Here's a list of projects I've worked on over the years, mostly related to open source computer games.
My involvement with them ranges from minor contributions to full ownership and development.
Coric's Quest is a small, complete 2D fantasy-themed RPG; guide the intrepid hero Coric through a land thrown into chaos, once watched over by the Elemental Spirits, now possessed by a mysterious darkness.
Features:
Three realms to explore, each with their own dungeon and boss to defeat.
One-on-one turn-based battle system.
Twenty four types of enemies.
Four weapons and armors.
Four magic spells.
Four kinds of consumable items.
Several simple puzzle mechanics.
The game is made with Rust and Miniquad, and packs about two hours of game play into a single 9 MB file.
chip8run is an interpreter (or "emulator") for CHIP-8: a bytecode format for the creation of video games for home computers made in the 1970s and 1980s like the COSMAC VIP.
CHIP-8 programs drive a 64-by-32 pixel monochrome display, while taking input from a 4-by-4 hexadecimal keyboard.
chip8run can run programs in the CHIP-8 format, often found with the .ch8 suffix.
RuggRogue is a simple web-playable roguelike game made with Rust and SDL, with Emscripten for the browser port.
Features:
Discover new monsters and equipment the deeper you go.
Hunger and regeneration: stay fed and stay healed!
Choose between graphical tiles and ASCII display.
Menu-based UI with hot keys.
Auto-run to quickly follow corridors and cross open space.
Save and load system.
New Game Plus mode!
The source code is complemented by the RuggRogue Source Code Guide; a 23-chapter technical web book covering the ideas, algorithms and structure of the code.
Role:
Upstream bug fixes; developed mods in personal fork.
Last involved:
Late
2020
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is a turn-based survival game set in a post-apocalyptic world.
Players must explore and survive while defending against zombies and countless other monstrosities in a limitless, procedurally-generated world.
Items can be scavenged and crafted; structures built; farms cultivated; vehicles repaired and modified.
The player can install advanced bionic enhancements, and even mutate.
DRL is a fast-paced run-and-gun roguelike by Kornel Kisielewicz about a soldier sent to stop an outbreak of hellish demons on a remote moon base.
The player wades into the chaos as one of three combat roles, gaining traits while increasing levels to unlock new perks and abilities.
An arsenal of brutal weapons and firearms can be tweaked with custom mod packs, or even transformed into new arnaments entirely.
The grunts and roars of demons that lurk in the moon base can be heard by direction against the backdrop of the game's heavy metal soundtrack.
All of this is topped off with a diverse system of medals, badges and multiple game modes.
DRL was featured on the fourth episode of the Roguelike Radio podcast.
Role:
Upstream bug fixes; developed mods in various personal forks.
Last involved:
Early
2016
NetHack is a classic fantasy roguelike game; one of the most famous and venerable of its kind, with scores of contributors over a development history stretching back to its first release in 1987.
The player takes on the role of an adventurer sent on a divine quest to retrieve the fabled Amulet of Yendor, hidden deep in the firey pits of Gehennom below the perilous and ever-shifting Dungeons of Doom.
DynaHack is a variant of NetHack, the classic dungeon-delving roguelike experience.
It aims to modernize core aspects of the gameplay and interface by merging innovations from other NetHack variants with a broad swathe of minor improvements to many other aspects of the game.
The NetHack variants that influenced DynaHack the most are:
NitroHack: The technical foundation of DynaHack, to which it owes its enhanced resizable ASCII interface, ergonomic menu improvements and replay-capable logging save system.
UnNetHack: The source of many new items, monsters, dungeon branches, special room types and shops, as well as changes and adjustments to gameplay systems too numerous to mention.
GruntHack: The source of magical "affixes" for otherwise mundane equipment, allowing the player to find things like a "short sword of fire" or a "small shield of stealth".
On top of combining the work of multiple NetHack variants into a single package, DynaHack includes a wide variety of refinements to the core NetHack gameplay that promote player exploration, experimentation and quality of life, while reducing stashing, backtracking and repetition.
Dungeon Monkey Eternal is a party-based fantasy roguelike role-playing game by Joseph Hewitt.
The player controls a group of up to four adventurers that band together to take on quests that are randomly generated.
Gameplay takes place in a 2D isometric perspective with full support for mouse control.
Dungeon Monkey Eternal is the third game in a series begun with Dungeon Monkey and Dungeon Monkey Unlimited.
The original Dungeon Monkey is notable for inspiring the annual Seven Day Roguelike Challenge in which aspiring roguelike developers try to create a complete roguelike in just seven days.
Role:
Salvaged inactive project to build on modern systems.
Last involved:
Late
2011
DeadCold is a science-fiction roguelike by Joseph Hewitt set in an abandoned space station overrun by monsters, malfunctioning robots and other lurking horrors.
The stranded player can take on one of ten different roles, each with their own specialties and weaknesses.
Offering necrology services, the player must navigate the different sectors of the DeadCold space station, parts of which have depressurized, to piece together clues from computer logs and journals if they are to have any hope of escaping alive.
Role:
Linux port maintainer, documentation writer.
Last involved:
Early
2009
Sphere is an open source game engine made to facilitate the creation of 2D role-playing games.
It consists of two parts: an editor to help create games, and an engine that runs them.
The Sphere editor is a fully-fledged graphical integrated development environment capable of creating tiles, maps, sprites and animations combined with a flexible JavaScript-powered scripting system to bring it all to life.
Meanwhile, the Sphere engine can run games created with the editor on Windows, Linux and macOS.
The accompanying configuration utility allows controls to be remapped and the selection of custom video drivers, enabling scaling, filtering and other graphical effects of the player's choosing.
GearHead is a science-fiction roguelike game by Joseph Hewitt that takes place on Earth in the future where people pilot giant robots ("mechas").
It features extensive part-based mecha customization, giant robot and on-foot combat, a multi-faceted character skill system and a rich open world environment with randomly-generated quests and plots.
GearHead went on to spawn two sequels: GearHead 2, which takes the adventure into space, and GearHead Caramel, set in a world recovering from the apocalypse.
