Javelin: Another d20 OGL'ish project

[getter77]

https://javelinrl.wordpress.com/ Win/Mac/Linux all via Java
http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=Javelin

Javelin is a free open-source single-player role-playing game written in Java that uses d20 as the rule system – more widely known as Dungeons and Dragons (versions 3.0 and 3.5). It draws heavy inspiration from many other video games, from Jagged Alliance and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup to Pokémon and the Dragon Quest series.
Features

True artificial intelligence with easily customizeable thinking time!
Uses a d20 (D&D) variant rule system, balancing classic hack-and-slash with a more dynamic turn sequence!
Party-based gameplay - control one or more squads, not just a single hero!
You choose how to level up your team!

The main site gets into the broad future development plans and some of the thinking and details to do with various core aspects of the game. I'm equal parts hopeful and glad that the v3.0 goal is the last one listed after polishing and adding to virtually every other aspect of the game---as multiplayer is perhaps the ultimate project derailer in modern times.

[BlueSalamander]

Pretty cool, thanks. I've tried it. I like the top-down view. For the time being, it has pretty serious flaws. The AI takes too much time and plays poorly, there are too many random encounters on the world map, and the interface help is insufficient (how do you save and quit?). Still, an interesting concept and you don't often see an RPG/roguelike where you can actually have dogs as player characters.

[getter77]

Hopefully, now that it is out there, the dev will get enough constructive feedback to really crank into fixes and balancing alongside any additional content still to come---more the merrier I say.

[kek]

Hello guys, I'm the creator of Javelin! Thank you very much OP for sharing my little project, it means a lot and it got a nice influx of visitors to my website I'm glad you found it share-worthy even if it's only the first release. If you think it would be appreciated I'll make sure to post updates around here too! By the way in the title you mention other d20-OGL projects, would you send anything related my way so I could take a look at those similar projects?

Version 1.1 is almost out of the oven, just lots of playtesting needed. Highlights so far:

* Dungeons!
* 12 or so new battle maps
* Vehicles!
* World and battle screens are largely improved, creating a much better game experience
* Each town has a unique selection of items and upgrades
* Towns now take a certain amount of time to craft item or upgrade heroes

I also want to put up a crystal system like in Final Fantasy Tactics, even though it's not very D&D-ish. It would happen only on special battles though, so die-hard D&D fans need not worry

To the user above that made some criticisms: some things you're right about and have been worked on, like a reduced chance of random encounters in the world screen. Others though perhaps you just didn't gave the game time enough to understand properly - for example you can save/quit the game just by closing the window, which is why you don't need a manual for that. The quality of AI thinking depends only on your CPU speed too but you can configure it to take any amount of time you like (fast if you want an action-like game, or slower if you want better AI thinking). You can understand all of that better if you read the website.

EDIT: forgot to mention, AI speed has been improved in 1.1 too!

Anyway thank you both for trying out the game - just the fact that it is working and playable makes me happy! I haven't got all that much feedback but that is to be expected for version 1.0 when there are so many rogue-likes out there! I'm thinking about creating a forum for Javelin too, still not sure the best way to go about that. Anyway any further feedback and sharing is welcome, thanks a lot and have fun!

[getter77]

Welcome! Heh, one of those projects in a sense is located at this very website in the form of albeit a cRPG Knights of the Chalice---give at least the demo a shot!

However, what you are probably after are your nearest direct neighbors---Incursion and The Veins of the Earth:

http://www.incursion-roguelike.net/
http://www.roguebasin.com/index.php?title=The_Veins_of_the_Earth

The Temple of Torment as well perhaps:

http://www.thetempleoftorment.net/

In terms of save/quit and whatnot---always a good idea to make things especially obvious ingame even if/instead of featured in the manual...the easier things can click within those first few minutes on all fronts are absolutely key for building up the initial playerbase. Especially as the game is free, you want to make the most of that initial time investment and try to look through the eyes of the entirely unawares newcomers. BlueSalamander's critiques are a good one to keep in mind, as he is the dev of the above mentioned cRPG here---been down that road grappling with The Obvious well ahead of ya.

Overall, it sounds like you've got a good direction en route for v1.1 so it is just a matte of working through the reported issues and fleshing things out further as it happens---it'd been awhile since there'd been any news since the v1.0 release so mainly it is a nice bit of relief to see things are still very much alive and lively with the project. Definitely sensible to keep folks in the loop here, RPGCodex/Watch, and at the Temple of the Roguelike as milestones are reached and feedback sought.

Another option to consider in lieu of a forum, that some other Roguelikes devs have employed of late to some success, would be to just create a sub-reddit for the game on Reddit---though best to ask around on the Roguelikes and Roguelikedev spots over there when it comes to the finer details of such.

[kek]

Heh, one of those projects in a sense is located at this very website

Saw that after posting the message I'm running Linux unfortunately and the chances of me installing Windows again are pretty slim right now..

I didn't notice that The Temple of Torment was graphical - I guess I haven't tried it for the same reasons (Windows-only). Since DCSS' webtiles I can't be bothered much with ASCII anymore. I did play my share of classic roguelikes so I don't feel too guilty about it...

it'd been awhile since there'd been any news since the v1.0

Yeah I'm trying not to let the project take too much of my time so don't expect very many updates or news - I'm focusing the time on development so 1.1 can be as close as possible to an enjoyable game. After that if/whenever the community wants to help out with the project I'll keep it rolling.

keep folks in the loop here, RPGCodex/Watch, and at the Temple of the Roguelike

Thanks! It's great advice - you probably know how hard it is to get exposure online, even if your game is any good. I'm mind-blown I did not hear about Knights of the Chalice despite having put Google to good use before and during development!

sub-reddit for the game

I thought about that. I'm not sure what are the advantages of choosing reddit over a bulletin board forum. I mean, I know both platforms more or less but I can't see which one is better suited for discussing a specific game.

Anyway thanks again for the thread and advice, hopefully 1.1 will show Javelin's true potential!

If you haven't had the chance yet and are a die-hard d20 fan/GM make sure to check out this document that was pretty much the entire inspiration behind Javelin (distributed with the author's permission) https://github.com/tukkek/javelin/blob/master/doc/Upper%20Krust%27s%20Challenge%20Ratings%20v5.pdf

[getter77]

The Reddit benefit, perhaps among others, is mainly from a directly adjacent audience of both Roguelike and general P&P RPG folks that are already there chatting up and about all manner of projects, and well populated at that, on the site---so no need to entreat them to create yet another log-in account on a forum from the ground up per se.

All of the sites combined pretty generally assume the worldly form of Where The Action Is when it comes to exposure and whatnot so...yeah---best to engage with players and, especially, commiserate and/or merrily plot with fellow devs.

[kek]

I guess you're right. Some stuff on reddit like threads being closed and generally becoming harder to find after some time bugs me a bit though - it's great to get the discussion going but it's hard to get people back to the same post to keep discussing. Most discussion continues between two people on the comments (unless you're a huge default sub or something like that). But indeed the benefits of cross-posting, easily signing up and having a ton of people already using the site are very interesting!

Oh and the lack of RSS on reddit is pretty bad too, which means I'd have to keep checking for new stuff there and I'm notorious for forgetting this kind of stuff

Who knows, maybe someday someone will join in that likes this sort of stuff better than I do so I don't have to worry too much and can instead focus on programming