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[More_Badass]

Game just got picked up by TinyBuild

http://streetsofrogue.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw8zu8LNHyY

Streets of Rogue is a rogue-lite about player choice, freedom, and anarchic fun. The game takes inspiration from fast-paced top-down rogue-lites like Binding of Isaac and Nuclear Throne, and adds free-form, experimentation-driven, emergent gameplay elements of RPGs like Deus Ex. Rather than taking place in a dungeon, the game is set in a functioning, procedurally generated city, where complex AI informs denizens from all walks of life, who are just trying to get by in their daily activities. In order to progress, the player will need to accomplish specific mission goals in any way they see fit through use of their special character traits, items, and the environment.

Will you play as a soldier who shoots first and asks questions later? A stealthy scientist who uses chloroform and tranquilizer darts to silently take down the opposition? A genial bartender who can talk his way past the most intimidating of guards? Or how about a hyper-intelligent gorilla, rescuing other caged gorillas to form a small mobilized gorilla army?

You can play the current alpha here. The game's been in development since 2013. And I'm pretty impressed so far. First playthrough, I was a gangster, which meant rival gangs would fight you and I could recruit followers.

Second time, I was a shapeshifting alien that could possess anyone on the map, so I killed my target by jumping between different bodies to whittle down the target's health and letting him kill the dazed people when I jumped out of them. And then I needed to break into a chest, so I lured the shopkeeper outside by knocking on the window and jumping into her body. Walking right past the security camera and unlocked the chest with her key.

Of course as a naked alien outside of a body, law enforcement will try to kill you on sight and you can't enter certain places without being asked to leave

 

[aravuus]

Holy shit this looks like a lot of fun

I think I'm gonna wait until the 'final' version is released, though, if it ever does

 

[Kadin]

OMG. It has Blahd's and Crepe's to choose from. Yeah I think I might like this little gem. Creating my first character now.

 

[Stencil]

Off the bat, one nitpick I have is the graphics. Kind of burnt out on the super generic pixel art fad. Not to mention the different sizes of pixels happening.

Definitely looks fun though; games like this make me wish I had a PC for gaming. Alas, only a Mac.

 

[CHC]

Sounds amazing. So it kind of RPG-ish in terms of dialogue options? Something like Fallout 1, or is it much simpler?

 

[More_Badass]

Off the bat, one nitpick I have is the graphics. Kind of burnt out on the super generic pixel art fad. Not to mention the different sizes of pixels happening.

Definitely looks fun though; games like this make me wish I had a PC for gaming. Alas, only a Mac.

Yeah, as much as I like pixel art, that was a turn off at first. It has a really generic look

But it more than makes for that in terms of gameplay.

 

[More_Badass]

Sounds amazing. So it kind of RPG-ish in terms of dialogue options? Something like Fallout 1, or is it much simpler?

More in terms of interactions. Depending on your class, skills, stats, and items, you can interact with people and objects differently. For example. you can hack into terminals to read emails, hijack turrets, and unlock doors. Or pickpocket people for money and safe combinations. If you have a translator, you can speak and recruit a gorilla (and probably other species later). A cop can't bribe and threaten a shopkeeper but a gangster can. A shopkeeper can instigate a trade with anyone to get an item through her knowhow.

 

[Doghelmer]

Dev here! Thanks a bunch for posting this, and happy to answer any questions ya got about the game.

 

[CHC]

More in terms of interactions. Depending on your class, skills, stats, and items, you can interact with people and objects differently. For example. you can hack into terminals to read emails, hijack turrets, and unlock doors. Or pickpocket people for money and safe combinations. If you have a translator, you can speak and recruit a gorilla (and probably other species later). A cop can't bribe and threaten a shopkeeper but a gangster can. A shopkeeper can instigate a trade with anyone to get an item through her knowhow.

Ah I see - so you don't actually do the dialogues manually, it's kind of an automated system. Either way this sounds very interesting, anything with "immersive sim" kinda targets my weak spot anyway. I love the concept of the genre.

 

[Galang]

Off the bat, one nitpick I have is the graphics. Kind of burnt out on the super generic pixel art fad. Not to mention the different sizes of pixels happening.

Definitely looks fun though; games like this make me wish I had a PC for gaming. Alas, only a Mac.

I have to agree with this, but I'll probably pick this up anyway because I like the concept and it looks really fun. Hope the game does well

 

[SAB CA]

It's frustrating to me how many games there are, where the characters look like the least-important, most un-impressive part of the games presentation.

As much as pixels (Ugh at different sized, "3D style" rotated pixels, btw) try to appeal to my retro-loving desires, you lose almost all claim to that part of me, when the characters look so un-interesting. Comics, Movies, Cartoons, Anime; the reason I fell so hard for this stuff in those "retro" times is because the characters spoke to me, in a variety of ways. You could tell something about them, right off the bat, by their clothes, colors, or varied sizes.

And it clashes so badly with the nicely lit, decent background work and pixelated special effects. It's like filling a museum with stick figure drawings, or making a fancy upperclass room to house a nailbat.

To make reference, however loosely to the beloved "Streets of" series, with something so far removed from it's much more well realized design aspirations... yech.

 

[Doghelmer]

Ah I see - so you don't actually do the dialogues manually, it's kind of an automated system. Either way this sounds very interesting, anything with "immersive sim" kinda targets my weak spot anyway. I love the concept of the genre.

Basically, one of the key design ideas here was to take the concepts that you often see in player agency-oriented games like Deus Ex and Fallout and streamline everything without taking away too much of the underlying complexity, so that it would work in the context of a fast-paced action roguelike.

 

[More_Badass]

Ah I see - so you don't actually do the dialogues manually, it's kind of an automated system. Either way this sounds very interesting, anything with "immersive sim" kinda targets my weak spot anyway. I love the concept of the genre.

You have an interact button to talk with people manually, but it's not really dialogue choices but rather ways to interact with them like bribe or trade or buy slave

 

[Screaming Meat]

That sounds insane.

 

[Mr. Poolman]

Ha! this looks very fun!

I wonder if there are Streets of Rage references in there.

 

[mitheor]

Sounds great. Downloading ...

 

[Zombie James]

This sounds right up my alley.

edit: No OSX version? Guess I'm left out

 

[hampig]

Sounds cool, I'll check this out when I get home.

 

[Doghelmer]

Ha! this looks very fun!

I wonder if there are Streets of Rage references in there.

You can find edible bacon cheeseburgers in garbage cans. So there's that

The game is very loosely based around the "Rage" aesthetic. I mean REALLY loosely. I wanted it to have its own identity, but also the title "Streets of Rogue" tends to be an attention grabber.

 

[Doghelmer]

This sounds right up my alley.

edit: No OSX version? Guess I'm left out

There will be. In fact, I could maybe try to whip up a test version of that today if you're interested in testing for me. I'm using Unity, so it's not a big deal.

 

[Kadin]

Okay played through the first two levels and I really like it. Found it a tad hard to play with kb/m so elected to pay with my 360 controller instead which works perfectly. I'm not sure if the intention is to punch/smack/knife/shoot the living shit out of everyone that crosses your path but that's how I played... and it was marvelous.

 

[More_Badass]

Okay played through the first two levels and I really like it. Found it a tad hard to play with kb/m so elected to pay with my 360 controller instead which works perfectly. I'm not sure if the intention is to punch/smack/knife/shoot the living shit out of everyone that crosses your path but that's how I played... and it was marvelous.

You'll have to be more versatile when you try other classes

 

[Doghelmer]

You'll have to be more versatile when you try other classes

Also, I haven't done a ton of balance work yet, so it's entirely likely that some classes will be very easy to play as.

 

[More_Badass]

Also, I haven't done a ton of balance work yet, so it's entirely likely that some classes will be very easy to play as.

Yeah, the shapeshifter probably needs some kind of timer to limit how long you can stay in a body.

 

[Whompa02]

Street of R...ogue? Well that got me to click...looks interesting actually.

 

[Kadin]

Also, I haven't done a ton of balance work yet, so it's entirely likely that some classes will be very easy to play as.

I do like the way that people quickly choose to retreat when they know their imminent death is upon them. Ran after a guy, got close and he sucker punched me and proceeded to continue running away. Gave me a nice laugh. Fun game.

 

[Zombie James]

There will be. In fact, I could maybe try to whip up a test version of that today if you're interested in testing for me. I'm using Unity, so it's not a big deal.

That would be great!

 

[EVH]

This has a big Zombies Ate my Neighbors feeling and I love it.

 

[Doghelmer]

This has a big Zombies Ate my Neighbors feeling and I love it.

Cool, that's partially what I'm going for! One of my favorite SNES games. I'm considering including some challenge modes in the game that will actually make it even more ZAMN-like...

 

[Synth]

Misread title.

 

[Teknoman]

lol I was honestly hoping it was some sort of beat em up rogue like, or Streets of Rageish clone replaced with fantasy stereotypes.

 

[Doghelmer]

That would be great!

Just posted a Mac version here. This is literally the first time I've created a build for Mac, so try running it and let me know how it goes!

 

[ElectricThunder]

Been following this for a good while---have a good feeling for the future of it that is redoubled upon them now having a partner in the mix to help things along to the finish line.

Between tinybuild on this and Adult Swim on Battle Chef---good times for the niches!

Caveat: With things now this far along, maybe go for an itch.io page instead of the mailing list signup? It IS appreciably retro, but not exactly as straightforward at enticing new folks...

 

[brawly]

That name made me think it's the beat'em'up that Cellar Door Games (Rogue Legacy studio) is working on.

 

[Doghelmer]

Been following this for a good while---have a good feeling for the future of it that is redoubled upon them now having a partner in the mix to help things along to the finish line.

Between tinybuild on this and Adult Swim on Battle Chef---good times for the niches!

Caveat: With things now this far along, maybe go for an itch.io page instead of the mailing list signup? It IS appreciably retro, but not exactly as straightforward at enticing new folks...

I might end up doing an itch.io page in addition to my site. The game is already available at a few other places like GameJolt as well. Mailing lists may be on the retro side, but they can still be pretty effective, hence their continued existence

 

[Doghelmer]

Well what do you know, the game has an itch.io page now. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Mr. Poolman]

I've tried this game for a couple of hours and it has been a blast!

Adding custom soundtracks or being able to run a playlist would be awesome.

 

[Doghelmer]

I've tried this game for a couple of hours and it has been a blast!

Adding custom soundtracks or being able to run a playlist would be awesome.

Yeah, I really should have added some kind of soundtrack by now, but I've been super indecisive about the whole thing. Given the title of this game, it absolutely needs to have a killer OST. Just not completely sure what style we're going to go for yet.

 

[More_Badass]

New alpha version is out. "Mountains of Bugfixes"
http://streetsofrogue.tumblr.com/post/150467716390/alpha-12-mountains-of-bugfixes

And the dev made an FAQ with details on platforms, release timeframe, and other stuff
http://streetsofrogue.tumblr.com/faq

 

[ElectricThunder]

Now that's an update---if future updates as potent as these crop up even from just time to time over the next projected year of development this project will absolutely arrive at a fantastic and high place indeed among the best of the genre.

Also, as far as OST goes, and with as random as this game is down to the core----I would say a Necrodancer approach of multiple soundtracks across different styles all layered up would be a better fit than most.

Or just future/cyberpunk up the hell out of the Streets of Rage II and III FM Synth(keep this part for infinite bonus points though as the world has too few Roguelikes representing with FM Synth~) goodness as that'd be the most On The Nose for pure spectacle given the title, heh.

 

[ElectricThunder]

Yet another Alpha Update out about as big as the last one: "So Twitchy"

http://streetsofrogue.tumblr.com/post/151123926080/alpha-13-so-twitchy

Main gains being the tip of the iceberg on integrated Twitch streaming shenanigans support and 2 new player classes~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7iEhuQkNnY


Seems the next release won't follow quite as surprisingly soon as this one did, but primarily due to the dev tackling some sort of great big new feature that'll come with it...

 

[Lucumo]

Played the game over the last month in between other things for a quick round and it's pretty fun. The gameplay feels really good and the characters and their quirks are diverse enough. It will be interesting to see how the game develops and what the "big quests" will bring to the table.

Dev here! Thanks a bunch for posting this, and happy to answer any questions ya got about the game.

Can you make the game harder? In its current form, it's way too easy. I pretty much never need money except for an ammo refill. The four-leafed clover is also way too good as it means infinite money which equals bribing/hiring your way through all the floors.
I guess the rewards for missions are random at the moment? Maybe assign percentages to it, so that more valuable items aren't gained that often?

 

[Doghelmer]

Can you make the game harder? In its current form, it's way too easy. I pretty much never need money except for an ammo refill. The four-leafed clover is also way too good as it means infinite money which equals bribing/hiring your way through all the floors.
I guess the rewards for missions are random at the moment? Maybe assign percentages to it, so that more valuable items aren't gained that often?

The completed game is still around a year off, and balance is something that I'm gradually chipping away at over time. The final version will also have a bunch more levels that will likely be a bunch more difficult. That aspect of the game is very much a work in progress, and it'll get more attention after I tackle some of the larger tasks.

I'm currently working on an online multiplayer mode, so content and bug fixes will be a bit sparser until that's finished. Still, I'll have an update out tomorrow with a playable Werewolf character...

Oh, and someone asked about music in the other thread. I'm actually working with a composer right now. Hoping to have something in the game within the next few builds.

Also just FYI, Linux and Mac versions have also been released since this thread started.

 

[ElectricThunder]

It is a definite sign you are onto something special if you can even casually throw out there that a forthcoming modest update will allow for being a Werewolf.

 

[Doghelmer]

New build is out, full changelog HERE.

Or if you prefer, me talking about the new content while apparently nodding off.

 

[Lucumo]

The completed game is still around a year off, and balance is something that I'm gradually chipping away at over time. The final version will also have a bunch more levels that will likely be a bunch more difficult. That aspect of the game is very much a work in progress, and it'll get more attention after I tackle some of the larger tasks.

A year? That's plenty of time then (I thought it was much closer). The fundamentals are there and they are really good. So I have no doubt it will succeed, as long as the word gets out.

 

[golem]

This game looks super cool! Will pick it up when i have more spare time

 

[Tye The Czar]

If you can live up to the game's name by hiring Streets of Rage composer Yuzo Koshiro, then boy would this game turn heads!

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

Misread title.

Same here. Dreams crushed.

 

[Doghelmer]

If you're looking for a roguelike Streets of Rage, there are at least a couple games that do that sort of thing already, most notably Rampage Knights and Lost Castle.

Sadly Yuzo Koshiro wasn't available -- and yes I actually did bother looking into this a bit out of curiosity. But my composer and I are keeping with the general theme of the first couple games. It's pretty danceable.

Yeah, the planned release date is August 2017. There's lots of content left to make, not to mention various online features and console porting. So I'll be keeping pretty busy