The Woods of Torbin (WoT for short) is my roguelike game project (what's a roguelike?). The original WoT (latest released version 0.0.2) was programmed in C++ for Windows only, and it has been dormant for a long time. However, I am in the process of a complete re-write of it, in Java.

This website is now also a host for my roguelike reviews section for recent roguelike projects, so have a look at that..

The old WoT binaries can be downloaded from this page. This is a buggy and very incomplete version, but if you're interested have a look.

Sorry, some portions of this site are very out of date, but I shall try to fix this up some time in the coming months, watch the News below for updates on that.

WoT News:

05/May/2008

24/July/2006

13/February/2006

16/January/2006

25/November/2005

22/November/2005

21/November/2005

• Development is going well, hopefully a release before the end of Feburary. In theory we could probably get one by Christmas, but I don't see the point as it won't be nearly as interesting by then - maybe something like v0.0.1 or slightly better; we're still on the basics.
• I won't redesign this site because it is barely used any more, the development blog is much more interesting for us (developers) now. However I will do this eventually by the release that might come in February.
• I haven't posted any reviews in a while, but I think I will keep the section here rather than moving it to RogueBasin as I planned earlier. And I will put up one or two more reviews sometime soon. (At least Guild).

22/October/2005

• Our developer blog is up. You can find it at: http://wot.blogsome.com/.
• The Green Background on this site is really annoying, I am going to redesign the site sometime in the coming few months and I promise to replace it with a softer colour.
• And yes, there may be a release around Christmas, but only if the developers actually do some work. May get one more developer, though that would be of no use if none of the developers are working. Right now things are SLOW.

14/October/2005

Added a review a Sharuppak in the reviews section. Also have recently made some progress on WoT.

10/October/2005

• To write fair reviews of Roguelikes is much harder than you think. It requires some playing of the game and testing out the features, and at my current slack pace I cannot keep up with the development in the roguelike community, so I will most probably transfer them all to RogueBasin in a couple of weeks.
• I will get a development blog up which me and my co-developer will (hopefully) use actively to log our progress.

08/August/2005

23/June/2005

• Had a look at the projects IVAN and Papaki - both have some cool features worth noting. Their reviews will be put up here in about 3-4 weeks after my overseas holiday.
• There seems to be no hope of restoring the redirection from http://www.woodsoftorbin.on.to/. I have registered http://www.woodsoftorbin.tk/ to do the same (redirect to here), but I don't really like that - so I guess I shall stick to advertising with the direct GeoCities link.
• Not sure if my co-developer wants me to use his name for the outside world, I will call him Atholas for now until I remember to ask him what he prefers.
• WoT Java-remake status (week 1):
  • General Window-Keyboard-Engine-Map interractions: Done
  • Basic window interface: Done
  • Image-handling: Done
  • Dungeon generation: Mostly done
  • User-input handling: Done
  • Options-file handling: Done
  • Basic creature and item structures: Done (Atholas)
  • Creature and Item generation: In progress (Atholas)
  • Creature Body Parts (new feature): In progress (Atholas)
• TODO: Will add a "Development Log"

21/June/2005

• A lot of progress has been done on the new version of WoT, both me and my new co-developer have made significant games in our parts of the project. A pre-Christmas release of something equivelent of what I've accomplished with the old v0.0.3 (not released) is definitely a possibily! (Though no promises!)
• Minor updates to the links page. I am going out of the country for a few weeks, after I come back I will re-write the links in a nicer interface - the current is just not working. And of course more reviews will be added.

18/June/2005

• (First half of the day) Half a year since the last update. But I am pleased to inform you that development is once again active. And I can now confidently say that there are going to be some major changes. I will announce any releases on the newsgroups rec.games.roguelike.development and possibly also rec.games.roguelike.announce & rec.games.roguelike.misc. But I do have to say that the next release will not be posted until possibly December or January, or even later. I do have a more advanced version 0.0.3, but I do not plan to release that - the remade version of WoT will take its place instead.
• (Second half of the day) I have made a lot of corrections and changes to the website. Most notably is the new Roguelike Reviews section. Also the front page (where you are now).

31/July/2004

• There will be a roguelike review section on this site shortly. I've written up most of the reviews, only now there are later versions of the older games so I'm going to review those before I upload the section. This should be complete by next Sunday at the latest.
• The next version of WoT, which will now be v0.1.0, will most probably be released during summer (probably shorty after christimas) - this should give me enough time to include more new features. There will be no v0.0.3 though.

20/June/2004

• There have been major delays in development as I don't seem to have much time on my hands these days, but now I'm getting more and more time to work on WoT. But I managed to restructure a lot of my old code allowing easier upgrades and making it easier for me to work with. I have some holidays coming up and I will dedicate a portion of those to WoT. WoT is still alive.
• Possible Time of Arrival of v0.0.3: July 16th. Last day of my holidays. I'll make sure that a close to bug-free version with some new features will be available by then. However, I may delay the next release till my project is more complete. Some of the features that I plan for the next version (some are already completed to a certain extent):
  • Normal distribution to replace the dice system (alpha-level of completion)
  • Ability to play for Humans!!! This includes different responses from towns people (complete!)
  • Better save file handling, now you can have multiple save files and choose to load them at the start of the game rather than create a new character. (complete!)
  • An attribute system, which means that you will be able to advance levels (currently in design)
  • (Possibly) Advanced shops (design complete, but a lot of work to implement what I have in mind)
  • Monsters will be able to make paralysing attacks (currently in development).
  • More items and monsters.
• Today I've added a bit more links to the links page, more will come sometime soon.

03/May/2004

• Futher coding is delayed for a couple of weeks due to lack of time.
• Known bugs in v0.0.2 gamma 1 which are not listed in the attached text file, these will all be fixed in v0.0.3:
  • Arrows are sometimes not redrawn on the same turn after they hit the ground.
  • Game sometimes freezes/crashes when you're hit by an arrow.
  • Hitting an incorrect slot key can cause the game to crash or to freeze.

02/May/2004

• The site has been updated, and it is now designed by hand rather than Microsoft Publisher.
• Version 0.0.2 gamma 1 has been released since the 22nd of April, it was released as a quick bug-fix version about 3 hours after version 0.0.2.

22/April/2004

• Version 0.0.2 is now released. Most notable changes include: quests, game options (including a choice between 2 inventory systems), great new introduction/victory and death screens, improved monster AI (but nothing fancy yet) and save/load game options. For full list of bug fixes and changes see changes.txt which now comes together with the executable.