Major News

Dwarf Fortress in New York Times

The famed dwarven fortress simulator, Dwarf Fortress, has become the subject of an in-depth article published in the New York Times. NY Times journallist Jonah Weiner has spent several days with Tarn and Zach Adams, analysing their lifestyles and quizzing them on their motivations to create the successful crowd-funded game. The article makes for a fascinating read, casting a light on some of the odd habits of the developers, but also digging into the joys of playing the game and what makes it so appealing to the fanbase. Dwarf Fortress is also now on display at the New York Museum of Modern Art’s “Talk to Me” exhibit, which runs to 7th November.

Dungeons of Dredmor top seller on Steam

The graphical roguelike Dungeons of Dredmor has gone on sale at Steam for $5, and has quickly amassed tens of thousands of sales, rocketing it briefly to the very top of the Steam sales charts. Reception of the game has been immensely positive, receiving a metacritic score of 81, with many reviewers praising its quirky humour, challenging gameplay, and accessible interface. The central gameplay features of permadeath and procedural content seem to be joyfully embraced by many. Could this be part of a roguelike renaissance…?

Nethack Summer Tournament Underway

Almost 300 players are now competing in the Nethack Summer Tournament, which runs from 17th July to 14th August. There’s still time to join in and horribly die on poisoned spike traps!

Expedition – call for playtesters

Veteran developer Slash is hoping to release a new version of Expedition soon, and has put out a call for playtesters. If you’re interested in helping out with a detailed roguelike centred around exploration and adventure then get in touch.

N900 roguelikes wiki

Got a Nokia N900 and want to play roguelikes whilst on the move? Well there’s now a wiki to help, with a list of 34 compatible titles and some tips on how to get them running.

New Roguelikes!

Dungeons of Dredmor – humorous graphical roguelike that pulls no punches on difficulty – available on Steam for $5

JADE – the much anticipated open world successor to ADOM, though with limited features at present

Legend of Siegfried – a feature-packed fantasy roguelike under fast development

Temple of Vengeance – martial arts themed roguelike

Vapors of Insanity – detailed game with many original systems and a choice of ASCII/graphics

Updated Games:

Upcoming in August:

Crawl 0.9 and Tournament

Crawl 0.9 has been billed for release around the first week of August, offering new features, content and interface niceties. Anticipation is also high for the now bi-annual Crawl tournament, which will be held 13th August to 28th August. Sigmund shall taste much blood…

ARRP Upcoming

Just seven weeks remain until the second Annual Roguelike Release Party, where developers are encouraged to stop fiddling about in the shadows and get some games out! New games or updates of existing titles are all welcome. The deadline for release is Sunday 18th September.

Cardinal Quest due soon

Keep your eyes peeled on tametick.com, as the graphical roguelike Cardinal Quest is due to come roaring out soon. The game was developed for the 4DRL challenge last October, and has since gained large reknown for amassing $4.8k from crowd-funding site 8bitfunding.com – the site’s first big success. Hopefully with its charming retro graphics and bleepy music Cardinal Quest can continue Dredmor’s success in spreading the fun of roguelike gameplay to the masses.

Know of any other news? Got anything you’d like featured next month? Post in the comments or on the forum.