ASCIIwinter Nights (AWN) is basically a retooling of Neverwinter Nights in ASCII. I will build the engine, initial module and toolset. Other people will be able to create modules that let them create adventures and mix in random elements where needed. I am toying with the idea of the game rules themselves being a part of the module, so you could, in theory, recreate your favorite rule system in the game. It seems super difficult, but would be cool to have.
I have some soft ideas on how the game will work, but I am switching to research mode for a month or so, trying a ton of ASCII games to see what UI / mechanics worked well, etc before I start committing to anything.
I do think writing it in Python + Pygame library is way to go, can easily build binaries for Linux, OSX, Windows.
Definitely top down view. I am not committing to anything yet, but my initial thoughts are…
Whether you have 1 main character, or a party of 6, you only see your ‘@’ symbolizing your party on the main map. You move them around, navigate hallways, open doors, etc.
Combat is a new screen you go into, where it is a zoomed in portion of the map, and then you spend your parties points to move, cast spells, swing swords, etc. Then the enemy takes their turn, moves their characters, etc. I think moving a party of 6 around is fine in turn based combat, but for the general exploration / adventuring that would be a super pain.
Having a separate combat screen / mechanics means this could be used for other ASCII games as well. ASCII Age of Wonders is something else I’d love to do, and having a turn-based combat system already done is a huge leg up there as well.
It is actually a great thing that happened. I was planning out PewPew in more and more detail, and I was seeing that what I wanted to build was immense, absolutely huge. Basically Dwarf Fortress + 2D Space Sim. The amount of work was staggering, which I am okay with, but also after doing some mockups of screens, and figuring out how some things would work… I realized it wouldn’t be very fun.
It’s a bummer, but I am really glad I came to this conclusion before getting far in development. The good news is I went from 0% to ~30% in my golang understanding, which is pretty cool. Unfortunately nothing much will carry over, but that’s ok.
A comment you made @maiki has been really helpful to me. Months ago you mentioned how one should make a mechanic (like shared housing) being easy to use, instead of trying to shoehorn it in game lore logic… It is a guiding principle now for me in game design.
One result being: trying to make a AWN Toolset run in ASCII is a horrible idea and I shouldn’t do it. I should have some example modules directories, showing structure, scripts, etc. Then I provide the bundler script to take a players module directory, verify things, and turn it into a module for distribution. Let creators use the text editor, or whatever of their choice.
The ultimate collection of fantasy sprites. Wizards, warriors, goblins, bats, skeletons, zombies, dragons and more! Inspired by classic console and computer RPG games of the past. Everything you need to make a complete game with free lifetime updates!
I am contemplating having the ASCIIwinter Nights Engine being open source, and it supporting tilesets. My game which would use the AWE (oh yeah!) could have non-open assets in it…
Many ASCII-based roguelikes have the ability to support tilesets.
That said, your reply makes me re-evaulate that feature. Maybe later on down the road.
Just sticking with pure ASCII for now.
Also, I found this really interesting ASCII tool REXPaint that lets you make really interesting ASCII art, layouts, whatever. I think I am to the point where my next step is mocking up some screens and seeing how it feels.
