Introduction

Okay, so starting to program a roguelike in C++, what resources should we consider? Well, after a bit of browsing, I found the following:

• How to Write a Roguelike in 15 Steps, only fifteen easy steps, yours for the low low price of $19.99!
• Rogue Basin a wiki for roguelike development
• ASCII Dreams the blog of the Unangband developer
• The Roguelike Restoration Project old school source code repaired to work on modern computes.
• QHack a simple roguelike written for people interested in writing roguelikes.

I'll follow the fifteen step programme, chronicling what I found and did here.

I'm just an average Joe programmer, so I am going to divide the blog into three parts really.

The first part will be case studies, examining code from other roguelikes.

In the second part we'll start writing the code in the spirit of the fifteen step approach. This might get a bit hairy.

Finally, the third part, we'll also consider the theoretical aspects of programming a roguelike. That is, answering questions like "How should we implement magic?", "How can we do Artificial intelligence?", and so forth.

I expect things will get sloppy, so I am using a table of contents widget in addition to an archive widget.

Frequently (and Infrequently) Asked Questions

Why not use language X?

I'm trying to write an object oriented roguelike because, well, I'm accustomed to object oriented programming. C++ lets me do that. I'll get to more about that in a future post.

I see a new post that's not on the table of contents, but it comes and goes every few minutes, what's up with that?

Must be witches. Oh no, wait, what I mean is that I'm editing the post, and checking that it looks alright, so I'm publishing, then saving it as a draft and editing.