]baud 2020 year in review

Here is a link to the full restrospective of the first (half) year of development. 2021 is an exciting time with the game planned for release this year. It will continue development as there is an infinitely long list of future ideas to incorporate as time marches on...

Reposted from Reddit.... 

]baud is a cyberpunk-roguelike set in the 1980's, a homage to the home computer-based hacking/cracking/phreaking culture of that time period. In this game, you are the hacker and your mission is to break into corporate mainframes and steal their data to build your rep in the hacker community. In addition to its setting, the game itself is actually hosted on a 1980's-like technology platform, a Bulletin Board System, in a hat-tip to the many excellent Roguelikes of that time period (LORD, Netrunner, Pyroto Mountain which are still running on my BBS to this day).

Some of the key features in the game:

• ASCII based roguelike complete with permadeath, turn-based strategy, grid-based movement and procedural generation of maps and characters
• A game progression system that unlocks Cores and new Decks (your terminal for accessing systems) to play
• Uses a deck-building system for combat with processes (ICE, Viruses, Copy Protection) on the mainframe (Core)
• Codebreaking involves a trivia and word puzzles system (a hat tip to Pyroto Mountain BBS game of the 80's era one of the deepest most fascinating games of that time - which I still host to this day)
• The "stores" are fully simulated Apple ][e ASCII Express Pro Pirate BBSes. You can trade Functions (hacking ability), Subroutines (special powers), and Data.
• Subroutines provide a risk/reward system that you can access in the programs you hack. They serve as the magic/potion system in the game, giving special abilities and perhaps no so special outcomes.

] 2020 Retrospective

This game has been on my mind for close to 30 years (not a typo - there are game design notes from 1989 in a coil binder sitting beside me as motivation). It finally was time to actually start putting it together. I will be honest, that I didn't really know about the Roguelikes and the culture and community surrounding it when I started this project but the game project really took shape as I dug into the genre. I participated in the RogueLike Celebration and on the Discord this year and I first off have to say how awesome the community is. A special shout-out to RogueLike Radio to whom I listen to on my 5-mile daily quarantine walks and has inspired and influenced so many choices.

The game had two epochs this past year:

Version 0.01A - Getting Started and the Byte-Based Combat System

This version that was started in July 2020 was notable and important as a means to gain more clarity in what the game was supposed to be. When this project started, it was turn-based but allowed for multiple players to interact (non-overlapping). The objective was influenced by tower-defense mechanics and team-based game objective where teams of hackers were tasked with protecting their Core while bringing down the opposing teams system. There were some really cool aspects to this version including:

• The combat system - each entity in the game was defined by a tuple of three elements - copy protection (defense), detect (stealth), attack (hit power), and hit points defined how many D16 dic you could access in various elements combat/stealth. You could roll all of the dice you earned but each level made only a certain number of dice useable in a given part of the combat phase- so you could roll 6D16 but only be able to use the two highest rolls. Here is a video of how it worked. This worked well felt a bit too random and easily overpowered as you gained bytes (ability) I could see issues with game balance coming my way and the ability to extend seemed very limited - thus the life of the game I felt was much shorter if I continued down this path. I also felt such a heavy RNG system was spoiling strategic gameplay.
• The code was also very procedural (it is written in Pascal) which made it challenging to add elements in. I started thinking about adding in terrain and it seemed like a very tall chore. Even adding in new enemies was becoming difficult to do because of the factoring.
• Build a complete replica of a 1980's implementation of an Ascii Express PRO Pirate BBS inside the game to act as the store. This is carried forward into the new version. There is only one real one left online to this day and I got permission to use its title screen and name in the game as a tribute.
• The trivia and word puzzle system was built and is carried forward as well.

So, this led to...

Version 0.02 - Entity-based, Deck-Building Combat with Permadeath

I effectively started a complete rewrite of the game engine in October. I tore apart all of the innards of the game, and rewrote the game loop and added in an entity management system. The player was included as a proper entity in the game loop and there was a structure behind the tiles (a composition of slots for NPC's, loot, and terrain per location). It was a slog to write this from scratch having never written entity systems for games but what an amazing learning journey. I honestly should have done file-new-project and started fresh but I commented out code and moved blocks around and reworked it. I think I had an idea that much more would be re-useable than actually was so that got in the way of progress. I was off for a month between jobs and that was a boon for getting the EMS to a working state.

Since that time I also complete revamped the hacking (combat) mechanic. The short version of this story is that (as some of you read over the fall) messed with many ideas. I happened across someone in the RPG game community who had built a hacker focused deck building approach to incorporate into their Cyberpunk RPG. I was immediately intrigued and after a few conversations got permission to use it - with modifications to fit into what I was doing. I suspect some of the work I am doing in the game to expand the card system will be donated back into the real world game.

Summary of Fall to now progress:

1. Deck-building mechanics for combat using the Entromancy Hacker Battles card-based deck-building system.
2. Overhaul of game engine (well, complete rewrite)
3. Co-existence of elements on a tile (NPC/Player, Loot, Terrain)
4. Proper terrain support to allow for velocity control on various tiles
5. Backlog of design elements that will be coded in the coming months

] 2021 Outlook

In short, finish a version that I can be proud of. To do that, I have the following things in plan for 2021:

1. Complete the special skills and risk/reward system. It is designed and just needs to be implemented.
2. Expand the deck-building card inventory to give richness to the game. Cards will be unlocked in the game as the player progresses.
3. Complete re-vamp of the map procedural generation system. The algorithms need reworking as I have decided the shape of each "level" (there are many map segments per level) should produce. One is going to represent a "floppy disk" layout from an Apple //e and another is going to be a connected room structure (still having built an algorithm I like for this yet).
4. Continue investing in the enemy AI. They are mostly random with some influences (like player range or distress signals from other NPC's under attack). I want to add some strategies around the playing of cards during hacking (some more aggressive, some defensive). This will be a game lifetime pursuit I suspect but I am looking forward to it. I have a lot of telemetry coming out of the system so I can consider some ML "training".
5. Complete the implementation of the terrain and cost based movement/action system. The hooks are all in the game, but it needs to be fleshed out further. It is not important for the initial release but will be for the first expansion pack.
6. Cores will have their own thematic vibe, lore and sets of puzzles (including the trivia) to keep the game fresh.
7. Hire an ANSI artist(s) to work on the look of the game and really give it the period feel. I have a lead on a group that does this.
8. Make it robust. The testing framework needs some investment. The basics are there but it needs a push to truly get it where I want it to be including a test full simulator to let the game play itself for long-burn-in tests.