Roguelike Developer Public Relations 101

Top tip: when you release a roguelike, do not go on a hissy fit invoking the-one-true-style-of-programming when someone points out that the code as distributed does not compile and suggests a possible fix. It's a dereliction of your duty as a developer to get your product out and working to your audience. And additionally, the problem with high horses is that they tend to hurt when you fall off them.

That unpleasantness aside, Martin's Dungeon Bash is actually a pleasant enough roguelike, fun to play, and I will be posting a fuller review of it shortly.

Commercial vs Non-Commercial Development Tools

In the comments to my earlier post, Mario Donick rightfully reminds me of an important factor in choosing development tools: price.

I'd like to ask a followup question: assuming the same price-point for a commercial and non-commercial tool, and all other things being equal (e.g. featureset, license terms, multi-platform compilation and so on), are there any non-ideological reasons why someone would choose the non-commercial tool?

(I want to specify non-ideological reasons because to many developers, supporting smaller companies or the open source development paradigm are obviously important)

And as a second followup, how do you think the answers to this question given by Roguelike developers compare to those given by developers in other areas of software development?

World of Warcraft is the new Rogue

Alright, that might just be a bit of an overstatement, but it does seem like some MMO-companies have been taking a leaf out of roguelikes when it comes to game complexity and tactics. Granted, the company concerned does have quite a track record when it comes to roguelikes, but the level of detail and thought that has went into some encounters and the tactics and complexity required to overcome them rivals that of some roguelikes at least. Granted, MMOs generally lack randomness, and of course permadeath, and a whole host of other features common in roguelikes, but I think there is a strong case for at least a commonality between the genres. What do you think?