Publisher(s) ChaosForge Programmer(s) Kornel Kisielewicz Developer Kornel Kisielewicz Artist Derek Yu | Designer(s) Kornel Kisielewicz Initial release date 8 September 2002 Genre Roguelike Mode Single-player video game | |
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Release date(s) WW: 19 March 2013 (v0.9.9.7) Platforms Microsoft Windows, Linux, Macintosh operating systems, DOS Similar Roguelike games, Other games | ||
DRL (formerly DoomRL), short for Doom, the Roguelike, roguelike video game developed by ChaosForge. Since 2002 in-development and based on the first-person shooters Doom and Doom II, it was released for Microsoft Windows, Linux and OS X. Following a cease and desist notice from "Doom" trademark owner, ZeniMax Media, the game's names was changed to DRL in 2016.
Contents
Gameplay
DRL is turn-based, offers a top-down interface formed entirely of ASCII characters, and features a character leveling system with traits. As it is based upon Doom, the game is more fast-paced and combat-oriented than usual for a roguelike, and relies heavily on ranged rather than melee combat. A limited player inventory, non-stackable items, and other design choices contrast with the often extreme intricacy of games in its genre.
As of version 0.9.9.6, Derek Yu's graphical tileset is now the game's default, offering an alternative to the more traditional ASCII rendering. DRL includes the entire Doom soundset and music library, with optional support for high-quality MP3s.
Development
The game was created by programmer Kornel Kisielewicz with Free Pascal, and uses art by Derek Yu. The developers based DRL in the popular first-person shooters Doom and Doom II universe. Since approximately 2002 in-development with first beta versions, the latest stable release is from 2013.
Wordmark conflict
On December 2, 2016, Kisielewicz received a cease and desist notice from ZeniMax Media, concerning the use of the wordmark "Doom" present on game's website and name, which ZeniMax trademarked worldwide. To exclude "Doom" from the game's name, the title was changed to simply DRL on December 7, 2016.
Open sourcing
In addition, the game was made open source by Kisielewicz on December 6, 2016. Kisielewicz had planned on releasing DoomRL as open-source prior to receiving the notice at the conclusion of an ongoing Kickstarter campaign for Jupiter Hell, a sequel to DoomRL using the same assets, as a thank-you to his supporters. The notice only made him push up this change to an earlier date. The source code was made available via GitHub under GPLv2 and the game's assets under the CC BY-SA license. Kisielewicz anticipates that the open-source community will be able to provide support and improvements to enhance both DRL and Jupiter Hell. For instance, a community source port of DRL to the OpenPandora handheld resulted already three days later.