Roguelike Radio?

You may already be familiar with Roguelike Radio - it's a podcast about roguelikes, mostly hosted by Darren Grey and/or Mark Johnson, and often featuring guests who are close to each episode's subject matter.

Classic roguelikes like Nethack, ADoM, ... Rogue... and Angband (and a few variants) have all had one or more episodes devoted to them, often with members of the devteam or enthusiastic players guesting. More modern games like Dungeonmans, FTL, and Invisible Inc have had the same treatment.

I think IVAN merits an episode of Roguelike Radio, and with IVAN development becoming more active it seems like an ideal time to make this happen. is there anyone from the current (or old) devteam and community who would be interested in participating in this?

I am by no means any kind of official representative of RLR, or even a regular on it, so I'll try to direct the usual hosts' attention towards this thread.

I'd like to participate if there is a group of us willing to do it. I know Cap and Ighalli have been around since the old days so they would be the best candidates. In fact, Ighalli is probably the closest person to an original dev we have here.

If we need a spokesperson, I wouldn't mind chiming in. If only for the sake of clowning around.

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the suggestion! I think this is a great idea

Thanks for the nomination fejoa
But I will pass, just because I'm not much of a gamer, IVAN is one of the few games I play so I wouldn't be able to talk about how it compares to other games, etc.

I wonder if J_Kahvi would be interested? If not then yeah I would say one of the more active current devs!

If we're talking programming/development I'd say Ighalli or fejoa (current development), Kahvi (original dev team) and Z (has wide experience with roguelikes) are top picks. However, as far as IVAN is concerned, community has been a big part so the likes of Erno or Somagu could be considered too.

Yeah good suggestions chao. I would also say at least one person who was at the first IVANcon should be on

Erno is in Bosnia D: I hope he can check up on us from time to time.

OK, it sounds like we've got two volunteers, fejoa and Zayre, and nominations for Ighalli, Kahvi, Z, Erno and Somagu. We should probably wait for two or more of them to sign up. Or even until Erno gets back. Would it be worthwhile trying to contact them outside of these forums?

Ideally it'd be great if we can get both Kahvi and Z onboard. Problem is they don't frequent Attnam much, so yeah, you're probably going to have to contact them through other avenues.

I could do it, as one of the minor contributors to the code before it was originally abandoned. I could message Hexi to see if he's interested, although as far as I know he's washed his hands of it around when he started his PhD.

To be honest, RL Radio, or I suppose Andrew, is one of my big sources of inspiration for why I've never tried to make a RL. In one of the earlier shows, they're discussing 7DRLs and then they went off on a tangent about how games written in Python are not worth the trouble getting to run so that they can play them. As Python is my favorite language, it was a pretty big turnoff to trying to do something. The last episode I listened to was episode 100, YASDs. People contributed their stories and Andrew was declaring "Oh this person's death isn't a good story because it's too specific to the game; not general enough to the wider genre. Oh this story wasn't very good because it was more luck than stupidity." I mean, perhaps he is the best one to judge since he's the one running the big podcast, but it still turned me off to the show to have this guy passing judgement what is and is not worthy. After he solicited their stories for his show, no less! It was incredibly disrespectful to trash their contributions on the recording like that, IMO.

So, you know, I don't really like them. But I've been into RLs for 18+ years and have contributed to a few games in small ways. Your guys call! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks for volunteering, Ighalli. Andrew Doull isn't such a regular fixture on RLR as when it began, so if it makes you more comfortable we can make sure the panel doesn't include him Mark seemed pretty enthusiastic about an IVAN episode.
Regarding Python, mismatches between Python 2/3 and 32/64-bit DLLs included in a game download can be major frustrations if the user doesn't have the right Python installed (especially if they're not familiar enough with the language to recognise these peoblems or maintain multiple Python versions on their system).
I think the best way around these issues is to use py2exe and py2app to make executable packages. This makes the user's installed Python irrelevant. Not sure what the equivalent for Linux is. As I understand it, Mark uses this method to make Windows versions of Ultima Ratio Regum.

Never mind what Andrew Doull said about python, it's a great language for doing anything with, and especially great for something like a roguelike. I feel sad that you were put off, I hate when that happens.

I remember Z once did an interview for Roguelike Radio in episode 82. Maybe he can give us an impression of his experience with it?

Well, that interview was quite a long time ago. But it was quite fun I think I was afraid that I won't be able to speak smoothly, but it was not a problem at all -- if I did have breaks or make errors, they were edited out.

I am not up-to-date with the current IVAN at all, but I guess I could still talk about IVAN3D and some of the past things.

I have recently started talking with Darren Grey about a possibility of me talking in the Roguelike Radio again (probably about HyperRogue), so I could mention that we would like to talk about IVAN too.

So Z has weighed in! I like hearing more from Z, and an interview about HyperRogue is exciting.

I'm becoming daily more interested in taking part. I can talk about development from the perspective of someone who hasn't been there from the very beginning, learnings from building a fork, how the community responded, and then how this shaped my present-day thinking.


Ighalli, what better way to voice your opinion of the show than... on the show itself?

It sounds like we have enough participants. Would you all prefer to wait for Erno to get home/try to get Kahvi on board, or should we contact the RLR hosts with the panel we've gathered already?

Aargh! Don't throw me to the wolves Chao, you've been around longer than I have! =D
So thanks but no thanks, I'm a terrible speaker and haven't been active in a long time.

Hum, I do think it'd be interesting, but not only does the timezone concern me, Australian internet isn't exactly top notch either. Also, I have no idea how many people we can have.

I'm still keen.

Ernomouse: No problem!

I think we've got enough volunteers, and I can't find any contact details for J_Kahvi, so for now the way forward is probably:
1. Gather email addresses and start a group email with Darren and Mark,
2. Use Doodle polls to find a date and time that suits as many of us as possible,
3. Gather Skype names and record the show.

chaostrom: RLR often has people from Australia, the UK, and the US in a single episode, so it's worthwhile to try to accomodate your timezone - especially if fejoa is in a nearby one. Slow internet is more likely to be a problem - is it slow enough to make voice calls unintelligible?

I have no idea, I don't make voice calls. What I do know is that my internet tends to slow down late at night. Who's on the final list anyway?

Skype lets you make test calls to their servers to check the audio quality - I'd recommend trying at good and bad internet times.
The people who've expressed nonzero interest are:
* fejoa
* Zayre
* Ighalli
* Z
* chaostrom
Mark Johnson and Darren Grey were both positive about the idea on Twitter.
I could join the panel if necessary, but it sounds like we have enough.

Well, I tried when my internet was particularly bad.

I can't even log in to skype lol. Just go ahead without me.

Sure thing, chaostrom!
I've sent private messages to fejoa, Zayre, Ighalli, and Z asking for email addresses. I'll contact the RLR hosts once I've got email addresses or withdrawals from everyone, or in a week (on the 10th of August).

I tipped J_Kahvi about this on facebook. You're welcome!

Oh! That's great, thank you so much!