Yet Another Roguelike Tutorial

I did a speed run through the tutorial after discovering it here on HN. I have been itching to write a rougelike for a few months, and I happened to have the time to spare.

Overall, it was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the process. I have not played with Python for a while, so this was a nice refresher. Your tutorial also brought me up to speed on the modern static typing support.

As for my process, I copy and pasted each set of changes, working through each part in turn. Overall, I stuck fairly close to the tutorial code, though every part received some amount of custom changes to keep things interesting. Very easy to follow.

I created a custom Dockerfile to encapsulate all of the required dependencies, using a Makefile to test/check the code inside a container. I used `mypy` for checking types, which helped find track down the bugs introduced by my custom changes.

It would be nice to see a new version that eliminates the refactoring steps that prefix Parts 6 and 8. Those unexpected grinds took a little bit of wind out of the sails, but the changes were ultimately worthwhile.

Another suggestion would be to encapsulate all of the game parameters into their own class from the start, such that you can pass an instance of that around rather than a half dozen individual variables.

But really, those are relative nits to pick. I would recommend this tutorial to anyone familiar with Python as a way to learn the internals of roguelikes built using TCOD.

Author here; the idea came from frustrations with the original Python roguelike tutorial on Roguebasin. Since the entire thing was written in one file, it was difficult sometimes (for me anyway) to tell what was going on.

While I'm happy with the way the diff style turned out, I will say there is one big downside for me: It's a huge pain to write. Not only did I do a "git diff" every time I made changes and documented it, but if you end up changing something later down the line, then I basically had to go back to the very beginning of the chapter, follow the tutorial along, and double check everything. Maybe there's a more efficient way to do this, but it was a bit tedious and time consuming.

Still worth the effort in the end though, I think.

Nice! I've been looking to start using Kotlin for game development, and this seems like an awesome starting point!

It looks like it's unfinished. At the bottom of the last existing chapter, it says "We now have the second-to-last section done!" and mentions something about building "the Abyss." I wonder if the author(s) meant to finish it but never returned from the depths...

I actually wrote both versions of this tutorial during such events! First tutorial was written during the first event (2017 I think?) and the most recent version was done in 2020. Many others have done something similar since. It's a bit hectic trying to write ahead of the event, but I find having a deadline to get the "parts" done is a fantastic motivator.

Not sure how out-of-date this one might be: https://roguesharp.wordpress.com/

Unity and MonoGame are both C# communities.

If you're looking specifically for roguelike tutorials, the roguesharp link provided above is good. Also, SadConsole[0] is a great library and has a friendly and helpful Discord community.

If it's general gamedev resources for C#, then I would suggest Cynthia McMahon's Eyes of the Dragon series[1], for C# / Monogame. It goes through topics like input handling, drawing, tooling, etc. A thing I like about this as well is that it's not "perfect" off the bat -- an entry later will return to code written previously and talk about its benefits and drawbacks, and then refactor that code for a new goal or sometimes to just make it better. If you're new to C#, development, or game development, it offers a good perspective into what doing this "for real" looks like.

[0]: http://sadconsole.com/v8/articles/tutorials/get-started/draw...

[1]: https://cynthiamcmahon.ca/blog/category/eyes-of-the-dragon/

Unity (the popular game engine) use C# as the programming language. Search “unity tutorials” and you will find a wealth of info about not just unity but game development in general.

I like it, because it makes the transition to real sprites much easier. You don't have to support a TTY library and a GUI client at the same time.

I assume it's to let you represent the world with squares, like dwarf fortress.

IF you did it with the terminal it would be tall and narrow.

Here is a great opportunity for you to show all of us an alternative way to do it instead of just criticising the article.