I started a Patreon! I made seven 7DRLs and released Golden Krone Hotel all in my spare time while working a regular full time job. With increasingly little free time these days, Patreon will make it easier for me to justify continued work on all my little roguelike projects.
https://www.patreon.com/vulgat
Discord
Simultaneously, a new Discord server was launched to provide a place for the GKH community to hang out. We do have a channel within the roguelikes server, but I wanted something that can grow as I work on new projects. Stop by and say hi some time.
https://discord.gg/3YdrDez
Seven Day Roguelike Challenge - 2019
The judging for the 7DRL challenge of 2019 is complete. My entry Spell Wheel, a zany broughlike about constructing complex wands, placed 6th... tied with 10 other games (what an amazing showing this year huh!)
http://roguetemple.com/7drl/2019/
Speaking of broughlikes, there's another upcoming game jam called the Seven Day Broughlike challenge. I will probably be participating if I can squeeze in some time. I'm also working on a JavaScript tutorial about building your own broughlike. Look for that in the near future.
You can see the leaderboards here: http://www.goldenkronehotel.com/valentines.php
You might notice a particular participant there a lot: me! I never realized how fun the game is with turn restrictions. And the winning runs were quite surprising. Sub-2000 turn wins!?! I don't think anyone of us realized what was possible before this competition.
Congratulations to LuckyLuckLuc, Tone, and zxc.
The turnout was a bit lower than I expected, so I still have 1 key for Rogue Empire. The first comment requesting the key will get it.
Valentine's Weekend Competition: February 14-17
We're running another Valentine's competition starting Valentine's Day (Thursday) and going all weekend.
This time, it's all about trying to get the lowest turn count. To win, simply beat the game with at least 4 rings and try to do so in the fewest number of turns. You have four days to do so.
Rules
Winners will be those with the shortest turn counts on winning runs having a minimum of 4 rings
You can play on either EASY or NORMAL mode
Begin and end your run during the 4 days of the competition (2/14-2/17 EST).
Make sure to upload your morgue file or turn on Automatic Morgue Upload
This time, previous winners will have their placement acknowledged but will be ineligible for prizes
Prizes
The top 5 winners (3 on NORMAL mode, 2 on EASY) will win a copy of the recently released Rogue Empire.
Winning in few turns will be challenging. Feel free to share your strategies in the GKH discord.
Good luck!
Halloween Contest - Final Night
Congrats to emikaela for last night's win.
The final night of the Halloween contest is about to begin!
Tonight's disguise is CULTIST
:kronecultist:
A few reminders about the rules:
Most importantly, the only way I can verify your win is an uploaded morgue file. Make sure you are playing through steam so your username is captured and turn on automatic morgue upload if desired
Your time must begin on or after 10pm EDT
You must play on NORMAL
You must play as the specified disguise
If you believe you are the first to win, please announce such in the discord chat.
Good luck!
Halloween Contest - 2nd Night
Congrats to IceBox and LuckyLuckLuc for winning times on NORMAL and DESPAIR last night respectively.
The 2nd night of the Halloween contest is about to begin!
Tonight's disguise is MERCHANT
A few reminders about the rules:
Most importantly, the only way I can verify your win is an uploaded morgue file. Make sure you are playing through steam so your username is captured and turn on automatic morgue upload if desired
Your time must begin on or after 10pm EDT
You must play on NORMAL
You must play as the specified disguise
If you believe you are the first to win, please announce such in the discord chat.
Most importantly, the only way I can verify your win is an uploaded morgue file. Make sure you are playing through steam so your username is captured and turn on automatic morgue upload if desired
Your time must begin on or after 10pm EDT
You must play on NORMAL
You must play as the specified disguise
If you believe you are the first to win, please announce such in the discord chat.
Good luck!
Halloween Contest: October 29-31 @ 10pm EDT
Three races, three chances to win
Golden Krone Hotel has been fully released for one year! To celebrate, we're running a friendly little contest.
Be the first player to race to the top of the hotel to win.
The contest takes place over 3 nights (10/29 - 10/31) and starts precisely at 10pm EDT each night. Your run must start on or after that time.
Rules
To win, be the first to beat the game on NORMAL mode by getting at least 4 rings
Each night you must play with a specific disguise, which will be announced on twitter and discord shortly before the race starts
Make sure the setting "automatic morgue upload" is turned on to qualify or quickly upload it manually
As an extra bonus: try your hand at DESPAIR mode. One extra prize will be awarded to the first player during the three days who wins a run on DESPAIR with the announced disguise as long as that run begins and ends between 10pm - midnight EDT.
Max one prize per player
Prizes
Winners will have their choice of the following games:
Please come hang out with us on discord and feel free to stream if that's your thing.
Good luck!
Bugfix update v1.4
A really quick announcement: I've pushed a very small but important bugfix update to address issues in the update from last week.
Basically, the previous update attempted to fix an issue which would occur if you saved in a treasure room in the Underworld. After loading the save, subsequent levels would be corrupted because they were using the wrong level size. In an attempt to fix that issue (which was fairly rare), I introduced a bug where several of the regular levels would be corrupted. Uh oh!
Sorry to anyone that got tripped up by this one. It didn't come up in 3 weeks of testing.
If you do see any other weirdness, please let me know!
The second change is that, after selecting a new zoom level in the Options menu, the selection stays on zoom instead of jumping all over the place.
Contest
Keep an eye out for an upcoming announcement regarding the Halloween contest.
Bugfix update, new wiki, and what's next
As I said in the last (huge) announcement, I'm winding down the major content updates to Golden Krone Hotel but bug fixes are still fair game.
In this update, I've fixed a really weird bug with winning the game, added some cool effects to the Big status, and added one new disguise (I couldn't resist).
The new disguise is the Apothecary. Easily the hardest start to the game, this disguise is also potentially the best in the late game. Full change log below.
Wiki
I've designed GKH as the anti-wiki roguelike, easy to pick up and totally winnable without spoilers of any kind. But still I've had a couple players ask "where is the wiki!?" Here is my answer. The wiki covers stat calculations, tips, and details on the 50+ monsters and 16 branches to be found in the game. Feel free to add your own strategies.
https://www.goldenkronehotel.com/wiki
What's next
If you want to see where I'm going after this project, please sign up for my email newsletter. The next thing may or may not be roguelike related, but I promise it will be interesting. :)
Miasma for players has guaranteed poison and extra status effects per level
Organ plays sounds on hit
Up and Down works on all menu lists and Space confirms so the game is easily playable with one hand
Attempted fix for controller + revolver going insane
Zoom level gets reapplied on load
Shield upgrade display bug fixed
Fane no longer hits you when forgiving
Vampires no longer wander into sunlight when unprovoked. They will still run into the light when chasing you
The Last Update - Controller support, cloud saves, 6 six new branches, and lots more
Some roguelikes never cease development. Well, this ain't one of 'em.
When Golden Krone Hotel was released last October, it was absolutely a complete experience, but a handful of things never made the cut. With this last update, the game is as exactly as I envisioned when I first decided to expand it from its humble Seven Day Roguelike origins.
Six new branches have been added bringing the total number of floors on each run to 27! Controller support is finally here as is clouds saves. Nine new achievements were added.
Hawkers are now friendly so you don't have to tip toe around them.
Several new monsters are introduced with this update including the Devourer, a vampire that can teleport to pools of blood. Other vampires now drink blood off the floor just like the player does.
The Underworld has been reworked to make it more varied, interesting, and fun.
Lore is now permanently collectible and a ton of books, conversations, and even a world map has been added.
A hotel map provides the location of hawkers, chests, and bosses.
New spells, new potions, and a new vampire ability are in the mix.
Dozens of other changes listed below....
Have fun
Enjoy the update, let me know if you see any issues, and one last favor: please add a review to the game if you enjoyed it.
The game should be going on sale within 24 hours.
Thanks for all the support, my kronies!
Changelog
Full list:
Cloud saves
Controller support
Zoom level to help with odd resolutions and playing on a TV
2 new guaranteed branches:
HEDGE MAZE
HIVE
4 new random branches (you'll see 2 of these each run):
LABORATORY
RAFTERS
WATCHTOWER
WORKSHOP
Added Fede ring. It gives a spell power bonus and can be found in one of the previous two branches
Hawkers are now friendly all the time
Prices in the hotel have doubled
New vampire to fit in for the Hawker: Devourer. This one is bad ♥♥♥
Other new monsters: Elder GreenMan, DeathCap Toadstool, Electric Golem, Magma Golem, Artificer, Gargoyle, Naiad (water nymph). Mother♥♥♥♥ing Bees!
WARP has been removed. I finally admitted to myself that it was useless.
Two new spells: GLACIATE and QUAKE
New demon blood ability: QUENCH
Demon blood abilities are now randomly swapped out periodically when you have a full set
Demon blood abilities are easier to acquire the fewer of them you have (first one is guaranteed)
Minimap can be expanded
A hotel "overworld" map can be access with 'I'.
Expanded and rewritten lore and some more conversations. 40+ pages to collect, plus an infinite procedural "Song of Blood"
An actual overworld map is one of the things you can collect, which is totally pointless but cool!
New potion: BIG. The berserker starsts with it now.
New potion: Clarity
Condensed intelligence and mana potion into one way more useful potion, which is now given to the Scholar
Merchant gets a bonus $100 to start
Walking on stairs automatically tells you the destination
Mana increase per level simplified (2mp/level)
Fixed a crash bug which happened when falling through a pit onto ice
Enemy vampires will drink blood just like you do. Some vampires will even go out of their way for it. The player now bleeds.
Strength, which was significantly underpowered compared to dexterity, now gives a percent damage reduction (1.5% per every point above 10) on top of it's previous function.
All the statuses have been stylized
Added organs. Examine to play (V/select)!
Added Time Crystals
Blast damage reduced per hit
Examing a sunlit staircase gives the proper description
Tile animation is slowed down when the game is struggling. I
hope* this helps with performance somewhat
Items can be picked up on lava/water
Water + lava = stone
Fixed a very elusive portal spawn bug
Windows are brightened even when unbroken and even a bit before sunrise!
Sunlight on windows has been added to minimap
Added note to options about Numlock needing to be off for diagonal movement
Thumb ring nerfed (100% -> 33% crit chance)
Dummy status when submerged
New floor sprite on main floors
More potions made optional per run, so you get more variety
Confirm default moves is now on by default, but way better
Wolves are friendly to werewolves
Hunters buffed slightly
Burning monsters now give off light
Invisiblity no longer prevents enemy spell casting when adjacent
Solomonari now have colorful robes to hint at their chosen spell
Turn count added to UI
Morgue auto-upload turned off by default
Random class selection
Lots of Underworld changes
Underworld no longer reenterable except through recall potions
Armor now spawns in Underworld
New item: Arcane Hammer. Increases your lowest gear by +1. No limit.
Power curve in infinite levels retuned
Blood drops on ice
Too many balance tweaks to mention
Each Underworld level has a distinct look and layout and set of monsters rather than all being a generic underworld cave setting
Sometimes multiple Baron bosses can spawn
Barons have a wider variety of abilities
Some more Baron appendages
Treasure levels that spawn about 10% of the time
Cancelling Grimoires gives +1 MP
Tooltips on spells/abilities can be accessed through V + 1-4
Fixed an issue with remapping 0 or ` keys
Text fix on 1 gold piece
Distracting console messages removed after examine/revolver modes are exited
Casting a spell now ends the turn for any monster. No more one turn deaths from Gorgon Queen
The encounter with Fane has been altered slightly
Fixed a light bug with TEMPEST
Fixed incorrect key hints bug
Fixed selectable loading screen
Fixed Gallery crystal display cases that were accessible with 8 way movement
8 way vs 4 way movement is locked per run
Fixed a display issue with vampires sometimes having .5 extra MP
"Delete save" button has been renamed to "Delete current run" for clarity
Fixed the remapping of CONFIRM
Now allowing UP/DOWN/CONFIRM to be used on menu lists even if they are mapped to A-Z. But beware if using this feature! It will preferentially select the enumerated menu list item before your command (e.g. picking [S] instead of DOWN)
Shift movement no longer brings up Confirm Move warning but instead stops early
