Caves of Qud: Now in Open Beta

[getter77]

http://forums.freeholdentertainment.com/content.php

"It's a post-apocalyptic roguelike inspired by worlds like those of
Dune, Gamma World, and Gene Wolfe's works. It is an open-world
roguelike, heavily inspired by ADOM and Omega, providing a world map
that combines static and procedurally generated locations with hand-
written quests-lines. The world is deeply simulated; each monster is
as "real" as the player -- they wield equipment, suffer all the same
effects, and interact with the world in the same way as the player.
Everything in the world -- creatures, items, walls, etc -- has a
physical presence and can be destroyed, frozen, set on fire, etc. The
whole world is contiguous, so if you want (and have the patience) you
can go down a few levels and dig your way across the entire world.
Though this physical simulation means that the game is fairly resource
intensive for a roguelike.

We've tried to update the roguelike interface to be as modern as
possible, providing user interfaces for conversation, trade, quests,
and skills that should feel pretty modern, even though they are
provided via a terminal interface. We provide the plethora of commands
a roguelike player expects, but also provide a single "smart use"
command (bound to 'Space' by default), that chooses the most
"reasonable" thing to do in the square. So, for common interactions
you can simply walk up to a door and hit 'Space' to open it, walk up
to an NPC and hit 'Space' to talk to them, or walk up to a chest and
hit 'Space' to loot it. Though if you want to run over to a pool of
acid, fill up your canteen with it, and hurl it at a nearby enemy, all
of the manual commands are available as well, and may be freely
remapped.

We set out with a pretty ambitious feature set in mind, and while all
of the content is not yet nearly complete, all of the core features
are in place:

An expansive world map
Conversations
Detailed descriptions for everything in the world
Lots of items
A modern quest system
Lots of skills
Build your own items
Trade with any NPC

The game is built in .NET 2.0, so you'll need to install the .NET
framework in order to run it; and it'll be Windows-only (sorry Mac/
Linux guys, but it'd have taken me many times longer to do a project
of this scope in c++). The first main plot line beginning with Argyve
is not yet complete to the end, but it goes quite far (as far as I
know there's only been a single 'win' of the game in it's current
form, and not for lack of trying), and it will be clear when you've
reached the end. There's much left to add to the game, and all the
feedback we get from this Beta will go into finish and polishing the
final release.

Finally, when you run the game you'll notice you can purchase a
registration key, though the unregistered version of the game is fully
functional. Register if you'd like to help support us with this
project and others like it.

We've spent a lot of time just making a game we ourselves would like
to play, and we really hope you guys have fun with it!"