i don't understand the hate for dredmor's graphics

I think the game would be better without all the crafting material clogging up everything. This game suffers from a severe case of way too much stuff.

 

#3, 10, and 11 would be nice.

#5, 6, and 8 are already in the game. (Via Mods. But 6 is not cursed in that you grab the item and it fuses to your hand. That has not been managed so far.)

DoD is too light hearted for #2, 4, and 7 though.

 

I bought the game last weekend, but wound up spending all my time helping with my little sister's open house. I haven't had time for it yet this week due to some stuff, but I'm off Saturday, when I plan to sit down and try it out...

 

Dredmor needs something to separate it from the other, more serious Roguelikes. It's certainly more accessible than some of the others.

 

You have to check the url of the image Warlock posted above to get it.
"...fuck-that-guy-dumb-bitch-yao-ming-rage-face..."
Without that in the path, I would be wondering what that meant. (I still do in reality.)

 

The only complaint I have about Dredmor's graphics, which is very tiny, is that items don't appear on the character model. I completely understand why they do not but it would certainly be awesome to see some of the crazy items.

Other than that, I really like the graphics.

 

Because the amount of work required for that to happen would be extraordinarily large compared to the benefits (we are talking about thousands, if not millions, of sprites).

 

Oh, I know. There are so many items in the game that it would be very difficult to incorporate. Like I said, I really do enjoy the graphics and find they add a lot of personality to a game already full of personality.

Keep up the good work.

 

...can you please please please let us mod the character name/gender screen? There are so many opportunities to be there: races, for starters. Zodiac signs. Other shenanibananafatimagans.

 

That sounds unpleasant. I don't think we should let you do that then, Fax.

 

Try impossible. Now that there are both male and female heroes, you're talking literally millions of frames of animation. Even if you limited it to items sharing graphics (like in the original Diablo), you're still looking at hundreds of thousands of frames. It's never going to happen, alas.

 

OK, finally tried Spacechem, in spite of overbusy schedules and Mother Nature herself intervening. I'd rate it, based on the four basic categories, as follows:

Gameplay - Is It Fun?
Let me start by saying that Spacechem is clearly a puzzle game. And if you love puzzle games, it's good fun. But if you're not generally a fan of puzzle games it will probably blow your mind out and run off with your wallet. It requires great attention to detail and careful planning to get anywhere in this game, and if that's not your cup o' tea, you won't like Spacechem.
On the whole, it does well for its target audience but doesn't have widespread appeal. I'd rate Spacechem's gameplay at:
4.5/5

Ease Of Use - What's The Learning Curve?
Steep. Way steep. While the basic instructions are simple, there's several parts of the interface I'd have liked to have more clearly explained in the brief tutorials. The interface is a bit clunky, but really I'm not sure there's anything that could be done to fix that, except maybe have a shortcut key for the delete function that's closer to the left side of the keyboard. If there is such a key, it needs to be more clearly labeled.
That said, the basic concepts are solid and quickly understood. Ease of Use gets:
3.5/5

Originality - Has It Been Done Before?
No. No it hasn't. Or if it has, I've never heard of a space chemical simulation game. There's probably been a few time/worker management games similar, but I'm willing to bet Spacechem is pretty unique.
5/5

Presentation - How Stylish Is It?
As complex as the gameplay is, I think the understated graphical style of the game suits it. It has something that resembles a story, but I haven't gone that far through it. That said, it doesn't look outstanding. Music is there, but nothing special.
3/5

On Lorr's Overall Weighted Grading Curve Spacechem receives a 3.7/5
I'm not sure the interface could have been done better, but I really feel that that's the only thing keeping Spacechem from being a fantastic puzzle game.

[/2cents]

 

Yeah, the shortcut keys are the game's major failing. I am in love with the soundtrack, personally.

 

Mother 3 is also a good one to play, though it was never translated into English.

 

I should voice my opinion on all this.
I'm thirteen and as such I never grew up with roguelikes, and admittedly I can't really call the older ones accessible for me, I can't play them without being thrown way out of my depth. Dredmor opened my eyes to the wonderful world of roguelikes and obviously I can't say that I've seen any better art styles in other roguelikes, considering other roguelikes are ASCII art. I'm glad Dredmor exists because it's very accessible for me, and I wish that other people my age(read as: sub-bricks) could appreciate and understand what Dredmor offers, the same going for games like Minecraft and Meat Boy. But they dismiss these games because they don't have '1337 gr@p41c$' and, you know, the usual idiocy. I figure I might not have been the person I am today were it not for games like Dredmor, and my wonderful gamer parents. The presentation of Dredmor is charming, and I love its tongue-in-cheek humor. The gameplay, being the first thing to judge a game upon, is of course nothing short of perfection, and it's much more accessible than the more dated games like NetHack. I can only hope that someday games like NetHack will become more accessible for me, but for now I'm fortunate that Dredmor exists.

 

I don't think good art direction and ASCII are mutually exclusive. Caves of Qud looks amazing with its' 16-color ANSI style.

 

http://www.wazhack.com/

That is as close to Nethack you will find without having to endure either an isometric tile based display that I personally hate, or ASCII.

 

My biggest problem with 'alphabet soup' games (like Dwarf Fortress) is that my colorblindness directly interferes with my ability to play the game. You'd think game designers would keep in mind that about 15% of their market share (no small portion) can and will have trouble with colors. For instance, I cannot play (as aforementioned) Dwarf Fortress, Puzzle Quest, or Chrono Cross: while theoretically I can play, they are color-dependent enough (and use colors that are similar enough to each other) that I cannot play them even with practice to the level of skill even a beginner player can. Some games have implemented colorblindness compensation tools (DoD is one of them), others don't need them (Bejeweled, while a color-based game at heart, bridges this problem by shaping the gems differently dependent on their color, so you can play it as a shape-matching game instead of a color-matching game). I sincerely hope that GLG has put some colorblind people on staff to test things before they get too far to change. If they haven't, I volunteer.

 

There are tilesets for Dwarf Fortress, and NetHack. And I think for pretty every kind of roguelike in ascii art, since it's just a substitution of non-moving images.
Although it's not nearly effective as actual sprites Dredmor have, and that's why I'm enjoying this game more and more. An unique game.
I can and I play Dwarf Fortress, but it's a different thing. DF is pretty unique, too.