting a zombie (at least for the first time).

I thought about having a big "first contact" sanity loss per monster type. But I came to the conclusion that it would force some awkward behaviour on the player. Specifically; you would try to discover all the new monster types that were introduced in the current level, or else there would be a bigger stack of surprises in the next.

One can imagine that the player character has done some research before visiting the site, being somewhat prepared to meet weird things.

I see. A significant sanity drop when encountering an unnatural monster for the first time would be nice, though. For example meeting a zombie and having the sanity drop but then not having such drastic sanity drops when encountering further unnatural creatures unless they are something horrible horrible.

That's a good idea.

Have you considered going the DoomRL route and implementing sounds and some nice music (for example some ambient or noise)?

This was discussed in this very thread:

That is actually very possibly happening. I was contacted by a guy who does awesome ambient noise music and other sound production, and he wanted to to sounds for the game. I've also collected free (high quality) sounds for shotguns, tommy gun, zippo-lighter etc.