ExploringTheBleak

Exploring The Bleak
Stable game
Developer	Nathaniel Inman
Theme	Fantasy
Influences	NetHack
Released	2010 Sep 19th (RC 1)
Updated	2010 Nov 10th (RC 2)
Licensing	Open source, GPL v3
P. Language	Visual Basic .NET
Platforms	Windows GUI
Interface	ASCII, Keyboard, Mouse
Game Length	Coffee Break
Official site of Exploring The Bleak

ETB

Exploring The Bleak is a Graphical Roguelike videogame created by Nathaniel Inman of The Other Experiment Studio. ETB was released on September 19th 2010 for ARRP, or the Annual Roguelike Release Party. The project was original released as closed source, but is now available in open source as of ETB RC2 (November 10th). Information on the project and other projects by Nathaniel Inman or TOES respectively can be accessed at it's homepage.

Current Features

• Randomly Generated Dungeons (2 Presets : Ruins, Standard)
• 10 Dungeon Graphical Tilesets
• 10 Simple Creatures
• 100+ Randomly Generated Items
• 20+ Unique Skills
• Top Scores List
• A Very Simple, Beatable Game.

Planned Features

• More Dungeon Generation Presets
• Decreased size, Increased speed
• More complex and unique creature AI
• Pathfinding

How To Play

Delve into the depths of the dungeons to retrieve the Everspark. In order to level up you kill enemies by walking into them. Strength makes your regular attacks stronger. Dexterity gives you the chance to dodge attacks. Constitution gives you damage reduction on all attacks. Wisdom gives you more points when you level to increase stats. Intelligence increases your skill damage. Luck increases the amount of loot that you find. Charisma increases the chance to cause enemies to flee.

There is a class skills list available at the local wiki here.

Controls

• 'h' or '?' shows and hides help information menu.
• 'p' or 't' picks up items.
• 'i' shows your inventory.
• '5' on the num pad waits a turn and allows you to heal 1 HP & 1 WP.
• '1' is your primary skill.
• '2' is your secondary skill.
• '3' is your support skill.
• '>' goes down stairs
• 'f1' shows the high scores.
• 'f2' shows your character stats.
• 'f3' shows or hides the activity/info log.

VB.NET Source Code

Exploring The Bleak was created using VB.NET which is different than most Roguelikes that generally use Java, C derivatives, Python, etc. It more-or-less was a proof of concept. The language was readily available because Nathaniel Inman was using it at work for a customer.

Free/Open Source Licensing

All source code to the game is GNU GPL v3, but all artwork is copyrighted to Nathaniel Inman (and not GPLv3). Permission may be granted to use artwork of the game by only Nathaniel Inman himself either in person or in writing to his email address available on TOES homepage.