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Zorbus (D&D-inspired roguelike)

Joonas

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
172
Location
Finland
preview.png


Zorbus is a fantasy-themed, graphical, turn-based, role-playing roguelike game. Your goal is to delve deep into a dungeon, find a portal to a mythical place called the Zorbus where a mere mortal can ascend to demigodhood. You don't have to go to the fight alone but can recruit other creatures along the way.

Being a roguelike game, Zorbus creates the dungeon randomly so that every played game is slightly different. The game uses permadeath meaning that when a character dies, it really is permanent and the player must begin a new game. You can save the game but the save file is deleted when loaded.

Thematically Zorbus draws influence from the late 70s and early 80s tabletop D&D campaigns, adventures and lore.
The goal is to create a tight dungeon crawling experience where the dungeon feels alive, eventful and rich in content. Diversely shaped levels with themed content (throne rooms, prisons, lots of hidden treasure caches etc.) with good connectivity between the areas.

There are bits of D&D-lore hidden in the game. Lots of familiar monsters from the various editions of D&D. The "skull on a red rectangle" death animation is straight from the Gold Box games.

s01.png


The rule system for the game is slightly influenced by the d20 system used in the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Zorbus has experience levels but no character classes (race is selected). On each level up, you point buy skills and talents (mostly combat maneuvers and spells).

Zorbus needs Windows 7 or newer but also works in Linux with Wine. Can be run on Windows XP but without sound effects. The game is free.

More info and download here: http://www.zorbus.net
More screenshots: http://www.zorbus.net/gameplay.html
Random dungeon maps: http://www.zorbus.net/dungeon.html
 

Joonas

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
172
Location
Finland
Can you play in ASCII?
Not yet. I could add ASCII-mode if there's enough genuine interest but it's a bit problematic to find a symbol for all furniture and all creatures from the basic ASCII table, even if you group them by type and use colors.
 

Generic-Giant-Spider

Guest
This is the first time in recorded history that sexual interest has ever been willingly expressed towards a Dwarf.

Mind you it does come from the prostitute of Hell, but you take what you can get.
 

Joonas

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
172
Location
Finland
Where did you dig this game from?
It's straight out of my head.

Some additional info:
  • The dungeon has 10 levels. There is a theme for each level and there are several different factions in the dungeon.
  • There's a hub level which can be reached from all dungeon levels via teleporters. The hub level has stores and recruitable creatures.
  • The game can be completed in about 4-5 hours, longer if you thoroughly explore the dungeon. One experienced player completed the game in just 32 minutes without killing anything.
  • There are 3 different endings.
  • If you complete the game and ascend to demigodhood / godhood, your character and alive companions are stored at the endgame level. If you then reach the endgame with a new character, the previously ascended will help you (controlled by AI). This might help if you want to try a tougher / ultimate ending.
  • There is a leaderboard at http://wins.zorbus.net. Click on a character name to get a report of the played game.
 

Joonas

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
172
Location
Finland
Why should I play classless nethack-lite when nethack exists?
If you want Nethack-style item interaction and other Nethacky-stuff, there isn't really alternatives to it but Nethack isn't for all. You could ask that question from DCSS- or ToME-players and they all have their reasons why not to play Nethack.

I'm surprised that the game being classless is such a big thing. As you point-buy skills at level ups, you can play archetype character by putting everything into melee- or magic-skill if you want. Having classes felt pointless and restrictive in THIS game while they certainly work in other games. I didn't adopt the classic 6 D&D ability scores either but only use ones that fit the game.
 

laclongquan

Arcane
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,870,144
Location
Searching for my kidnapped sister
Can you increase the font size of the dialog box in middle-lower part?

It's big and empty, need some readable text in it.

The other boxes have no need of bigger size, but not that box

I am also serious about the ability to mod pictures into your game.
 

getter77

Augur
Joined
Oct 12, 2008
Messages
861
Location
GA, USA
Just as an aside, Nethack'ish doings can be had via Pathos, diggr, Infinite Cave Adventure, POWDER to an extent...and The Youths in the form of Tenebrae et Mors as well as Caves of the Mad Lich.

May Zorbus forever be Zorbus and only deepen the niche unto itself~
 

Joonas

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
172
Location
Finland
Can you increase the font size of the dialog box in middle-lower part?
From the settings, you can adjust Interface zoom (80% - 150%) or change the font and/or font size. These settings affect all text however.

If really wanted, the tile graphics can be modified by editing the file "Data\Zorbus.zts" which is just a regular bmp-file but that's not a convenient method at all.
 

Replicante

Educated
Joined
Aug 3, 2017
Messages
61
I am really enjoying this game! I enjoy the streamlined mechanics, got several DCSS 15 rune wins under my belt and playing w/o hunger or identifying mechanics makes it rather accesible. Gotta get used to Line of Sight though, slightly different from other roguelikes.
Currently running a caster build with Lone Wolf + Stoneskin + Acid Cloud + Animate Dead + Blink + Ebolt + other damage nukes. Pretty cool!

pd: seems like you cant sell weapons or armor. But selling books seems good value.
pd2:Animate Dead summons seem to have a duration, but isn't mentioned in the spell description.
 

Joonas

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
172
Location
Finland
pd: seems like you cant sell weapons or armor. But selling books seems good value.
pd2:Animate Dead summons seem to have a duration, but isn't mentioned in the spell description.
You can sell weapons / armor but they have to be powerful enough.

Animated creatures should follow you until destroyed. They might stop following you if they don't see you for some time (for example you stumble upon a teleport trap that teleports you on the other side of the map or something).
 

Replicante

Educated
Joined
Aug 3, 2017
Messages
61
well, that explains it, since I'm using night vision googles and playing with the lantern off ^^
 

Replicante

Educated
Joined
Aug 3, 2017
Messages
61
Is there a way to rest until full stamina btw? I can only seem to rest in 100'turn increments
 

Replicante

Educated
Joined
Aug 3, 2017
Messages
61
It'd be nice when playing a caster, otherwise you gotta hit the rest button 5 to 6 times and you can't leave it pressed cause it interrupts the previous rest command :D
 

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