Kerkerkruip

From IFWiki

Fantasy
Fantasy
Under­ground
Under­ground
RPG
RPG
Green IF comp ribbon.png
IF Comp 2011
8th of 38
Two trophies.png
XYZZY Awards 2011
Best Use of Innovation, Best Supplemental Materials
Kerkerkruip
cover art
Author(s) Victor Gijsbers; Mike Ciul, Dannii Willis, Erik Temple, Remko van der Pluijm, Wade Clarke
Publisher(s) n/a
Release date(s) 01-Oct-2011
Authoring system Inform 7
Platform(s) Glulx
Language(s) English
License(s) Freeware
Multimedia
Color effects none
Graphics none
Sound/Music none
Ratings
Cruelty scale Cruelty to be determined

How It Begins

When you claimed that you were tough enough to take on Malygris single-handedly, everyone knew you had been drinking much more than was good for you. And the prince is not one to let an opportunity pass. Before you could so much as protest, his court mage opened a portal and you were shoved through. Predictably, the portal immediately disappeared. You doubt they're going to open it up again -- but at least you can try to make good on your boast and kill Malygris, the Wizard of Kerkerkruip!

Notable Features

  • This game is a hybrid of interactive fiction and a roguelike game.
  • When the player begins a new game, the engine procedurally generates a random dungeon with a random list of enemies, weapons, and items.
  • The game is heavily focused on a combat system that is based on the author's own Inform 7 library extension called ATTACK. The player can attack, parry, dodge, or concentrate. The decision of which action to take on any turn supports one of the author's principle design goals, that "success in combat should be the result of smart and daring tactical decisions, not just a matter of luck." [1]
  • The commands undo and save are unavailable to the player. If the player quits a game or terminates the interpreter program in the middle of the game and then reloads Kerkerkruip at a later time, the game can be continued where the player left off. However, once the player character is killed, the only way to continue is to begin a new game. This is permanent death, another defining characteristic of roguelike games.

Trivia and Comments

  • "Kerkerkruip" is Dutch and translates into English literally as "dungeon crawl." However, the author notes, this is "crawl" the verb, not "crawl" the noun. [2]
  • In the tradition of most roguelikes, Kerkerkruip is a work in progress and the author plans to release many subsequent versions with new and upgraded features.

Versions

Release 1

Most recent version

Release Notes

Release 2 (May 1, 2012)

Release 2 of Kerkerkruip has been made available, introducing new features, fixing many bugs and (probably) introducing many new ones. Hours of random dungeon crawling fun for the whole family guaranteed!

New features: more powerful smoke and hiding systems; new scrolls; random dungeon features like unholy runes and a teleport beacon; two new special enemies; the ability to turn into a vampire; a less random distribution of attack rolls; and quite a lot more.

Release 3 (August 26, 2012)

This new release of Kerkerkruip adds two new monsters: the demon of rage (level 2) and the minotaur (level 3). Both only appear on Hard and higher difficulty.

There are also many smaller changes, including a lot of behind-the-scenes work on the code, as well as some bug fixes. Several special abilities have been slightly buffed in order to make them more useful.

Release 4 (September 5, 2012)

We're proud to present Kerkerkruip release 4, with the following changes:

  • New item: vial of purification. Unghoul yourself!
  • New item: dagger of the double strike. You missed? Why not try again!
  • Player forms (human, ghoul, vampire) now interact in a slightly different way, as the first result of a more powerful player form system.
  • Fixed bug: the imp printed a testing message that should have been removed in the release.
  • Fixed bug: you no longer remain in rage after running away from a combat.

Release 5 (September 11, 2012)

Release 5 brings a lot of changes.

NEW SYSTEMS

  • Items, rooms and monsters now have a rarity, giving the developers more control over how often you will see certain elements of the dungeon.
  • There is now an 'unlock' system, which means that some items, rooms and monsters will be unlocked as you manage to get more victories. For instance, winning three victories will unlock the ravenous armadillo; winning four victories will unlock the essence of greed; and so on.
  • You can now reset your victories and your achievements. (If you want to experience unlocking stuff from the beginning, you should reset your victories first.)

NEW CONTENT

  • New weapon: the backstabber, a cursed dagger that sometimes attacks random people, including the wielder.
  • New weapon: the spiked mace of the ape king, a weapon that grows every time it deals damage.
  • New clothing: the cloak of reflection, a cloak that sometimes reflects ranged attacks back to the attacker.

OTHER CHANGES

  • The help menu has been revised. It features updated contact information, and a section with help for players new to interactive fiction.
  • The pierce skill now improves with concentration.

BUG FIXES

  • The holy symbols and the unholy symbols now also affect the smoke demon.
  • You no longer have to duck under the chain golem's chains when using the pierce ability.
  • Having no concentration no longer allows you to always escape the chain golem's chains.

Release 6 (November 3, 2012)

I'm happy to announce release 6 of Kerkerkruip, the most exciting release since the original release. In it you will find:

  • Complete redesign of most powers that the player can gain. The powers are now much more useful and much more interesting.
  • Perception, willpower and dexterity have been replaced by body, mind and spirit. This is more than just a change in flavour: these new faculties have distinct effects on combat and on all powers, and you'll be able to raise them as you kill monsters.
  • A new enemy: the hound.
  • A new system for tracking the difficulty. You will now lose only one level of difficulty upon death, rather than being reset to Normal immediately. The difficulty levels have also been renamed.
  • And many, many other changes and bug fixes.

We hope you'll enjoy the new version!

Release 7 (December 29, 2012)

In these final days of 2012, we are happy to announce the release of Kerkerkruip 7! It brings you new enemies, new and improved items, a better unlocking system, and bug fixes. Among the highlights are:

  • All uninteresting or useless items have been redesigned (or, in a few cases, removed). Your enemies will no longer leave behind identical swords; flash grenades will no longer permanently blind you; and much more! Veteran players will want to examine every item anew to see whether it has changed.
  • Several new cursed items have been added, including the singing sword and the fearful axe. And there are rumours that the demon lord's diadem isn't as harmless as it seems either.
  • New items have been added, including the gauntlets of grip, the psychedelic cloak, and the epic periapt of prophecy.
  • Level 1 and 2 monsters now have more health. This rebalances the early game, which had become a bit too easy over the last few releases.
  • Three new enemies will appear: the undead mummified priest; the demonic mistress; and a new level 1 creature, the wisps of pain, which will empower you in a very peculiar way.
  • Some fixes and improvements have been made to the unlocking system. Which monsters, rooms and items will appear no longer depends on the difficulty, but only on the number of victories you have won. (More complicated stuff gets unlocked as you win the game more often.) It is also possible to get access to all the goods immediately. From the title screen, go to the options menu and choose the unlock everything option -- this is recommended for Kerkerkruip veterans.

Have fun, and the Kerkerkruip team wishes you a great 2013!

Release 8 (May 11, 2013)

The Kerkerkruip team is very pleased to release version 8 of the interactive fiction roguelike Kerkerkruip! This release brings some major interface changes, including:

  • Introductory movies.
  • A graphical main menu.
  • After you defeat a monster, it will be added to your Rogues Gallery, a collection of trading cards with stats that summarize your history with each enemy.
  • Side panels that allow you to see your inventory, status and granted powers at all times.
  • A graphical map that is automatically updated as you explore the dungeon.

Don't worry: you can also play Kerkerkruip in non-graphical mode if you are using screen reader technology or a slow computer. The game will ask you for your preference when it is first started.

There are of course also many changes to the game itself:

  • Several new rooms: the Hall of Raging Banshees, the Columnated Ruins, the Tungausy Sweat Lodge, the Zen Room, and the rare but powerful Arena of the Fallen.
  • New items, including the dagger Giantbane; scrolls of mutation, mapping, and psycholocation; magical guides that allow you to identify scrolls; and the crown of the god-king.
  • A new level 4 enemy, the overmind. It is weak, but it strengthens all its allies, and can call them to its aid when endangered.
  • Two new combat reactions: rolling (a more dangerous but potentially devastating form of dodging) and blocking (a form of parrying in which you use your concentration for extra defence).
  • Blood magic, which allows you to feed your own health to items in order to make them more powerful. Are you willing to take the risk? Of course you are. Are you willing to take it a second time, trading more blood for more power? What about a third time?
  • A small but very significant tweak to the combat system: you can now snort ment during fights!
  • And many other additions, tweaks and bug fixes.

As always, we hope you'll enjoy the new version!

Release 9 (April 13, 2014)

With over 700 commits to the code repository, the changes made in Kerkerkruip 9 are far too numerous to mention here. But the highlights are:

  • Original theme music for the main menu, composed and produced by Wade Clarke.
  • An entirely reworked reaction system allows you to dodge, block, parry and roll away from incoming attacks. Successful reactions increase your offensive or defensive flow, adding a new layer of tactical depth to combat.
  • An entirely reworked religion system allows you to sacrifice absorbed powers to the gods. Worshipping gods grants lasting benefits, including divine interventions on your behalf; but losing absorbed powers makes you weaker in the short term. Religion thus becomes an important aspect of the player's overall strategy.
  • Grenades can now be thrown into adjacent rooms, opening up new tactical options. However, your enemies may sometimes manage to throw them back to you!
  • A powerful new grenade is the Morphean grenade, which puts people to sleep. If you become its victim, you'll find yourself drawn into one of several dream sequences: weird and dangerous adventures that have an effect on the real world.
  • The hiding system has been streamlined, boosted and made far more transparent. Stealth has now become a viable option.
  • The player now starts out with one of several starting kits, necessitating different approaches to the dungeon.
  • New content includes the angel of compassion, a radiant being that loses its lustre as people die around it; Israfel, a terrible angel that can split into two smaller beings for increased combat effectiveness before reuniting to heal; and the Arena of the Gods, where you can defend your god's honour against other divine champions.
  • A new Menu implementation which is both screen reader friendly and hyperlink enabled.

We are now also offering stand-alone installers for specific operating systems. While it's still possible to download the game file and run it in your favourite Glulx interpreter, there are also installers for Windows and Debian/Ubuntu. We will be supporting OS X in the near future.

Finally, we have a new website at http://kerkerkruip.org. That's where you should go for downloads, more information about the game and how to contribute, and a link to the wiki.

Kerkerkruip is presented to you by the Kerkerkruip team: Victor Gijsbers, Mike Ciul, Dannii Willis, Erik Temple and Remko van der Pluijm. We hope you enjoy the new version. If you've got any comments, or if you'd like to contribute to this free software project, please go the website for details and contact us!

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