Updated January 10, 2010
Magister is a roguelike game I am designing and developing. It is meant to provide denser tactical play than other roguelikes, and I hope it will avoid some of the tedious elements common to CRPG. It is part of a larger project to develop an open-source C++ framework for implementing roguelikes. The game will be free, and at some point, the code will be made open source.
Current Magister builds target Windows, but the game is written for portability, so other platforms may be supported. The project is somewhat more than half complete. A recent build is pictured here; a demo, some code, and portions of the Developer's Guide may be available soon. I hope to finish the game in 2011.
I like playing roguelikes — especially Stone Soup and Moria — because they are fun and direct. They contain no loading screens, no cutscenes, no time-wasting animations. They focus always on game play, which is what games are really about.
As much as I enjoy roguelikes, the classic CRPG model they usually build upon can be tiresome. Inventory management, for instance, can produce interesting tactical challenges, but commonly it devolves into irritating busywork. The level grind appeals even less; as argued elsewhere, it does little more than ration game content while giving players a cheap sense of accomplishment. Magister aims to avoid these shortcomings by minimizing inventory management and eliminating character development altogether. In their place it will offer persistent, challenging tactical play. With Magister, I hope to exercise the player's imagination, not their patience.
