LambdaRogue 1.7 - End of an Era
I want to provide some updates about the future of LambdaRogue.
As you know, the next update will be 1.7. As most major updates, it will have a name attached, which, in this case, will be "End of an Era". What does this mean?
- LambdaRogue 1.7 aka "End of an Era" will tie up some loose ends, both of the story and the game mechanics. This also includes a new questline (a very melancholic one, I can tell you.)
- LambdaRogue 1.7 will also include the new 40x80 tileset currently done by Cecilia. (And the tiles that are already finished on my HDD look great!)
But End of an Era also means end of LambdaRogue development.
Yes, that's right, LR 1.7 will be the final update, the "definitive version" of the game. No more updates will come. What are the reasons for this?
LambdaRogue development started in 2006. I devoted more than 6 years to the growth of this game, and it has reached a state where everything I wanted to achieve with it has been done.
LambdaRogue is one of the most accessible roguelikes currently available, and still one of the few roguelikes that somehow manage to have a good balance between random game mechanics and fixed story. The story is complete, the game is stable, it is quite balanced -- it is simply finished.
Is this the end?
Well, I said "end of an era", but not "end of the world", and actually, I have many ideas for expanding the game world and its lore.
So, while LambdaRogue, as piece of software as it is, won't receive any more updates after 1.7, it does not mean that the brave people of Herbstwelt have to cope without their creator (i.e. me 
) from now on.
Instead, it's time for something new. For something that gives me all the time and space and scale for telling Herbstwelt's story once again.
Exciting times lay ahead of us. 
Earlier / Later / Permanent Link
Comments
Y.A. schrieb am 22.10.2012, 02:19
Go fully OSS
Hey, why not open up the art assets then and maybe put the code on Bitbucket or GitHub (to foster attention)? Someone might pick it up, you never know...
I'm not a programmer, just a power user but I do use scripting languages quite a bit for my various terminal apps, if it's written in Ruby or Python or something I might look into it myself, though I'm sure there are other people interested in the code.
I'd suggest releasing the code under the GPLv2 and the art assets under CC-BY-SA. Both are true open source licenses (and GPL is a lousy license for art). Don't worry, it's damn near impossible that people will use it commercially, especially with these licenses. Don't go NonCommercial, it will hurt the thing if you want to do this. And of course, put them both in a single repository, with version control!
Anyway, I'll download and enjoy this... thank you very, very much for your support of this great game over the years. You are a great storyteller but I feel roguelikes are not a good outlet for that (and I strongly believe games are a form of art, and that this game personifies artistic games that depend on interactivity and cause emotions to change).
Don't let this die. Go OSS, leave it in some repository (and leave the website up if you can afford to pay for the domain!) someone might just pick it up. And new people will be introduced to the game if you leave the site up
Mario Donick schrieb am 22.10.2012, 08:46
You know that LR is under GPL since its beginnings, don't you?
Check the Google Code file list which is linked at the LR website
There is a source archive. Once 1.7 is done, it will of course be updated.
The art assets are open, too, EXCEPT the new tilesets which have been done by an external artist (and did cost a fair amount of money.)
erdraug schrieb am 23.10.2012, 16:17
all good things must come to an end
It is only fitting a story-based game such as LamdaRogue should have a definitive version.
Call it closure.
I say focus on the lore, give the story your final touches - the code might receive some facelifts after you're done with it but, imho, it will be the *feel* LamdaRogue will be remembered for.
klapse schrieb am 08.11.2012, 20:43
portable lambdarogue
Did you know there is a port for the Nokia N900 cellphone? Only vers 1.6 so far - it includes several changes for 800x480 screens. https://gitorious.org/maemo-lambdarogue/maemo-lambdarogue/commits/master?page=2
There is also some effort to port this to the 800x480 openpandora game console: http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php?/topic/10640-lambdarogue-port/#entry198431
Perhaps you could integrate some of the changes into the upstream source? Might help with other ports.
Cheers!
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