3 - As polished as you can expect a game to be. Didn't find any glitches or missing feature

3

3 - puckered berries cause darkness? "books taht looked interesting" Trying to leave early bounces back.

2 - enough colors to look better than a 16 colors 80s roguelike, but could be better. I especially dislike white on black screens

2

2 - Town works well. Excellent help. Charging of moves good. But, no vi-keys, no normal numbers. Help on rooms should then say: "Do you want to enter?" as you entered without knowing what it did. Need delay after dying so you see death messages. Esc as well where you have [x] Confirm spell targeting with [x].

3 - can't wait to go back to it and retrieve "Princess jice"... Fun and addictive

2

3 - A bit of a learning curve, but the resulting system is very enjoyable

2 - the princess school setting with courses during week and escape in the wilderness on week-end when the guards are not there is a great idea

2

3 - Wonderfully done theme. Special moves work well, town learning is well integrated.

3 - More than complete, a full featured game with special moves, sidekicks, leveling, tutorial screens, wilderness and dungeons...

2

3 - A huge amount of content and systems for a 7drl!

3 - 100% conform

3

3 - This is an example of why permadeath is a misnomer, it really is "no save and restore"

Breath-taking game considered the development time. Very user friendly and pretty addictive. Visuals are probably the weakest part, but that won't affect most roguelike players.

Play this.

3

3 - It feels complete, decent amounts of polish

3 - Complete, no serious issues I could find

2

2 - Graphics are clean, but the text is a bit awkward. I ran it under wine and it was slow to refresh between moves.

2 - Look is vanilla roguelike. Font is horrible to read text in. Menus need Esc to cancel. Runs slowly on a P4, 3.4Ghz. Like the attention to detail re: gender. The menu's etc, have this plain blue/white look that could be better in the 24bit world.

2

3 - Great game, frustrating as hell though. I'll still probably keep an eye on it later.

2 - Hard. Not just the low-hp mechanics, but that the initial monsters are too smart for obvious tricks, so has a steep learning curve. Had a lot of work to live long enough to try to cast spells, thus hiding from players that whole mechanic. Need a "charger" rather than "sniffer" for level 1 creatures so you can enjoy dropping them in pits.

2

2 - The rune system and weak antagonist isn't 100% original, but this is a pretty fresh take on it

3 - The rune based system may, (though I haven't gone far enough in it) just be a reskin of spellbooks - the valid spells seem auto-ided for you. The low HP, indirect centered, combat is what is innovative.

2

2 - Pretty standard scope for a 7DRL

3 - There is a lot of depth here.

3

3 - All the standard roguelike elements are in play

3 - Yep

Harmless sees you pitted against a foe which is forbidden from harming you. Somewhat appropriately, you play a character who is so weak as to be pretty much practically incapable of harming any of other foes in the dungeon.

3 - complete game including weapons, items, armor, many creature types, experience levels and more. Didn't see any bugs and the interface was reasonable.

3 - Feels complete to me, runs stable, weapons, potions and combat all seem balanced. My only complaint would be about instakills as soon as the game starts

3 - Game polished

2 - most of the time plain ascii rl fare. Gets quite colorful the more insane you get. Controls are sleek and intuitive.

3 - Interesting effects with colors, standard ASCII characters, controls always did what I expected them to.

2 - Nice clean Crawl look with full lighting. Controls are excellent, expected and work.

3 - I enjoyed this game, but I wish there more effects to the insanity besides hallucinations and vivid colors. The underlying RL is quite solid and well made.

2 - Great game, but lacking in replayability, maybe a little more variety in later levels would help

3 - Game is well paced. Mechanics discoverable and reward discovery.

2 - insanity effects were done before (and IMO, better) in a 7drl from a previous year called Alan's Psychedelic Journey (http://exador.sourceforge.net/apj.html) but it is still an underused and seldomly seen mechanic in the roguelike world.

2 - Innovative for a 7DRL, but the gimmick is really just a spin on the food counter

2 - Light and Sanity twist

2 - fairly extensive, including everything you'd expect in a small roguelike (enemies, items, consumable, weapons, etc.)

2 - Typical for a RL, nothing too far off the beaten path

2 - What I expect in a 7drl, plus polish

3 - a roguelike, and quite a traditional one besides the addition of insanity.

3 - It's what we've come to expect from RLs.

3 No question

Madness bills itself as an interplay of sanity and light. While it does produce a solid, playable game, I feel that the explicity "Sanity" number in the UI short circuits the authors goal. A key question of insanity is not knowing if you are insane or not. Having a meter tell you how many sanity points you have left counteracts that. It also renders some of the game mechanics too obvious that would have been better discovered through play. But I stress the game is complete, playable, and fun, so is worth inspection.

3 - fully complete game - nice descriptions, ui, content, the works.

2

2 - Yes, you guessed it, the screen refresh is killing it :)

2 - plain vanilla ascii. if it's good enough for nethack it's good enough for Toby/.

3

2 - Display is pretty basic but works, commands are minimalistic (1 Hand RL) which is good

3 - this is a winner! A lot of fun to be had setting traps and searing ogers.

3

2 - The formula works, needs something to beef-up the action

3 - you can't attack monster directly but have to set traps for them instead. Not only original, but works really well too.

3

2 - Trap based combat, 1 HP

2 - cute little roguelike - just what you'd expect and want of a 7drl.

2

2 - What you expect from a RL

3 - other than bringing the trapping mechanic to the front row this is a pure roguelike experience.

3

3 - Complies with all the high value factors of the definition, excluding discovery mechanics

A roguelike game without direct combat, everything you can do is set up traps for your enemies and dig the walls. Can get pretty challenging on later levels. The 1HP factor makes it feel a bit puzzle and less roguelike. Worth the time to play, I wish the author fixes the autorefresh thing on future versions.

3 - no bugs. Help screen is there, configurable key bindings

3 - Polished, probably reused the engine from other Corremn' games

2 - Has crashed on me several times (I think due to accessing inventory with too many items), has some LOS bugs, but otherwise very complete

2 - cute tile mode. The ascii mode is more basic

2 - Everything looks clean, but I must object for the huge window size. I had to hide the windows toolbar to play on my laptop!

3 - Very nice interface and controls, and sports a really great dungeon generator

2 - standard turn by turn hack and slash, but everything rolls smoothly

3 - If you like roguelikes you'll like it... because it's pretty much a standard roguelike :)

2 - Fairly standard roguelike in a lot of ways, but quite heavy on the features, weapons, enemies, etc. Rage system is nice, though the energy restoration rate is annoyingly slow (unless you want to keep making yourself blind with drink).

2 - some slightly innovative features like rage system, sidekicks

2 - Rage and Energy, special movements

2 - Some nifty features I've not seen in 7drls before.

3 - a solid 7DRL with conditions (illness, blindness and so on), a rage system, sidekicks, ranged weapons

2 - A full 7DRL effort here

3 - Packed with a lot more features and content than I'd expect in a 7drl.

3 - purebred

3 - More roguelike than rogue

3 - Pure roguelike.

A quite complete and well done classic roguelike, with a good looking tileset. Play it.

Pretty solid roguelike, stays close to the original formula and adds the berserking feature. Played a karateka which then became a swordsman and died on level 3. Recommendable to dungeon hackers

I haven't gotten as far as I'd like because of the crash bug I keep encountering, but what I have played has been fairly fun. It's a bit too easy overall (especially with a knockback weapon), but the wealth of content is truly impressive. A standard roguelike but done very well.

2

3 - the game looks pretty polished, felt complete, no crashes or problems

3 - Looks pretty solid

2

2 - Off the shelf roguelike graphics and controls. Nothing new, but still perfectly functional

2 - Decent appearance, keybings are a bit weird but usable. Space after each action is a bit annoying

3

2 - almost a 3, this game is Nintendo hard. Exploring a level clockwise instead of counter-clockwise. Making a Nintendo hard game fun is difficult, but this game manages. A little more variety to soothe the frustration of restarting regularly would have made this a 3.

2 - You decline too fast, and droping items constantly slows down the pace of the game, the in game jokes are fun though :)

3

3 - I've never seen an RL with a countdown timer like this. It is well implemented and fundamentally changes how the game is played.

2 - Decline instead of experience

2

2 - About normal for a 7DRL

2 - Decline feature was implemented, but there's also a standard roguelike engine behind

3

3 - Game is basically what you expect from a RL, but playing it like a normal RL will get you killed real quick.

3 - It's our Rodney, only 50 years older!

Definately brings something new to the Roguelike table in the form of forced inventory management. You're going to use your stuff because if you don't you're going to have to drop it as old age takes it's toll. A fantastic roguelike.

Story is cool, game feels like a roguelike but inventory capacity is reduced pretty quickly and gets hard to play. Wands and other items work pretty well, as well as poisoning and other standard roguelike flag features.

3 - No bug or missing feature, I think the limitation of the gameplay is rather a design choice and I like it

3

2 - Very solid, but has some display bugs, and the AI (the focus of the game) has some fairly obvious weaknesses

2 - enough colors to look better than a 16 colors 80s roguelike, but could be better. Since it's done with libtcod, the health particles would look great in subcell resolution

3

3 - Extremely nice interface. I especially appreciate that it's customisable (I much prefer the sparkle off).

3 - despite the straight gameplay, you want to go back to blast those filthy kobolds, especially the one that laught at you when you died the last time...

2

2 - Very fun until you beat it - after that there's little replay value.

2 - intriguing map generation and unusually smart AI for a roguelike (hence the title)

2

2 - A very noble attempt at a far higher than average intelligence to the enemy.

2 - The gameplay is straight (kill everything), but supported by great maps and awesome AI

2

2 - One trick pony, but it does it well.

3 - 100% conform

3

3 - Absolutely roguealicious.

Once again, Jeff pushes the technical limits with unprecedented artificial intelligence. Speaking/shouting enemies make all the difference. Still a bit hardcore to my taste, but still definitely one of my favorite games this year.

A super short roguelike, with only 1 dungeon. Jeff re-used his non-euclidean map from Jacob's Ladder but fleshed out the play experience this time. Once you learn to search frequently and not to rush into the kobolds den when you find it beating the game becomes very do-able, which can be quite satisfying.

This is a great attempt to make a game with a strong AI that can overcome the player. Enemies will gang together, pass messages to each other, be careful about moving next to the player, taunt you and break their weapons if they know they're going to die! All very well presented too. It's a fun challenge to overcome them, though alas there are exploits to take advantage of. Would be really great to consider a roguelike AI challenge in the vein of this game.

3 - As polished as you can expect a game to be. There are even blood stains during fights and a red veil of death :)

2 - Feels very complete, but it runs slow (in Wine) and the balance could use some tweaks

2 - Some minor bugs and issues, but mostly quite complete

3 - the best you can get when using only foreground color

2 - ASCII graphics with some cool special effects, the controls are a bit none standard and invoke the mouse from time to time

3 - Very nice interface, the red mist of death is an especially nice effect

3 - great adventure/roguelike game

2 - I'm down with games that have an item degradation feature, it adds an additional layer of strategy to the game, but this game takes it a bit overboard, forcing you to either equip new weapons and armor every few battles

2 - Gameplay can get a little bland, and the weardown of equipment (especially weapons) is intensely annoying. Overall very good though, and for once a decent level of difficulty.

2 - nothing revolutionary, but it really brings the hardcore roguelike at reach of casual players

1 - I didn't get too far into the game so I'm going to admit that the mid to end game may have been something new, but the beginning didn't.

2 - Nothing ground-breaking, but some nice new things.

3 - again, it's a full featured game, not a 7DRL !

3 - For a 7DRL, this was pretty impressive. A custom interface, a unique choice for characters

2 - Standard dungeon crawler for the most part, though there's a fair amount of content.

3 - 100% conform

3 - Pretty much all the RL standards.

3 - Probably the most purely roguelike of any of this year's entries - even has cursed items!

Astonishing game. Gorgeous visuals. Rather classic roguelike gameplay, but very intuitive. Definitely the kind of game I'd like to see more often.

The game did slow down quite a bit under Wine, don't know if it affect windows too.

Klakkamara is a very standard roguelike in a lot of ways, but it does do everything exceptionally well. Definitely one of the highlights from this year.

2 - Seems somewhat lacking in balancing and playtesting.

3 - Very complete, well balanced, and you get 2 games in 1!

3 - Polished, I had a crash, but nothing serious

3 - Rather pretty for a (standard-colour) curses game. Excellent use of the limited colour palette; no terrible colour clashing, and good contrast and suitable colour choices everywhere.

3 - Very nice ASCII presentation, good use of colours, and I really love the context sensitive actions.

3 - Clean UI, some ascii art, available actions on-screen

1 - The game is fun enough when something happens, but there's an awful lot of walking around before anything does. After practical victory has been achieved, there's a long, grueling endgame where you try to eliminate the last remnant of the other side. Some sort of "action compass" is sorely lacking, as well as a method to accelerate the endgame. It's probable that the game would benefit from just shrinking the play area.

2 - Very fun, but it can get repetitive

2 - If you get into it, you may find it enjoyable... however the other angels / demons may do the work for you

3 - First and foremost, this is a sort of roguelike that is new to me, one where you play a single actor in a larger conflict. It is clearly a genre with quirks to work out -- the player must be allowed some opportunity to shine based on their only unique asset, human-level intelligence -- but I think it has potential. Furthermore, innovative details abound, ranging from such things as as identity-hiding as an ability, two opposed playable sides, and possession and recruting as central mechanics, to simply better use of windows and furniture to model an urban environment than I've seen before.

3 - Choosing sides, possession, disguise - all new and interesting gameplay devices for roguelikes.

2 - Posession

2 - A single-battle game; all the mechanics (though there are a lot) are likely to come into play in every game/battle.

2 - Getting to play as either force is awesome, but unfortunately there are few abilities available to each.

2 - Well defined 7DRL scope

3 - Though it deviates from the norm in lots of ways, there's no doubting that this is a roguelike.

2 - Not a particularly random environment, and a very different style of gameplay to traditional roguelikes.

2 - No items or advancement system as far as I could see, but roguelike for the rest

This is a great example of a good idea that's been executed exceptionally well. Play as either angels or demons in the defense or attack of a town of humans. Angels bless humans and smite the possessed, whilst demons possess humans and burn everything. Both sides are well-balanced, though completing the game can get tedious as the town is rather large. Still, lots of neat ideas in here and it is extremely well-presented.

Interesting theme, game could be a bit more fun if interactions were more than just bumping the humans to bless them.

3 - feature complete. Expect a real roguelike rather than a 7DRL

2

3 - Full game there

1 - 3 colors hardcore RL

1

1 - Painfully narrow view window. Doubled player health bars? Dark blue bad for downstairs (but good idea to color code them) Need visual display for ranged attacks.

3 - the shadow system has a lots of tactical consequences

2

3 - Excellent difficulty curve, drags you into the more complicated mechanics

3 - shadow system. Simple but powerful

2

3 - Multi-direction melee. Auto ranged attack that completely changes "chasing" behaviours. Shadows.

2 - a bit spare, the shadow system and scrolls apart

2

3 - I could see doing the shadow creature in a 7drl, but this is a complete game, not a tech demo

3 - purebred

3

3 - WIthout a doubt.

A very classic, hardcore roguelike than would be common if it was for the shadow system. With it, it turns into a compelling chess-like puzzle.

Last of Candle at heart is a standard roguelike. But don't let that lull you into thinking it is a typical hack-and-slash. Numerous innovations in the combat mechanics makes for a very different feeling game. And this is before you add in the shadow characters. The only down side is the appearance - I think the underlying game deserves an updated interface with some visual effects to make the game play clearer.

3

2 - Could do with a bit of polish, and in particular some balancing and more content, but generally feels fairly complete.

2 - Complete, but needs polish

2

2 - There's some nice elements, especially the equipment screen sliding. However having to hit space after every little message is infuriating, especially since you have to be careful not to hit space too many times and enable the cheat mode.

2- Nice look, good help and text. Why space to cheat when space is the common character? Why A/S to cycle predicates when P/Q is in the game? No > to descend? No use of normal numbers for direction, so I must turn on number pad? Hitting space after every message is horrible. The sliding of inventory/help is awesome. Trying to change my functions is painful, having to cycle through the whole list - I expected maybe Shift to go the other way? Or W select the list and arrows to select? Input on this screen seemed very laggy, adding to frustration

3

2 - Short-lived geeky fun. My main issue with it is that it's far too simple.

2 - Quite fun and well designed. Functions are much better balanced than I thought at first. No real replay, when you figure the best function choice you are done.

3

2 - Very inventive combat system.

2 - The function manipulation is well introduced, well balanced. Rest of the game is very simple.

3

2 - Small scope, as you'd expect from a 7drl.

2 - Good 7DRL standard.

3

3 - Yup, 100% rogueyness here.

3 - I'd be tempted to say no, but people think Angband is a roguelike. So yes.

The title alone should give you an idea that you're not dealing with a standard roguelike here. And yes, you should get the idea that you're going to need some math to play this game. Well, a little basic algebra anyways. In MathRL the equations that are used to determine your game are laid bare. In fact inventory management is managing the equations with equations you find on the dungeon floor to maximize the effectiveness of your dungeon crawling and combat. Once you remember your basic Algebra this game becomes a very satisfying cinch. Revamp this game with graphics and I could see The Learning Company selling this one to schools around the world. I felr like pulling out my graphing calculator to compare "Is if roll value < 8 then final damage + 20 better then if roll value < 8 then finial damage * 2 when i have a parabola damage function?" "Is a 6d3 better than a 3d6?" Roguelikes are already pretty nerdy, why not revel in it.

Getting this to run with the MZX emulator was thankfully a lot easier than I thought it'd be. MathRL is a simple roguelike with a twist in how attack damage is calculated. You string together dice rolls, functions and if/then statements to try to optimise your damage output. However it is sublimely simple to abuse this to denumerate your enemies with ease. Interesting system, and of particular appeal to us geeky maths-lovers, but it sports little replay value.

Math Roguelike should be mandatory play for programmers who want to better understand the limitations of O notation. It suffers some painful interface issues, but the core game is worth putting up with those. The function upgrades require a surprising amount of thought to trade one for the other. I know I broke out my dice calculator.

3 - i'm surprised how complete this game is - far beyond the 7drl standard. Pretty much a whole, polished, nice little roguelike.

3 - Polished!

2 - Runs well, but far too easy, unpolished dungeon generator

2 - nice color choice, interface is sleek and polished. more than most non-7drl roguelikes but doesn't really bring much new to the table.

3 - Squared instead of rectangular, nice usage of colors, keybindings sensible (a help screen could have helped though)

3 - Nice atmosphere, very intuitive controls with a lot of thought put into the interface

2 - tired of angband or crawl? Give Demonhunt a try. It will keep you occupied with standard roguelike fare but won't surprise you much - this is about as generic roguelike as a game can be.

3 - Pure roguelike fun

2 - Range of enemies and items makes it fun, but bad balance ruins replayability

1 - nothing new here, if that's what you are looking for you'd better move along.

1 - I couldn't see any outstanding features

1 - Regular dungeon crawler, though done well

3 - i am really impressed by how much stuff the author managed to put into it! I am likely to continue playing this game in the future as well, which is more than what i expect from most 7drls.

2 - Great for a 7DRL, because it allowed completeness

2 - On the high end of 2 here, since it has a lot of content for a 7drl.

3 - can't be any more roguelike that this.

3 - Definitively

3 - Only thing missing is item identification and food (which are commonly dropped for 7drls).

A polished roguelike, play it!

Demonhunt's main attraction is the dark setting and the great number of demon themed enemies that come in interesting varieties. Overall needs more playtesting and balancing to make it the right level of difficulty, but hopefully in future we may see a very good game come from this.

3 - complete, large and polished. Enjoyed the original graphics, would be nice to have some sounds and music to go with them too. Didn't encounter any bugs.

2

2 - Frequent pauses as AStar spams java.lang.Exception (AStar.java:72)

3 - really nice tiles, the whole game has a simple but appealing look. Controls are pretty good once you get used to them.

3

2 - Nice clean look. Hard to tell the leader from other players, the crown isn't sufficient. Losing health isn't too clear, despite the healthbars. Needs brighter reminders when you can construct/distribute. Should swap when hit a teammate, not just waste a turn.

3 - fun game - a lot of spells, good presentations, forgiving and not too hard.

2

3 - While I think the gamebalance needs tweaking, I found this a very compelling capture the flag.

2 - although having a lot of friendlies is not that often seen in roguelikes, the gameplay is pretty classic otherwise.

2

2 - More of a Warcraft III than a roguelike.

3 - big and polished, many amusing spells to explore and the whole game feel like a "real" game rather than a 7drl

3

3 - Very impressive scope!

2 - roguelike + team members(friendly NPCs). The goal is a bit different than classic roguelikes, but the basic gameplay isn't.

1

1 - This is Warcraft III

Didn't I play this before? Oh yeah, this is a revision of Numerious 7DRL entry. So techinally isn't this a 14DRL? Ah well, better than before. The fixed version still crashed on me, but it looks really good.

Domination Empires is a RTS game built on a capture the flag roots. Its nods to the roguelike genre are... I don't know. But it is a fun game of a scope that is impressive for seven days. I believe it really could use a pass for smooth interface and for game balance and become an excellent standalone game.

2 - pretty complete as far as i can see. Encountered no bugs and the presentation in general seems fairly sensible.

2

3 - Looks like someone chose a right scope for a 7DRL and went for it

2 - standard ascii with nice color mix, easy to understand controls. Nothing fancy but certainly serves the purpose of the game.

2

3 - Very cool, ascii art, colors, falling objects highlit

2 - i like this game, but like what it could have been even more! It's boulder dash in roguelike form, what else needs to be said? Too bad the game is so hard, I would have liked to play more of it if it wasn't so eager to kill me in the first level.

3

3 - Nice, boulder dash fans may like it even more

3 - side prespective that still looks like a standard roguelike, boulder mechanics work well. could be mined for mini games ideas. Would like to play this game again with smaller and easier levels.

3

2 - Does bring little to roguelikes, unless your take into account the turn based falling physics (for sidescrolling roguelikes)

2 - a neat small game, feature complete but not particularly ambitous. what i'd expect from a solid 7drl entry.

3

3 - It works as you'd expect!

2 - as rougelike as boulder dash can even hope to be.

1

1 - Random levels? Yes. But nothing else.... for being a roguelike

If you don't know BoulderDash then where have you been? This is an excellent implimentation of BoulderDash with huge randomly generated levels. True the screen looks like alphabet soup at times, but if this were given a graphical polish it'd shine like a star. But if you play roguelikes then that shouldn't stop you.

Pretty polished boulderdash ascii clone with random levels. Really nice work!

3 - surprisingly extensive empire building game - nice representation and the controls are workable.

3 - surprisingly polished considering the huge scope

2 - Expansive game, but lacking in polish. Missing balance and AI for the enemies

2 - decent looking colorful ascii graphics. Controls are a bit complicated, but understandable considering the game's scope.

2 - few colors, but it's functional

2 - Graphics and controls are functional, but for a civilization clone, it could stick to standards like "r" for road and "b" for build city.

2 - a bit too much work for the roguelike-esque keyboard controls detracts from the fun somewhat. Didn't manage to get very far into the game but looks very promising.

2 - could be fun but for some reason I don't get, fails to be as addictive as civ

2 - Get potential, but in its current form, you get access anything past the middle ages without painstakingly choosing settlement locations and constructing elaborate trade networks.

3 - civilization meets rogue: a new and fascinating experiment, one that I think will require a lot more work than can be expected from a 7drl to get right.

2 - civ ported to a roguelike interface

3 - I can honestly say that I never thought someone would try a RL / Civ crossover

3 - huge game for a 7drl, far beyond what i'd expect!

3 - huge scope, especially since it's not built on top of Slashie's last year 7DRL

3 - Epic attempt as compared to most 7DRLs, though it still has a long way to go

2 - not really that much of a roguelike, but battle and movement is close enough for comfort.

1 - civlike rather than roguelike

2 - Barely, it still has turn-based combat, the ASCII graphics and permadeath at least

Huge, deep, complex civ-like. Maybe a bit too complex. I think using the "less is more" philosophy would improve the game and make it more interesting. Definitely worth a try, though.

3

3 - Everything is polished and the game looks essentially complete (though I haven't been able to get all the way to the end).

2 - Can't bring up help after game started. Good that no quit on death. Not at all apparent that the portals lower you in level as it looks like you slide to the new location. Prompts are small text in top right corner, so might as well not be there. Did not leave me confident I could win - descend random depth each time. Walking into a wall costs energy & turn, not fair when introducing new keyset! Also seems to be no sound for that action.

3

3 - Laser Spigot is by far the best-looking game I've played among this year's 7DRLs. Its is a sleek modernization of the roguelike aesthetic, presenting a hex map graphically while still using symbols (or symbol-like short strings) to represent creatures. Everything that is attempted visually is accomplished perfectly. The controls take a moment to get used to since they overlap heavily with the vi keys but are used entirely differently (Laser Spigot being a hex game, there are only six direction keys; "uio" for the northward directions and "jkl" for the southward ones), but seen independently of that, they are logical and work well.

3 - Excellent clean look with well rendered characters. Sound effects are good. I forgive odd keys for hex rogues, key choice proved effective. Prompts are unnoticeable.

2

2 - The gameplay is based around managing energy, which serves as both "hitpoints" and "power points" and depletes and recharges according to the terrain you move across (without any possibility of infinite recharge). In general the point of the game is to find the most energy-efficient way to the exit. When this involves cleverly navigating around robots, it's fun and challenging; when it involves soaking up energy from large stretches of terrain and taking long detours around energy-depleting terrain it's not so fun. The levels could stand being smaller, as the exploration part is not really central to the fun, and in general, the later levels are much more fun than the early ones.

2 - Addictive and fun for a while.

1

2 - It's a hex-based roguelike, and a roguelike that uses graphics but still stays true to a the classic abstract style. Both are ideas I've heard before; the chief contribution of Laser Spigot is presenting these ideas with a very nice polish.

2 - Hex rogue, slow ranged attacks, polarization of the trail.

3

2 - Not terribly large. This isn't a game that does a lot, but a game that does what it does very well.

2 - On the high end of the 7drl bar, but not over.

1

3 - Although it lacks a few staples of the genre, like items, Laser Spigot is focused on the other core mechanic of roguelikes; turn-based tactical maneuvers. In fact, the focus on tactics here is sharper than in many of the classics.

3 - Roguelike

Played it all the way to the end. it was easier when I figured out how the different colored tiles effect you. Good game, nice graphics, but no real wow factor in the end. Worth the time? Yeah, but barely.

Laser spigot combines some new roguelike ideas on a beautifully rendered, clean, hex grid. There is a lot of detail put into the robots, which is sad, as when playing it you only experience that through a too-small prompt. An innovative ranged attack system where the laser bolt takes time to move is hampered by the common enemies being too smart rendering it frustrating to try and use. I think it would have been better to allow the player to do a scoot-back and shoot, using the polarization to easily defeat the seekers. This way they can feel smart for discovering that, and dodging AI saved for some higher level enemy (if there is any)

2 - everything seems fully implemented, but not extremely polished.

2

2 - All major features present, probably completable

1 - didn't like the cga-like graphics, i think this is one example of a game that would look better in ascii.

3

2 - bitmaps aren't beautiful, but they serve their purpose

1 - found it very frustrating and hard, even tho the idea is interesting.

2

3 - I couldn't put it done for an hour

3 - mine sweeper meets rogue - pretty innovative idea.

3

2 - Combining Minesweeper and rogue isn't groundbreaking, but it is new

2 - seems like a good size for this kind of game - 4 spells, several monsters. Not too ambitous but solid.

2

2 - Nice tight scope, new, but not earth shaking

2 - roguelike-like. doesn't play like a roguelike but the basic ideas well within roguelike boundries in my opinion.

2

3 - Aside from the bitmap graphics, it is pure rogue

Frustratingly this game often puts you in unwinnable situations many times. If you're clever you can sometimes extend your experience somewhat, but often times a game ends before it begins. it'd be nice if this didn't happen, but it's not worth skipping this one over. It's innovative enough that it should be played by everyone.

2

2 - No crashing bugs. But really needs polish on interface.

2 - A help screen would be welcome, especially when controls are far from intuitive... (A to go downstairs ? D for stats?)

2

1 - Four way movement good choice since no vi/numpad. Look needs better colour. Little polish on controls - invalid keys show up as input text. Every move adds an input line to the message bar, scrolling stuff off. The stat gain is opaque, hidden behind the d menu

1 - old school 3 colors ASCII

3

2 - Fun mechanic. Low hit points force some thought to play.

2 - eating and spitting is fun

3

2 - Eating, spitting, digesting as the focus of play.

2 - eating and spitting is new

2

2 - Perfect 7DRL scope

2 - a bit limited, but understandable for a 7DRL

3

3 - Yep.

3 - 100% conform

Ravenous does something I've never seen in a roguelike. It takes the leveling up formula and turns it on it's ear for instead of leveling up merely by defeating enemies in RavenousRL you must actually consume and digest them, making the leveling grind a macrabre sport. You also have the option of spitting out the thing at the top of your stomach as a projectile weapon, tho that means you don't get the leveling bonus of digestion. RavenousRL is punishingly difficult, make no mistake, but it's well worth the struggle if only because it does something new.

RavenousRL is a fun hack and slash roguelike where, instead of hacking and slashing, you are eating and spitting everything not nailed down.

A game around a nice and new idea of eating and digesting everything in the dungeon. Alas, lack of polish and general user-friendliness makes it not as good as it could be.

2 - feature complete but lacking polish. Interface can be a bit more descriptive and the level generator sometimes generated unwinnable levels.

2

2 - Game runs without any issues, though sometimes impossible levels can be generated.

1 - plain ascii, seems like not much effort went into making it appealing in form or color. Functional but not very pretty.

2

2 - Simple, but amazingly charming.

2 - fun game, jump and shoot mechanics are amusing. Side scrolling seem to work well, but would have worked better if the jumping was made a bit more understandable. Potential for 3 if enemies/attacks are made a bit more interesting.

2

3 - Sublimely fun. The only entry so far to make me burst out in laughter. Fun to play even after you've won many times, even though there's no change in the game.

3 - somewhere between classic RL and spelunky - turn based side scrolling action game with roguelike aesthetic. Not commonly seen, but have been done before. Still worth checking out as one of very few example of side scrolling roguelike-esque games.

3

3 - I suppose you could compare it to Spelunky, but even compared with that it has new things (such as water movement). Very refreshing and different from any other roguelike.

1 - fairly basic but it works well for this game. Would have been a 2 if there was more than 1 attack and maybe some items.

2

2 - Simple, but then that's really the whole point of it.

2 - not really a roguelike, more like a side scroller tribute to roguelikes, but it does have most of the basic attributes.

2

2 - Roguelike/platformer. Still has the random content and permadeath that are core to roguelikes, but with some obvious twists.

Side scrolling platform roguelike-ish. Not to bad.

A very simple and fun game that you can pick up and play with ease. It may seem confusing at first when compared to other roguelikes, but once you see it for the platformer hybrid that it is then it becomes very easy to understand. It has a good sense of humour to it and the basic gameplay is highly entertaining. Good to pick up and play for a relaxing few minutes.

3 - Seems remarkably "complete" for a 7DRL; no part of the game implies the presence of a feature that is not actually present. There's some sort of purpose to nearly everything.

2 - Plenty here, but it needs monster AI.

1 - Debug spam, hand assemble pieces, and have to manually edit the code to disable cheats. When you die, the game freezes.

2 - The crudely drawn tiles and the mad lib plots that have you retrieving various Capitalized Items to defeat the Foozle have a sort of retro charm. The backgrounds of the cells are solid-colour blocks. A few of the creatures are imaginatively drawn (I like the ghoul and the golem), but there's no denying that FoozleQuest could be prettier. (Though if the tiles were drawn from scratch within the seven days, that's still pretty respectable.)

2 - Very cute graphics, no ability to hold-down on the directions becomes annoying though.

2 - Graphicstyle is fine, but the white background must be dealt with. Ideally way to distinguish heavy from light rocks. There needs to be a border framing the map and play area. Controls are excellent - I was going to whine about no key repeat until I figured out pits.

2 - The gameplay is simple but fun, and there are interactions to discover. Most of them boil down to "you need X to defeat Y", though. The puzzles generally have one preset solution. Frequent instakills (pit traps that appear as you approach and instakill if you fall into them) mar the experience.

2 - Can get dull after a while, but the puzzles are very entertaining.

3 - Quite a few fun game mechanics packed into this. The mechanics are also balanced well (with cheat = 0)

1 - This doesn't seem like a game meant to be innovative. It's meant to be a pleasant reminder of what gaming used to be like. As a result, I can't really think of anything in this game that I haven't seen before in other games.

2 - Very cool invention of procedural puzzles.

2 - Many game play mechanics seen in Zelda style games. But still thinking outside the box.

2 - The scope is larger than one might first suppose; there are several dungeons and a "plot" (scare quotes very much required). Moreover, the dungeons contain puzzles, and generally it all seems completable.

3 - Random world map, multiple dungeons, NPC quests, items, procedural puzzles, varied enemy types, graphical interface. It's all done in a very basic fashion, but it's quite amazing to see it all in there.

2 - A good 7DRL level.

3 - Random dungeons, hack and slash, interactions between items, monsters and the environment -- this seems like a quintessential roguelike.

3 - It's got a Zelda-esque feel and the single-room levels aren't very roguelike, but it still has the permadeath and procedural content.

1 - This is a randomly generated Ultima III. In particular, while the pit/medusa/chompers are fun mechanics, they are more DROD (deadly rooms of death) than roguelike in inspiration. While sokoban is in Nethack, that doesn't mean block pushing puzzles are roguelilke. Because we all know Sokoban shouldn't be in Nethack. It does share with roguelikes the desire to utterly punish people who like to hold down a key to cross a room quickly.

This is a very eye-catching game, especially with its charming graphical style (looks like it was all drawn in MS Paint) and large random world map. Has a range of enemies, and some interesting random puzzles. The medusa/boulder rooms are my favourite, where you have to avoid ending up in line of sight, though alas they become pointless once you find the mirror. Quite a lot of content in here and exploring the dungeons is fun.

FoozleQuest is a game harkening to Alkabeth and the early Ultimas. Nice clean controls lead you exploring the dungeons for loot and the defeat of the evil foozle. Where it lacks in content compared to aforementioned RPGs, it makes up with a much deeper game mechanics. The trap detection in particular is a hideously clever mechanic. Make sure you set "cheat = 0" in the source code before playing, however, or you'll miss out n all the fun

2 - pretty enough and runs bug free, but the controls need some work to make them more usable.

2

3 - From what I say, everything looks intact, still a few debug messages here and there

2 - i liked the view cone effect, otherwise as plain as roguelike gets. Controls were a little bit annoying but not too bad.

2

2 - ASCII game, decent colors, but the controls are a bit awkward

3 - I enjoyed this game - good idea and a pretty decent execution. I will play it again in the future if the controls are improved a bit and more content is added (more spells, more things to do).

1

2 - Fun to play, but it got a bit repetitive after a while, maybe it gets better once the powers get more interesting

2 - playing a floating eye and paralyzing the player while the other dungeon minions finish him off is a novel idea (albeit playing enemies was done before, more than once) that turns out to also be quite workable and fun. Plays quite differently to classic roguelikes

2

2 - Playing the bad guys isn't revolutionary, but it offers a break from the normal hack n' slash of your average roguelike

2 - solid execution, would like to see more content added to this game.

2

2 - It feels like a 7DRL, things you'd expect in a roguelike, like items and corpses are missing.

2 - it's a roguelike in most respects except you are playing one of the venerable enemies we all know and love(?).

2

3 - Definitely a blue-blooded roguelike.

You play as one of the most notorious enemies in NetHack, unable to kill enemies yourself, but your friends the newts and gridbugs are on hand to do the hard work. It's more fleshed out than I thought, with the Eye being given additional powers to actively stun and blink as you collect powerups. Definitely a coffee break game at the moment, maybe more if the developer decides to expand it.

2 - missing some features like a help screen, underling AI is a bit bugged. Otherwise quite feature complete

2 - Game is winnable but impossible maps are generated and magic is unfinished, I also seg faulted

2 - Playable but feel rough

2 - plain-jane ascii graphics, decent color matching but nothing overly fancy. Controls are decent and seem to fit the game well.

2 - Functional graphics, controls are decent, though the shift key gets too much play in my opinion

1 - Town yellow brick dots hide letters. Status line has to be more than one line. Quit to prompt on death. No vi-keys, but at least top row number and arrow work. Why upper case for zombie commands?

3 - if you ever wanted to play a necromancer in an ascii roguelike, this is the game for you! Catering for your underlings appetite is more rewarding than it might seem at first.

2 - the game is fun for a coffee break, but it is pretty much the same thing over and over, raise ghouls attack repeat

1 - Not clear the reason to not summon all creatures. Seemed to just be summon and wait and die when out of mana. Likely missing something though?

2 - while not entirely original, few roguelikes have necromancers placed quite as prominently as Bane of the Living - and it works really well for this little game.

2 - And a low 2 at that. It's your average necromancer from any roguelike.

2 - The companion element is well done. Theme is nicely necromancerish - even just the plainly labeled "corpse" show your disdain for the living.

2 - didn't seem to have a lot of items or spells, but several different monsters and summonables.

2 - Nothing out of the ordinary for scope in a RL

2 - A full 7DRL effort here.

2 - it is a roguelike with indirect battles. You do not control the attacks except for the position your undead minions spawn at.

3 - As with Innovation, playing a necromancer in a Rogue has been around for a while, but this is the first RL game I've play devoted to it

3 - Yep.

Bane of the Living is a roguelike where you play a necromancer. Not a wizard with some raise dead spells. But a necromancer who shows up to the town with your trusted undead servants, ready to transform the living into fodder.

2 - Would have been 3 with an help screen

2 - Plenty of weapons, but lacking in balance

2 - Badly needs rebalancing

3 - clean and simple graphics

2 - Decent enough graphics for a 7DRL, but the controls involving the mouse are a bit clunky

2 - Nice graphics, wish there were keybindings for the menus though as the mouse use is cumbersome. I'm not big on the arrow controls either.

2 - a bit hard and not very original

2 - The balance issues make this game kind of hard to play, a witch can pop out of nowhere and sap half your health easily. Looks like it could be interesting though

1 - Too hard at present, it's impossible to get anywhere. I'm not entirely sure levelling up is working, and only one class can heal (and they can only do it twice in the game).

1 - nothing new here except the arrow control scheme, but that's not enough to get 2

1 - Nothing that hasn't been done before.

1 - Very standard fantasy RPG

2 - various monsters, weapons and armours

2 - Decent scope, but nothing that was too surprising

2 - Lots of content, but all of it fairly generic

3 - conform even if no ascii

3 - Standard RL with tile graphics and some mouse commands.

3 - Tiled roguelike

That's a pretty common turn by turn hack and slash, promising if the author keeps improving it.

5 races, 6 classes (each with unique abilities), 12 skills, lots of stats, dozens of weapon and armour types, lots of monsters and a graphical interface to boot. Quite a lot done in 7 days! However this is all somewhat ruined by the monsters all starting invisible, no HP recovery, no ranged weapons and every monster being tough to kill. The game is simply impossible, and not enjoyable. On top of that everything is extremely generic fantasy fare, with no real creativity. Perhaps with more development we could see something interesting emerge.

3 - works fine

2 - The game seems lacking in balance and playtesting, which makes it less fun. There's no good incentive to play the game "properly", paying attention to the Tetris part and trying to clear lines. The amount of implemented content and mechanics seems just right for a game of this sort.

1 - Sharp transitions, such as immediate dump to desktop on death, make it feel like it crashes even when it finishes normally. Requires much magic to get building. Instructions need to mention to copy iniparser.h over. Hard to tell if I'm attacking, being hit, whatever. The message bar wraps to playing field. It seems to you a "You strike" when picking up labcoats/weapons/+s

2 - few colors, but it's functional

2 - The game is no feast for the eyes; in particular the scrollbar works poorly to show vertical motion, and the message buffer sometimes overflows. The "mad Soviet scientist" theme is amusing and works well. A bit more highlighting of interesting objects and creatures (such as the player!) would have been nice.

1 - Colour choice bad - bright fonts are needed, the current layout is hard to see the characters, especially against bright blue blocks. When rotating, the lack of a square font in my terminal is painful - might be better to wrap around libtcod so the font can be forced. Controls are nice and efficient.

2 - the roguelike guy lost inside tetris blocks results in interesting gameplay, as each new block brings new items and monsters

2 - Multitasking between the Tetris and the roguelike, obviously intended as the core mechanic of the game, is fun -- though lack of balance means that it's not necessarily the most effective way to play the game. Combat too often descends into button-mashing as the game is realtime and the monsters have a lot of HP. It's perhaps a bit too easy to fall over the edge of a platform, especially with the monsters that jump out of the way as you attack.

2 - I think this could become a very fun fast game if the graphics were polished. More onscreen feedback needed for things so you can tell when hit, especially when in tetris mode.

2 - merging such different games deserves 2

3 - The base concept that has you playing two interlinked games at the same time feels interesting and fresh. The moving platforms that you control are essentially vehicles, which is an underexplored mechanic in roguelikes that works well here.

3 - I love the moving platform idea. It is an excellent blend of a roguelike and tetris mechanics.

2 - there's a complete tetris game AND a minimal roguelike, not bad for 7 days

2 - By no means a large game, it's all built around a single gameplay mechanic. (Which in my opinion is a good approach for a 7DRL.)

2 - A good 7DRL effort.

2 - there's a 100% pure roguelike embedded in a 0% tetris. Result is 50% (2)

1 - There's a moving @ and even items, but the similarities are superficial; the gameplay is very unlike a conventional roguelike. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)

2 - The secondary platform game I think injects a real time component that rushes gameplay. The game becomes more flow, and less thinking, and flow isn't a roguelike concept. In roguelikes, being in the flow is where you are three turns before dying.

As lame as the initial idea sounds (a roguelike inside falling tetris blocks), it works pretty well and has interesting tactical sides. You won't spend months on it but it's a fair coffee time toy.

TetrisRL is a very innovative cross between tetris and a roguelike. If you felt last years submission was on the right track, but didn't take it far enough, you will love the cleverness of this take. Unfortunately, the aesthetic polish is weak and installation may require a Linux degree.

2 - No crashes, armor and items working, though allies can't use armor or powerups

2 - everything's there and yet I feel like it lacks something

1

2 - Standard RL faire, no surprises

2 - monochrome dungeon with a few colors for characters and UI

2

2 - Not something I'm likely to be playing next week, but not bad. It needs some variety to keep it moving from level to level

2 - could be better if it was more balanced. Yet, the various gameplay possibilities (knife throwing, sidekicks, ...) makes it compelling

1

1 - Allies are interesting and all, but plenty of mature have had them for years

2 - sidekicks you can give order to

1

2 - combat, basic inventory management, the allies

2 - pretty expansive, but built with the sewer massacre engine

2

3 - All the main features are here

3 - purebred

3

A lot of good ingredients here, but spoiled by the lack of balance and visual appeal. Still a pretty good result for a 7DRL. Worth a try

Not complete,.

3 - nothing's lacking, but with such a simple gameplay, that's no surprise

2 - A bit problematic to get running in Linux, but worked under Wine, a reasonable selection of songs, for a 7DRL

2 - Game is all there, needs polish

3 - psychedelic, dance dance revolution-style colors

2 - For a realtime RL, it controlled okay, but it could have been smoother, the graphics were a bit blocky, but that was the point, so the were functional

1 - 80x25 is way too wide screen for 8x8 fonts. Glad to see an icon. Poor use of colours in town. Pop-up windows, fading, etc all excellent. Why not auto-equip best weapon? Songs are not at all ordered in terms of difficulty.

1 - well, a roguelike interface is definitely not adapted to a guitar hero game style

2 - I suppose I missed button mashing in this contest, but the game held my attention long enough to finish it

2 - Takes a bit to get into it, but definitely some fun game play here.

1 - it's surely not hack & slash, but can we call it innovation ?

3 - Guitar Hero + Rogue, 'nuff said

3 - I expected another rhythm game. I did not expect this take on the rhythm genre. It isn't a roguelike skin on a rhythm game, but actually a blend of the two.

2 - only because it's rounded. Should be 1.51

2 - Added songs, weapons and realtime action. About on par for a 7DRL

2 - Good scope

1 - no, definitely not (no dungeon, no procedural maps)

1 - Not really a Roguelike, but I still found it interesting.

2 - Definitely not a real roguelike. It actually blends genres, however, not merely reskins another genre with a bunch of @s

Nice visuals and pretty polished game, but the core gameplay is not compelling enough to make you want to come back to it.

Had to run this under Wine due to a Segmentation fault when running under Ubuntu.

RogueBand Hero is a rhythm game where, nonetheless, you still have to battle kobolds and other creatures using an actual combat system.

2 - seems complete for what it is (a very old-school roguelike). didn't find any bugs, interface is nice albeit basic.

2 - as often, lacks some help screen/tuto

2 - Plays with some minor bugs and rather little content

2 - on the one hand it is just monochrome ascii, but somehow it manages to make monochrome ascii seem very appealing! I liked the inventory and other UI elements. General feel of the game is solid.

1 - monochrome escaped from the 70s

2 - Monochrome but well laid out, simple keys. Screen scrolling with the @ is a nice touch.

2 - I feel like I enjoyed this game more than I should have. I don't know why, but killing dog tails and bear heads is pretty fun. A very old school experience, has a somewhat pure feeling to it - basic roguelike gameplay and nothing beside it.

2 - the usual roguelike gameplay in a surealist setting

1 - Very simplistic, very easy

2 - haven't really fought body parts before. Inventory UI is somewhat innovative. Mostly it's a pretty plain roguelike in the spirit of the classics.

2 - well, killing dog tails has never been done!

1 - Well, fighting dog tails and zombie legs is new, but the gameplay is all quite standard

1 - small, albeit focused. I Would like to see more than just medpacks and useless gold in a future version.

2 - enough for a 7DRL

2 - On the low end of 2 - it's a short and simple game, though it does at least function

3 - classic roguelike gameplay, maybe even more of an old school roguelike than rogue ;)

3 - 100% conform

3 - As roguelike as they come

A roots roguelike. Definitely not my type, but hardcore roguelike player might enjoy it.

This is probably the simplest game in the competition that can actually claim to be a playable game. Not much content, but the author should be happy that it all runs well and has a bit of polish to the interface.

2 - A few bugs but works well

2 - Engine is pretty ok, but definitively needs some ingame help!

2 - A couple of little bugs, commentary doesn't seem to work, little balance

1 - get away from the god damn primary colors !! They spoil an otherwise well thought interface

2 - Looks cool, keybindings are sensible (but you need to read the manual)

3 - Extremely well laid out interface

2 - a lots of attack and defense techniques. You can even strike some poses for the audience and go and fight outside the ring

2 - You will enjoy it even more if you are fan of wrestling, otherwise it may seem a bit odd and hard to get to you.

1 - Wrestling fans might get a nice kick out of this, others may quickly get bored

3 - surely the first wrestling roguelikelike

3 - Who would have thought on this? it also brings a lot of special context dependant commands, which may be great to beef up fighter classes

2 - Wrestling meets roguelikes, however wrong or right that may be

2 - pretty complete, almost simulationist.

2 - You are pretty much limited by the ring. Only 4 fighters is little but enough. I wanted Blue Demon or El Santo though :(

2 - Very basic game

1 - has ascii and turn by turn, but that's all

1 - Could be a roguelike, but it's limited to one match (no fighter career), and there is no procedural generation or discovery mechanics.

2 - It's a turn-based fighting game with an ASCII interface

With a good UI (sadly, with eye hurting colors), a lot of different techniques (most of what you can see in a wrestling match can be done), it's a pretty convincing wrestling game. Worth a try, you might like it.

It's wrestling taken down to turn based interactions! could evolve into something great for fans of the show. Needs more usability though

Not much content, and it's far too easy, but there is brief amusement to be had. Fans of both wrestling and roguelikes (anyone?) should certainly take a peek.

2 - Fully functioning, but AI is not properly implemented

2 - It's stable, this is as close as we get to a Metal Gear or James Bond RL for now. The ending seemed rushed, and the AI was pretty disfunctional (didn't notice being shot, for example). Understood for being a 7DRL

1 - Basic interface, horrible keyset, game turn advances upon any keypress (even wrong keys!)

1 - White and Yellow are all the colors we had. May be it was intentional...

1 - Lack of a proper AI really ruins what could have been a very cool game

2 - Can be played, but is very easy and there's no character advancement

2 - Stealth roguelike! Very similar to the original Metal Gear.

2 - Directional FOV has been tried some times, but is not that usual

2 - What I'd expect in 7 days.

2 - Well targeted 7DRL scope

3 - Pretty roguelike overall, though the gameplay mostly rewards avoiding fights.

3 - Definitively, a ranged combat RL

You are a spy infiltrating an enemy base, with pathetic defense and fairly weak weapons. You can find better weapons as you advance but it's still best to avoid enemies. Unfortunately this is far too easy, since you just wait till their backs are turned and shoot. If an enemy sees you just step out of their visual range and you're safe. Could be a fantastic game if enemies had the sense to chase you, or noticed they were being shot in the back.

Beated it on my first try, this could have been called WolfensteinRL, probably. Pretty complete entry but not overly deep. I never found the spy who rogued me

2 - despite an awesome renderer, the game is minimalist and lacks UI polish

1 - Doesn't feel feature complete, you jump directly into the game (no title screen), there are no actions but walking around

2 - Lacked some interface polish that has since been added

3 - great ambiance, great soundscapes. Looks more like an experimental indie game than a roguelike

2 - Everything rendered in 3D with some light sources, needs a lot of polish (not to mention it's performance :P)

3 - Beautiful look, gorgeous music and atmosphere

1 - not enough gameplay to be fun

1 - Not really very fun, but the rendered could be used for a more in depth game

1 - There is no real game to have fun with

2 - the renderer is innovative, but not the gameplay

2 - Hex map

2 - Atmosphere and ambience beyond any other roguelike, though that really is all it has

1 - barely more than a walking @ for now

1 - @ on the hex map

2 - Quite an impressive graphics engine

3 - as far as a walking @ can be

3 - Complies with all the high value factors of the definition, excluding discovery mechanics

2 - Wouldn't even call it a game. Only roguelike thing is some random layouts and a bit of ASCII.

The graphics and music are worth a try by themselves, but don't expect to find a game. Rather a relaxing interactive experience. But could be the embryo of a great game.

A nice tech demo for a Hex roguelike rendered in 3D with sound effects. Would need some work on performance before being usable on a real scale project though

A Most Peculiar Adventure' was obviously never trying to be a Nethack clone. It's an atmosphere simulator, a game you play purely for the looks and sounds. There's no death, no enemies, no real challenge other than a very shallow puzzle element. What it does it does exceptionally well though - the music and the lighting effects are hauntingly beautiful. Anyone who is interested in an experiment in advanced roguelike ambience should definitely check it out. Anyone who wants to play a game should steer clear.

2 - seems pretty complete, but couldn't explore much because of the clunky interface and the game crashing. Couple of other bugs crept up too. +1 for completeness, -1 for bugs.

1

3 - Game seemed stable to me, and I didn't run across anything I would consider "incomplete". Could use some more enemies, I suppose.

2 - nice color gradients on the walls. otherwise standard ascii interface. Input is annoyingly clunky and counter productive (for example - when fighting i had to space through the messages every turn before attacking again). +1 for colors, -1 for keyboard controls.

2

2 - Nothing exciting or overly disappointing. Could have used some wrapping on the message window, hitting space every round was a pain.

1 - would be much better if its input didn't hinder it.

1

2 - Fun enough to play, but nothing I'd write home about.

1 - pretty plain vanilla roguelike.

1

1 - Pretty much a generic RL at this point. Slope was a bit interesting, but nothing special

2 - seems extensive enough - spells, combat, etc. FoV is buggy but not unplayably so.

2

2 - Nothing too surprising

3 - fairly plain roguelike experience. reminds me of frozen depths.

3

3 - Pretty much a generic RL.

This felt like one of the more complete entries submitted this year. The display looks polished and the the controls are pretty standard for a roguelike. Conversely, it doesn't bring a lot new to the table. I felt like I was playing a slimmed down NetHack, nothing exciting, but still impressive for a 7DRL.

2 - Lacking in polish and balance, but seems feature-complete.

2 - More or less complete and stable. Needs some balance, but decent overall

3 - Runs cleanly. Cursor left on screen. Help text.

2 - An average-looking curses game. The use of '.', 'o' and 'O' to represent jellies of various sizes is cute. (I am cheating a bit on the author's behalf, as I changed "clear" to "erase" on line 261 in print() before playing. Without this, there is intolerable flickering on every screen refresh.)

2 - Color and controls are functional.

1 - Credit for 2-1 spacing of walls. Hard to see red " on black. Hard to see jellies. No arrow keys, no vi-keys. Like explosions, like merging jellies.

1 - The game works in theory; breed jellies for bottling, buy landmines to stop the ever-increasing flow of invading kobolds. However, the jelly-herding bit ends up being rather tedious. I believe the game would work better if that part were streamlined and more depth was put into the kobold-defense and farm-building parts.

1 - The gameplay isn't too impressive and is very repetitive, maybe it changes latter, but from the description, I doubt it.

2 - Mechanics are simple, but very enjoyable.

2 - I believe the concept of defending a farm while managing its economy was used for a roguelike last year, but it's hardly an overused one. Fence-building as a central mechanic seems like a nice idea, though the farming game as implemented does not seem to be terribly deep.

2 - I've never farmed jellies in a Roguelike before, but I've played plenty of "collect the X's before the Ys do" games.

2 - You get to be a pudding farmer! Yay!

1 - This is a single-screen game of very limited scope.

2 - It's a pretty basic game, but it has random map generation, multiple move mechanics

2 - Normal

2 - It's turn-based, you control a single character and at times you fight monsters, but the focus on developing, building and harvesting means that it's not really a traditional roguelike.

2 - More of a defense game than a RL, but ASCII, turn-based movement, random maps.

3 - Nethack is pudding farming, and nethack is a roguelike, right?

An excellent attempt to address the question if Pudding Farming could be fun. I think the gameplay mechanics are all there, it just lacks another round of polish in the appearance and interface.

2 - seems to be a fairly complete and coherent game.

3 - Complete products

2 - Some little bugs, not much content

2 - atari style graphics and sounds (but much higher resolution) give this game a unique feel. Neat and consistent look, controls do pretty much what you'd expect.

3 - Abstract look, but effective

2 - Functional

2 - blasting sounds at the enemies has it's appeal, but it didn't last long in my case. Might be more fun if the game was a bit easier.

2 - Requires twitch reflexes but may be fun for pizzle lovers

1 - Very short-lived, gameplay is very shallow

3 - quite unlike other roguelike in scheme and idea: an "audio oriented shooter". Needs to be played to be understood (and might not be understood even then).

2

1 - Very simple game

2 - enemies and terrain objects, as well as ranged weapons are all there and work well to create a fairly extensive game for a 7drl.

2

2 - Only one small level, basic gameplay, trivial puzzle element

1 - not sure how it is a roguelike except for the top down perspective.

1

1 - It's a top-down real-time shooter! Only roguelikeness is a small random element to level design

Nice enough for what it is, but there's little to see here, and certainly nothing relevant to roguelikes. Oh, and at 50 MB this is by far the biggest of any of the entries this year.

2 - most of the levels seem to be unimplmented, but there is combat and you gain new gear & levels by killing monsters. Seems to be pretty linear and progress-quest-y.

1 - Some features present, but missing map randomization and shops

2 - Some things were just not implemented (shops for example, and the outside world). It is complete enough to be completely playable, it's just that the developer aimed higher!

2 - standard Gervais tiles, nothing to write home about.

2 - Functional, reminded me of the old Win 3.1 game Castle of the Winds

3 - Looks pretty cool, maybe i'm biased because I love Denzi tiles!

1 - totally linear, doesn't offer much at the moment. Pretty much just bump into enemeis to attack, automatically gain equipment and levels (which just automatically increase your stats). Seems like a casual flash/facebook game version of a roguelike.

2 - Interesting diversion, though I wouldn't want to try to complete it

2 - You can play this with one hand while watching your favorite tv show! it's kind of terapheutic!

1 - start level. walk into enemies to attack. clear level. rinse, repeat.

1 - Nothing really new here, unless you count the Flash implementation

1 - Best of Hack, Slash and Whatever!

2 - it's got the basics covered, but not much more than that.

2 - Reasonable amount of monsters and some graphics work, nothing surprising

2 - You can play progressively through the different levels, I guess in the end you can beat the dragons. That's the scope

2 - pretty much a standard roguelike only much simplified.

3 - Aside from graphics, as pure as they come

2 - No items, fixed maps, no ascii, little commands... this is hack and slash, but not roguelike

This is an easily accessible Flash game with low learning curve, you just patiently hack thru the lower levels and auto grab stronger equipment while your character paperdoll gets stronger items and goes up the levels, eventually, I guess you'll be strong enough to face the Dragons at the Lair of Desmona. That's it... but it is a fun time waster :)

2

2 - no azerty / arrow / numpad support. requires to press enter after each keypress ??

2 - runs without error, motion is a bit choppy

1 - Enemies only move randomly, need to press enter after every move

2

1 - old school 3 colors ASCII

1 - Graphics are functional, but the controls are pretty painful. I understand what the author was trying, but this engine doesn't make a roguelike easy to control.

1 - Bad screen refreshes, game immediately exits on victory, horrendous input interface

2

1 - Not really. Won it the first time without picking a single item, opening a single door or fighting a single zombie

2 - coffee break fun, it would be interesting to have fastest speed as a high score. Not a ton of replay value, but it finished before it started to drag

1 - Hurts your fingers to play :(

1

1 - Almost a clone of Ooooorrrcs! which weights less than 1 KB of code

2 - points for trying a new interface

1 - I liked the scroll that built a house, but otherwise nothing new is in here

2

2 - well the game features weapons, armours, potions and scrolls, but since you don't need them...

2 - low 2, more of a tech demo than a full 7DRL

2 - Actually has a surprising variety of items, including abilities to dig and chop down trees and an interesting side-scrolling map. Unfortunately no gameplay to add to this.

3

3 - 100% conform

3 - Zombie killing while moving to the right, can't get much more rogue than that

3 - Usual roguey fare.

A rather arid and unbalanced 7DRL. As a first project of that scale for its author, it's a pretty good achievement, but it lacks a lot to be an enjoyable game.

A bit of a justification on this one. A lot of people aren't going to like this game because the controls are awkward and the gameplay is repetitive. I think that the does well with these faults and chooses to end at a reasonable amount of time, whereas some of the other competitors with better engines and controls choose to drag on and on with introducing new gameplay elements. As I said in one of the comments, a good coffee break game, no more no less.

I think the developer must have gotten sidetracked with little things (in particular items) when making this, or perhaps simply ran too much out of time at the end. It would have been much more playable if he'd first concentrated on interface issues and getting enemies that don't just move randomly. As it stands it is unfortunately not really playable.

2 - Sound game, no crashes, not a polished as it could be

2 - On the low side - only one level (a simple plain), no victory condition, no command list

2 - Interesting graphics, as "angry fruit salad" is actually a gameplay feature. The controls are a bit weak though, I had to keep the controls file open to remember which key was what spell and targetting could be tighter.

1 - Can't figure out all the keys even with extensive trial and error. The chaos effect looks cool though.

1 - balance problems do a number on this game, the game is pretty easy to beat once you grasp the mechanics.

1 - Sadly lacking, but there's obvious some basis for much improvement

2 - The chaos effect is pretty cool, but the basic good is standard Roguelike action

2 - Drawing power from the background scenery (and corrupting it in the process) is a very neat idea

2 - A low two, the game is really little more than an test bed for the chaos effect at this point

1 - Very little in here

2 - It has the makings of a roguelike, but it is missing alot of the gameplay

3 - Nothing unroguelike in the game

This is a one-trick pony game. You draw magic from the scenery which you can use to cast spells. Haven't a clue what the spells are though, since the keys are nowhere explained and there's no in-game messages that even give hints. The effect of drawing this chaotic energy is the whole point of the game, and it does indeed look very cool. I'd like to see a fuller title using this to good effect.

2

1 - Got stuck in a block. If enemy blocks t-junction, suspect unwinnable.

2 - pretty complete with music and sfx. A few bugs. Sometimes the collision detection leaves you stuck on a tile. Some maps are impossible.

3

2 - Nice sounds, music fits the feel. Actually has an icon for the .exe. Cute 8-bit look. Watching the level building is cool. However: harsh transition to title screen on death. Does not say what key to start. Title of app is "testing room 1".

3 - you probably love or hate this old school style of graphics. Reminds me the good ol' time of commander keen and early duke nukems. Midi music, but it's ACDC man !

2

2 - I started thinking it would be too easy, but the challenge builds nicely. New enemies make me want to keep playing.

2 - as simple as it is, I find it pretty enjoyable

1

1 - Standard action shooter, could be Wizards of Wor

2 - nothing on the gameplay side, but I like the real time dungeon generation

2

1 - The @ on a map equivalent of a shooter.

2 - what you can expect from a 7DRL

1

1 - Random maps do not make a roguelike. This is Wizards of Wor + random maps.

1 - realtime and no grid based.

What it lacks in polish and gameplay it makes up for with a midi ACDC track.

GUNFIST! is a fun action shooter that hails from the 8-bit era. A few interface issues mar it, but the real issue people may have is that it is not even close to being a roguelike.

A good flashback to the time of early Apogee games. Won't probably appeal to younger people who never played those games

1 - Why spending time on an installer and not having a help screen? Some bugs (you cannot take an item if another is on the same line of sight). Some odd designs (no I/M shortcuts for inventory and map). There should definitely be an ASCII minimap in some corner of the screen.

2 - It works, a 3D basic roguelike, with the Oryx tiles. Needs more UI, smaller level, more content. But it works

2 - Game runs, but with very harsh interface

3 - great title screen and cool 3D dungeons

2 - Looks ok but is not very accesible and could use more variety on the levels

1 - Graphics can be cute, but controls are utterly hideous

1 - just click on monsters and grab food/items. UI is rather clumsy. No way to know in which direction you're looking

1 - Not very fun, more of a tech demo

1 - No tactical depth, painful interface, boring dungeons

2 - rendering a turn by turn, grid based game through a real time 3D engine is pretty new (Tombs of the Aztecs had the 3D part but the underlying game was real time). With more work, it could work pretty well

2 - 3D turn based

1 - Very simple dungeon crawl. 3D graphics are novel for a roguelike, but basic for most 90s games.

1 - Most of the time has probably been spent on the 3D engine. The game suffers from it.

1 - A roguelike rendered on 3D

2 - Normal for a 7drl.

3 - even though it looks like real-time 3D, it's really turn by turn grid based. Only the rendering differs but the gameplay is roguelike

3 - It's a roguelike, believe me! Just needs more content

2 - Dungeon Master style interface gives a more generic RPG feel to the game.

With more polish, more features, more diversity and a big rethink of the user interface, some interesting game could spawn. Right now, it's an experimental prototype. You can have a look, but you won't really play a game.

Alas for the clicky interface - it really ruined this game. Perhaps otherwise it could have been a regular RPG, though lacking in much depth. The author must have some commendation for putting together a simple 3D looking roguelike in 7 days, but I think in doing so he forgot a vital tenant of roguelikes. One of the main reasons we play these games is because they so prioritise gameplay over graphics - this game is lacking because too much time was spent on needless graphics instead of building up an enjoyable gameplay experience. Still, that's not to say it can't be built upon...

1 - No combat, useless items, it's pretty much a demo at this point

1 - Not a complete game, but it runs and has some basic functions

1 - Missing a lot of features (gameplay amongst them)

2 - functional color scheme, no surprises on the control, standard roguelike

2 - Looks ok (though there are some LOS artifacts), keybindings a bit obscure due to uncompleteness

2 - Simple and nice interface

1 - Right now, not much, you drive in a straight line to the end game, but I think it has promise

1 - Enemies don't even attack you yet, there's no real game to have fun with for now

1 - Too unfinished to be worth playing

2 - It plays like a standard roguelike, but with pirates, but it is the first pirate RL I've ever played

2 - Ships with flank attack, Ships as a player

2 - Sailing the seven seas in a roguelike is quite a neat idea

2 - The author tried for a 3 and missed, it has multiple map types, a decent amount of item, and is pretty tight

1 - In the edge of @ on map, there was some item management, but resulting product is not deep at all.

2 - Some nice things in here but none of it fully implemented

3 - Pretty standard roguelike, just with some innovative concepts

2 - Intended to be a roguelike but missed critical parts

2 - Needs more features to define itself one way or the other

The premise looks good, needed more time to build it into a full game!

You're a pirate on a ship, you can sail the seas and attacks sea monsters and other ships, and even board other ships for pillage and plunder. Sounds good, eh? However the enemies can't attack, the items do nothing, and winning is fairly trivial (if you can stand the tedium). Alas this is a good idea marred by lack of time - we'll have to wait and see if this seed will blossom into something greater.

2 - Seems pretty complete for the intended purpose, but I had a few crashes along the way

1 - I'm guessing there's a lot of stuff in there, but I couldn't really make head or tails out of it. The lack of any meaningful help screen and/or file did not aid. Does seem to have a German version tho.

2 - Although this game has a few bugs (including crash bugs), it seems much more complete than I would expect given from a gardening simulation made in seven days. Documentation is not present in obvious places, but mash a few keys and self-documenting screens appear (space is an important key to press for this) -- this may very well be a good approach, since children aren't likely to read full help screens, and since having the plan of things that need to be done laid out in a help screen would pretty much spoil what little challenge there is to the game. (I have since found out that there actually is a traditional help screen, but there's a bug that means that (at least on my keyboard) it's brought up with NumLock, rather than F1.) A crash bug related to dropping garden hoses pulls down this score to a 2, since it prevents completion of the game with natural play. (Anyone trying the game before this bug is fixed should make sure to never drop the hose unless it is connected to the faucet.)

1 - The graphics are a bit of angry fruit salad at times, the controls are intuitive, but apparently it was programmed in German, so I guess it makes more sense if that's your primary language

2 - Garden looks pretty neat and colorful.

2 - The display is too noisy to really be appealing, but considering the game attempts to show the changing of the seasons in ASCII with the standard curses colours, it looks pretty good. The dual-language interface is very well done, even if the English is a bit awkward in parts. The game allows the player to display both languages at the same time; this is a nice feature that has obvious educational value.

2 - Seems like it could be additive in a Harvest Moon sort of way, and it is designed for younger children

1 - maybe it's fun when you know what you have to do. It was fun reading the very confused reademe file, sadly it didn't actually say anything about the game.

2 - This is hard to judge. GartenRL seems to be primarily intended for children, and the author seems to belong to the school that holds that games for children should not be challenging. As such the gameplay is slow and meditative, or with a less friendly word, repetitive. The only "challenge" is recalling all the tasks that need to be done and not getting bored performing them, but I think this is the feel the author is going for. For lasting fun in a builder sim something more is required, though -- an economy (adding money management challenges), or just more freedom to build interesting gardens.

2 - Farming sims aren't new, but this one teaches German (or English) as well

2 - it sounds like it's pretty innovative, so I'll give it a 2 out of the benefit of the doubt.

2 - I've never seen these mechanics in a roguelike before, but GartenRL could pass for a pretty faithful clone of a Harvest Moon game.

2 - The game crashed before I could explore everything, but the designers included plenty of for farming fans

2 - same as for the innovation category - sounds like it's quite extensive but I couldn't really get to most of the content.

2 - Actually the scope of this game is pretty impressive for a 7DRL: seasons change, plants grow, gardening tasks are performed in cute and natural ways (as an example, to water a bed of plants, you need to first attach the garden hose to the a faucet, and then walk around limited by its length with it visibly stretching out behind you). However, sim games like these require a large scope to be interesting, and GartenRL's scope is not quite large enough to hold my interest.

1 - Not what I'd consider a Roguelike, aside from the ASCII

1 - other than ascii graphics it doesn't seem to be much like rogue at all.

1 - As roguelike as a Harvest Moon-like farming sim can be. Which is not very roguelike.

A rather faithful ASCII Harvest Moon-like, not necessarily meant to appeal to people who want their games to be challenging. Unlike Harvest Moon, there is not really any greater world to explore and interact with, which is understandable for a seven-day project but makes the game unlikely to hold a player's interest for long. Enjoyment of the game is somewhat hindered by bugs, and players may find the UI confusing.

2 - it works but the UI is a bit painful

1 - Lots of display problems. Text would pop up attack the battle, no crashes though, still not enough testing for a 7DRL

2 - Generally complete, some polish could be nice

1 - ugly colors and font

1 - Basic controls and hard to read and control menus, needs polish

2 - Simple controls, but small message bar is a big nuisance

1 - well, killing ants with a falchion and a ringmail is not fun

2 - If you can get past the controls, spattering stuff against arena walls is always fun

1 - Not much content, bit too easy, very repetitive

1 - a common turn by turn arena

1 - Nothing that hasn't been a part of other roguelikes

2 - Some interesting new things here, especially knockback

2 - various monsters, weapons and armours upgrades

2 - with a healthy dose of eyes bigger than mouth, I'd guess

2 - Simple game

2 - lacks some procedural content

2 - It controls more or less like a roguelike, but it lacks much in the way of gameplay features common to RLs

2 - No procedural content

Lacks a bit of polish and diversity to be really fun.

A simple arena fighter which uses knockback effects. Like in the Nintendo Smash games you only die by being knocked out, and getting hit makes you more likely to be knocked out. In practise though I rarely came close, with only the final boss fight proving vaguely threatening. Has far too many rounds where you have to repeat the same thing. Could be greatly enhanced by special abilities and status effects, maybe some random items.

1 - The control scheme lacks polish -- it's hard to figure out how to attack (highlight with the mouse and press 'f') and how to move correctly (vi keys plus letters for diagonals, but instead of hjklyubn this game uses hjklyunm). Compared to the aesthetic standards of the rest of the game, it's a surprise that there is no real ending; if I hadn't seen the end of the narrated gameplay video, I would've been unaware that I'd completed the game. Some of the names of things in the game seem to indicate mechanics that aren't actually present (wands especially -- all of the wands in the game seem to be straight ranged damage dealers, even though they're named things like "invisibility" and "haste").

1 - Tech demo, misses obvious features for being a game

2 - Very basic game

3 - I was skeptical about the top-down monster graphics from screenshots, but in play it all works. I love the graph-paper style. There's even sound (though that gets grating rather quickly). It's obvious that a lot of effort has gone into the aesthetics here, and it has paid off.

1 - Sketchbook look is pretty cool, but the UI lacks important information such as the player health? The weapons are monsters are temporary images (understood because of the time limitations). Mixed mouse and keyboard UI, coupled with usage of vi keys only, make it a bit unaccessible

2 - Cute graphics, poor interface

1 - As is, the gameplay is not very fun (or I'm just terrible at the game). It seems to involve a lot of dying, respawning and trying again, and since there's no penalty for death except having to retrace your steps, there's no real challenge and a lot of tedium. It seems like running into a closet pursued by monsters to die, just so you can pass by that closet safely in your next life, is a viable strategy, which is not a good sign.

1 - Not really a game here for now. Play it if you want to appreciate the tech part

1 - Short as it is, I wouldn't want to go through it again

2 - Although the game itself is fairly standard, the style is innovative. A more polished and complete game in this style would be a nice introduction to roguelikes for casual gamers.

1 - The dungeon generator is a bit cool, but I can't see any other innovating features

1 - Nothing of note about the game

2 - The gameplay is very simple, but the interface is better-looking and more advanced than the interfaces one generally sees in 7DRLs.

1 - @ on the map killing a boss

2 - Very low scope - only one dungeon, monsters all the same, very little to do

2 - With wands and weapons and monsters to defeat in melee combat, this is very rogue-like, except for one rather significant "detail": instead of permadeath, the game respawns you infinitely in the same world without any significant penalty. (I suppose this is where the game is meant to be WoW-like?)

2 - Intended to be a roguelike but missed critical parts

2 - No permadeath, little content to make it roguelike or not

Needs more content to become a real game! also needs some usability enhancements.

This was obviously something the author used to learn a little of pygame and making a game with graphics and sound. Some of this is quite nice and cute, but it doesn't making for a lasting or memorable experience.

1 - buggy and feels pretty incomplete. Died to the first monster a couple of times and had to close the terminal and restart the program to try again. non-standard control scheme for a roguelike.

1 - By authors admission. No sense of balance. No win condition or scoring. Hitting wrong key on death screen seems to freeze it.

2 - looks decent but nothing to write home about. After reading the short help screen (bonus point!) controls are pretty simple and easy to use.

1 - Red on black title is invisible. No arrow key support. WASD without vi-keys not useful. Enemy attacks don't report.

1 - unbalanced and and doesn't seem very deep. Maybe it gets better at later stages but I couldn't get very far after 5 attempts so that would remain a mystery.

1 - Standard roguelike, then "you are slain". Not at all balanced. Author should have just tweaked it really easy and added a Foozle to win, would then at least be entertaining for five minutes.

1 - bump into monsters to attack. Nothing revolutionary.

1 - Standard roguelike

2 - i would give it a 1 if not for the feeling that there is actually quite a bit more content to be had if you brave through pass the beginning (I didn't manage to).

1 - Beyond @ on map, but not much.

3 - it's a roguelike, but a very basic one.

3 - Unbalanced that kills you immediately must be a rogueilke.

Quest for 7, while not worth playing, was certainly worth being written. I look forward to what the authors will produce in the future with this experience. Hopefully they add vi-keys.

1 - walk around the map, collect corpses & dump them into graves. I don't know if that was the author's goal, but it was then it's complete.

2

2 - The author did some work here. I really can't say what the objective of that work was, but it seems like they achieved their goal

2 - 'chunky pixel' graphics look decent enough and the controls are easy and intuitive.

1

2 - Pixels on a bitmap. But the music is appropriate and all the controls are smooth

1 - not much fun to be had carrying the corpses to their grave.

1

1 - I would exactly call this game fun, I wouldn't exactly call this a game, I'm not really sure what to call the experience of running this flash

2 - I'll give it a point here since I don't remember any other burial roguelike.

1

3 - I can't think of another 7DRL or roguelike that bordered on performance art quite as much as this one

1 - not much content from what i can actually see.

1

2 - Only because I have no idea if the author achieved his goals

1 - not roguelike in the slightest.

1

1 - Yeah.. no, just no

There's something else going on here, but I have no idea what. I looked in the source, there's a whole other game in there somewhere, but I have no idea how to access it and I'm tired of wasting my time trying to find it. If anyone can crack the code, lemme know.

I picked through the source and it looks like there is other stuff there, but I can't see how any of it connects to the game as presented. I'd consider this a failure that was flipped to a success at the last minute by a massive "rewrite" but who knows. Anyways, it's performance art at this point, so start loading it to 4chan as soon as possible.

2 - Combat happens, armies can be built, the game seems stable and it attempts to connect the multiplayer server.

2 - Looks like all the work went into the cool undelying engine, but it missed packaging as a product. I can't start playing after downloading it! Setting up and army is a bit complex for the end user. But it works as a whole

1 - Unplayable in its current state

2 - The graphics are about one step away from angry fruit salad, but they are functional and the menus aren't too bad. Controls are okay.

1 - Functional but not very pretty

1 - Barely functional - badly needs mouse support for the number of screen interactions and menus

1 - Not much of a game yet. It wouldn't be unplayable as a hotseat game, but it doesn't have much to offer yet.

2 - Final Fantasy Tactics RL had been tried before but this time it was done. The variety on the unit commands make it fun to play. But you'll need to do a bit of setup if you want to play it!

1 - No game to be had, unfortunately

1 - it's a multiplayer TBS game, that's nothing new.

1 - A great technical effort, aimed to reproduce a turn based tactical combat game in roguelike format

2 - Lots of detail, lays the foundation for an interesting game

1 - It's really a tech demo at this point, but I suppose it has hope of expansion.

3 - Over the board, you can't do this in 7 Days ;)

1 - At the moment all you can do is build a small army and make a mock tutorial battle

1 - Not so much a RL as a TBS game.

1 - Not really, this is turn based tactical combat in ascii

1 - It's a multiplayer multicharacter strategy game, in a similar vein to FFT or UFO

Wow, they really tried and succeeded in then technical side! not really to be played by the masses though... but may be soon :)

2 - certainly lacks some polish. The stats panel shows numbers without any signification, but that's probably due to the missing hud.png file. Need to restart the game each time you die...

1 - Missing something? Oh yeah. How about a required file? How about an explanation of what those numbers are? What's the '*' and '?' on the map? Strategy hints? Anything? Nothing. Thppt.

1 - Almost unplayable.

1 - 3 colors, items and monsters apart

2

1 - One colour, no feedback messages.

1 - maps are freaking labyrinths. fov is absurdly tiny (radius 1). Monsters are insanely difficult to kill... No message window so that you don't have a clue what happens and what monsters are... (shopkeepers ?...)

1

1 - Attempting to play in an exercise in futility.

1 - there is probably more than what we can guess without the hud. In its current state (with a placeholder hud.png), can't see more than a basic roguelike. From the help screen, there's a mining feature but don't know how it works

1

1 - Nothing new here.

1 - once again, it's the visible scope. Since the game is truncated, the notes are truncated too... To be updated once (if) the author publishes a complete game package...

1

1

3 - apparently, purebred

2

2 - Hard to tell, really.

Not playable without the hud. In fact, not reviewable neither, but at least you know what you can get with the current package.

Game is missing a 'hud.png' file, but even with a placeholder file it's clear this game is missing a lot more. You can wander around, and even dig a bit (though it needs some mashing to do that), and get killed by c's and b's.

1

1 - Almost nothing here

2 - Everything that is claimed to be there is there. But see scope.

2

1 - As basic as can be

1 - Look is good, I like the shout outs. But for something so minimal, I expect vi-keys.

1

1 - About 20 seconds of "gameplay"

1 - Not painful, just trivial

1

1 - Nothing here

1 - None whatsoever

1

1 - Only scope was the author's desire to make interconnected rooms

1 - @ on map

3

2 - Irrelevant, but it does have roguelike features

1 - Too simple.

This is not really something to waste your time on. The author spent the week learning how to draw interconnected rooms. Well done to him for succeeding, but there's unfortunately no game to be played here. Hopefully we'll see more from him in the future.

I give a lot of credit to MazeBand for getting something working with a decided win condition. That said, it is not worth the download. I look forward to what they can build in the future.

1 - If there were a cellular automata it'd get a higher score, weapons existed but I couldn't find them, the message system was quirky and hard to read, no crashes though

1 - No objective, extremely unpolished

1 - buggy appearance (zooming not centered) debug output everywhere, clipped text.

2 - Bitmap, but I don't mind that, the controls were pretty basic, but functional. Could have used a better font

1 - Graphics aren't too bad, but the text output is a huge mess

1 - Font is ugly. Default zoom doesn't do the art justice. Zooming in there are very well done characters that clearly can take on lots of different apperances.

1 - Not really a game at this point

1 - There's no real gameplay - just keep bumping into things

1 - Absolutely no idea what I was doing. Scrolling text suggests lots of depth and work, none shows through.

2 - Prison simulation roguelike is new for me, but it isn't groundbreaking.

1 - Not sure if it was trying with anything here

1 - There may be, but I can't see it through all the debug chaff. Switching chars on death, is that a bug, or a comment on loss of identity in a riot mob? If the rest of the game was smooth, I might think a comment. But here I assume bug.

2 - fog of war, mass combat, and map generation all working

1 - Hasn't gotten far

2 - There does seem to be a lot here.

2 - turn-based with roguelike combat.

1 - Can't see any roguelike elements

1 - Top down combat in the same zone? Yes. But nothing else. At best it could strive for a social commentary game as the actual game mechanics currently aren't a game as far as I can tell.

I played this under Wine, so my experience may not have been top notch.

So you're in a prison. And there's a riot. A racially-based riot it seems (since people of the same skin-colour are on the same team. And I suppose you'd call it mayhem (especially the message outputs). And since lots of people are naked I guess there must be some rape going on too. So... title fulfilled, I guess. Unfortunately that's the only thing fulfilled - there's no gameplay or objective or information or even failure (if you die you become your killer). An unfinished title that doesn't make clear what it was supposed to be in the first place.

So. Racial Prison Riot (rape) Mayhem. When you see a title like that you first figure it is spam on the newsgroup. Then you wonder if it is a cheap attempt to garner attention by throwing emotionally charged words in the title, or a genuine attempt to make a statement about this topic. It was with some trepidation that I embarked on playing this. The good news is that I am relatively confident it was a genuine attempt at making a statement. The bad news is that the presentation prevents the statement from being at all clear.

1 - this must be a joke

1 - This is not quite a game yet.

1 - Authors own admission

1 - text printed on a console...

1 - Monochrome is an unusual choice for roguelikes these days. A more serious problem is input: the game requires you to manually set up keybindings with MUD-style commands before you can play (/bind north. k. /bind south. j. /bind west. h, and so on). Too much flexibility can be a very bad thing.

1

1 - no game, no fun

1 - This is more of a tech demo. You are being attacked by a gang of robots (and oddly, trash cans) in a room full of various sorts of heavy weaponry. Once you have your keybindings set up, you can pick up a gun and return fire at the closest robot. (Literally -- there is no functionality for targeting anyone or anything except the closest robot.)

1

1 - no game, no innovation

1 - For now, this is fairly standard fare in a subgenre that has not been very successful; the online roguelike. The next step for this subgenre is to figure out how to make the gameplay work well, and at this stage this game does not do that.

1

1 - no game, no scope

2 - Although the game itself is too simple to really be called a game, it is multiplayer, which is a known fairly hairy thing to implement. It seems like the technical multiplayer issues were worked out -- well, as far as I can see -- and there was little time left over for the actual game.

1

1 - no game, no roguelike

2 - It's hard to place a game like this in a genre, because it has clearly not taken full shape yet. Nevertheless, what there is is a pure hack-and-slash roguelike, with common modifications for online play: gameplay advances in realtime and permadeath is replaced by respawning with penalties.

1

After having compiled the client, downloaded, installed and run the server, connected the client with the server, all I get is looping messages "peew peww a robot fires at you"...

Robobot serves as an example of why other authors should not be so reluctant to declare their work a success.

1 - Enemies only move randomly, game seems technically impossible to complete.

1 - Very hard to install, unhandled exception on start up.

2 - Nice graphical style, simple interface. Lack of wait key is a nuisance.

1 - Like use of splash screen. Like first level's look and colours. Hard UI for changing levels, had to guess what elevators were. Message text scrolls wrong way.

1 - Very dull, no real challenge, barely qualifies as a game at this stage.

1 - Clothes collecting might have been fun if there weren't 10 identical levels of it. Going for points seems pointless as guests can take the clothes and you have no control of if they will do so. If it were a single level, might have been another point here.

1 - Not particularly interesting.

1 - @ on a map

1 - Barely better than an @ moving around a screen.

1 - Small scope

1 - Levels aren't particularly random, no abilities or progression or fighting or... well, much of anything really.

1 - Too simple.

In Pack-man you must collect items strewn about the level whilst avoiding direct contact with randomly wandering enemies (who don't kill you, they just reduce your item count and pick up items themselves). It features 10 levels of the same tedium, with more enemies as you progress. Since you can't recover items picked or stolen by the enemies it makes the game pretty much impossible to win (if you have the patience to try). I'm not sure if the developer planned something with more scope, but this game is really lacking in gameplay. Nice tileset though! One particular annoyance is that it requires .NET 4.0 to run, which at the moment is still in release candidate stage - certainly not worth the effort to get for this game.

Packman has an interesting premise - collecting the clothes prior the guests. Sadly the guest behaviour is uncontrollable, making it an exercise of rote to collect the clothes. The game is also way too long for the amount of content. The graphics are nice, however, and I'd love to see that look applied to a more substantial game.