ASCII graphics
Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 12:36 am
What is everyone's views on ASCII graphics? And I don't mean drawing pictures with them, but more along the lines of using individual ASCII characters to represent entities in the game like in Dwarf Fortress or the traditional Roguelike games.
I have been considering making a multiplayer RPG with ASCII graphics for some time. Mostly because they are super easy to work with for those without much artistic skill. And also because they have had a resurgence in popularity that seems to have made players more accepting of ASCII graphics than of games with poorly-made graphics. Has anyone else thought about this? You could actually make the game quite dynamic and even real-time. I think building it as a web app could really allow a dedicated dev to make the game less obtuse and easier to understand than the super-hardcore styles of games that graphics style is often associated with. For example, instead of having players memorize what character represented what, you could have a dynamic key in the corner of the page that updates with what each character represents. This would also prevent you from having to use one-character-per-entity which I think is often a problem in these types of games and causes stupid things like "Ice Orcs are represented by the } character". Every "orc" could be a different colored 'O' character since you could re-use that character again for something else.
Anyway, I have been kicking around this idea. I am really thinking about doing it but wanted to get some input from you guys to see what you think or if anyone else has even considered the same thing.
I have been considering making a multiplayer RPG with ASCII graphics for some time. Mostly because they are super easy to work with for those without much artistic skill. And also because they have had a resurgence in popularity that seems to have made players more accepting of ASCII graphics than of games with poorly-made graphics. Has anyone else thought about this? You could actually make the game quite dynamic and even real-time. I think building it as a web app could really allow a dedicated dev to make the game less obtuse and easier to understand than the super-hardcore styles of games that graphics style is often associated with. For example, instead of having players memorize what character represented what, you could have a dynamic key in the corner of the page that updates with what each character represents. This would also prevent you from having to use one-character-per-entity which I think is often a problem in these types of games and causes stupid things like "Ice Orcs are represented by the } character". Every "orc" could be a different colored 'O' character since you could re-use that character again for something else.
Anyway, I have been kicking around this idea. I am really thinking about doing it but wanted to get some input from you guys to see what you think or if anyone else has even considered the same thing.
