Cringes, Gameplay, and Writing
Morning Update
Messed with LMMS this morning and laid down some funky beats. Yes, it was as cringy as that sounds.
Current Thoughts
Gameplay
The Tiers of Tribulation will be a 20 level, procedurally-generated dungeon. The player's character will level up, each level they go down. There's a terrasque at the end.
In between the levels, the player will be able to purchase things at a store with the loot they've accumulated, learn new spells, etc. The inventory of the store will change as the player progresses.
Tie-In Novel
Old roguelikes, like Rogue, used to update the player with a single line, something like "You hit the kobold." or "The kobold hits you. You die." You could also see the list of messages, in case you were playing so fast you missed something.
I was thinking this event log would be a great skeleton on which to base a book. So much flavor could be added and there might be some cache to knowing that the book was written based off a REAL game played. Also, if there was ever a following, it might be fun for people to write books based off their OWN games.
I could also got a little meta and have the book be about a series of games, since so many characters will die. Something like,
CHAPTER ONE - The Many Deaths of Bob
Bob - Level 1 - Killed by a Kobold. Bob2 - Level 1 - Died from poison. ... Bob35 - Level 8 - Eaten by a pack of undead owlbears. Bob36 - Level 10 - SAVED
Once I get the game going, I'll mess around with the idea. Might be fun.