KRAXLN is a rock climbing roguelike. Started with the 7DRL Challenge we wanted to make a game that captures the the dangers and satisfaction of alpine climbing in an abstract way. As rock climbing almost has all properties that roguelikes should have, for example step by step moves, changing climbing routes (random terrain) and perma-death (if you fall without safety ropes its pretty much over) we decided to use the concept of this genre to be the base of our game. The goal is to create a highly accessible game that can be played on touchscreen devices in short bursts. Therefor we try to design the game more about small and dense decisions in a small space, than on exploration and discovery in larger areas. Thomas Wellmann is creating the Art, Leon Purviance is doing the Audio and myself is working on Gamedesign and implementation. You can play the proof of concept Alpha in your Browser (Unity). I already wrote a big post about the climbing design on my Blog. A first Alpha Gameplay Video can be seen here: Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
And this is why 7DRL is awesome. So many cool concepts. This is such an interesting idea, can't wait to play the expanded game How are you improving/adding to the game over the 7DRL version?
We generally want to add more depth to the environments. Things like Weather, which can influence the way you climb and/or the tools you will be able to use. Another part will be a small character progression system and items that will help you to overcome environmental hazards. Combat will also play a bigger role the further you progress in the game. Our general idea is that the world will get more mysterious the higher you go up the mountain, meaning you will encounter animals in the lower parts and more fantasy like creatures the higher/further you get.
I added a small UI Mockup and an FTL like overworld map for the mountain. Our initial goal was to make the climbing itself as diverse as possible so you would not need the combat as the main element. When we start to implement more diverse terrain, this can become a new challenge. Combat wise i would say it's a matter of how interesting the enemies will be. Yesterday i started to implement the exp system and the drop system. Climbing itself grants you exp, climbing on more difficult tiles will raise the chance to earn it. Enemies will be able to drop loot. Also i added a small system to get a score so you can see how well/bad you did in the last game. Today i will start to look into the items. We are planning on having different items (only passive right now) that will improve the char or make it easier in certain situations. Some ideas are: - longer rope - ice pick - climbing shoes - jacket - helmet - binoculars - compass - bag - chalk - knife - sunglasses - light - oxygen mask
This week i added a character progression and a shop system for passive items. Our idea for the character progression is to split it into three parts: 1. the direct improvement of the character stats, 2. the improvements through passive items and 3. the improvements through active items. I wrote an insight on the design on the KRAXLN Blog, if you like to check it out. Next up is more design for the items, adding more terrain and also starting to implement more enemies.
Hey, we've been making some good progress! I've made a small Developer Let's Play to show the new features, enjoy! Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
