Motivation

"I couldn't get my friends to play it anymore. So I posted about it to the newsgroups, hoping to get response. The first version didn't get any. After I fixed some bugs I got a response from a person in Holland. That encouraged me to keep going." ~ Thomas Biskup (author of ADOM)

Given the fact that most roguelikes are non-commercial motivation frequently becomes an issue.

Issue: Lack of feedback

Solution: Look at the quote on top of this page. Even the author of one of the most successful roguelikes recieved no feedback at first. In general you cannot expect much feedback until your game is at least somewhat mature. A lack of feedback means your game is not there yet, but it does not mean that it is a failed attempt. It takes years to write a full-fledged roguelike (but only one week to write a 7DRL) and during most of that time span you will probably recieve little feedback.

However there are some things you can do to increase the amount of feedback at any stage:

• Widen the target audience. Graphical roguelikes appeal to more people than ASCII-based ones, so adding graphics is a good idea. Another way to widen your possible audience is to support more platforms i.e. a Windows-only roguelike has a smaller target audience than a roguelike that runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X etc.

• Promote your game. The website of your game should feature a section which points out all the great and interesting features of it at least. Another good idea is to add your game to popular software dictionaries. Never forget that not all people read r.g.r.announce!

• Explicitly ask for feedback.

The wonders of deadlines

There are two yearly events that help roguelike developers to reach the release stage :

• 7DRL The seven days roguelike contest.
• The annual roguelike release party