october highlights
Many of the IRDC UK 2015 videos are now available. I most enjoyed Darren Grey's talk, Alternate Death Systems, and his description of what makes good death systems.
Golden Krone Hotel has been greenlit. I've enjoyed how it uses sunlight as a tactical mechanic against vampires (yourself included, should you turn) and now moonlight with werewolves in its Halloween update. It's also one of the few roguelikes that feature an explicitly female protagonist.
HyperRogue also released a new version I haven't had the chance to play yet.
I enjoyed the Roguelike Radio interview with Josh Ge on Cogmind. I hadn't followed Cogmind's development, and the interview successfully convinced me to start reading through Ge's development blog for more.
Deanna Van Buren wrote about Architecture in Video Games: Designing for Impact. Van Buren is one of the architects working on The Witness and argues that many games could be improved with better consideration of how buildings function. Luis Antonio also showcased other examples of how Van Buren's perspective benefitted The Witness.
Max Gladstone describes an approach to developing sequels in Dance, Monkey, Dance!.
Keith Stuart wrote an article arguing that video games are about agency. Agency is something that classical roguelikes do extremely well; perhaps this is one of the reasons for their longevity.
Evan Narcisse's The Natural: The Trouble Portraying Blackness in Video Games primarily focuses on visual representation in video games, but his arguments are something to consider even in ASCII/non-photorealistic games.