Hi everyone! This is my first post and my first game made with PICO-8.
This is Solid Rogue, a "coffeebreak" roguelike where you play as Badger, a stealth operative who has just stolen plans for the bipedal nuclear weapon known as Rogue Gear! Help Badger climb 20 stories of a bad-guy infested facility to freedom!
I had originally planned for Solid Rogue to be part of the 2021 seven day roguelike challenge, having spent what free time I had the weeks before learning the ins and outs of PICO-8 from the amazing PICO-8 rogulike tutorial series by LazyDevs (specifically Krystman, the creator of Porklike). Unfortunately, with a new job and some personal duties I was unable to have a playable game before the end of the jam. I decided instead to spend a few more weeks jamming and this is what came of it.
Controls
- Up, down, left, right to move one space (when you move, enemies move too)
- Move into enemies to knock them out for a short time
- Tap X to pass a turn
- Hold Z and tap a direction to peek ahead one space (you can pass turns while peeking too)
- While peeking, tap the direction again to dash two spaces (dashing uses stamina which is refilled at every new floor
- Hint: bumping into walls or stepping on grates makes noise!
I hope you enjoy!
-Mike (He/Him)
Version History
4.14.2021 - uploaded game
4.14.2021 - added faster reload after death and a manual "restart game" to the PICO-8 menu
This is very difficult, I really like it still, not often you get a rouge like this. Maybe waiting could refill your stamina?
Oh wow! It's like an MGS Roguelike. I love what you've done with it. I'll need some time to sink my teeth into that one. Well done!
A MGS roguelike. Very original idea! interesting! I love the peek and dash function, very smooth mechanic.A fun idea might be to have pickup-able equipment from downed enemies. Other than that solid game. Metal gear solid that is.
Thanks all!
@Agent Tom: I'm glad you like it! I was thinking about that stamina feature but I was having trouble making the enemies patrol, so if you just stay in one spot and wait, you could just have infinity stamina! I will work on the patrol AI and totally implement that feature since you would like it :)
@Krystman: Thanks so much! You are a master! I really appreciate what you've done for the community and it's thanks to you that I am diving deep into PICO-8 :)
@ChronoChill: Glad you like the mechanic! I was trying to think of ways to really make my RL different than most and the "peek" mechanic was it. Equipment drops is a great idea! Right now the only pickup is health from chests, but I can already think of a few good bits of equipment that could enhance the game :)
@grimmrobe Aw, thanks a bunch pal! I am glad you're taking my suggestion, made my day! I would also like to note how helpful the danger meter is, once I finally looked at it, I had a much easier time! Continue your awesome work!
Really liking this, one feature request: A quick re-start feature, maybe on death hitting a particular button could just drop you back into the action instead of having to see the intro and instructions again.
@b0b89: I like it. I thought that it was quick enough, but I am too close to the project to tell! I think just having it load from level 1 again would be straightforward, but once I have that functionality in I can add it to the menu as well.
Yea i'm dying a lot and i've seen those instructions a million times by now
@grimmrobe well I'm a very impatient person so I dunno, adding a thing to a project because one user asked for it might not be needed
@b0b89: It was pretty easy to make that change, so no worries! I also added a "restart game" option to the pause menu screen (press Enter/p during gameplay to access). Enjoy!
@grimmrobe That helped me alot, btw, are there any differences in mechanics for the green guys and the white guys? Just thinking to know what to do in a situation.
I guess the one issue I have is that the enemies can shoot the player at an angle, but the player can't move or dash diagonally. The end result is situations where there's no option other than getting hit.
@rnd Maybe they could do a celeste type of thing where if you hold ^ and > for say, you would dash diagonally, or they only hit you from four sides. I say dashing diagonally would be hard to make in a rouge like game, so the best solution would be to make the enemy only shoot in four directions. This is just an analysis on your request to help @grimmrobe with his game.
i am not much of a fan of the bullets going THROUGH WALLS, but ok then
@Agent Tom: The green guys are like "rangers", so they can see one space further than the white guys. You have to peek ahead and spot them before you move!
@rnd: The enemies can shoot the player as long as you're in their field of view, but I will concede that it's a fairly generous algorithm that I use. The 4 way movement is definitely intended and I won't be changing that, but I can tweak how the enemies see the player.
@oh lord he bacc: Yeah, this was an unintended side effect of what I mentioned above regarding the loosey-goosey FOV. I think the best way to solve that would be to simply use a raycast (single line from the player to the enemy) that is broken by walls instead of the FOV algorith. I will work on that for the next update, so I appreciate your insight!
Hi @grimmrobe!
Great game! Very challenging. I'm going to spend many hours of fun trying to beat the game!
I'd like to suggest you include in the game post a description of the enemies and interactive objects in the game. In my first gameplays was a little difficult to understand what should I interact with or not.
@eduszesz: I'm glad you're enjoying the challenge! That's a good idea, adding enemy and pickup descriptions. For the next update (when I put some items and make the enemies a little more unique).
Currently, the only pickup is health from the chests. The white enemies are the basic grunt, the green guys are rangers who can see farther, the dogs (that shoot bullets...) have better hearing, and the blue guys are... the same as the white guys currently haha
Awesome game. Really imaginative pairing up a turn-based rogue-like with a sneak 'em up. The best I've managed is maybe the 6th or 7th floor. I love the graphics and animations on the characters. Here's my video review/let's play/thing:
This game has been my new obsession. Here's what I've learned.
- The maps are basically a 2x2 square of reused tiles.
- The exit will be in not the same square you start in.
- You have 6 dashes per level.
- When an enemy has a yellow ? above them, you have one move to close the distance to them before it's too late not to take damage if you move closer.
- If an enemy has a red ! above them and you can't either move or dash into their square their square to knock them out, best to get out of their range or you'll take damage.
- Enemy's area of awareness seems to be a square, and since you can't move at a diagonal (that I know of) it's always best to approach enemies from a straight direction whenever possible.
- If you're running straight to the white guys you can close the distance without dashing.
- All other enemies, or approaching other enemies from a diagonal, will require at least one dash, maybe 2, to close the distance.
- Enemies don't alert other enemies. So if you're running from one dude and are worried they'll call to other guards that you're skirting around, never fear, you've only got to worry about the one chasing you.
- If an enemy is sleeping, as long as you don't knock on the wall or step on a noisy panel, they won't wake up. Don't worry about them.
- Any floor tile more complex than a dot is noisy.
- Dashing over or onto a tile negates the effect of that tile. This includes noisy tiles or the stairs.
- If you've knocked out an enemy, explored the square for the exit, couldn't find it, and are going past the enemy, and they're still sleeping, stop next to them and skip a few turns until they wake up. Then knock them back out again.
- Knocking on the wall will alert nearby enemies. This can be useful to draw them one direction around an obstacle while you go around the other way.
- You don't need to knock out every enemy, but they can all be knocked out if you're fast enough.
- You can't get more than 4 hearts, so there's no point going for a chest if you're already full.
Well, that's as much as I've figured out and it's got me as far as level 15, but I haven't closed the deal yet. But I'll keep trying.
Note for @grimmrobe: I'd love for the end screen to include a message about which floor I lost on. I'm not always keeping track.
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