Welcome to the Wa homepage!

• Replayability - many aspects of the game are generated randomly, meaning each game you play is set in a different world than previous games
• Single player - usually, you control only a single character
• ASCII graphics - most roguelikes display the world in an overhead view using ASCII characters to represent things in the game. (Classicly, the player is represented by @) Some games have optional tile graphics and there have been attempts at making 3d/isometric views for RL games. Some people consider Diablo and Diablo 2 to be roguelikes, or at least cousins to the roguelikes.
• Permanent death - in most rls, when your character dies, you can't return to the last save point, your character is dead and you have to start a new one. This adds a degree of tension to the game, and makes winning a noteworthy accomplishment. Backing up your save files is considered serious cheating by most players.

News

• 9 Feb 2004 Added a new screenshot showing independent light sources working in the game. Now, a torched dropped on the ground or a lamp carried by a monster will provide illumination. I have a few more details to fix to better handle overlapping light sources, but once this is done, I think much of my work for the next little while will be adding content for town and quests in the prologue.
  
  I also realized that I should be using the .gif (or maybe .png?) format for my screenshots. When I use .jpgs, I the colours seem to turn out faded and weak. So starting with this screenshot, you can see how colourful my game actually is :)
  
  
• 21 Jan 2004 I've been making a fair bit of progress lately. (Frequent updates about what has been implemented and what I'm currently working on can be found at Wa's LiveJournal. I'll update this space with bigger news items.
  
  Anyway, I completed the basic mechanism for quests and the saving/loading of games. Here is a screen shot of the player exploring the first level of the first quest. (The indoors part of this level is randomized, using the tower generator I wrote)
  
  
• 15 Jan 2004 Holy cow! Has it been this long already? In response to a few emails I've received, I have decided to get off my ass and start working on Wa again.
  
  My first task this afternoon was to switch the game from loading the fixed wilderness map from an xml to a using a pre-parsed file stored as a serialized object (via Pickle).
  
  Here's a screenshot.
  
  
• 2 May 2003 Added a screenshot of my map editor, which will be a big help in creating the XML files for the fixed wilderness sections of the game (and gave me a chance to try out curses under Python). Also, using ideas from an article on Roguelike Development (hopefully Björn will have his DNS issues worked out by the time you click on this), I created a tower level generator. One of the quests in the Prologue will take you to an undead-infested tower, so this as another important feature to implement. I have one more little tweak I want to do to the algorithm, but it's generating fairly nice looking towers already. (No screenshots yet)
  
  Snipped out the old news to keep this page from getting excessively long!
  
  

The Game

This section has details of the game. Some of these will be sketches, ideas or features I intend to implement, but I'll try to describe what is actually in the game and what is still on the drawing board.

I don't intend to have super-strict character classes (2nd Edition AD&D style for instance). Instead, users will pick their starting roles, which are essentially templates of what they've learned up to this point in the lives at the start of the game. From then on, the character will be shaped by the various skills they study as they progress in experience level.

Of course, the starting role will influence what they learn. If you are a spellcaster-type character at the start, it will be more diffuclt to make the switch over to being a fighter. Skills will be taught by masters found in the game, who will be a little different than normal shopkeepers. You won't just walk into a 'sword training shop' and improve your sword skill. The master first has to accept you as a student, with each master having his or her own requirements for potential students.

My biggest concern about this scheme is to make sure there are a variety of useful paths to take in character development. I don't want to end up with a game where there is only one way to win. Role affects the character's starting skills and equipment.

I have defined four roles so far:

Bushi - the standard warrior-type role.
Sohei - warrior-priests, the cleric of most games.
Ninja - stealthy, spy-thief type.
Sorcerer - spellcaster role. (I haven't found a good Japanese term for sorcerer yet)

Characters will have one of four social classes - samurai, farmer, merchant and outcast. The social class affects starting equipment, skills (to a small degree) and how NPCs react to you. Some masters may only train students of a certain rank.

I haven't created any races for the game yet, although they are a staple of fantasy RPGs. I have a few ideas: human (of course), tengu (winged goblins, tricksters who make good warriors) and kitsune (a race of spellcasters who can transform into foxes). These are still drawing board ideas, however.

I am thinking of a magic system based on five elements (earth, air, fire, water and void) but haven't decided how spells will work. AD&D style, implemented as skills, etc. Nor have I decided if there will be a difference between the magic wielded by sohei (who are priests) and sorcerers.

Screenshots

© 2002 by Dana Larose

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