Vaporum - Steampunk Dungeon Crawler on Greenlight!

[zajoman]

Hey Grimrockers!

Vaporum, a steampunk dungeon crawler in the vein of the classics such as Dungeon Master, but with a lot of improvements on the old formulas, is on Greenlight now! Check it out and vote!

Greenlight Page: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =878159146

We've been fans of the genre classics for decades, but it was Legend of Grimrock that ultimately inspired us to dare create our own take on the dungeon crawler genre. You can expect lots of exploration and loot in an original steampunk setting, engaging real-time combat, rich customization options in our gadget-based RPG system, puzzles and level-wide objectives, fully voiced main characters, and a mysterious storyline filled with secrets.

Tell us what you think and feel free to ask any questions about the game! We6're grateful for any feedback!

For more info, you can also visit our official website here: http://vaporum-game.com/landing-page/

Thank you!

[Faerghail]

Any news ? Nothing on the blog since 20th March ...

[Isaac]

Any news ? Nothing on the blog since 20th March ...

With a name like —Vaporum...

It would be good to see a new game in the genre though.

[zajoman]

Hey!

Yes, we're wokring hard on the game, and despite the name, it hasn't gone Vaporware The last article is from May. Right now, we're at a polishing & balancing & last-touch phase. It's gonna come out, you can be sure of that!

[Isaac]

@zajoman

The basic premise is that whenever your success check fails, the chance for the next check increases, and this goes on and on until it succeeds.

Jeez I hope that's optional... It goes against the very notion of random; and would seem to make it more predictable as well. Success should never be guaranteed; this says that with every failure the chance for success predictably increases until it succeeds.

Besides that, it's good to learn that the game is alive, and we might get a new dungeoncrawler soon.

[Sir Tawmis]

Hey!

Yes, we're wokring hard on the game, and despite the name, it hasn't gone Vaporware The last article is from May. Right now, we're at a polishing & balancing & last-touch phase. It's gonna come out, you can be sure of that!

Good to hear. I have a friend who is into Steampunk, but not so much RPG (Dungeon Crawlers) - so I am curious how she'd feel about this. But didn't want to mention it to her till it's done

[minmay]

The basic premise is that whenever your success check fails, the chance for the next check increases, and this goes on and on until it succeeds.

Jeez I hope that's optional... It goes against the very notion of random; and would seem to make it more predictable as well. Success should never be guaranteed; this says that with every failure the chance for success predictably increases until it succeeds.

Grimrock 1 & 2 use a similar system for evasion. Every time a monster misses, it gets a boost to its next attack's accuracy, and this repeats until it hits, at which point the bonus resets. Champions get a similar bonus, although it has a cap.

[Komag]

Lots and lots of game design is "fake" random, since over the years (and even decades) of game design experience creators have discovered that players don't actually want REAL random, but only the appearance or "feel" of random. Actual random will have you throwing heads 9 times in a row and swearing there is a bug or that it's not random, whereas the fake version will make sure you never throw more than 3 or 4 in a row so that it will feel more dispersed and random, even though it actually isn't.

[Isaac]

Grimrock 1 & 2 use a similar system for evasion. Every time a monster misses, it gets a boost to its next attack's accuracy, and this repeats until it hits, at which point the bonus resets. Champions get a similar bonus, although it has a cap.

That's informative , but kind of a disappointment.

Lots and lots of game design is "fake" random, since over the years (and even decades) of game design experience creators have discovered that players don't actually want REAL random, but only the appearance or "feel" of random.

One would think that combat skills would be used to weight the rolls, instead of using rigged rolls.

[zajoman]

@zajoman

The basic premise is that whenever your success check fails, the chance for the next check increases, and this goes on and on until it succeeds.

Jeez I hope that's optional... It goes against the very notion of random; and would seem to make it more predictable as well. Success should never be guaranteed; this says that with every failure the chance for success predictably increases until it succeeds.

Many games use this kind of RNG. As a player, you will very hardly ever notice that the system is "rigged", but you will never experience 7 misses in a row with an 80% hit chance. While still using a simple, raw RNG, we were getting negative feedback about missing too many attacks in a row; or scoring too many critical hits in a row with a miniscule crit chance. That's what you get without putting a leash on the RNG. Since the change, we never got a single complaint about this.

That's informative , but kind of a disappointment.

Why so? It makes for a better player experience.

One would think that combat skills would be used to weight the rolls, instead of using rigged rolls.

Of course combat skills do affect the rolls. The fact that the system is "rigged" does not mean your attributes / stats have no bearing on it.

In the end, the only thing that's important is practice. And in practice, the system works well.