GearHead is a futuristic roguelike game, created by Joseph Hewitt. It is open-source software.
Background[]
A century and a half ago the Earth was nearly destroyed by nuclear war. Now, a federation of free city-states has begun to restore civilization. However, there are forces operating in the darkness which will unleash the horrors of the past age in a bid to determine the future of the human race.
Description[]
GearHead is the first roguelike to explore the world of "mechas" (giant robots). Lots of futuristic jobs and skills (mecha pilot, medic, etc.) are available, as well as piloting those mechas. Among GearHead's features:
- Quests are randomly generated, based on predefined scripts, the number of which is constantly increasing.
- Skills are increased both by successfully using them or "buying" them in exchange for XP obtained by completing quests and slaying foes.
- Extensive mecha design system, allowing in-game modification of existing models.
- Two spatial scales: personal (on foot), in which the default movement uses the standard coordinates convention, and mecha which uses a "turtle" system in which you must turn and advance.
- The global plot consists of a number of smaller subplots, which are randomly generated every time.
- Very open structure: All objects/plots/monsters are stored in plain text files, so it's quite easy to add/modify content.
- Many different viable types of characters and strategies: there is no "best weapon", "best character" or "best mecha".
- Come in ASCII-based and graphical flavors.
Versions and platforms[]
Like most roguelikes by Joseph Hewitt, GearHead was developed in Free Pascal. It's available for Linux, FreeBSD, DOS and Microsoft Windows. The source code is quite portable, so it's probably possible to compile it on other platforms too.
A sequel, GearHead 2, is currently in development.