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[appuru]

I was thinking about it for a bit, and doomrl could be ported to a mobile platform like Android. While the key usage can range from minimal to extensive, I think the pace of DoomRL is appropriate for a mobile environment. Porting roguelikes to android is not unheard of, and there's in fact many attempts, though in my opinion any game that does not fit the "coffee break roguelike" paradigm is not appropriate for an Android port.

Menu navigation is already simple and painless, but I imagine the main challenge here would be maximizing usability of the UI given a small window size and a touchscreen. For example, items in your inventory could be highlighted in the touch-screen, and highlighting an item gives you the option of using it or dropping it. A full featured keyboard can be used, but this would leave roughly half the window size for the map, so maybe a smaller portion of the screen can be used in exchange for less keys/more touch-screen interaction.

Of course, if such a port was made, I would be glad to pay for it. Having the convenience of playing my favorite roguelike just about anywhere is well worth the $1.99 it might cost, or whatever it ends up being.

It's definitely not a trivial problem, but if there's a roguelike that can become a hit in the Android market, it would be this one. :)

EDIT: I forgot to add, I know nothing about Android application development, and I don't know if the language and/or libraries used to develop DoomRL are incompatible or not. Just wanted to throw this idea out there.

[Kornel Kisielewicz]

iOS, mobile versions, Android versions, console versions, handheld versions -- they'd all be uber cool. But you people keep forgetting one thing -- I don't have the permission to use Doom IP... so no market nor console will allow me to do a release.

Sad but true :(.

[appuru]

Ah, that's quite the bummer. I was mixing up derivative games (like Doom for Android) and straight up using Doom IP, it seems they are treated quite differently. I imagine then the only choice would be to pay for a license to use their IP. Have you tried speaking with with ZeniMax Media to get an idea of how much money we are talking about? If the amount is not exorbitant, and this is something you would love to do eventually.. I can see myself chipping in!

I have no idea if there's any distinction from a small group of indie developers for a text-based game or Microsoft Studios, though. :P If obtaining such a license would be unreasonably expensive, the only other choice would be to replace all Doom IP with something else, which would not be very Doom-like! :(

Thanks for the quick reply, this makes a lot of sense now.

[ParaSait]

Keep the mechanics and gameplay exactly the same--just change some of the names. DoomRL has evolved so much it could easily live it's own life like that now. Voila, no more copyright issues. :P

[S.K. Ren]

You also would have to deal with small copyright issues with some of the various non-DOOM items in game like the Storm bolter pistol(WH40K) or Dragonslayer&Berserk Armour(Berserk). Though small, those too could require a tweak or removal depending on how much trouble dealing with Games Workshop or Miura Sensei turns out to be.

[thelaptop]

EDIT: I forgot to add, I know nothing about Android application development, and I don't know if the language and/or libraries used to develop DoomRL are incompatible or not. Just wanted to throw this idea out there.

IP issues aside, the development for the Android platform uses the Java language as the preferred language, which gets compiled down to the byte code for the Dalvik VM.  DoomRL and other Chaosforge Rogue-likes are written in Freepascal/LUA, with large swathes of the underlying library (Valkyrie) written in Freepascal also; next-generation rogue-likes of Chaosforge will focus on C++/LUA as the target language, so it is not going to be pretty trying to port all these code to the Android API.  I'm not sure if there's a LUA interpreter that is freely available on Android; if there is, and Kornel manages to rewrite the platform-independent parts of the various rogue-likes in pure LUA, then maybe there's a chance to port the particular rogue-like to the Android platform.

Sorry for being the wet blanket.

[ParaSait]

Hmmm... some java geek here gotta make JValkyrie someday. :D

[gilgatex]

Sorry, it's pet peeve of mine when people say copyright when it's not a copyright issue.  This is a trademark issue :)

And ParaSait is correct, if you remove all the trademarked names, the trademark holders wouldn't have a cause against you, as long as you change the names to something that isn't "confusingly similar."  Like changing "Doom" to "Doon" and keeping the graphical blue and yellow letters in the title would probably get you in trouble.  Things like "demon" and "imp," however, are generic names and don't need to be changed.  Names like Arch-vile, Cyberdemon, and Mancubus could be trademarked.

<---- law school student

[MaiZure]

and don't forget to change the most lauded of DoomRL's features in the Roguelike Community...the sounds!
:/

[ParaSait]

I don't think sounds will be that big of a problem. Not completely sure, but I think a lot/most of Doom's sounds were rather generic in nature, as I have heard them in various other games, cartoons, etc. So I guess it shouldn't be too hard to use these sounds in DoomRL's mobile app too...?

[gilgatex]

I don't think sounds will be that big of a problem. Not completely sure, but I think a lot/most of Doom's sounds were rather generic in nature, as I have heard them in various other games, cartoons, etc. So I guess it shouldn't be too hard to use these sounds in DoomRL's mobile app too...?

I would think so.  Wouldn't be too difficult to re-record them or grab a similar public domain sound anyway.  The music would definitely have to be changed.  Like appuru said, you'd have to make the game so undoom-like, why even bother?

[ParaSait]

Well y'know, if I had any mobile device (which I don't but whatever), I would certainly wanna play DoomRL on it (finally something else to do than sudoku on the train every morning and evening). So for me personally, the "doomishness" is the least important thing; what matters is that I (speaking in name of everyone) can play DoomRL on a mobile device.
If I wanted it to be doomish I could still mod it. :P

EDIT: Also, Kornel, can't you just release it as a homebrew for jailbroken iShizzles?