19 March 2015


Last Update: Apr 2015
Whats all this about? RoyaLe is our 7DRL 2015 entry with Flend. You've been volunteered to fight in the Arena for the pleasure of paying cable-TV viewers everywhere. Will you escape to watch the reruns or die a horrible death while the onlookers cheer? Complete all 6 areas while gathering as much Fame as possible for the best final score!

- Apr  - added version 1.03 (minor fixes)

Download link is here (1.03) - note that a minimum resolution of 1280 x 1024 is required to run properly until a patch comes. Mind you that menu screens and most things are very rough as it was made for a 7 day challenge.

7DRL 2015 results and other great roguelike entries can be found here

Num pad - move
F fire (press again to confirm target)
T use item (press again to confirm target)
E or R next item
X Examine (press again to confirm target)
C heal (requires enough fame)
V level up (requires enough fame)
Shift S sound
Shift M music
Shift Q Quit

dont forget to check out our 7DRL 2014 TraumaRL too

Flend wanted something tactical with guns and single use items while I wanted to watch tv and die so I guess we settled on something like an sci-fi arena tv show inspired a bit from Battle Royale, Smash tv and Schwarzenegger's the running man... Doesn't ring any bells? Probably I should just say hunger games with less trees for the younger generation out there.

Good thing with a setting like this is that you get to keep the game scale small but also very open to expansions as long as you have the time. who would give a damn if the arena is just a single room with different bits of cover, as long as you have a variety of enemies and items to play with. It also allows slightly fresh (is there anything fresh left in gaming?) character classes by swapping the generic knight, ranger, wizard with things like a convict, framed cop, mad scientist etc.

RoyaleRL classes
awful font... I like it, ignites the viewers imagination to make up words like a game of scrabble :)

Ok so somehow a bunch of player characters (an athlete, a nerd and an ex cop - which sounds like the opening of an irish joke) are thrown into an arena where the doors get locked until they kill everyone and proceed to the next arena. Arenas are full of enemies, green goo, items and cover.

Each character has a special ability. but my fav is the nerd as he gets to sneak around without being noticed, allowing you to find a sweet spot to lay mines and prepare before the enemies start rushing towards you. 

aaaand off we jump into the fray...

Flend has kept a brief journal of his progress through the week (which he seems to do each year) but its hard for me to keep a log of what I have done on the visual side as I had to go back and forth on everything everyday. (either that or I was too lazy to keep) so the listing below is just a round up of what I tried to focus.

Day 1 - 3
So... spent the first few days slacking with UI drafts and trying to decide what sort of game we were to make. Initially we had the idea of remastering TraumaRL's visuals and make them look slightly better for this years 7DRL but I've been working with a lot of pixel projects lately so wanted to do something different. Since this was going to be a desktop only release, I didnt have to think about the ever so lovely "will it scale properly on small screens" issue so it was slightly leaning on the fun part to depart from pixels and focusing on more freedom and laid back style and because its a 7 day thing no one gives a tiny rats ass if your visuals are ugly or miss scaled.

RoyaleRL - monster rat

Couple of UI concepts thrown about during the early stages. Need some place to show guns, items, player and enemy stats. How hard can it be?

once we nailed the basic mechanics it was easier to make pinpoint a more  UI

RoyaleRL UI concept

RoyaleRL UI concept

I kind of like the neon colours and simple shapes. maybe we should have taken the game on this direction. Black floor tiles, tron like arenas with glowing patterns, hot chicks wearing spandex leggings chasing each other with chainsaws and laser weapons.

alas, at the end I settle with this dull old nokia phone led display disguised as an ui :)

Day 4 - 5

Some more UI polish and lots of tiles and items (most ended up being unused) Here is a list of items that were used in the game;

knife - stab people in the face
axe - chop faces
flag pole - poke people in the face from a distance
chainsaw - skin people in the face

pistol - shoot people in the face, has unlimited ammo
rifle - shoot people in the face from a longer distance
shotgun - shoot multiple people in their faces with single a single shot
laser - rip through a line of enemies (through their faces of course)
rocket - blow things up (not sure what this does to a human face)

frag grenade - small explosion radius
stun grenade - stun enemies for a few turns
screamer - calls enemies to a location, ideal for setting traps
mine -  place it down and wait for someone to step on it or shoot it similar to an explosive barrel.

RoyaLe early item and tile test
also made my first character to test the map tiles. He was modelled after that goofy kid from mighty max toys yet I named him the wanker after the strange positioning of his hands... Later, that posture became the default human model for player and enemies, making this an arena full of wankers

day 6 - 7

hectic... forget the rest, these are the actual days you make the game so you spend half your weekend recycling the art assets you did and turn them into useful things. Apart from these, there were also walls, doors, boss, corpses, covers and couple more stuff squeezed in the last minute

total (art wise) would probably be around 24 to 30 hrs, mostly laid back but didnt bother to count so not really sure :)

stuff left out

Best stuff was left out due to time restrains... as always :) Apart from a set of robotic monsters and gadgets like shields, drugs, smoke screens, turrets we also had to abandon couple of "combine to cause mayhem like a 6 year old's science kit" style items.

RoyaLe - playing with science

Also initially Flend wanted to add some bosses to the arena so I was planing to jot down a boss that used lightning guns to electrocute people in a room filled with water or a roller skating robot with melee attacks but we ended up having a single end game boss instead.


Couple of tips

Its actually a very straightforward game once you get the hang of the rules but here are few tips to make life easier for the first few runs;

- enemies react to sound, try to keep your distance and find a suitable spot before they notice
- use screamer bombs to lure enemies to mines, explosive barrels or choke-points
- use acid and cover as chokepoints
- laser hits multiple enemies in a line, try to aim at tiles that would hit most enemies in one shot
- some enemies don't get along and will attack each other (usually no one likes the shotgun guy)
- the bearded dwarves go crazy with grenades so its better to take them out with long range lasers or rockets before they start chucking bombs
- flag pole increases melee range so be careful not to poke sleeping enemies or explosive barrels by mistake while moving around
- keep a stun grenade handy for enemies that swarm you (rats and other melee)

RoyaLe midget fatty rider