David Craddock - Dungeon Hacks

This talk is from the 2016 Roguelike Celebration: https://roguelike.club/event.html, re-uploaded 2021.

To the uninitiated, roguelikes appear simple: text blips denoting monsters and legendary heroes prowl through dungeons hewn from hash signs and periods. Under the hood, these games abound with clever algorithms that ensure no two adventures will ever be the same. Dungeon Hacks author David L. Craddock plumbs depths of 10,000 feet to discuss the history of the genre—from primordial titles like Beneath Apple Manor and Rogue to contemporary classics such as NetHack and Angband, and the foundational tropes that inspire the roguelike authors of today.

David L. Craddock is the author of several books on game development including Dungeon Hacks, Stay Awhile and Listen, and Break Out: How the Apple II Launched the PC Gaming Revolution. Additionally, he is the author of Heritage, a fantasy novel for young adults named runner-up of the Shortlist for Speculative Fiction Book of the Year (2014) – Book Publishers Association of Alberta.