[Announce] POWDER 100 Released

Hi,

I am pleased to make a general announcement about a new version of the
roguelike POWDER.

POWDER has been designed from the ground up for play on the Gameboy
Advance handheld console. It has since been ported to the Nintendo DS
where it supports full stylus controls. While those are still the
ideal platform, SDL ports to Windows, Linux and Mac allow people on
those platforms to use their full keyboard and/or mouse in a
traditional roguelike manner.

The design goals in POWDER are:

Fast Gameplay
A session should be quick to start up. One should be able to
accomplish a lot in a short play time. This has resulted in a
focus on hack and slash. There are also no character creation
choices - relevant choices are only needed if the character lives
long enough. This has also kept the play quite linear: the player
always has an obvious next target.

Complicated Interactions
Different items in the world should interact in expected fashions.
The goal is to allow the player to find different solutions to
problems depending on their current equipment.

Ergonomically Friendly
Because the target platform is the Gameboy Advance which is rather
limited in control interfaces, it is important to maximize those
that are present. POWDER thus supports remappable buttons,
context sensitive menus, and extensive "Do what I mean" built into
the movement system.

The Windows, Linux and Mac ports are able to bypass the context
sensitive menus by directly pressing the correct key. (ie: 'r'
when the cursor is on a book will read the book)

The NDS and PC versions can be played entirely with the stylus
and sport a remappable actionbar which allows common commands
to be assigned to buttons around the sides of the screen.

Replayability via a Changing World
Like most roguelikes, POWDER aims to provide a new play experience
in every adventure by randomizing most of the world creation.

It is a full-graphic roguelike with 16x16 tiles and no character mode
option. There are, however, several different tilesets to chose from,
including on where the monsters are all stylized ASCII characters.

The release of POWDER 100 marks five years of development.

You may find the latest version of POWDER and ongoing news of its
development at:

http://www.zincland.com/powder

Thank you for your time,
Jeff Lait

> Hi,
>
> I am pleased to make a general announcement about a new version of the
> roguelike POWDER.

This really is a memorable date, and i'm sorry for you Jeff but i
really hope you give us another 100 releases at least.

> POWDER has been designed from the ground up for play on the Gameboy
> Advance handheld console. It has since been ported to the Nintendo DS
> where it supports full stylus controls. While those are still the
> ideal platform, SDL ports to Windows, Linux and Mac allow people on
> those platforms to use their full keyboard and/or mouse in a
> traditional roguelike manner.

I've started playing Powder on my GBA and now I take it everywhere in
my NDS and play the windows port at work.

> The design goals in POWDER are:
>
> Fast Gameplay
> A session should be quick to start up. One should be able to
> accomplish a lot in a short play time. This has resulted in a
> focus on hack and slash. There are also no character creation
> choices - relevant choices are only needed if the character lives
> long enough. This has also kept the play quite linear: the player
> always has an obvious next target.
>
> Complicated Interactions
> Different items in the world should interact in expected fashions.
> The goal is to allow the player to find different solutions to
> problems depending on their current equipment.
>
> Ergonomically Friendly
> Because the target platform is the Gameboy Advance which is rather
> limited in control interfaces, it is important to maximize those
> that are present. POWDER thus supports remappable buttons,
> context sensitive menus, and extensive "Do what I mean" built into
> the movement system.
>
> The Windows, Linux and Mac ports are able to bypass the context
> sensitive menus by directly pressing the correct key. (ie: 'r'
> when the cursor is on a book will read the book)
>
> The NDS and PC versions can be played entirely with the stylus
> and sport a remappable actionbar which allows common commands
> to be assigned to buttons around the sides of the screen.
>
> Replayability via a Changing World
> Like most roguelikes, POWDER aims to provide a new play experience
> in every adventure by randomizing most of the world creation.
>
> It is a full-graphic roguelike with 16x16 tiles and no character mode
> option. There are, however, several different tilesets to chose from,
> including on where the monsters are all stylized ASCII characters.

I know its features and they make Powder the most enjoyable roguelike
out there for me.

> The release of POWDER 100 marks five years of development.

The first release i played was 070 and the game has improved a lot.
The new tileset just makes it look as good as its awesome gameplay
deserves.

> You may find the latest version of POWDER and ongoing news of its
> development at:
>
> http://www.zincland.com/powder

Come on, any of you, roguelike lovers that have not played powder yet,
make yourself a favor and download it now.

> Thank you for your time,
> Jeff Lait

No Jeff, thank you for sharing your work with us. Powder will always
be in my top favourite games of all time.