Complete Roguelike Tutorial, using python+libtcod

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Revision as of 03:05, 8 November 2010 by Jotaf (talk | contribs) (added part 7)
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Complete Roguelike Tutorial, using Python+libtcod


Short introduction

Welcome!

Welcome to this tutorial! As you probably guessed, the goal is to have a one-stop-shop for all the info you need on how to build a good Roguelike from scratch. We hope you find it useful! But first, some quick Q&A.


Why Python?

Most people familiar with this language will tell you it's fun! Python aims to be simple but powerful, and very accessible to beginners. This tutorial would probably be much harder without it. We recommend that you install Python 2.7 and go through at least the first parts of the Python Tutorial. (Note for Windows 7 64-bits users: install the 32-bits version, since the 64-bits version of Python seems to cause problems with libtcod.) This tutorial will be much easier if you've experimented with the language first. Remember that the Python Library Reference is your friend -- the standard library has everything you might need and when programming you should be ready to search it for help on any unknown function you might encounter.


Why libtcod?

If you haven't seen it in action yet, check out the features and some projects where it was used successfully. It's extremely easy to use and has tons of useful functions specific to RLs.



Start the tutorial

Follow the first link to get started!


  • Part 1: Graphics
    Start your game right away by setting up the screen, printing the stereotypical @ character and moving it around with the arrow keys.


  • Part 2: The object and the map
    This introduces two new concepts: the generic object system that will be the basis for the whole game, and a general map object that you'll use to hold your dungeon.




  • Part 5: Preparing for combat
    Place some orcs and trolls around the dungeon (they won't stay there for long!). Also, deal with blocking objects and game states, which are important before coding the next part.



  • Part 7: The GUI
    A juicy Graphical User Interface with status bars and a colored message log for maximum eye-candy.


  • Next:
    The next section will cover items. Here's a preliminary version of the code, with inventory, potions and a scroll of lightning bolt.
    The following sections should cover a main menu, saving/loading, stats, and advancing levels.



Extras

Some stuff that is entirely optional and didn't make it in; check this out if you finished the tutorial and are looking for some modifications and improvements to your game -- some are easy, others are more advanced. (Note: I guess the priority is the main tutorial, but I'll get to these eventually.)

  • Real-time combat
    A speed system to change the tutorial's turn-based combat to real-time!
  • A better dungeon generator
    A simple modification to the dungeon generator that creates nicer looking dungeons!
  • Fast rendering
    Fast rendering; might be useful if you have a big FOV limit and rendering too many tiles slows down the game, or if you want to implement more complicated effects.


Credits

Code and tutorial written by João F. Henriques (a.k.a. Jotaf). Thanks go out to George Oliver for helping with the layout, sections rearrangement, and syntax highlighting; and also the folks in the libtcod forums for their valuable feedback!

Feel free to stop by the libtcod/Python forum if you're stuck, to show your own project, or just to say hi! It's always cool to get some feedback on the tutorial, and hear about other roguelikes in development.

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