A new project in the Doryen family

I've been thinking about the melee fights in the Chronicles Of Doryen for a few days, trying to figure out how to make it more fun. Generally, melee fighting in a roguelike involves bumping into an opponent until he dies. In fact it's so boring that it's often completely eclipsed by other forms of combat like ranged weapons or magic. Since the first release of TCOD will only feature melee fight, I have to make it really appealing and challenging.

The problem is that it is very tiresome to balance in TCOD because each time you modify something, you have to start the game, go and buy some stuff, go down in the dungeon, find an opponent...

That's why I decided to create a small program that makes it possible for me to test very easily the melee fight, and in which I can add new ideas without being restrained by the whole TCOD history. But instead of creating a dry prototype, I think it's more fun to make a small game with it. First, if it is presented as a game, the feedback from the players will quickly show if it sucks or not. Moreover, it's an opportunity to demonstrate the potential of the Doryen library. Think of it as a sort of 7DRL excepted that I won't be able to do it in 7 days. 7 weeks might be more realistic... Ok it's a 7WRL.

Ok, after this long introduction, I hereby announce the start of the Doryen Arena, a sub-project of the Chronicles Of Doryen dedicated exclusively to the melee fight ! If it succeeds, this fighting system will be incorporated in TCOD.

The arena - early concept