Maybe someone would like to run with this just for fun
Angband (see also Rogue and Moria) is open-source, has a large and loyal following, and the game-play has stood the test of time. Many variants are actively maintained.
But it’s not my thing… probably because it has terrible graphics!
What if Unity were used just to give nice 3D graphics, without changing the gameplay? (I don’t think Angband’s fans would want the rules/play to change.)
Angband is just a grid of cells (sometimes half-width, but they can be square). The cells are seen as either ASCII art or cheesy static bitmaps… but what about 3D objects? Could the existing source code be adapted to place 3D objects on a grid instead of ASCII characters? Stony cubes to make the walls, models for creatures and items, etc. (View angle and iso/perspective could be user prefs.)
Additional effects would be the icing on the cake:
Make door objects and moving creatures actually face the right way.
Animate movement that slides each creature from square to square (like Chess) instead of “snapping” to the next “turn.”
Maybe even animated loops for walking and attacking.
Show missiles and spells with nifty effects.
The light you cast could be an actual point light in 3D (but the visibility of monsters would be handled by the game code as it already is).
3D cutscenes for beginning, staircases, and deaths.
Better sound.
Anyone think this might make a fun hobby project or community effort? It could start with simple primitive shapes, and one effect shared by all spells, and then once the game was running, people could contribute models to flesh it out.
I think the result could be a very fun and widely-played game. Uniband?
Nethack and all the others actually don’t need good graphics. This game lives from the suspense that the next monster might kill you and all the treasure. I think it’s a little bit like chess. Better graphics are always welcome but it really doesn’t count this much here.
So pimping up the graphics would lead you somewhere in between Nethack and the Diablo genre with games like Diablo, Sacred, Darkstone, Hexic, Nox, Titan Quest or however all the other fantasy hack&slays are called.
I read somewhere that Diablo was originally meant to be turn-based. Then some programmer hacked together a realtime version in his spare time, and it just blew everyone away, so they did that instead.
Yes, Angband etc. have a large following without graphics, but adding cool modern graphics would be for others of us, that can’t get past that. :lol:
I know people said the same when Angband gained 2D graphics–some liked them, while traditionalists prefer the traditional ASCII art to this day. Different strokes for different folks But the game remains the same underneath.
You’re right, the result would be somewhere between the ancient classics and the modern 3D ones. But the classic gameplay has been enough to keep a large audience after all.
