Interview The Man behind ADOM @ Temple of the Roguelike

[Elwro]

Tags: Ancient Domains of Mystery

And now for something which completely slipped under our radar: there's an interview with Thomas Biskup, the creator of <a href="http://www.adom.de">ADOM</a>, which some still consider to be one of the best rogulikes, at the Temple of the Roguelike: <a href="http://www.roguetemple.com/interviews/thomas-biskup-interview-1/">Part 1</a> and <a href="http://www.roguetemple.com/interviews/thomas-biskup-adom-part-2/">Part 2</a>. If you're like me, you may be eager to read something about the guy behind the game you lost a couple of hundreds of hours on. Two tidbits ("SZ" is Santiago Zapata, the interviewer): <blockquote>
<br>
SZ: Have you won ADOM (lawfully?)?
<br>
<br>
TB: No, never. I never had the time for that ;-) Basically I rise pretty easily to levels 15-18 and then I need to concentrate. Usually I die because I’m an impatient player ;-)
<br>
<br>
(...)
<br>
<br>
SZ: Did you play Fallout’s latest version? how would you compare it with the first one (Wasteland)?
<br>
<br>
TB: I’ve never played Fallout (any version) so I can’t comment.</blockquote>
<br>
Read the <a href="http://www.roguetemple.com/interviews/thomas-biskup-interview-1/">whole thing</a> to find out more e.g. about the troubles with developing an ADOM version for iPhone.
<br>
<br>
Thanks, <b>The Idiot</b>!

 

[Hory]

Re: The Man behind ADOM @ Temple of the Rogulike

B: I’ve never played Fallout (any version) so I can’t comment.

This is the key to understanding dungeon crawler developers.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Re: The Man behind ADOM @ Temple of the Rogulike

B: I’ve never played Fallout (any version) so I can’t comment.

This is the key to understanding dungeon crawler developers.

You can point that right back at you. ADOM is probably the one and only roguelike that has a plausible claim to NOT being a dungeon crawler.

Sure you can play it as one, and there's even an 'infinite dungeon' available early on if you want a pure dungeon-crawling game. But actually winning the game - especially on the various 'super' endings, i.e. the ones where you try to achieve godhood and so on, are heavily quest-based and require hopping between different parts of the world map, and in some cases require a fair bit of meta-strategy that goes beyond the simple 'clear and explore' of dungeoncrawling.

 

[Tolknaz]

I wouldn't call URW a dungeon crawler either for example, but your basic point is strong, yes. ADOM is almost too awesome to be a roguelike.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

It reminds me that I have to send a postcard to him.

I think this interview was newsposted a few months ago...

 

[Konjad]

Downloaded it, run it, began playing, played half a minute and died in fight with several dogs.

 

[aleph]

Downloaded it, run it, began playing, played half a minute and died in fight with several dogs.

Your point? This is how roguelikes work, if you are not careful (or have bad luck) you die. They are not for a casual experience.

 

[Konjad]

I guess I'm not hardcore enough.

 

[mariodonick]

Downloaded it, run it, began playing, played half a minute and died in fight with several dogs.

I think ADOM is rather difficult for somebody who never played a roguelike before.

I'd start with some easier roguelikes first, such as Angband, or Powder, or even Nethack (and LambdaRogue, of course :twisted: )

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

ADOM is probably the best roguelike for a beginner - it can provide years of satisfying gameplay and has a lot of interesting content.

Also, roguelikes are probably the most casual cRPGs - you can just sit and play. You don't have to get frustrated about repeating the same fight over and over again like in some other cRPGs and you don't have to deal with the same dialogues, identical non-combat quests, etc. when restarting.

About the dog - it's important to not get surrounded, avoid it if you can.
Elves are pretty easy to start with. Elven warrior start with an Elven Chain mail, which gives 5PV without any penalties.

 

[mariodonick]

Hm, I found Adom very confusing and also died very often. It got better once I accustomed myself to the whole roguelike concept with Angband.

 

[Elwro]

Yeah, at first I was unhappy with being slain by a "giant frog somewhere in a misty swamp" or dying from starvation. It takes some effort to get acquainted with the game... but it's worth it imho.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Hm, I found Adom very confusing and also died very often. It got better once I accustomed myself to the whole roguelike concept with Angband.

Does Angband have towns, quests, etc?

 

[Elwro]

I only remember one town from Angband. The game's so different from ADOM I can't really say why being good at one should increase your chances of being good at the other.

 

[mariodonick]

No, Angband (the vanilla one) has nothing but that generic town with some shops -- when I say "easy", I refer to the chances of surviving the first ten dungeon levels or so, without knowing much about the game -- it is possible to just hack'n'slash through the first levels, and you don't have to care about quests and NPCs -- both can be confusing. Of course it all depends on the personal preferences.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Which is why it's bad for a first roguelike. Quests and towns give a reason for going into the dungeons and killing stuff.

 

[mariodonick]

But this give a false impression about the roguelike genre in general, which only rarely have quests and towns, esp. not in the partly static way ADOM does.

Not that I don't like quests etc. -- but it's a bit untypical for most roguelikes.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I didn't like most of roguelikes that I've played. ADOM was practically the only one which I really liked, mainly because it has quests, towns, secrets, etc.
Maybe it made other roguelikes look sub-par, but I played it for several years, so it was worth it.

One the other hand if someone tries other roguelike and then finds it not worth playing because it's all about hack & slash and gets put off the whole genre...

 

[mariodonick]

Well, the perhaps you only like the visual / look and feel of a typical roguelike, but not the game mechanics. Instead, you prefer classical RPG with random elements. That's totally fine

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Not really. ADOM's quests and towns are still just a small part of the game and dialogues are practically non-existent.
I just dislike dungeons. I like to be able to travel the wilderness and visit towns/cities.
Actually, a roguelike set in a crime-infested city could be pretty interesting. With huge apartment blocks instead of dungeons...