Underlair - Announced

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Spaceman
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Underlair is described as a Roguelike / Dungeon crawler which is currently under development.



Welcome! Underlair is a video game currently being developed in Unity that aims to pack all my favorite game play mechanics into one single experience. The result will be a game offering the following features:

Roguelike elements:
<em style="font-weight: normal;">(Inspiring games: ADOM, Cataclysm, Dwarf Fortress, The Temple of Torment)[/i]


  • Permadeath.
  • Procedural generated terrains.
  • Procedural generated side quests.
  • Skill progression randomization. (*)
  • Permanent effects.
RPG elements:

(Inspiring games: Wizards & Warriors 2000, Gothic series, Wizardry 8, Fallout 2)


  • Storyline with multiple endings.
  • Party based game play, up to 3 characters.
  • 4 base classes, each one unlocking 4 new classes, for a total of 20 classes.
  • 32 skills; each one unlocking 10 passive or active abilities, that are upgradable 2 times.
  • NPC dialogs.
Dungeon Crawl elements:

(Inspiring games: Dungon Master 2, Eye of Beholder 2, Legend of Grimrock, Might & Magic X)


  • Dungeon exploration.
  • Grid movement system.
  • First person view.
Strategy elements:

(Inspiring games: Fallout 2, X-Com)


  • Turn based combat.
  • Action Point system.
  • Tactical formations.
Survival & Crafting:

(Inspiring games: Gothic series, The Elder Scrolls, 7 Days to Die, The Forest)


  • Realtime exploration.
  • Resource gathering.
  • Item enchantment.
  • Item crafting.
Co-op:

(Inspiring games: 7 Days to Die, The Forest)


  • Up to 3 players, each one controlling multiple characters.
  • Realtime and turn based mechanics.
I would say that the main source of inspiration is Wizards & Warriors (released in 2000), immediately followed by Dungeon Master 2 and Legend of Grimrock for its modern 3D execution.
Click to expand...
Thanks Couchpotato!

More information.
 
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The graphics are looking nice and I love the idea... But needing a resource to light every torch (while you have a lit torch, anyway?!) doesn't sound like fun co-op. :)
 
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Looks neat, but I wish it wasn't a rougelike. I'm not big on procedural generation, especially when it comes to quests.
 
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I feel this game is trying too hard to be "old-school", especially in how they mention their sources of inspiration. It's weird because that's a nische market, and even if that's their target audience, they'd be better off not declaring it.

In any case, good luck to them, it does seem like they have a bunch of nice ideas.
 
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The only problem i have is this quote from his website: "Skill randomization happens when characters level up. Players can still influence the way their characters ascend but they will not be able to meticulously hand craft them. Players will need to adapt to what chance will be brought to the table. You can find more information about this in the Encyclopedia."
Everything else honestly sounds too good to be true.
 
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vidder said:
The only problem i have is this quote from his website: "Skill randomization happens when characters level up. Players can still influence the way their characters ascend but they will not be able to meticulously hand craft them. Players will need to adapt to what chance will be brought to the table. You can find more information about this in the Encyclopedia."
Everything else honestly sounds too good to be true.
Click to expand...

A think that's a big turnoff for me. I'm obsessive when it comes to levelling perfect balanced character/parties. Knowing myself, this will lead to 3 things:

1. I'll save-scum forever on level-up until I get what I want.
2. I'll find it's not worth it reloading 100 times per character level-up and probably settle for "alright" level-ups that I can live with but feel forever annoyed at the fact that I can't choose exactly the skills and stats each character gets as they level.
3. I'll eventually quit because the game isn't challenging enough to keep combat interesting because it's balanced around characters getting wildly suboptimal builds to start with.

So the logical thing to do is to not play it at all. I don't know what reasoning is behind their decision to randomise level-ups, but I can tell that it does not align with my own needs and tastes when it comes to what I find enjoyable.
 
Yeah, procedural won't add anything.

It reminds me of that Remnant: from the ashes game. I'd beaten the game twice and still not found the Assault Rifle so I kept rerolling the first act until it finally generated the area it drops it. Took about 12 tries then I just quit playing anyway.

You could avoid something like that by always generating all the prefabs every time but then why not just lay them out properly in a nicely confusing hand-crafted dungeon?

Seems to be some bad design going on, but I'd love to try a good co-op blobber.
 
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Wow. This appears to be created specifically to suit my tastes. As if someone had found a list of everything I like to see in a CRPG. Incredible!
I bet it'll get stuck in dev hell and never be released. I just know it will!...
 
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Nereida said:
A think that's a big turnoff for me. I'm obsessive when it comes to levelling perfect balanced character/parties. Knowing myself, this will lead to 3 things:

1. I'll save-scum forever on level-up until I get what I want.
2. I'll find it's not worth it reloading 100 times per character level-up and probably settle for "alright" level-ups that I can live with but feel forever annoyed at the fact that I can't choose exactly the skills and stats each character gets as they level.
3. I'll eventually quit because the game isn't challenging enough to keep combat interesting because it's balanced around characters getting wildly suboptimal builds to start with.

So the logical thing to do is to not play it at all. I don't know what reasoning is behind their decision to randomise level-ups, but I can tell that it does not align with my own needs and tastes when it comes to what I find enjoyable.
Click to expand...
Agree with all of that. Love the look and feel, hate …

. What you said
. (Apparently) no mini-map or overlay map. Perhaps you get that later? In my youth I didn't mind (too much) mapping dungeons on paper, but I'm WAY past that tedious chore.
. No Combat shown so no idea as to the complexity/difficulty. Being roguelike I assume it'll be difficult and rage inducing, especially with the randomized level up process.
. Constant need to light torches and maintain the resources to do so. I presume the torch-lighting is the "alternative" to a mini-map.

Not even sure save scumming is possible/allowed.
 
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