Triangle Wizard 3.01 Released
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Triangle Wizard is a hack 'n slash game developed by me, Wouter van den Wollenberg, in my spare time. It is freeware, which means anyone may download it, play it and even distribute it free of charge. When asked what the game is like I usually answer that it is a combination of NetHack and normal hack 'n slash games like Diablo.Spotted on RPGCodex.
I started with it back in spring 2008 basically because I was bored and I wanted to program something. I never made a hack 'n slash (nor a Roleplaying game for that matter) before so I decided to give it a whirl. I initially started with a complex text-based game based on D&D rules, but I quickly abandoned it because the programming wasn't very exciting. I did like the idea that users could easily mod the game by modifying some .ini files, but I didn't like the non-graphic nature of it.
During that time a friend of mine introduced me to a game called NetHack (see NetHack Official Homepage, hell check out Diablo too while you are at it). It was a turn-based hack 'n slash game which was unbelievably hard (at least to modern standards) and one little mistake (even one as small as pressing the wrong button at the wrong time) could end your game. Perhaps the most memorable part of the game were its graphics; all monsters and items were represented by mere letters and characters. A + would indicate a door for example. Of course there are versions of NetHack that do have bitmaps and no longer use letters, but somehow I really liked the letter graphics.
So I decided to make a hack 'n slash game using letters as monsters, but make it a real time game instead. I also removed some of the more complex mechanisms from NetHack such as fountains (including the wishes), pit traps and the need for sustenance. Getting rid of the bitmaps freed me of the task of creating my own which was boring (not to mention that I tended to suck at it) and could instead focus on the game itself. I did add some fancy looking spells though, since spell effects can be easily simulated with glow effects and don't require that many bitmaps.
The result is Triangle Wizard, named after the main character who is (the only person not to be represented by a letter) represented by a triangle. The wizard part it just because you only get to play a wizard; although there are many types of wizards you could opt to play. You may ask me why I didn't add Knights, Barbarians or even Tourists (Yes, you can play as a tourist in NetHack). My answer would be that I find playing fighters boring (I don't play the Barbarian in Diablo for example) and because fighting with letters just looks plain silly. No, we want to throw fireballs and such, not bump letters into letters. Of course without warriors there would be no need for equipment and such, which saves me the time I would have to spend to code an entire item system.
