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The 2019 7DRL Challenge Evaluation Process Click a table header to sort. 2010 - 2011 - 2012 - 2013 - 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017 - 2018 |
| Name | Author | Runs on | Play | Completeness | Aesthetics | Fun | Innovation | Scope | Roguelikeness | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inner Life | dungeonyak |   
| Play | 4.00 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 4.00 | 3.33 | 4.00 | 3.72 |
| Quinta essentia | Pawel Slusarczyk |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 4.00 | 3.67 | 4.00 | 3.61 |
| ExpelledRL | benob |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 4.00 | 3.56 |
| Hack Attack | plasmastarfish |
| Play | 3.67 | 4.00 | 3.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.56 |
| Summoner's Handbook | Numeron |
| Play | 4.00 | 4.00 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.00 | 3.56 |
| 1RL | Cheap plastic imitation of a game dev |
| Play | 3.67 | 4.00 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.50 |
| Ars Moriendi | simonasker |
| Play | 4.00 | 3.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 4.00 | 3.50 |
| Lord Of The Mall (Lord Of Them All!) | andyman404 |
| Play | 4.00 | 4.00 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.50 |
| Octarine | Draconis | 
| Play | 3.67 | 3.67 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.50 |
| Pocket Dimensions RL | Lauren H |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 4.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.50 |
| Tower of Babel | jmlait |
| Play | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.50 |
| BEARRL | ZappedCow |
| Play | 3.67 | 3.67 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.50 |
| Forward | Citron Curieux |
| Play | 4.00 | 4.00 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.50 |
| Get Well Soon | gridbugs |
| Play | 3.67 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.50 |
| Incanto | tomtl |
| Play | 3.67 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.50 |
| Spell Wheel | jere |
| Play | 4.00 | 3.67 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.50 |
| No'hanz | st33d |
| Play | 3.67 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.44 |
| Pinball Dungeon | jtolmar |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.44 |
| Rogue Robs Trains | Vedor |
| Play | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.44 |
| Wait For It | Darren Grey |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.39 |
| Black Board Bold | never_k |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.39 |
| B-Line 7DRL | Slogo |
| Play | 3.67 | 3.33 | 4.00 | 3.00 | 2.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 |
| Frozen Axe | savagehill |
| Play | 4.00 | 4.00 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.33 |
| H | Auroriax (Tom H.) |
| Play | 4.00 | 3.67 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 |
| Skyrogue (7DRL 2019) | DragonXVI |
| Play | 4.00 | 3.67 | 3.67 | 2.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.33 |
| PAWNBARIAN | j4nw |
| Play | 3.67 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 3.33 |
| Reflector RL | mscottmoore |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.33 |
| Ellipsis | patrickdavison |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.28 |
| Banisher | kflasch |
| Play | 3.00 | 4.00 | 2.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.28 |
| Critical Keep | jhowl |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.28 |
| Double Blind | gruebite |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.28 |
| GeomanceRL | jzhang113 |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.28 |
| Princess Pri and the Infinitely Irritating Castle | psy_wombats |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.28 |
| Rogue Island | Scayze |
| Play | 3.67 | 3.67 | 2.67 | 2.67 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.28 |
| The House 2019 7DRL | blockerz |
| Play | 3.67 | 3.67 | 2.67 | 2.67 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.28 |
| Cantrip | Joeri |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 2.67 | 3.22 |
| RERL | samspot |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.22 |
| RunToTheStairs | Gerhard Wonner |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.22 |
| SlayHack | Wisedawn |
| Play | 3.67 | 3.67 | 3.00 | 2.67 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.22 |
| 99999 | Evgenii Petrov |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.17 |
| Battle Weary | Lone Spelunker |
| Play | 4.00 | 3.33 | 2.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.17 |
| Dismatch (7DRL 2019) | Maurog |
| Play | 3.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.17 |
| Dungeon of the Goblin King | teamkalamakkara |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.17 |
| Ghost Wizard | jick |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.17 |
| I of the Storm | Chao |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 2.67 | 3.17 |
| Peryton | rgscherf |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.17 |
| Ski RL | potatoerror |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.17 |
| Teocalli | coldrice |
| Play | 2.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.67 | 3.17 |
| Man-at-arms | VSalnikov |
| Play | 3.33 | 2.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.11 |
| Silly Goblins | Brain in a Bowl |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 3.11 |
| Dungeon Dweller | underww |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 2.67 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.11 |
| Dungeons & Disks | artless |
| Play | 2.67 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.11 |
| Hathwell | BordListian |
| Play | 2.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.11 |
| Incendian Falls | Verdagon |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.33 | 2.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.11 |
| Ironscape | badscribbler |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.67 | 2.67 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.11 |
| Memorex | Guerric Haché |
| Play | 2.67 | 2.67 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.11 |
| Symbion | codyloyd |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.11 |
| Tavern Of Interludes | Edwin DeNicholas |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.33 | 3.33 | 4.00 | 3.11 |
| mushroom zombies (7drl 2k19) | victoria lacroix |
| Play | 2.67 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 3.67 | 3.11 |
| #7DRL 2019 - Fairy Bomb | Ithildin |
| Play | 3.33 | 2.67 | 2.33 | 3.67 | 2.67 | 3.67 | 3.06 |
| Arches | Jonathon Yule |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.67 | 3.00 | 2.67 | 2.67 | 3.33 | 3.06 |
| Precious Metal | thp |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.00 | 2.67 | 2.33 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.06 |
| Rescue Timmy | eigenbom |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 2.33 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.06 |
| The ever-changing case of the unpaid rent | Ludipe |
| Play | 3.67 | 2.67 | 3.33 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.67 | 3.06 |
| Spellforger 1: Entry Exam | Balmonec |
| Play | 2.33 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 4.00 | 3.06 |
| Timmy Can't Punch | Gabrielle Barboteau |
| Play | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 2.33 | 3.00 | 3.00 |
| rollcave | XyXRQjZji |
| Play | 3.33 | 2.33 | 2.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.33 | 3.00 |
| SIGNAL | uberdroidgames |
| Play | 2.33 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 2.67 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 2.94 |
| Survival in the Orclands | Iziminza |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.33 | 2.33 | 3.00 | 2.67 | 3.33 | 2.94 |
| ultra | instantly_orange |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.33 | 2.67 | 3.33 | 2.33 | 3.00 | 2.94 |
| Beneath the Sands | mrhthepie |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.92 |
| CollegeRL | Kiazi |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 4.00 | 2.92 |
| Double Dungeon | BeregAlto |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.92 |
| NinjaRL/Revenge | Luca Giacometti |
| Play | 3.50 | 3.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.92 |
| Rogue2048 | Muffty |
| Play | 2.50 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.92 |
| Runestar: Origins | Deathray |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 3.50 | 2.92 |
| Sands of Delirium | HoofedEar |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 4.00 | 2.92 |
| The Princess of Mud | Bret Sepulveda |
| Play | 3.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.92 |
| roguetronic | bigblueboo |
| Play | 3.50 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 3.50 | 2.00 | 2.92 |
| Break the Mold | vrock |
| Play | 2.67 | 3.00 | 2.33 | 3.67 | 2.33 | 3.33 | 2.89 |
| Dice or Die | BigBread |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.33 | 3.00 | 2.67 | 3.33 | 2.89 |
| Overwork Death | momojohobo |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.67 | 2.67 | 2.33 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 2.89 |
| 2019 7DRL Hungry Little Space Rogue | geldonyetich |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.50 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.83 |
| Anima Mea v0.1.2 | Shoes01 |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 4.00 | 2.83 |
| Lost In Forest | raoul632 |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 4.00 | 2.83 |
| Mad Island | ArcaneRoboBrain |
| Play | 2.33 | 3.00 | 2.33 | 2.67 | 3.00 | 3.67 | 2.83 |
| Microgue II | Jason Pickering |
| Play | 2.50 | 4.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.83 |
| Oodles-RL | AuxRuul |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 4.00 | 2.83 |
| PICO-@ | Tobias V. Langhoff |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 4.00 | 2.83 |
| Quest for Gore and Vengeance | red_kangaroo |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 3.50 | 2.83 |
| Systealicious Hack RL | rubybliels |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.83 |
| The Curse of the General Sibling Combinator | ondras |
| Play | 3.50 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.83 |
| The Vaults of Blackrock Castle | aeonofdiscord |
| Play | 2.50 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.50 | 2.83 |
| Time Will Tell | Emberseed |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 3.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.83 |
| TinyHack | xenonghost |
| Play | 3.50 | 3.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.83 |
| Bread And Keys | sebovzeoueb |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.75 |
| CYBORG | hypnotic |
| Play | 3.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.75 |
| CaveRL | Lerg Bwo |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 4.00 | 2.75 |
| Lexicon Hop: A 7DRL | voidset |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.75 |
| Rogue In Space | webthingee |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.75 |
| Crypt of the Unspeakable | KPDwyer |
| Play | 3.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 3.50 | 2.67 |
| Fell Into a Hole | PTrefall |
| Play | 2.00 | 3.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 4.00 | 2.67 |
| RogueHack | mtimjones |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 3.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.67 |
| The Creeping Dungeon | theguitarizt |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 3.50 | 2.67 |
| The Janitor (7DRL 2019) | bombjackm |
| Play | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.67 |
| The Quest for the Winged Demon | Ryga |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 3.50 | 2.67 |
| 7even Day R@guelike (2019) | shaddockh |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.50 | 2.58 |
| All That Is Lies Ahead | greater_nemo |
| Play | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.58 |
| Alpine 7000 | knh190 |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.58 |
| To Be Risked | Kiborgik |
| Play | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 4.00 | 2.58 |
| BeltersRL_2019 | xandor9 |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.50 | 2.50 |
| By Sea, Land, or Air | nknight |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.50 |
| Escape with the Ring of Erdna | Fengol |
| Play | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.50 | 2.50 |
| Pour Me More | tapio |
| Play | 3.00 | 3.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.50 |
| Dogeylvania | ai Doge |
| Play | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.50 | 2.42 |
| Heroes of Noresskia - 2019 7DRL | Slashie |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.42 |
| Neighbor's Raccoon | Michael Miriti |
| Play | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.42 |
| SWIPE!SLEIGHT!THE AMULET! | Daniel Savage |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.42 |
| SkyFortress Prologue | alanjpan |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.42 |
| summertime! | jestbubbles |
| Play | 2.33 | 2.67 | 2.00 | 2.67 | 2.33 | 2.33 | 2.39 |
| Fire Thrower | GaryOPostle |
| Play | 2.50 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.33 |
| Emotion Harvest | JustinSix |
| Play | 2.50 | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.25 |
| Ratcatcher | ibGoge |
| Play | 3.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.25 |
| SonarRL | yvnat |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.50 | 2.00 | 3.00 | 2.25 |
| Pall | Xylarthen |
| Play | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 | 2.00 |
Reviews
Inner Life
Completeness
4
4
4
Aesthetics
4
3
4
Fun
3
3
4
Innovation
4
4
4
Scope
4
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
IMO, one of the best games this year! PSA to anyone who plays: If an enemy enters you, you haven't eaten them, theyre raiding your food! I think you generally don't want to have enemies enter you. EDIT: Also, you can kill an enemy by stealing all their food. Completeness: 4. Very complete! Several terrain types, lots of polish (there are even chairs and a table in your inner self) and several enemies, even one that moves twice as fast. Aesthetics: 4. Beautiful sprites and animations. Fun: 3. It was fun! It also felt like something was missing, perhaps combat. At times I felt like enemies would just keep coming at me relentlessly and I had no way to repel them except for repeated bashes. EDIT: Heard that I could kill enemies by raiding their food. Tried it out and it worked! Innovation: 4. Having the enemies be dungeons is a wonderful twist! Scope: 4, it's a very large game, with several abilities, tilesets, and enemies. i was particularly impressed on the bash ability's chain reactions through the environment. Roguelike: 4, it just doesn't feel like a roguelike to me without combat and items. EDIT: Now that I know how to fight enemies, bumping from 3 to 4.
Wow this is a wacky cool innovation on hunger and combat.
Completeness - Everything polished, the features work, I did have a stack size error crash at one out of ten games, but we can overlook an occasional rare bug. Aesthetics - Simple but functional, gets the job done and doesn't get in the way. Lots of info and extra flavor in the mouseovers. Fun - This is definitely lots of fun once you figure out the mechanics. Thumbs up! Innovation - One of the most unique mechanics I've seen in a roguelike. Scope - This is the perfect scope for a 7DRL, not too small but not overambitious either. Roguelikeness - Turn based, grid based, permadeath, good enough for me.
Quinta essentia
Completeness
3
3
4
Aesthetics
3
3
4
Fun
4
3
3
Innovation
4
4
4
Scope
4
3
4
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
Very nice job for a 7DRL! You play an alchemist trying to save his dying wife with just the right ingredient. It generates a new overworld island to explore each time, covered with collectable ingredients, each with a number of randomly assigned effects. There are also monsters and animals (not all hostile!) from which to harvest yet more ingredients. The in-depth multipage help menu system with its sample screenshots is a great boon, otherwise it would be quite to difficult figure out the intricacies of what's going on here. In short, there are numerous alchemical processes by which to mix, remove, add, or otherwise mutate the various properties of an ingredient. So many possibilities! The tools required to apply these processes are scattered across the island. This is a good game, suffering only from a bit of quality of life issue in the UI that otherwise slow down the play experience. In a game where much of the key content is randomly generated on each playthrough, quick and easy access to information is vital. A drag-drop UI would be perfect as well, though it's understandable that's outside the bounds of what a 7DRL can normally provide.
I enjoyed discovering the ingredients and figuring out which ones are needed for each situation over the course of a run. I wish that instead of having to carry around all the equipment that I could find and pick up a piece of equipment and then have that process become available in a crafting menu. The gameplay aspect of taking simple ingredients and combining/processing them to create powerful potions was fun and fits well with the witcher theme.
Wow. What an effort. It has depth, difficulty settings, difficulty, thought. You really did an excellent job here. The alchemy system is inspired, and feels remarkably like a board gamey puzzle which works into the game rather than being a mini game or separate to the game. My only critique is that I struggled with the no-keypad controls, and would have really appreciated mouse support, or vi keys. Took me about 2 hours to beat. First hour was on medium, then dropped to Easy.
ExpelledRL
Completeness
3
4
3
Aesthetics
3
4
4
Fun
4
4
3
Innovation
3
3
4
Scope
3
4
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
Wonderful little game! I love the overall feel of it. The possession mechanic is super fun. Very few bugs (spells don't take time to cast, and don't cost any mana) which made the game a bit easy, but I had a wonderful time playing it.
Excellent, well done! The game feels very polished and balanced. The aesthetics are very clear especially when you can possess again. I definitely would have missed out if I hadn't play this fun game. We've seen this mechanic in other roguelikes but it's still a neat, innovative twist on the usual mechanics. I was completely surprised by the amount of content considering it's a jam, especially the different abilities of some of the monsters. This is definitely a roguelike and I hope you advertise it so more people can play it.
Some assorted thoughts on this great entry: The interface is clean and very easy to pick up, with very few keys to worry about and a nice succinct tutorial screen. The central mechanic of possessing people is great. I think playing as various different monsters is kind of every rogueliker's dream come true, and it's done in a good way here by giving various different interesting abilities to the different monsters. One cool property of the possession gameplay is that it avoids the whole hit point regen discussion: it's okay that your hit points never recover, because you can just dump this body for a new one anyway. Taking that a step further, it can even be a good idea to let your intended future body beat you within an inch of your life, so that you can kill your old self easily after switching. Cool stuff. It's cool that enemies start to run away when they're losing a fight. It can end up being a bit of busywork to chase them down to the end of a hallway, but then again, you don't have to kill them (or often fight them in the first place), since there are no experience points or loot from enemies. The "level feelings" are a nice touch. The possession cooldown is a bit half-baked in that you can usually just wiggle back and forth in place to get rid of it, no matter how long it is. I think either it needs be based on something besides the passage of time, or there needs to be something putting pressure on the player to not waste time. I'd often "hear combat in the distance" and would often encounter enemies who were missing a lot of hit points, which gave a cool feeling of the dungeon being alive around me. It's fun to have to do stuff like possess a fire elemental to traverse a river of lava. I think the balance could use a little work in that most of the game doesn't exactly feel like I'm being challenged or having to use much strategy; it's a pretty straightforward continuous series of jumping from one enemy to another until I find the stairs (and usually end up dying because of going on autopilot and not paying attention at the wrong moment).
Hack Attack
Completeness
4
3
4
Aesthetics
4
4
4
Fun
4
3
4
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
Well done everyone, the game feels polished and balanced. The aesthetics are cute and the enemy movements animatedly telegraphed. I would have missed out if I hadn't played this. The editor is a clever twist on the usual mechanics but my only minor issue was figuring out how to use the editor until an enemy eventually dropped an action.
The game's pixel art looks fantastic. The "jumping" animations and movement/attack patterns are inspired by Crypt of the Necrodancer. The core mechanic of creating combo moves is interesting and creates some neat strategies later on. Combat is deterministic and each enemy type has a unique feature to work around. Has all the qualities of a true roguelike. The game feels very polished and bug-free, but hints at features that may not have made it into the game. All the characters appear to play the same and are only a different sprite. There is no score or perceivable goal. There is no indication of floor/depth. The UI's ZXC panel hides important information on an already-limited screen. Really great music but gets repetitive over the course of a game.
Aesthetically one of the better entries. Hack Attack immediately grabs the players' attention with a jaunty chiptune loop and a choice of four bouncy geeks to play. The character choice is cosmetic and the music never, ever ends, but game is pretty fun and quite technically solid, a well-scoped 7DRL that even features unique attack sounds for all the actors to complement the nice graphics. It all creates an excellent atmosphere to fish in the player. The gameplay model is strikingly fair. No healing but, provided you are paying attention and carefully plan your moves, it's unlikely you will take any damage (though this gets increasingly hard to do the further down you go). This makes the choices very meaningful. But its unique gimmick, the building of macros of three moves, didn't really fish me in. I had a hard time finding times in which it would be applicable, and I sort of feel like it could use a bit more variation than "move" and "attack." Overall, a very solid experience for the time in which it was created, which makes it a pretty good 7DRL in my assessment. Completeness - 4 (No music toggle that I could find, in-game help display, or persistence. However, other than that it's a pretty complete project.) Aethetics - 4 (Better than average, no mind blowing animations but excellently stylized assets that features interpolated movement on bouncy sprites. Even if it does get repetitive, that music is pretty good!) Fun - 4 (Very solid and fair, gives the player reason to think. The macro building that replaces the progression didn't really fish me in, but the predictability of the varied enemies makes strategies naturally intuitive and play out well. Later levels are a bit overkill in difficulty.) Innovative - 3 (The hacking is a neat twist, but maybe not a great replacement for proper RPG mechanics.) Scope - 3 (Very well scoped for a 7DRL, includes a good mix of enemies and whatnot. Granted, this was a team effort.) Roguelike - 4 (Procedural maps, and the tactical interplay between actor and enemy was identical to what I expect in a roguelike game. But the lack of a proper inventory, items, and RPG mechanics is a little less roguelike than would entail a 5.)
Summoner's Handbook
Completeness
4
4
4
Aesthetics
4
4
4
Fun
3
4
3
Innovation
3
3
4
Scope
3
4
4
Roguelikeness
3
3
3
Fun game, it's been a while since I've played a "tower defense" style game :) I played this quite a bit and I think it is more of a defense game than a roguelike, but it's a nice twist on that genre, and an expansion on that idea could become something really interesting. Most of the proc gen seemed to be on the floor layout, which seems to be some randomized pre-fab areas since I saw the same rooms across different runs. Great aesthetics, very polished, very "complete" feel here. Multiplayer seems like an interesting touch although I didn't get to test that part of the game.
Really impressed with this. I was only able to play the single player mode, but I still had a lot of fun, and managed to get a win with Necromancy. It's really pretty to look at, and the UI is well thought out – you can jump straight in and intuit how everything works. Some tool tips for the items would be nice, even if you have to use them once to identify them. I liked that better gear is automatically equipped. The battlefield is large enough that it becomes quite hard to recoup gold in between waves, but I'm guessing that was an intentional decision.
Super polished and solid game. I think combining roguelike elements with a tower defense game has a lot of potential. I was only able to play the single player version, so take this review with a grain of salt. In terms of general usability this was very easy for me to pick up and I understand. The graphics were great, and the screen shake and hitflash gave it a very satisfying, arcadey feel. A skip dialog button in the beginning of single player would have been nice, but that is a very small gripe. I do wish there was a little more variety in the defensive units, or at least synergies between them. I found the optimal strategy was to build the most expensive units I could afford, and then play far enough up that I would have time to collect gold between waves. I think having a few more types of units at each tier would add a lot more strategic depth to the game. However I recognize this is a 7DRL and more content (especially with sprites) is not always feasible. This a fantastic effort, and the inclusion of online multiplayer is always impressive as well.
1RL
Completeness
4
3
4
Aesthetics
4
4
4
Fun
4
3
3
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
I had a lot of fun with this one. Aesthetically pleasing map color. Having bugs be a number corresponding with their health was a nice touch. The use of colors on items and bugs made synergies and strengths/weaknesses easy to identify at a glance -- a great touch for the UI. Tying the inventory into monster generation and time into health created some interesting dynamics. The story/theme was great too. Definitely has all the qualities of a true roguelike. One of my favorites of the tourney so far!
A 7DRL about making 7DRLs! All enemies and equipment are themed around different aspects of game creation, and the final boss is a core element of the experience ;) You wander levels gathering 'features' and then fight off bugs as you develop those features. Overall a fun and engaging theme, but the large levels make it cumbersome to play. The mechanics are also quite obscure at times, with little description to hint at what the different game elements actually do. Interface is really nice and polished - hard to believe this is the creator's first game!
Very cool concept with mechanics that make sense within the context of the game. The meta elements and humor were funny, and a nice break from typical fantasy dungeons. This game really captured the feel of a roguelike: constantly assessing your build while trying to balance your own greed with the hunger clock. In terms of useability everything was incredibly solid. All of the map and UI elements were very clear, and the on-click tooltips helped me wrap my head around the game. One minor gripe about the game is that most of the gameplay revolves around long term planning (getting features and weapons that match/complement each other) and I feel like the moment to moment gameplay can feel like autopilot at times. However I recognize that this long-arc planning feeds into the theme of the game, so it does not bother me as much as it would with other games.
Ars Moriendi
Completeness
4
4
4
Aesthetics
3
4
4
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
3
3
4
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
Ars Moriendi is a nicely scaled roguelike – the maps are a small, digestible size, your health is tracked as a small integer, there are usually only a handful of enemies per level. This small scale does more than simply make for quick playthroughs, it really supports many of the other mechanics in the game. The smallness of the map means that monsters are a hazard that are hard to avoid, and also that you don’t feel bad when you bypass parts of the map when you find the stairs early. Also, because the game has a meta goal of finding 20 different ways to die, the small scale of the dungeon doesn’t punish multiple, exploratory playthroughs. I found this meta goal really effective at taking the sting out of what would have been otherwise frustrating deaths…the first time I encountered and got slammed by a Dragon in an otherwise impassable hallway really was made more fun by seeing a Congratulations! pop up afterward. The visuals don’t deviate from the modern roguelike formula, but they are legible and communicate clear gamestates. I think some minor visual variation between floors could have been nice (rather than just variation in enemies/traps), but that’s not a huge critique. I also would have personally appreciated the ability to make the visuals larger…not for legibility’s sake, it would have just been fun to have bigger, chunkier graphics. Mechanically, I found myself wanting there to be just one weapon item for you to find, to make attacking orcs and trolls more possible, but I understand why the author didn’t introduce that complexity to the mix -- instead really leaning on the throwing mechanic. I think this project tidily accomplished the author’s goals. It would be cool to think through such a meta-death-seeking roguelike that pushed the mechanics further out of the norm…perhaps becoming a ghost on death and continuing until you could find a new body, or using death to solve puzzles rather than tick off achievements. But that's just speculation in response to a nice, playable, complete roguelike.
Well done! The game feels complete and well polished. The aesthetics are good with descriptive text and easily readable game play (except % food, isn't explained). I had fun reviewing the game and its definitely worth someone's time to try it out. The focus on counting the types of deaths is a neat twist on the usual mechanics while not fundamentally a new innovation. The scope is what I'd expect from a 7DRL but I would like to see more variety. Definitely fits the description of a roguelike.
Ars Moriendi is a roguelike in which you have to explore the ways and powers of death itself. There are 20 ways to die with a trophy list and your stats. Death can come at any corner and there are some silly moments that will make you smile. The game is set in a small 5-level generated dungeon containing traps, monsters, and items to help you in your progression. The game implements hunger, so pack on food early. The looks and mechanics are reminiscent of a classic roguelike with an ascii dungeon, fov, turn-taking, vi keys, an all that's needed. It is a very good implementation of a coffee-break game given the size of the dungeon (< 5 minute to reach the last level). But death is also very quick to come. Easy enemies are 1 hit, and harder get to 2 or 3 hits. Ennemies like trolls and dragons are challenging and you need to bring extra gear to tackle them. I really like the dead simple interface (no pun intended) which indicates without any textual descriptions your HP, inventory and the dungeon level in which you are. I also like the animations for throwing and hitting something. The game suffers from occasional bugs, such as the weird wall lighting and you might get surprised by ennemies you couldn't see until it's too late. Nevertheless, the game is well in scope, and a finished piece of roguelike with polish and many features. The ways to die are diverse and finding them is fun, but I am not sure how this innovation changes the genre. I feel like I just played a normal roguelike until I had no other opportunity than dying.
Lord Of The Mall (Lord Of Them All!)
Completeness
4
4
4
Aesthetics
4
4
4
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
4
4
3
Scope
4
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
3
The dual realm mechanics are fantastic. Would love to play this in a more traditional turn based style also!
The shifting landscape is a cool mechanic. I really like how dead skeletons become phone zombies. The movement speed feels a bit slow, though I understand it's intentional.
Lord of the Mall is a real-time mall crawler in which the world is constantly in a state of flux between the mall and a dingy dungeon. In the mall your fellow shoppers are no threat to you, but in the dungeon they turn into axe-wielding gremlins. This mechanic is really cool and beautifully realised, but I didn't find that it added much tactical depth to the gameplay. There's no levelling system so you can just slowly make your way to the exit and avoid having to get involved in any combat.
Octarine
Completeness
4
4
3
Aesthetics
4
4
3
Fun
4
4
3
Innovation
4
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
3
Wizards and spellcasting! Octarine is based around charging up to three different wands at once with a variety of abilities, gained by standing on a rune with an empty wand. And there are runes *everywhere*. Figuring out all the spell effects and interactions is fun, and monochromatic tiles really suite the gameplay. One color per wand or element. In terms of what to improve, there doesn't seem to be much, although it might be better to have the entire left strip of the UI have a black background, to include all 8 of the current wand's uses rather than just blacking out the background above the top ones. Also a persistent way to see at a glance what three wands are currently held, rather than have to cycle through them all. Something like having the rune icon in the UI, as well as the number of charges remaining, if possible. Depends on what might fit. Oh yeah, also a way to exit out of the attack action if you've already activated your wand but change your mind, like just pressing 'z' again to return to normal movement. Love this one, a really good example of a tightly focused and fun 7DRL.
Completeness: Looks like complete game. I didn't encounter bugs, and this entry seems very polished. Some elements of game mechanics are to exploit, though. Aesthetics: Nice tiles, fluid animations (but a bit to slow for my taste, at least for unskippable ones), straightforward controls and rules. Fun: Octarine is another proof that best 7DRLs are these with one simple, catching mechanics, and whole game is built around it. This game is about zapping wands. Just it. And it works. Combat is very simple, but there is variety of rods to use - green tangles enemies, white heals both caster and monster, etc. It makes experimenting engaging, especially at first. But even after few runs, Octarine remains fun game. Innovation: Playing as caster without melee attack at all, recharging mechanics - nice things, but sadly - not enough to score "4". Scope: Reasonable for 7DRL. Roguelikeness: +
Solid controls, solid gameplay, excellent use of magic mechanics to give a new twist to combat. I love how it wasn't just "different elements give different damage", it actually had different effects. It took me a little to get used to having to remember to keep track of the number of attacks I had left, but it was a great way of forcing people to use whatever spells were around. Absolutely loved it.
Pocket Dimensions RL
Completeness
3
3
4
Aesthetics
3
3
4
Fun
3
3
4
Innovation
4
4
4
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
I really like this entry. I played half a dozen times, never making it past level 4 or 5, but having a good experience each attempt. The central mechanic, of having individual rooms that overlap in space and are dynamically connected by mobile door objects, is just a lot of fun to play with. Not only that, but the designs of the different spaces -- from their names to their colors to their layouts to their features -- are all really satisfying. It seems that’s where the author spent a good chunk of time, and the result is great. My love for the portal mechanic aside, I will say that this entry feels like it wanted about 20% more game. That is, there’s armor and injuries…but no clear readout of your health, or of the damage various enemies do. There’s a mostly developed temperature system, with hot and cold items, that seems to lack one or two more applications to be really great. Finally, wands are alluded to in the instructions but I never found one…which left my only interaction with monsters to be shoving and running. There is a strategic pleasure to this for a while, but on later playthroughs, as I made it to lower levels, I was desperate for, say, a sword. All in all, this feels like it could be the very satisfying foundation for a very cool roguelike with just a little more programming work. That, or, this portal mechanic is going to make a killer feature in the author’s next game.
The pacing is slow, the early dungeon levels are less interesting once you've revisited them multiple times. I made it pretty far but I wasn't able to finish the game. It would have been easier to review if the dungeon was more compressed. You can't examine the rooms behind a portal, and portals will sometimes orient in weird directions like both ends landing on the north walls facing south. It's also hard to place a portal in a specific direction in a narrow corridor. Opening a portal to the duck dimension was very memorable moment.
So many assorted thoughts about this awesome game. Here's a selection of them in no particular order: The aesthetic is beautiful traditional ASCII all the way and I love seeing that. The portal concept is cool and implemented well. There's a part of me that's of two minds about it, because it sometimes just made things confusing in a not necessarily fun way and I'd sometimes end up going through a slightly tedious process of just hoarding regions in one place to try to make sense of the map. But the very fact that this game involves such a thing as "hoarding regions" makes all this a net win for me. I like that you can only push enemies - it gives a good sort of balance in which you can handle one enemy at a time fairly well but still find enemies to be a real danger. It does get a little tedious repeatedly pushing enemies away until they move the correct number of squares. It's cool that there are enemies like the giant snail that are heavier and so get pushed zero or one tiles instead of one or two. (And they move slowly, so you end up using the strategy of outrunning them rather than pushing them.) It was really cool to be able to lure a swarm of enemies into a cold room and let them all freeze to death. It's awesome how a cold or hot room is effectively a weapon that you can carry around for this purpose. The randomly generated character names are cool and frequently hilarious. (Constassccassara, Beatasha...) Ditto the region names. In my first game, I started in "The Bad Hall" - quite an inauspicious start. The existence of the various different biomes is cool, and they're pretty well differentiated, with different sorts of plants/terrain, different kinds of shapes, etc. Even things like creeping vines, which keep growing - just a lot of cool attention to detail where you might not expect it. I'm ashamed to say that in my hour of play I didn't manage to finish the game. In my best run, I got as far as level 6 before burning to death. I suspect there's still plenty that I have yet to see (that run was the first one in which I saw someone shoot me with a projectile, for instance), so I'll definitely be returning to this game when I have more time. I don't want to spoil it in case anyone reads this before playing, but there's a certain pair of enemies that's hilarious.
Tower of Babel
Completeness
4
4
3
Aesthetics
3
3
4
Fun
4
3
3
Innovation
3
4
4
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
Tower of Babel is a very slickly-done roguelike in a very traditional sense: @ symbol working through mostly square rooms connected by hallways (some exceptions) bump-attacking into ascii-character monsters with various stats while picking up gear of various random types and effects. The main twist is that you are "connecting" to a radically different alternate world version of such a roguelike every time you play. The most obvious way this manifests is that every action is mapped to a new key. This dictates that the first 100 turns or so of each playthrough are spent fumbling back and forth as you try each key, either making notes about what key does what, or re-mapping them, or both. Initially, I found this a nice balance of charming and frustrating. It took me my fifth playthrough to actually just map the movement keys without getting mauled by passing enemies or pressing the Commit Suicide button the game sadistically includes. Once I got that run on its feet I had a very fun experience with many classic roguelike moments. I got a lucky early drop of a powerful spell rune. I cheered at the discovery of a good weapon. I decided in a panic to flee from a room with a dozen monsters, sprinting for the stairs. And I blessed my luck as I discovered a wandering elephant moments before starving, throwing my last acid vial at it and eating its corpse. I even died (on level 5 of 7) in a classically avoidable roguelike way, misreading one enemy for another, panicking, and then casting a healing spell that, because I was low on mana, drained my health below 0 before it could bring me back to full. So my takeaway is that the roguelike bones under this are, while very traditional, extremely solid. And to be clear, the author has made several novel tweaks to the rogue formula (particularly with inventory management) that are clever accommodations of the every-key-is-random mechanic. However, my final thought is that the initial experience of mapping the keys from scratch isn’t particularly fun after you’ve succeeded at it once. After my death on level 5, I was eager to try again, to explore more of the dungeon…but despaired at going through the awkward key-mapping again. The author allows that you can turn this part off in the .cfg file…but that feels like betraying the game. My (very speculative) suggestion would be, what if there were more than 26 commands available in the game, and what if on spawning, you not only randomized which key did what, but also which 26 of the 36 possible actions your character was armed with this time? That would make the initial discovery period not just an exercise in key-mapping, but a discovery about what kind of "load out" your character had this time...
This game is hilarious. The current controls have a very Vi keys bias, I was able to get used to it with a custom movement layout but it would have been nice to have been able to use the keypad. I would have liked to have the ability to alias the keypad keys to the letter keys at least, or maybe also include the numbers row.
Completeness: Seems like complete game. I didn't play much, to be honest (more about it in "fun" section), but I didn't find any major bugs. Game freezes for some time after calling F-commands (at first call, usually). Aesthetics: Classic, but very clean graphics, pleasant font, nice use of text scrolling. Immersive UI. Fun: It's really hard to judge. The very point of Tower of Babel is "obfuscation". Everything is randomized, even controls. While "remapping" keys is nice concept, I don't think it's implemented well. There is lots of keys, including one for suicide attempt. If player will spawn in room with others enemies, it's hard to survive long enough to learn how to move and defend self. And even later, when key controls are remapped to sane scheme, I didn't have much imperative to play - I was just tired, because remapping was a fight, a hard one. In general, I can't tell that Tower of Babel is fun game to play. But interesting one? Yes, definitely. Darren Gray wrote that [playing ToB] feels like to be a non roguelike player encountering roguelikes. I can't agree - it's much tougher experience ;) Innovation: As usualy, Jeff Lait makes something new. I don't know any other game that uses random generation at that scale. Here, everything is alien: stats (what Ky means?!), keyboard controls, monsters... Scope: It's simple and relatively small game, but it has lots of variety. I played ToB 6 times, and every time, another dungeon generator was in use. Roguelikeness: Yup yup yup.
BEARRL
Completeness
4
4
3
Aesthetics
4
4
3
Fun
4
4
3
Innovation
4
3
3
Scope
4
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
3
3
This is a really terrific gem of an entry! Despite taking a few deaths to figure out, the gameplay was solid and a really innovative entry to the roguelike category. The sound and music were on point, and the overall pico art style was fantastic. My kids and I enjoyed this one. The difficulty is quite punishing, especially as you hit Autumn towards the next Winter hibernation period, but it does sorta "make sense". It's also possible that I just had a few bad streaks of randomized food drops.. Nice work!
This is an absolute gem of a game. Some thoughts in no particular order: The concept of the game (being a bear and living your bear life) is so charming and executed so well that I found it downright inspiring. The general gameplay is a simple concept (literally just finding enough food to survive from moment to moment) that's somehow been made incredibly addictive. There are a bunch of interesting little mechanics like waiting for berries to grow in number before you eat them, or taking the gamble of whether to go for that big juicy fish when you know it might swim away and leave you doomed. All this adds up to make the game so much fun that it was even a hit with my girlfriend, who does not play games and certainly not 7DRLs. I love the little opening jingle - it's this not-very-musical sequence of beeps that perfectly evokes that retro game feeling. The art is gorgeous. It's great throughout, but I was especially struck by the winter, when the snow starts piling up unevenly across the landscape. I'm a sucker for sort of naturey landscapes, changing seasons and things like that; this game pulls it off beautifully, especially for a PICO-8 title. The lumberjacks are a masterstroke of design. When I saw my first humans, it wasn't immediately clear to me why I should eat them, other than the obvious fun of it, since they give no nutrition. It becomes apparent later: by deforesting your habitat, they pose a long-term threat to your survival when you find yourself needing those trees for food. Beautifully thought out. The hunters are cool too - it's fun and scary to have to avoid and/or sneak up and eat them, and they add a real sense of tension to the later seasons. I loved the urgency of that final rush through the snow back to the bear cave to hibernate. I'm not sure I can consider this game a full-fledged roguelike. It's got some of the features of the genre, with turn-based movement on a randomly generated tile map, but ultimately I feel like it's best categorized as kind of an arcade game. That did not take away from my enjoyment one bit. Fantastic entry.
I'm glad for this opportunity to be a bear in a roguelike format. Very clear interface, clear and vibrant game screen, and I killed many humans for chopping down trees. Good survival twist on the roguelike mechanics.
Forward
Completeness
4
4
4
Aesthetics
4
4
4
Fun
3
4
3
Innovation
3
4
3
Scope
4
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
3
Oh, my... This one is good, for real. Not sure if it can be called true roguelike, but damn... It's addictive. Sometimes random is a bit unfair , but still it manages to scratch that itch of "one more time, I know I can do it, I'll get lucky!". The only complain is that I found additional characters somewhat lacking. They do not have unique traits. As a result, if you played long enough with the first character, other characters are kind of do not bring anything new to the table. But that's minor. We are talking about 7drl after all. And for a 7drl is damn impressive! I could bring up a bit of nitpicking, but don't want to. Good game.
What a fun to play experience. The game feels complete and polished with different areas to explore and a punishing final level (which might be a bit too hard, I haven't beaten it yet). The aesthetics are cohesive and the UI really simple to understand and the game play as simple as a card game can get. I would have really missed out on this fun title had I not played it. The scope is what I've come to expect from a 7DRL. While not a classic roguelike the game is definitely a roguelike-like! I really had a ball with this and I hope you polish it up even more and publish it.
Well polished, balanced and visually great. It's quite light on the roguelike department but doesn't stray too far from it. The balance seems spot on, but the decision making is pretty easy to make most of the time which is the only thing I would love to see improved on, especially since it's just very solid in every other aspect.
Get Well Soon
Completeness
3
4
4
Aesthetics
4
4
3
Fun
3
3
4
Innovation
3
3
4
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
I think that the visuals of Get Well Soon, while subtle, are some of its strongest points. I am a real sucker for ascii-plus-shading (a technique I always associate with brogue) and that is well done here. Additionally, the change in tile sets and map generation as you get deeper in the dungeon is just enough to feel different and interesting, without being distracting. I also think the visual design of noting enemies’ directions, health, and projectiles is well done and communicates clearly. I think the grid size might be a touch small, and the initial vision range a touch short, the maps a bit too large, but those are tweaks to details on a very solid base. Really, this whole game hinges on the card-based system and there are, I think, successes and challenges with it. On the positive end, the cards are all well implemented and clearly explained. Blink blinks you. Smash smashes enemies. Block makes a wall, etc. And the mechanisms for getting more cards or removing bad ones (at random shrines) feels good. However, there are some fundamental parts of the card system that are either imbalanced or under-developed. The biggest issue I see is that movement costs the same energy that cards do. Given the size of the map, then, it was a frequent occurrence that I would have to walk down a long hall, and doing so would run me entirely out of energy, discarding my hand. In addition, the relationship between spent, wasted, and burned is pretty fiddly while also not having much effect on gameplay. That complexity might be skipped in favor of coming up with a more functional mechanic for how and when your hand exhausts or replenishes. There is another game in this year’s jam that uses a similar card mechanic (Battle Weary) that I believe indicates one way this game could be revised: have the player start with a far more “bread and butter” deck of cards – simple attacks and simple healing, and let the teleporting and trap generation and zapping be the cards you unlock at shrines. And finally, I would consider whether adding an incentive for killing enemies might change the rhythm of gameplay. As it currently stands, with energy costs and few effective attack cards, I often found it the best strategy to just run around, kiting enemies, looking for the stairs. If enemies dropped health or cards on defeat, it would really ramp up the risk-reward in the game.
Beautiful to look at with great lighting. I love the nice 3/4 perspective effect on the walls made using extended characters. The gameplay is quite good, with situations that require careful play to navigate. Interesting decisions have to be made in regards to card usage, and even some of the so called 'cursed cards' can become useful at times. This is a fine entry and the author(s) should be very proud of their work!
Very impressive! A clever twist, executed in a comprehensible and balanced way. It felt really good to learn the systems and tricks.
Incanto
Completeness
4
4
3
Aesthetics
4
4
3
Fun
3
4
3
Innovation
4
4
3
Scope
4
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
3
3
A great mix of roguelike and word puzzles, loved it. Controls work well, and the gameplay is intuitive (with help from the few lines of description). Lots of strategy involved here despite few rules overall, perfect for 7DRL.
Well... The idea is moderately fun in theory. But to make an implementation actually fun, some additional tuning is definitely required. Straightforward implementation feels too unfair. You can end up with no syllables with enemy next to you. You can go to the next level and find several enemies adjacent tiles. Ghost can span on tile next to the one you make your move and attack you immediately. And there are purely technical problems when some internal position of the character is not in sync with the visual position. And the game seriously lack in variety to be called a true roguelike.
Spell Wheel
Completeness
4
4
4
Aesthetics
3
4
4
Fun
3
4
4
Innovation
3
4
3
Scope
3
3
4
Roguelikeness
3
3
3
Fun little game. It is a bit difficult to understand the system, but once you do it is quite fun. The only problem is that it is difficult at start, but once you build a powerful combo it keeps rolling, probably, indefinitely. All these spell combos, while cool and all, most of the time are used not in a meaningful way, but rather as the only option. As a result, from tactical point of view, it's not as diverse as it might seem at first. The game is ok sized for 7drl. Actual gameplay is more like puzzle and less like roguelike.
This is a fantastic entry. The central mechanic is exactly what you want from a 7DRL: beautifully simple with all kinds of interesting emergent properties. The game is balanced well enough to be challenging but quite beatable, and the scoring mechanic is a clever way to get the best of both worlds by letting players see the whole thing but still keeping it highly replayable. It's tight and polished, and the graphics are gorgeous to boot. The only criticism I have is that it wasn't terribly clear at first just how the spell wheel worked, and it took a few playthroughs before the concept finally clicked. That's mostly down to me being dense, but I think it could also have been aided by some more in-game cues. But that's a very minor gripe for an amazing game. Not a ton to say about this one, because it speaks for itself - it's a game that's supremely easy to pick up and complex enough to spend many hours on. Amazing work.
Really impressive effort here, Jere. I'm really glad I got to play your effort. I feel like I may have struggled more if I hadn't have played some of Brough's efforts in the past - namely, 868-Hack. It made it notably clearer what was going on with picking up powers, and I can imagine a new player might struggle with that. But - you clearly wear Brough's influence on your sleeve, and have a good understanding of what makes his games work. I was impressed by the depth of the spell system and the (slightly deranged) variety of monsters. I still struggled with a bit of clarity about exactly how it worked, but I was able to do better by the end of my playthrough than at the start. I think the difficulty was good, but it crept up on you. Generally, I felt most deaths were my fault. This game is a highlight of this years competition. Thank you.
No'hanz
Completeness
4
4
3
Aesthetics
4
4
3
Fun
3
4
3
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
Completeness - 4 Very polished and everything is where it should be. No expectations missed. Aesthetics - 4 simple but pleasant design. Clear information and feedback. Fun - 3 The lack of clarity on what the traps do, and why, is what holds the fun back for me, and prevented me from engaging in the game. However, the basic approach is well put together and enjoyable enough. Innovative: -3 The only interactions outside of bump attacks are triggering static traps, forcing you to think about how to use them. However, it is not clear when the trap will effect you, or why it doesn't. Scope - 3 Reasonable variety of monsters and traps, though functionally quite similar. Roguelike - 4 Feels very much like a classic roguelike, but as you might remember it, with lots of the niceties that add to the genre.
One of the best I've played! The game feels complete and polished, the aesthetics are amazing with different types of vegetation and blood splatters, clearly marked traps and the simplest of control schemes. I had a lot of fun discovering what the different traps did and figuring out how to exit the level with maximum health and hunger levels. The game is innovative with the a neat twist on the usual mechanics. The scope of the project is what I've come to expect from a 7DRL and as for it's roguelikeness it's spot on. Well done!
Neat concept to build a game around. Enjoyed the grass/trampling mechanic. Sound effects were a nice touch. Interesting to strategize around monsters draining your stats, raising stats with traps, some positive traps only affecting everyone other than whatever sets it off... Game felt rather complete although I haven't made it to the end yet. True roguelike in mechanics and gameplay. Really deserves a farlook command.
Pinball Dungeon
Completeness
3
3
4
Aesthetics
3
3
4
Fun
3
3
4
Innovation
3
4
4
Scope
3
3
4
Roguelikeness
3
4
4
This is a fun entry into the "X as a roguelike" genre. It's not super polished, but it's a very well fleshed out prototype. The billiards-style interaction has been explored a lot here: there are 5 classes, each with minor but important differences. It has item identification, and wands are fired using the same controls as moving. It was well explained and easy to pick up. Each game lasts 5-ish levels. I won 2 times (Figher, Rogue) and died once (Barbarian). The map generator seems to be mostly based on prefabs, and maps don't have loops. The field of view system looks cool, but I found it frustrating a lot of the time. I think I would have liked some levels to have more open space, and zoom me out so I could plan more complex moves. The biggest areas I see for improvement as a 7DRL are aesthetics (so much black!), environmental stuff, and a longer FOV radius. I rated this entry straight threes: not outstanding in any specific category, but overall good work on the whole thing. I almost bumped up to a 4 in Fun, but I found it too easy, and the decisions I was making weren't very complicated. Playing "optimally" felt a little tedious once I learned the mechanic.
I think this is a very successful 7drl entry. The author identified a single novel mechanic, explored the design space around it, and created a nice, consistent progression of levels in which to explore it. There is an interesting variety of enemies, the random wands are nicely implemented, and the different character classes are well differentiated. The graphics and general aesthetics get the job done and are clear to read. A few more bits of information would have helped, mousing over enemies could give info on their strength/movement for instance, or displaying a current score. Also, while I love the moments of 3-D perspective as you move past vertical walls (I always think of that visual effect as belonging to Teleglitch), the general palette of greys and sharp, white, serifed letters left me a little cold. Choosing a chunkier, weighty font could go a long way in changing the visual feel of the game. I really liked the scope of the game, it’s the perfect length for a 7drl, and the randomization of the different levels (while still having certain features at certain floors) felt very solid. With all these positives, I have to say that, personally, I didn’t actually have that much FUN with the mechanics. I think this is more to do with my personal preferences than with the success of the game itself. I just didn't like bouncing around all that much. Because of this, I found myself, while playing, often just rushing past enemies toward the exit. I wonder if adding a mechanic other than just raising one’s score could incentivize attacking enemies. Maybe they have a chance of dropping potions/wands on death, rather than having those items spawn randomly on the ground? If so, taking on early enemies would make you stronger against later ones. All in all, a nice solid entry!
What a great merging of genres, pinball and roguelike... Wonderful job on this, with unidentified wands that have all kinds of relevant abilities, and multiple classes each with their own abilities, and interesting enemies... I did encounter one bug: On dying to the Pinball Wizard the first time I met him, the game froze so I didn't get to see my score. But overall it was a very smooth and enjoyable experience!
Rogue Robs Trains
Completeness
4
4
3
Aesthetics
3
3
4
Fun
4
3
3
Innovation
4
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
A fun, tense and fast-moving roguelike. The differences in weapon behavior really require adjusting your tactics. Very nicely done.
Finished with a high score of 842. Weapons don't have many trade-offs, so there's an objective best load-out. The inspect tool was not very useful since it couldn't tell me what weapons were being wielded by enemies and couldn't tell me the stats of guns before picking them up, it was also hard to tell what range enemies were at. The difficulty options were really nice to have available.
I think this game looks clean and plays clean. The shooting mechanics remind me of the ground gives way, but having a loading time for some rifles was a nice touch. This was a fun one.
Wait For It
Completeness
3
3
3
Aesthetics
4
4
3
Fun
3
4
3
Innovation
4
3
3
Scope
4
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
3
An excellent game! Completeness: 3. Definitely feels feature complete. I couldn't progress any further than the third level, because the game always crashed, on both windows and mac. Aesthetics: 4. Graphics are beautiful, the sprites feel consistent in theme. This is one of the few games whose sprites I actually enjoy. Fun: 3. This game definitely had its moments. I love the twins that can only be killed within the same turn, that's absolute brilliance, and really makes you use the time stop ability. The fact that you could only gain experience by killing multiple enemies also added a wonderful layer of strategy to the game, and makes normally mundane situations into strategic ones. I feel conflicted about how movement uses up energy though. Specifically, simply walking would drain your energy, so you must alternate between walking and resting, which really felt like a chore, more than a fun mechanic. I felt like I was constantly pushing against this particular mechanic. It did have its benefits (namely making it so you can't as easily escape enemies), and I wonder if there's another way to achieve those without the chore of waiting so often. Innovation: 4. The enemies were amazing. You can only kill the twins in the same turn, you have to stop time to kill the reflector, and you can only gain experience by killing multiple enemies in the same turn. More roguelikes should do something like this! Scope: 4. All the above, plus bullets that travel, plus hexagonal tiling, means to me that this is a large scope. Roguelike: 4. Meets all my criteria for roguelikes!
Wait For It is a lot of fun. It looks and sounds great, and there is a nice variety of enemy types, each with uniquely fiendish ways of screwing you over. Many of them have attacks that require you to respond with strategic positioning while balancing your energy stocks. As a result it's rather difficult, and doesn't leave much room for error. It would have been interesting to have some kind of blink or warp skill to make up for how hard it is to successfully retreat from an encounter. Levelling up is vitally important for gaining the skills and stats you'll need to progress, but experience can only be gained by destroying multiple enemies on the same turn, which introduces a nice risk/reward element.
The game have quite interesting premise and settings, but unfortunately not as fun to play as at seems at first. There are two problems with the combat system. First - second ability, time pause, is way too powerful. And become more powerful with levels, as it increases amount of turns you can spend in paused state. More costly abilities are quite powerful, but they leave you without energy after use, and as a result defenseless. Second problem is the way energy is accumulated. The fact that it is spent on move forces you to alternate move and wait to keep energy at max to ensure you are ready for an enemy encounter. Twist with XP is interesting. Bosses are somewhat creative, but relatively easy. The game looks quite nice, but very important visuals depends on settings of the engine and controls could be better. There is no way to scroll the map (which makes players with lower resolution at disadvantage) and there is no minimap. Abilities cannot be activated with mouse, so while mouse controls are supported, it cannot be played with mouse only. Unfortunately there are many technical and other problems with the game. Serious memory leak in7drl windows version, problems with UI on window resize, unpassable levels. And I couldn't call it a true roguelike. Character development is extremely linear without any variations and as a result gameplay is very samey on each run since level generator produces levels without any noticable features.
Black Board Bold
Completeness
4
3
3
Aesthetics
3
4
4
Fun
3
3
4
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
3
3
4
Roguelikeness
4
3
4
Roguelike inspired by Metal Gear Solid (which I have never actually played, unfortunately). I did get a win in this game, although I was caught 16 times along the way. The game felt reasonable complete, polished, very few noticeable bugs, and relatively balanced although every map will not be winnable (though most are). The dialog screens are great, colors are nice (especially with themed levels), guard vision is easy to distinguish, symbols to denote guard actions are clear, controls are symbol and intuitive. Combat is not traditional, the game is actually mostly stealth oriented with "sneak-attack" mechanics to subdue enemies. Scope feels reasonable for a 7DRL. The game is fun and worth playing at least once but may not offer much replayability to most roguelike players.
At start - big plus for intro! I suggest everyone to read it all, as it explains game mechanics nicely, in interesting way. I like visual aspect much - simple animations are immersive, colours and map symbols are aesthetic. Boy, this game starts to be hard early. Enemies FOV is long and wide, and their movement is not predictible, it seems. And it's the problem - on the one hand, game encourages planning, but actual gameplay is more about improvisation. Additionally, Player can move in 4 directions, alerted enemies - in 8. Not every piece of mechanics is clear. Player may be detected even if should not (maybe fov algorithm is not symmetrical, or creates artifacts?). It seems that player standing in front of alerted enemy can jump behind him, leaving soldier confused. But sometimes, trying to perform this action, I'm getting killed. These issues are big problems for stealth-based roguelike. Game lets replay levels upon death, so I can't say it's true permadeath, but it's almost necessary - finally, I reached level 8, but since 4th floor, I had to use replay features a lot... PS: bug to fix: enemies can block on stairs
I'm coming in as someone who hates stealth games, but I actually enjoyed this. Solid style, great references to Metal Gear (especially that intro), guards felt well made and I had fun attempting to sneak attack guards and sometimes failing abysmally.
B-Line 7DRL
Completeness
4
4
3
Aesthetics
4
3
3
Fun
4
4
4
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
3
2
3
Roguelikeness
4
3
3
All around, pretty excellent :) Completeness - Ran well, I didn't come across any bugs Aesthetics - nice visuals, especially the void. Controls were a bit confusing at first with the energy system and turn planning. It would be nice to have shift+arrow keys and shift+e to auto execute as well. It would also be nice to have some sort of stronger visual indication when you receive damage or are at low health. Fun - Found myself liking this more than I expected. I've never really played any battle royale games, but I thought this combo worked out well. Innovation/Roguelikess - interesting genre blending, but still felt pretty traditional. Scope - nice amount of game here
Challenging, but fun. Ranged combat is handled well. The energy system adds to gameplay. Maze layout can interact with the storm to inject more late-game randomness than is desirable.
B-Line is a Battle Royal roguelike. There's everything you've come to expect from the genre – a couple hundred competitors, scattered weapons and gear, and an ever shrinking ring of death that forces everyone into the center. The energy system is cool – you can queue a series of actions to execute if you have the energy to do so. This means you can do stuff like peek around a corner and retreat, outflank a foe, and grab and use a medkit. There's a lot going on and at first I found it a little overwhelming, but the instructions are good and everything is clearly represented. My one major gripe is that it's really hard to tell when you're being shot at – some animations would go a long way to addressing that.
Frozen Axe
Completeness
4
4
4
Aesthetics
4
4
4
Fun
3
3
4
Innovation
2
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
3
Great game! I feel it's rather complete and balanced and I enjoyed discovering the different enemy types. The aesthetics are cute and UI and controls intuitive. It was well worth my time playing this. I didn't feel the limitation of the direction you and enemies can attack is very innovative and I wonder if there'd be any difference in enjoyment if characters could attack in all directions. By contrast the ability to walk on lava compared to enemies made controlling the reach around the map more interesting. The scope of the game is within what I'd expect from a 7DRL entry. The game is a roguelike-like, as a fun puzzle but missing more classical elements.
Completeness: Frozen Axe seems be complete game. There are bugs, but nothing serious (rarely monsters moves into lava on their own). It could use more polish as well (starting screen is blurred, don't see a point to have both C and E keys binded to the same action). However, overall impression is very positive. Aesthetics: Controls are straightforward, tiles are stylish, font readable, there are simple animations, even. The problems are minor: starting screen is blurry, and this-one-sound-of-combat is unnecessary... Fun: Game is fun to play - rules are simple, horizontal-only attacks is nice twist. Positioning is important part of Frozen Axe and provides some tactical depth. Unfortunately, it's gets old fast - clashes starts to be hard very fast, to the point that makes win impossible ( mostly due to starting position ). Innovation: Horizontal-only combat on 2d grid is nice twist. Scope: Core of Frozen Axe is minimal, but on the other hand there is variety of enemies and big pool of traits / abilities to choose from. Roguelikeness: More arena brawler than a roguelike.
Very well done! It's evocative of Enyo and Hoplite. Charming art and a satisfying mouthfeel.
H
Completeness
4
4
4
Aesthetics
4
3
4
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
3
3
4
Scope
3
3
2
Roguelikeness
4
4
2
A good-looking puzzle roguelike that looks nice despite only having two colors, and controls even better. The rules are intuitive, gradually introducing new challenges into a world where the goal is to push enemies off the edge or into holes while avoiding the same fate yourself. Not all of the rules behind enemy behaviors are obvious at first, but they're not too hard to learn and figuring them out could be considered part of the challenge. Getting to the challenging and fun parts doesn't take long, in any case. Not much to improve on this one! Although I couldn't really make head or tale of the game over screen.
I like the design and controls were intuitive and explained well by the first level, the only thing I would add here is to show that the space bar restarts on the game over screen. The small level sizes and simple controls made it easy to do many fast runs with little downtime in between. I really liked the mechanic of pushing enemies off the sides/into holes instead of direct attacks. Overall I enjoyed this 7drl and was happy to have it in my review queue.
Aesthetically bold. Gameplay is unique and fresh. Lack of player progression limits the game to all tactics, no strategy.
Skyrogue (7DRL 2019)
Completeness
4
4
4
Aesthetics
4
3
4
Fun
4
3
4
Innovation
3
3
2
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
2
3
4
Sky Rogue is an impressive and impressively polished 7-day game. The pixel art is beautiful, with both a consistent style and color palette and lots of smart touches to communicate game state to the player. There is even charming 8-bit style music (rare for 7drl entries). The graphics are all the more impressive given that this is a Pico-8 game; in particular, the scrolling parallaxed clouds give the whole thing a great feeling. The gameplay is tight, simple, and fun, and the author has done a great job of creating what I would call puzzle-game-progression from level to level, introducing you to new mechanics one bit at a time before complicating them. As the author alludes to in their instructions text they DID make level 2 too hard, and I worry that many players might never see the later levels. (FWIW, letting the horizontal obstruction to the right of the second guard obstruct vision would be, I think, the least invasive way to make it easier). I also liked the interplay between having and not having Blinkstone. Without it, this game plays very deterministically, with some puzzles requiring you to time out things to single steps. With Blinkstone, the game is a little looser, and puzzles often have multiple solutions, with Blinkstone functioning as a panic button if you miscalculate. Frankly, I think the author could, by adding more levels and mechanics, develop this into a VERY fun longer game. Finally, I must observe that the game is not really what I would consider a roguelike. This game is basically a mini-Monaco, done in Pico-8 (which I mean as a strong compliment). It would be possible to use these mechanics to make something more rogue-like, adopting an Invisible Inc. style of random level progression, but the challenge of procedurally generating such a stealth map would be considerable. So, it makes sense that the author didn’t take that on for this jam. Nonetheless, a fun game all around.
This game is solid. As a minor nitpick, I had a hard time judging the distance of blinks. It's easy enough to tell where tiles next to you or guards are, but hard to tell what's exactly 5 blocks away with this tileset.
Very nice-looking and fun to play, music can get a bit repetitive. Gets really difficult quickly, so I wasn't able to complete the game yet. Will stay in my regular rotation of games tho.
PAWNBARIAN
Completeness
4
3
4
Aesthetics
4
3
4
Fun
4
2
4
Innovation
4
2
4
Scope
3
3
4
Roguelikeness
3
2
3
Pawnbarian is a great example of choosing the exact right amount of game to make for a 7drl. The author chose a single mechanic, presented it with a streamlined progression of simple levels, and then added a lot of very effective polish. The combination of the graphics and color palette, along with the nice, subtle movements of cards and icons makes this feel very finished. And the scale of the visuals, as big, chunky cards and icons really stands out from the typical density of roguelike entries – and make this feel like it would be at home on a phone or tablet. In addition, I find the interface of playing the cards, with the overlaid direction wheels to be surprising and surprisingly effective. The author has chosen what I feel is a pretty permissive or forgiving version of the mechanic to implement. That is, players are not forced to use the cards they draw, players are given a generous 4 card hand, players are not punished if they run through their deck. I think this makes it wonderfully accessible as a proof of concept for the central mechanic, though, my personal inclination might have been to add at least one harsher element, to make the progression through the levels a little trickier. There are some quality of life changes I could see making for clarity. Knowing which attack squares are coming from which enemies would help, particularly when facing off against the boss. Also, I wonder what an interface would look like where you drag a card from your hand and onto the square you are moving to…I did once or twice mis-move when using a Knight card. And to pick at something rather inconsequential, I found the “ninja” enemy to be a bit incongruous with the other enemy types. A great project, a fun time to play through, and a nice example of what can be accomplished in 7 days.
Nice looking puzzle game.
Love this. There's some amount of busywork involved, just burning illegal pawn moves until the cards are right to do a safe attack, but that's just a matter of balance.
Reflector RL
Completeness
3
4
3
Aesthetics
4
4
3
Fun
3
4
3
Innovation
4
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
4
3
Well done! This game has a lot of moving parts and feels complete although it is missing some much needed balance and an occasional bugs means the stairs go missing. The aesthetics are typical of a roguelike and the UI is clear and helpful as you try to place reflectors and splitters to zap your enemies. I'm glad I played this fun entry although I could only occasionally get to the second level. The enemies just move too quickly and the players primary weapon recharges, I feel, 1 turn too long. The game is innovative and definitely brings something new to jam and the scope is what I'd expect for 7DRL. It's limited movement and lack of other features you'd expect from a roguelike make this game a roguelike-like.
Really liked this game and it's fun setting up chains of mirrors to hit enemies. There's a nice variety of guns and effects and I liked how different enemies have different behaviors. One thing I didn't like is that I almost never leave the entrance until the level is cleared, so weapon recharge packs and teleport pads tend not to be very useful.
Reflector RL is a hectic laser blaster. You can deploy mirrors and splitters to double your beam and get it around corners. Cool as that may sound, in reality I found myself kiting everything into a long corridor and blasting straight ahead. It's a challenge to beat, and sometimes feels a little unfair (you can spawn surrounded by mobs, and bombs can interrupt your teleport move), but I had fun with it.
Ellipsis
Completeness
3
4
3
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
3
4
3
Innovation
3
4
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
3
The game does a good job of showing off its main concept, but it's missing flair.
Super fun game. Not a very exciting color palette or look, but it's nice to have tiles instead of ASCII. I like how puzzly it is, and it's a roguelike at its core with no frills.
I played the 1.3 post-jam release which includes bug fixes, animations, and full screen mode (this was considered while rating the Completeness score. I did manage to win the game after a few attempts. This game really forces you to think ahead. It is possibly more of a puzzle game than a roguelike, but the structure and plot is heavily inspired by the classic roguelike, and being put in situations where you have to stop and think moves ahead on your turn is very much at the core of the roguelike genre. The aesthetics are nice, the game reveals threatened tiles for you, the controls are simple and easy to use. The text could be a little larger but once you learn the difference between a goblin and a wraith then there isn't much to read anyways. There is no traditional combat, you beat your enemies by outsmarting them to move onto their tile. The game has an end and the scope is up to expectations with the 7DRL challenge. The game is worth playing, some players may quit early if they don't feel like learning the game (which takes a few deaths since there isn't much explanation of the "rules"), but offers replayability for those who like more puzzle-oriented games.
Banisher
Completeness
3
3
3
Aesthetics
4
4
4
Fun
2
3
3
Innovation
2
3
4
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
Cool game! A bit too easy, there doesn't seem to be any need for the potions, because the banish ability is basically free (it has a cooldown, but it's easy to wait that out). The terrain is absolutely gorgeous ! It really stood out. The layouts are something between caverns and dungeons. The theme of the game was really good too, I like the idea of banishment being the man form of combat. Lots of potential here!
In Banisher your main power is to banish demons, but with the interesting twist that your powerful banishing power increases in cooldown with every use. You thus have to be picky about just when to use it, and although enemies are easy to vanquish you end up running away and being stealthy to conserve power. It's very pretty, with clear ASCII in a nice colour palette and a simple but well made UI. Unfortunately it's very much on the easy side, with banishes quick to cool down, no hunger clock to make one case about the cooldown, and a glut of items that let you ignore the mechanic anyway.
Well done! I really liked this entry and thought it was a pretty creative idea! The use of rot.js was a great pick to get the concept across within the constraints / timeline. From the looks of it, you made some smart choices in your design. I liked the banishment / cooldown concept, as well as the potion ideas. One immidiate suggestion would be to look into your input handling. The browser window scrollbar was being moved as I moved up / down and the screen was shifting left / right as I did. It's a well known issue for HTML5 games, so I'm pretty sure it wouldn't take much to hunt down (if desired of course). Apart from that, I encourage you to add / tweak this entry! Well done, and thanks a lot for participating in the 7DRL. Hope you had a great time!
Critical Keep
Completeness
4
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
4
3
3
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
A game where the RNG is there to be manipulated to your whims. At any time you can swap the attack dice rolls with enemies, letting you give yourself all the criticals. There's some tactical depth in this too as you choose different weapons to fit the dice rolls you give yourself, and swaps misses around to different enemies to prevent damage. This is super fun and a lovely twist on normal roguelike mechanics. The game is technically quite easy if you're careful, though ranged enemies make being careful quite difficult, as they can easily get several hits in before you properly register them. The biggest fault with the game is the UI, as it's super fiddly to constantly be swapping items, swapping stats, and juggling the tiny inventory space with the glut of item drops.
Well executed core RL gameplay paired with a mechanic that allows you to pick the best rng outcome from all parties in view for the next turn of combat. The map and UI are standard RL fare, but tile selection and use of color and space elevate the visuals above the typical tutorial implementation. Emphasizing the theme, rng misses and critical hits are color coded on the map and in the UI. The mechanic itself is clever, but putting your thumb on the scale comes without a cost and quickly becomes perfunctory. Items and enemies though, come in enough flavors to provide variety and the difficulty is balanced. The game is challenging, but not overly difficult. A well executed and polished basic RL with an intriguing twist. In the end, this twist doesn't add much, but it gives every appearance of being a rich vein for future development.
Neat idea! Feels good to turn the tables on RNG for once. Despite that twist there's still a decent challenge there. UI is clean and it's easy to understand how everything works.
Double Blind
Completeness
4
3
3
Aesthetics
4
3
3
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
4
4
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
3
3
The idea of an asymmetric information roguelike is a really unique concept. I also like the 1-bit aesthetics, though I'm not sure of the difference between a seeing door and a blind door. Also the comprehensive instructions were really nice. 1P mode feel pretty easy, since a lot of the time, you can remember where the guards are and just throw a knife at that position, but it definitely gets more interesting when you're not sure where the guards are. Still, some of the tricks don't seem very useful against the AI, since it only attacks in melee. Didn't get a chance to try 2P with someone else, but the controls feel rather cramped, especially compared to the 1P controls.
Good effort gruebite. I particularly appreciated having the tutorial. You've done a really good job, and tried something rather cool and interesting. I wasn't expecting that the memory elements would jam with me well, but still - I succeeded. You handled the limited amounts of input afforded to you on a PICO8 well, and put a surprising amount of moves into the game. It is worth noting that I still had some real issues with understanding how the Sense tricks returned information - despite reading your documentation and working through the tutorial. I also had limited use of many of the tricks; throwing knives, flashbangs and lighting candles were my main method of playing. I also would have appreciated using a different color on the enemies, because it was difficult to distinguish them from the level itself. Well done on completing the challenge.
Love the idea, love the look, but dammit it's so hard to play.
GeomanceRL
Completeness
3
4
3
Aesthetics
3
4
2
Fun
3
4
3
Innovation
3
4
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
3
I think the basic mechanic at the heart of Geomance has a lot of potential. I also think that many parts of the presentation of this version of the game were very thoughtfully done: the keys are clear and easy, the mechanic is focused, the colors are legible, etc. There were some parts, however, that I felt held me back from having a great time with the game. First, I found the game pretty difficult – I couldn’t find any way to heal damage, which meant that every mistake added up quickly. This was compounded by the fact that with such short line of sight and so many enemies that can move quick or shoot from range, you can very easily take a step or a teleport with no enemies visible and immediately take damage. I also think that the number of the mana tiles was too high. Because many of the numbers are so high, and because you draw from 9 tiles, I rarely had to pay proactive attention to which tiles were where. Instead, I would just cast whichever spell happened to match my position. I think if you made the value of every tile “1” (which would also allow you to change the numbers to simpler shapes) then you could get a better balance of having to plan out which position you want to be in to use which spells. In fact, I could see a version of this where everything was tightened up, levels that were half the size, with you really carefully planning out turns based on puzzling out your path through the tiles. I didn’t make it terribly far in the game – I think level 3 or 4 was my furthest run, but I do wonder how much a sense of progression you would get only having the same 6 spells the whole time. A system that allowed them to vary more (or introduced new colors on later floors) could be a cool way to extend the game. Oh and I love the Jetstream spell. <3
Completeness: Game looks like finished product. I didn't encounter any bug, mechanics is polished. Aesthetics: GeomanceRL uses nice font for drawing map and entities, and developer has nice sense of color. There is even simple movement animation - but it doesn't blend well with map scrolling, to be honest. The only real problem is that in UI instead of spell names there are abbreviations. Not the big deal, since it's easy to figure out how every spell works. Fun: GeomanceRL is great example that it is possible to make good, captiving game based on one, relatively simple mechanics. In GRL player is, well, geomancer. A mage that draws mana from earth. It's the core of the game - every tile has own color and value, and every spell needs different amount of specific "color". Simple enough play fast, and deep enough to make more tactical approach meaningful. Innovation: Mechanics described in previous paragraph is truly innovative. Roguelikeness: True roguelike with innovative mechanics? Why not! Scope: Well, I thought about giving 4 stars here, because I feel that developer chose perfect scope for this jam... But it's still small game, so it wouldn't be that fair. So, "3", but I'm impressed.
Excellent concept, let down somewhat by presentation - definitely could benefit from a tileset to improve and clarify visuals better; maybe for a post 7DRL version? I definitely enjoyed mowing down enemies with spells over the usual roguelike melee combat.
Princess Pri and the Infinitely Irritating Castle
Completeness
2
3
4
Aesthetics
3
3
4
Fun
2
4
4
Innovation
3
3
4
Scope
3
3
4
Roguelikeness
3
4
3
Well. Another good in theory idea that turned out to be quite boring and unbalanced. Craft your spellbook out of found spells? Great! Spells have volume in pages and manacost (or cooldown in mob kills). Okay, interesting. But in the biggest book I found (10 pages), I couldn't fit couple interesting spells (5 and 6 pages)... Ended up spamming the most mana/damage efficient spell and it tuned out to be good enough to progress easily. And here comes game breaking bug. After 4-6 levels the game just hangs. I leave the level and instead of inter-level menu I have blank screen. Tried several times, ended up the same. 3d environment and 45 degree isometric view is a bit confusing and need to get used to. But 3d-ness is not REALLY utilized. You can jump up and down, and the best utilization of 3d you can get - spam spells from unreachable for enemies location or throw some enemy down by a push. Attacks from/to enemy lower/higher are the same. Spells can target enemies higher easily. So whole point of 3d is not very clear. It is definitely a feat to make a level generator for 3d, sure, but it must have some distinct purpose. Spellbook crafting was done before, probably in a little different format, in this game there are some interesting tweaks. But since whole spells system is very unbalanced, it is hard to appreciate it.
I really liked this entry. It's got a ton of charming personality, a nice aesthetic and some well done classic roguelike gameplay with a couple of interesting twists. Some remarks organized by category: Completeness: 3 It's decently feature-complete and balanced enough to be a fun challenge. There are a lot of different spells with interesting effects. I really appreciated the amount of love that went into various small details - the witty dialogue you get when you interact with an enemy, the different death messages for different enemies, the suitably arcane-sounding randomly generated spellbook names, the way some spellbooks are written in "obnoxious flowery writing" and so take up more space in your spellbook, etc. I sometimes ran into game-ending crashes, which was frustrating but not unexpected with a 7DRL. It was unclear why I couldn't use certain spells sometimes (I never managed to use Superjump) - not sure if that was a bug or a failure on my part to understand how the spell worked. Aesthetics: 3 I love the visual aesthetic of the game and it really caught my eye among the other entries when I first saw it. (It was the game that finally convinced me to install Windows on my Mac so I could play Windows-only 7DRLs.) The 3d dungeon combined with retro-looking sprites is just beautiful. UI-wise, it's great to have a pretty simple set of controls without a lot of keys to memorize - just movement, space to examine, and F1-F6 for the spell slots. On the negative side here, something that was missing for me was the ability to use vi keys (or some other alternative besides the numpad) for diagonal movement. I also found that the view angle sometimes made it hard to quickly read the position of an enemy on the board. Fun: 4 I found the game addictive and kept playing over and over, trying out new strategies. The spellbook mechanic is awesome and leads to some interesting choices, allowing you to switch between spell loadouts but also requiring some careful thought as to which books to write your spells into. The three-dimensional dungeon is used well, allowing you to sometimes elude enemies by climbing walls that they can't pass, etc. An interesting element of the game is the choice between avoiding and killing enemies - there's no inherent reward for killing them, but if you're too cowardly, you'll miss out on chests that you direly need, and many spells also have a cooldown that progresses by killing a number of enemies. It's a fun balancing act trying to navigate levels and collect treasure without getting yourself killed. Innovative: 3 It's a pretty traditional experience for the most part, with the spellbook being the main twist. Scope: 3 I'm impressed with the various different spell effects and, again, with the level of detail that went into various interactions. I might have liked to see a little more variation among levels and enemies. Roguelike: 4 It's quite close to being a traditional roguelike, though the equivalent of inventory management takes an interestingly different form than usual.
I fully admit, I'm terrible at isometric at the best of times, but this was actually good to play. The style's solid, the controls are clear, I love the spellbook system management. Props for making a pretty deep system in a week! Absolutely enjoyed it, definitely giving the 1.01 version a go.
Rogue Island
Completeness
4
4
3
Aesthetics
4
3
4
Fun
3
3
2
Innovation
3
3
2
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
Enjoyed trying for better hi-scores and finding the text files in the chests. Game looks great and plays fluidly, with the energy system making it about where you move, and the score top right (I think) was based on how quickly the level is finished. Faster play means higher score but more likely to have YASD.
A nice little 7DRL, well-scoped! Rogue Island is based around an interesting rest mechanic whereby doing any action other than resting, even walking, draws down the hero's stamina, but attack power is purely dependent on current stamina, so there are items to help with stamina and hit points, lots of them, in fact. That said, the game seems fairly balanced, the main issue being the sheer amount of times it's necessary to pound the 'r' key to keep resting back to full stamina, and also continue doing that intermittently while exploring every inch of the map to kill all enemies before being allowed to the next floor. Hard to play for long stretches! It would help if key hold repeating was allowed, preferably set at a high rate, but it's not, so every bit of stamina requires yet another key press. The font is a little hard to read when used at smaller sizes, just a bit too lo-fi, but there isn't too much text anyway so that wasn't a huge hurdle. It does suit the graphics, though, which are pretty neat. (I did have one instance where what popped out of a chest was hidden behind a tree and I couldn't see what it was, and my inventory slots were full at the time so I couldn't pick it up, but it was probably another consumable I didn't really need anyway.)
A traditional RL implementation enhanced with animated pixel art. Items are sparse, but abundant health keeps difficulty balanced. Strategic play is limited by requiring all enemies to be killed before going to the next level. The game leans into an energy mechanic, implementing consumables and showing an actual energy number in the UI. The mechanic adds another expendable resource, but the overall effect on gameplay is minimal. The pixel graphics give the traditional RL formula a clean, bright look. Sprites are animated and the tiling is sophisticated, with multiple layers and psuedo 3d shadows. The recasting of dungeon rooms and corridors to islands and bridges is clever and goes a long way to differentiating the game from a basic tutorial implementation.
The House 2019 7DRL
Completeness
4
3
4
Aesthetics
4
3
4
Fun
3
2
3
Innovation
4
2
2
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
Completeness - 4 It might be that the keyboard layout is different for the dev but the diagonals on the numpad were for the opposite direction. Not sure if it is intentional or not but when going back up a floor the previous level has been reset. Everything worked as expected with no unusual results. Aesthetics - 4 Unique setting and the scribbled design is very distinct. There are lots of little touches throughout, like a table and chairs or a statue. Fun - 3 I didn't really understand how the creepy dolls worked but otherwise it was quite fun to explore and see what else the levels had to offer. The lack of randommess was a nice dynamic and allowed for some clear interactions and a lot of up front decision making. Innovative - 4 The dungeon generation was quite the stand out and felt very unique. Whilst the combat was simple it was also done in its own way and that gave the game a definable identity. Scope - 3 Having a help option is very appreciated even if it isn't particularly necessary as the game is quite intuitive. Roguelike - 4 The core elements of a roguelike are all there, but the new polish and style make it feel fresh, even with the otherwise traditional approach.
The most notable thing about The House is its hand drawn graphics. And these are very cool. The black and white Victorian house art has a real Edward Gorey vibe which nicely matches with the framing story. I also think that there are some interesting attempts at innovative UI design, for instance the on-character circles denoting stats like HP and ATTACK, however, they were not always successful to me. I often found myself having a hard time tracking my HP because of its small size and position on screen, and the different corner / different shade of grey scheme for differentiating HP from attack from moves was not the easiest to remember. It was very cool to see the hand-drawn tiles work together to make all sorts of different creepy rooms and hallways. I found the gameplay too limited to really suck me in. Rooms are mostly large and empty, monsters encountered are attacked by running into them, and there is no real strategy other than attack or run (and wait to heal). In fact, I think that having “heal over time” with no “food clock” or other time limiting element eliminates a lot of fun tension, because the best strategy becomes – kill one monster, wait for 10 turns, move on. Also, while the art for the rooms is super evocative, I didn’t feel like I encountered meaningful differences between the different levels (I made it to level 3 in my playing…despite the difficulty slider I found it difficult to make it further than that). This sameness made exploration feel less exciting than it could have. The author has made an attempt to wrap the combat and movement around a system of multiple actions – but I was never QUITE sure how this ended up working in practice. Some enemies seemed to display always having 0 moves, other enemies seemed to always have 1 move remaining, even after moving. I think the system was likely working, just that it wasn’t clear to me in what way. I also don’t know if it added the kind of strategic complexity that would have made the combat more fun. My biggest wish for this game is that everything about it would have been smaller, tighter, and presented to the player more slowly. I would have loved a version of this game where the first floor had only 4 rooms, the rooms were half the size as they are now, and the only enemies encountered were bats. Then let the next floor be 5 rooms and introduce the dolls or demons. Dribble the content out, rather than dropping almost all of that in the first rooms. Finally, a note that when I played the numpad keys had reflected verticals – meaning that up went down and down went up. This made it very hard to simply play through the game.
The procedural generation with the hand-drawn tiles, and the deterministic combat system were highlights of this game for me. The numpad controls were really awkward for me, there should be an option to invert the diagonals. Good, easy to read UI. Exploring the floors becomes a little repetitive and leaves the player wanting. Gameplay itself is somewhat average but the aesthetics really do it for me.
Cantrip
Completeness
3
3
4
Aesthetics
3
3
4
Fun
3
4
4
Innovation
3
4
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
2
3
3
This is a D&D-themed card game. Not a roguelike, but still fun! I haven't played a game before where the cards in your hand are hit points. Other than that, it seems like a decently well balanced two-player deckbuilding card game. I have some minor criticisms and found some bugs, but for a 7DRL I don't think they matter. The animations are pretty slow, so I hope the author puts out another build with some delays removed. I won on my 6th or so playthrough, which means it's pretty well balanced!
Cantrip is great. The game is simple – you proceed automatically through progressively more difficult opponents – but its pacing and balance are really great for something made so quickly. I found the presentation of the information to be very clear, and the simple animations of cards sliding from place to place did a great job of letting me know what was happening , of letting me follow the flow of the game. I played the game several times, dying sometimes, succeeding others, always choosing new strategies with the card drafting. There are a lot of games in this year’s 7drl with card-based mechanics, and they can be tricky to get right. I think Cantrip makes two really key innovations: adding an AP system, and using hand size as health. The latter is something that you can see informing the design of so many of the cards. The Rest card, for instance, is powerful, fun to play, and unique to a game where your hand size is health. And using AP the way the game does eliminates the need for mana or energy or any other resource type. These two innovations, combined with a good variety of cards make for a very fun game that doesn’t feel derivative of other card-based games. There are definitely some places that still need polish or development. The AI of the opponents, I found, to make lots of mistakes – playing a Do Damage with Shield cards right before playing Get More Shields, for instance. Though, I’m sure designing an AI for such a game is a challenge. Also, I’m sure the power and frequency of some cards could/should be tweaked. Without going into specifics, the number of 0 AP cards can result in some lightning fast kills currently. Other than that, however, I would just like more of this game. More cards, more enemies, etc.
Had a blast with this one. The idea of the cards in your hand also being your health really works well. There may not be much art, but the UI is fluid and does a really good job of making the gameplay intuitive. One area that seemed odd was the inability to see the number of cards remaining in the opponent's deck, as you can your own, although that's a really minor issue. It was fun to come up with new strategies as additional cards were added each round, and picking cards from among the presumably randomized options was a challenge as well. The AI would occasionally make some clearly bad moves, but that might not even be considered a bug since we don't always want perfect opponents! The pacing was spot on. Well done!
RERL
Completeness
4
3
3
Aesthetics
4
3
3
Fun
4
3
2
Innovation
4
3
2
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
3
All the other games in my review block had been extremely simple and able to be picked up instantly, which made this one a bit of a surprise: As simple as the mechanics really are, and as much effort as the game puts into making them learnable with tooltips and introduction text, there's enough going on that if you're determined as a player to avoid all of those explanations, you in fact will be a bit lost for a while. After I got my bearings, though, I found this a quite carefully thought out small roguelike experience. The difficulty level is on point, in part because of being essentially self-tuning - on your first few runs, the revival mechanic lets you keep making progress while being aware that there's room to do better, and once you're more advanced as a player, the game gives you the choice of hunting monsters for score or trying out different bodies. And if you just want to give the game a fair shake, getting through it without dying makes a good baseline roguelike experience. And then on top of all that there's the Director's Cut option, which actually brings out whole new depths in the game, as suddenly there's much more room to make use of monsters fighting each other, body-hopping in fights, and carefully managing cooldowns. I almost feel like I've been treated to two 7DRLs in one - the mechanics might be largely the same, but the way you engage with them is completely different. The character graphics do a lot to make the game more fun by giving their own little charm to the experience. This being the closest I've ever come to playing a Resident Evil game, I probably missed some references in the bosses' introductions, but I thought they were cool nevertheless. That said, I would probably have avoided a few deaths caused by one Lisa Trevor if I'd had some forewarning about her nature... The only little annoyance that almost made me dock a point off Completeness was the tendency for fights on the second level to take place near the top of the screen, where interface text would get in the way when trying to target abilities. Sharing a tile with an enemy also seems to be a presumably unintentional circumstance that I ended up in several times. Those were small blemishes on what's easily been the best I've personally seen in this year's 7DRL contest, though.
Completeness - 3, Aesthetics - 3, Fun - 3, Innovative - 3, Scope - 3, Roguelike - 4 For a 7DRL entry, this was well executed. I'm only vaguely aware of the RE series (gasp), so on the first play through, none of the real quote references "clicked". It was only when I spotted the linked YouTube video to the PS title gameplay in the entry's comments where I understood. Neat idea with the monster vs. S.T.A.R.S, and I thought the idea of a popup of each STAR for the level was a good one. The scrolling text worked fairly well, and the "kill list" helped. The Director's Cut idea was cool. I didn't make it through most of the stream content, but thanks for linking them from the submission page, as well as the dev blog. I definitely encourage you to keep adding to this entry (if you want to of course). Some (minor-totally-optional-peanut-gallery) suggestions any sound / music effect a bit more tinkering with the level so that you need to explore at least 50% before the level Boss shows up a way to return to the previous level. There were a few times I was cornered, so I warped to the next level to escape.. when playing the Director's Cut edition, experiment with creating a "letterbox" view of the game with the top / bottom black bars. Yeah it might not work if you decide to experiment with it, but just throwing it out there. maybe another game mode could be "Commentary" or something where you pull in some voice overs for the levels. I'll stop now. :)
Well done! The game feels feature complete but missing some more polish. The controls are mostly intuitive except for exiting the level. I thought I was looking for stairs and only after re-reading the instructions did I figure out you can exit as soon as you've killed the level boss. I didn't have a lot of fun with the title, I think because switching bodies always felt like a worse off option than dying and I could respawn immediately. There didn't feel like a risk of death until I got to the game over screen where it explained my score could be improved by not dying. Fixing this is be your first focus if continuing. The extra character abilities were only a little innovative and switching bodies could have been more so if there other bodies were interesting to inhabit. The scope is what I'd expect from a 7DRL and I can only classify this as a roguelike-like since it's missing roguelike features such as permadeath.
RunToTheStairs
Completeness
4
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
3
3
4
Innovation
3
3
4
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
4
This one is quite original. And addictive. And not as simple as you might thing from the description. The only feature that is IMO absolutely required, but missing is the ability to pan the view around. The game is technically all about finding an optimal path that short enough and have number of collectibles maxed. But you can only rely on the very restricted field of view and pathfinder. I wouldn't mind at the very least have some kind of predicted pathfinder, see where it will path if I'll go there. Right now deviation from the main route is always a gamble. There can be different path from that nook, then you are fine, or it can be dead end and then you are screwed. There were roguelikes without combat, there were roguelikes about getting from point A to point B as fast as possible, but in this format, probably not. Let's call it moderately innovative. But I think there could be much more to the game. More upgrades, some way to hinder AI players... As much as the game tries to squeeze into formal rouguelike definition, I think it is too shallow to be called true roguelike.
Run to the Stairs is a tidy, small game that adds some nice gamifications around a simple central mechanic. And a quick note up front before discussing the game proper, the author has done a lot around the central game to add to the experience of play: there is a long and interesting description of the mechanics on the game’s page, there are clear information panels in the game itself, and the author has also implemented a sort of bespoke leader board on the itch page, all of which add to the experience. The core mechanic of this game really worked for me – using diagonal movement and player decisions to outsmart pathfinding AI. I also think that it was wise of the author to focus on refining this central premise, rather than trying to add too many bells and whistles. The inclusion of the “fastest” line, the granular calculation of racers’ speed, and the simplicity of the power ups all contribute in a clear way to the central experience of racing. I did find myself wishing for slightly more visual polish. The choice of typeface for the ascii-characters I found particularly sharp and vertical, and the colors could have been chosen with more care. More substantially, because the game hinges so completely on moving across corners, some visual indication of the grid would have helped ease the eyes, rather than having rooms and walls exist as just large contiguous sections of black and grey. Regardless, this game is definitely worth a play.
An interesting take on the RL genre, and a well executed one. Little techniques and tricks here and there to get the advantage and good use on the nitro makes it very fun and interesting to play. I would say that it feels overwhelming the more you play by placing the enemy units way ahead and also giving them an increased scaling speed over you that can be really hard to beat. Strategy can take you so far, since you can't see far ahead to calculate better paths and if upgrades worth your position investment. Overall I had a great time playing and it's a concept I would love to see improved on and grow into an actual game.
SlayHack
Completeness
3
4
4
Aesthetics
3
4
4
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
3
3
2
Scope
3
4
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
3
SlayHack is a Rogue-lite card game. It's plot is similar to one of the popular games in the genre, although the game play is much different. SlayHack has a number of interesting twists in its mechanics, such as hunger and inventory. The game is complete, relatively polished, and *mostly* balanced, although there are ways to heavily exploit the mechanics since over time you can completely mold your deck to your liking. The game looks great aesthetically, has good music that doesn't get too repetitive, and the controls are very simple and easy to learn. The game has seven (?) levels and then loops into random levels where you can eventually fight the last boss multiple times. The game is fun to play and has several classes with different card selection and playstyles, so there is a good level of replayability.
A polished, RL card game. The player reveals the level's cards one by one -- some items, some enemies. Attacking and using items is accomplished by playing these cards from the hand. Card illustrations are stylized and neat. A spare but handsome UI makes most actions intuitive. Strategy differentiation is jump started with player character classes, which result in different starting decks. The traditional roster of expendable resources is elevated by clever interactions. Items swap values between resources, or use that resource's value to deal damage. Difficulty is balanced and, excepting how difficult it is to get rid of cards the player doesn't want, gameplay is well executed. A good candidate to refine further.
Slayhack is a rather polished deck building game that provides a decent challenge and a fair amount of fun. The graphics are very nicely done and the gameplay intuitive. The cards are well thought out and the upgrading system adds a satisfying tactical layer. Nothing radically new, but overall impressive for a week's work.
99999
Completeness
4
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
3
4
4
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
3
The game is somewhat similar to hydra slayer, yet different. It feels very dependent on luck on a few first levels, if you won't be able to amass some bulk before incrementing enemies will appear, you will loose for sure. But still quite addictive. My main concern about the interface is absence of visual indication of safety of door unlock. When you get 5 digit number checking divisibility by 3 is somewhat cumbersome. And given the devastating effect of wrong door attempt, definitely won't mind some visual clue. WASD additional controls would be good to have too. All in all it is a nice little randomized puzzle. Definitely playable, but I don't think it somehow related to roguelikes.
I really enjoyed this. It's a cool, simple idea, executed well. Some remarks organized by category: Completeness: 3 I didn't run into any bugs during my play, and the game feels quite complete and playable. Balance-wise, I sometimes felt that I ended up in situations that were unwinnable, though a lot of those were probably because of my own earlier mistakes. Aesthetics: 3 The game has a pleasantly minimalist aesthetic, with the colored numbers giving a straightforward and readable indication of their effect. I liked that the entire game was played with only the arrow keys, plus number keys for items - that kind of simplicity is great in a 7DRL. The only thing I really missed were some quality-of-life improvements with the grey gates: I'd have loved some visual indication of whether or not I'd be able to open one (outside of doing the math in my head), and perhaps a confirmation before I step onto one that's going to reduce me to 1. Fun: 3 The simple rules lead to some interesting strategic choices, like trying to maximize the benefit of green percentages/minimize the damage of red percentages and divisions by having the largest/smallest number at the time you hit them. The items play into that dynamic well by giving you more control over when you gain HP, instead of being fully at the mercy of the map layout. I often found it hard to reason about what my next move should be, but I chalk a lot of that up to my being bad at math. ;) Innovation: 4 It's a novel, good idea. With so many roguelikes in which the player character is more or less a bag of numbers, it's fun to play one in which you are literally just a number. :) Scope: 3 The game puts some interesting twists on its basic concepts. There are some cool surprises like the red numbers that gradually increase in magnitude each turn, leading to some tense moments when you manage to reach one just in time to avoid being killed by it. Roguelikeness: 3 While it's definitely not a traditional RL, I'd say it's got a decent bit in common with them, with a randomized dungeon, exploration elements, and the numbers serving as a kind of abstract version of combat.
Well done on a good and finished entry. It was well scoped for the expectations in the 7DRL, and made the most with a little. It was completable, which is always really good. Concept was good and original. I struggled a bit with the randomness and what felt like a lack of decision making: things like the divide by two attacks were unavoidable, and it felt very dependent on the level as to how well I went. I also faced a fair few unbeatable Level 1s. It felt a bit more puzzle-gamey to me than roguelikey - but still turn based, randomly generated. Glad I played it. Well done on completing the challenge.
Battle Weary
Completeness
4
4
4
Aesthetics
3
3
4
Fun
3
2
2
Innovation
4
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
2
3
4
Completeness - 4 Other than having to reload the page to restart the game is very complete. Controls are intuitive and work well. There are even bits of flair to bring the game to life; a thorough job has definitely been done. Aesthetics - 3 Easy to parse, simplistic design the game is effective at conveying its information and the little tweens and twitches of feedback add a nice touch. However, in places such as the map the design is a bit too simple and repetitive with the key elements not popping as they could. Fun - 3 The core loop is quite simplistic and after a few runs the game doesnt seem to vary very much. What is there is solid, and a good foundation. There are quite a few opportunities for quality of life changes, such as starting fights immediately upon entry to an appropriate room (given you have no choice but to fight) that would improve the experience. Innovative - 4 Use of the screen reader is really interesting and distilling the dungeon exploration down to moving room to room with small encounters in each is also quite effective. Scope - 3 The different dungeon areas and room types are OK but the enemy and card variety is very small. Roguelike - 2 It didnt feel so much like a roguelike experience, even with a board definition. The runs don't feel very impactful and the combat is very simple.
New take on the card-based roguelike/lites which have been growing in popularity. Game is complete, plays smoothly, easy-to-learn controls, pretty maps and environments. Turn based except you move room-to-room instead of tile-to-tile. I didn't make it to the end but the game world felt rather complete. Had a few issues with text not updating (example: went downstairs to the ruin and the exits listed on the new map were the ones from the last map and did not match the current layout). Gameplay needs some balancing in my opinion. It's very easy to dilute your deck with wounds, exhaustion, and coins. The better cards are expensive so you have to decide whether to dilute your deck with basic attack and defend cards to combat this early, which leaves you at a disadvantage later when you do get better cards (I didn't play long enough to find out if there was a card upgrade process to get around this). Not getting a new hand at the beginning of a new fight felt like you were usually starting at a disadvantage. This could be strategized around normally, but with all of the deck dilution you usually needed to use the useful cards in you hand to finish the last fight. You can also start with 0 cards or new cards if you altered your deck in town. It seemed like you have to run back to town a lot to remove status cards, and gold accumulation felt slow since it was used to remove these cards (after playing for a while, it seems that using charges to try and get more exhausts than wounds in your deck is favorable since they are cheaper to remove). I think the maps being re-rolled after every visit to town, and how quickly the deck dilutes normally, incentivizes tedious farming for optimal play, but perhaps that is just the min-maxer in me talking :-). I didn't have a screen reader to test that part of the game unfortunately, which seems to be the factor that lead the design. Overall, not a bad take on the card-based roguelike/lite. It's got a lot going for it and with a little extra polish and some balance, it could become a very good game.
Really impressed with the dedication to making this accessible for those with screen readers. Restricting movement by room is a good idea and makes examining things of interest quick and easy. Unfortunately I found the main gameplay loop a bit of a grind – you constantly have to go return to town to remove wound/exhaustion cards from your deck, usually bankrupting yourself in the process. Wound cards especially seem to cost too much to remove. The bad cards as HP metaphor also means your game can end early just due to an unlucky draw.
Dismatch (7DRL 2019)
Completeness
3
4
4
Aesthetics
2
4
3
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
3
4
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
3
Dismatch seems like a rich premise, combining the match 3 and roguelike genres; those kinds of hybrids are often very successful. However, in this case, I felt that the promise of the game was difficult to discern through its general slowness . In a superficial way, the game just moves slow…the animations to slide tiles around, or to send energy or attacks from one character to another, all feel like they could be (at least) doubled in speed. In a more substantial way, the battles in Dismatch, even with very early enemies like snakes and rats, can take 5 minutes or more. Each attack that you perform has to be powered up, they all power up in parallel, once you do attack it’s random whether you attack a critical body part or a trivial one, and those attacks also might fail if you roll low or your opponent’s defense is buffed. Given that most of your attacks start out with no bonus, this can mean the majority of attacks you make against an early enemy do nothing…which isn’t the greatest feeling. I would be curious to see what this game played like if: a) your attacks fired off as soon as you filled their meters (rather than needing their own action), or b) your attacks didn’t have a “meter” at all, and simply activated when you matched their icons. My lowest rating for this was for aesthetics, which I feel requires slightly more explanation. I liked the art style of the game, in fact, and found the color-coded icons both charming and easy to read. Where I found the issue was with the overall placement of elements in the UI, their relative size, and the timing of their updating. When you make an attack, for instance, your eyes have to go from the tiles you just matched to the menu bar to check that the meter is full, then you’re likely looking back as your opponent makes their match, then you look back to activate your attack, which causes a beam to shoot from your menu and also a body part to darken on the other end of the screen (before the beam hits it), and to find out the effect of that you have to then look at the bottom of the screen, where not the most recent message tells you how the hit/miss was calculated. This might sound like a silly gripe, but as I was playing I consistently had the experience of not knowing where to look, or not knowing what had just happened. A few other stray observations. I think that there was no trigger to scramble the tiles if no match is present, which would be nice. I also think that resetting the board between enemies would be great. It could also be valuable to not include the icons (like the cog) that do not appear in either opponents’ action menus, thus cutting down on chaff and allowing for more, easier matches when the two characters have limited options. Also, I came across a few very fun features – I had a pair of boots for a time that allowed me to make seductive poses on a match 4. Those touches are very nice.
Love the aesthetics, and Dismatch is pretty fun as is, although it's also far too slow to advance. I played for more than an hour and still wasn't half way to the end, but also hadn't been in serious danger the entire time. Shortening the game would go a long way towards improving the experience. Enemies take forever to kill, but even without changing the mechanics or content at all, simply having faster animations would make the experience a lot smoother. It would also be nice to have persistent stat info displayed in the interface, which would help answer questions as to how much (and how permanent) certain bonuses are, like the attack bonus from using some items. Overall this is a really good mix of the match-3 and roguelike genres.
I like the colorful ui and the controls were very straight forward. I would have liked to be able to click on a body part to get a description of the status like you can with the items. The gameplay was relaxing and fun. A common mechanic of matching games is that falling tiles can match with existing tiles for combos, but it seemed like (and I may be mistaken) sometimes the tiles coming from the top would already contain a row/column of 3. I could definitely see this being a really fun full game with some more balancing and the things you listed in the comments.
Dungeon of the Goblin King
Completeness
4
3
3
Aesthetics
3
4
4
Fun
3
2
4
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
2
4
Tile-based first-person roguelike with stealth mechanics. The game felt quite polished and I ran into no game-breaking bugs. The game's graphics look very nice, it has a style to it that is quite appropriate for the game. Controls took a few minutes to learn/remember, particularly the menus. It would perhaps be a good idea to have buttons on the side at least as a remind to use your inventory and perks? Could even highlight current encumberence, experience level, how many perk points you have available -- there are definitely a few things that could be done to really enhance the UI. Music fit the mood and surprisingly never felt repetitive. Movement felt sluggish at times, traveling back through already-explored rooms could feel tedious or slow. The first five floor or so felt relatively the same, with the same enemy types, rooms, items. Fortunately the perk system gives a sense of progression. I didn't make it to the king but the game felt full as far as scope goes.
Slippery slope. First impressions are very good. Beautiful main menu, animations, pleasant graphics. Proper help screen start of the game. Good music. ...wait, I just read that cell is open and I can escape my prison. But how?! Pressig "F" to push away? Mouse buttons? I feel lucky to have gotten to play this one, possibly even unlucky that it was my first and has set such a high bar. I like the idea of a first person 3d game that is still turn based, and found the environment relatively easy to interact with (except for some hard to reach items behind chests and furniture). The stealth aspect is good, and I appreciate the variety of combat strategies (noisemaking, throwing weapons, dual wield or sword+shield or...). Needing to pick up food to find out if it's poisoned was a bit awkward.
Ghost Wizard
Completeness
3
4
3
Aesthetics
3
3
4
Fun
3
4
3
Innovation
2
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
2
4
4
For me, Ghost Wizard played like a horror game. It doesn’t overly explain itself to you, and the cutesy look of the graphic hides a more sinister setting. I don’t know if it was intentional, or a byproduct of the program, but my screen would also flicker strangely at random moments. There was also a moment in a later area (no spoilers) where I found myself trapped and knew I would die and it was rather spooky. I was able to get what I think is quite close to finishing the game, but wasn’t able to figure out what I think was the last puzzle to “escape.” Also, I really liked that your meters track Coherence, Influence, and Knowledge – and Knowledge in particular was interestingly integrated with the rest of the game. I’m not sure that Ghost Wizard was designed deliberately as a roguelike. Of course, the meaning of that differs for everyone, but the author has even included an “adventure mode” along with the “roguelike mode” that indicates to me that perhaps their heart wasn’t really in the roguelike frame. And while the placement of some things in the world seems lightly randomized, the map itself seemed static to me. I think the game has more in common with a metroidvania; I even at times felt the game play was similar to the recent Minit, hunting a single map for the notable, quirky items (spells) needed to proceed. Taken on those terms, I wanted a slightly tighter relationship between the powers you unlock and the puzzles you’re solving in the world. Sword and bow are almost identical. Candle seems redundant with Fireball. I never found a use for Acid Cloud. Maybe I needed to do more exploring…however, the world is pretty hostile to explore. Enemies are easy to defeat, but only by spending Influence, and Influence is difficult…or inconsistent…to regain. This meant that in later stages of the game I found myself crossing the entire map to try and scrounge a last few bits of Influence, to then go back and unlock the next step of a puzzle. Having more consistent ways of regenerating Influence (even if they unlock at later portions of the game) would have made less “busy work” for me. A final note is that I really did love the world building in this – it can’t be overstated.
A simple but interesting roguelike. The stats and descriptions give a unique and very charming flavor. Some enemies don't really contrast with the backgrounds, which can be confusing.
Completeness: It's complete game, but with rough edges. Some issues are annoying: navigating through forests is not pleasant due to movement scheme, 'x' key closes game immediately, no instructions, no obvious goal. Aesthetics: Graphics is really pleasant - font, solid blocks, limited use of animations and non-standard characters. Truly retro feeling! I like this pastel palette, also. Fun: This game has potential, and I'd like to see more polished post-campo release. But for now... Well, not bad, but could be better. Maps are kind-of Zelda-like, basic combat mechanics are a bit arcadey and reminds me Binding of Isaac a little (wsad to move, arrows to shoot - or cast spells), "resource management" (coherent vs influence) is nice little twist... But some issues are too big to be ignored. Maps, even if pleasant, are big and empty; lack of obvious goal doesn't help either; due to limited movement (4 directions, seems impossible) it's hard to win encounters tactically. Innovation: As I wrote earlier, coherence/influence dependency is nice twist on usual hp/mana mechanics. Scope: Reasonable for 7DRL. Roguelikeness: Let's say, 85%.
I of the Storm
Completeness
4
3
3
Aesthetics
4
4
2
Fun
4
4
3
Innovation
3
4
3
Scope
3
3
2
Roguelikeness
3
2
3
Completeness: Complete game, very polished. It has even tutorial - dynamic and easy to follow. Unfortunately, it teaches combat only - readme file would be welcome... The only issues are very minor ones - sometimes menus edges overlaps a little, and attack indicators can start to sway on the wind. Aesthetics: It's great since the firs impression. Just WOW. Stylish and readable font, very clean UI, straightforward controls... Fighting inside the whirlwind is immersive. Fun: First thing that impressed me is quality of writing. Descriptions are long (maybe sometimes even too verbose, for so dynamic game) and interesting. Sometimes I was just examining entities around me instead of fighting - even if it isn't necessary to play. Game is simple and engaging, and combat is rewarding. Although, difficulty could rise at a bit slower pace, in my opinion. Innovation: Combat based on movement - I've seen it already, but it's very uncommon mechanics in roguelikes nonetheless. "Whirlwind" is nice detail a top of good game, too. Scope: Looking at the big picture, I of the Storm is small game. But, the devil's in the details - IotS provides more than enough variety in moves and enemies to get "average" mark. Roguelikeness: Here, I'm a bit torn. Usually I'm liberal about this category during 7DRLC, and I... has everything to score "4", but it just doesn't feel roguelike-ish. Even less than some entries that has, arguably, less in common with Rogue itself. Finally, I decided to give "3" - because it feels more like arena brawler.
An engaging recasting of the RL as a fighting-game-Kung-Fu-movie-chess-match. The game abandons the typical proc gen map for a nearly open field, ringed by an animated tile sandstorm. Also abandoned is the typical bump to attack gameplay. In its place is a set of what are effectively special moves. A short sequence of directional moves turns into a buff or a ranged attack. This mechanic and the high number of enemies that are drawn to the player result in a fluid, rhythmic gameplay unique in the genre. This gameplay is thematically reinforced by the accompanying flavor text, which sets the player character as the last in a line of dancing warrior monks. The prose is purple, but the vignettes build up an interesting world around the game piece by piece. Visual execution is where the game begins to stumble. A low weight font drowns characters out against their noisy background. In addition, the indication that tiles are in the enemy area of attack is difficult to read. The swirling tile sandstorm is a gorgeous and adds to the mood. But it only adds to the mood, there's no gameplay hook. The gameplay is so well executed though, that the visual issues are easy to overlook. A polished version of this concept would be well received.
Pretty cool special move system, but the mechanics feel a little lost in the current battle royal implementation. Would be interesting to see how they functioned in a dungeon or something that put the player in more limited spatial situations.
Peryton
Completeness
4
3
2
Aesthetics
4
3
2
Fun
4
3
2
Innovation
3
4
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
3
The simple twist on the standard roguelike formula turns this into a unique and fun game. The controls take a moment to get used to, but you'll be sweeping and diving through the dungeon in no time. A simple but fun concept very well executed, I highly recommend this game.
Fun and innovative little roguelike here!
As a concept, I enjoyed this game. I didn't enjoy a lag issue that came up frequently when I was rotating the maze, nor that instructions on the game itself had garbled characters, but aside from these minor issues it's a solid small roguelike.
Ski RL
Completeness
2
3
4
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
2
3
4
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
3
3
4
Roguelikeness
4
3
4
The UI needs to be polished because the text is obscured but the graphics underneath, even just changing the font colour to yellow would make it more visible. The aesthetics are okay but it would be great if the player could move in diagonals and have more visual feedback about how far their next move will be. It's an innovative twist on the usual mechanics but crashing all the time is frustrating instead of fun or compelling. I think more polish on this idea could make it more fun. At the time of writing this feels more like tech demo than a full game and more like a roguelike-like. Please keep working at it cause it'll be interesting.
"Skiing roguelike", heavily inspired by the well known SkiFree game that used to be packaged on Windows computers. I played through all levels and eventually got a win. There is no ending screen, which the developer notes as a known issue. The game feels feature-complete but does have a few bugs (nothing game-breaking during my playtime). Charming hand-drawn art which looks great and fits the game well. Controls are mostly intuitive but take getting used to. You damage monsters by skiing into them with your momentum bonus, but most monsters come in backs and being stopped by running into one to attack it can be very punishing. It's often better to run away. There's a full set of levels which get progressively more difficult, each has its own new challenges and themes, and the game does have an ending. Overall the scope feels appropriate for a 7DRL. The game is turnbased, procedurally generated, has items and inventory, but does not play quite like your typical roguelike due to the movement and combat mechanics. Overall a fun game that is worth playing, but I probably won't be returning to it for multiple playthroughs.
Escape the hazards of the frozen mountain passes to get home! Since there is no particular benefit to killing enemies, this is more of a survival roguelike. It's quite challenging, I did not manage to make it home in the hour I tried, but navigated many an abominable-snowman infested cave trying. Quite fun, even if your most dangerous enemy is attempting to navigate with skis! It is quite well scoped and featured for a 7DRL. The map is revealed with proper line of sight mechanics (obstructed by trees and walls). FOV and pathing is in, which is great. There is full inventory support for using bandages. The only real omission I feel the game has is that using items takes no time, which would have introduced a bit more tactical depth to choosing when to use them (especially when moving under speed). All that white in the tileset lead to an aura migraine in protracted pay, but that's more of a minor usability note that would only apply in specific situations. Completeness - 4. Has every basic thing a roguelike needs, plus a unique theme, but some minor bugs. Aesthetics - 3. Effective but simple graphical tiles, transparent GUI overlay does its job, but overall no frills. Fun - 4. It came together well, quite challenging, has a nice variation of level hazards and enemies, and a unique movement type besides! I will say that the skis were a little frustrating to get around in. Innovative - 3. The skis movement is definitely in the category of providing a unique twist. Scope - 4. Accomplished quite a lot for 7 days! Different level types, including additional later level features (such as snowstorms) help pull it above an average scope. Roguelike - 4. Procedural tile-based maps, FOV, pathing, inventory system. The works! But there's little RPG mechanics or progression, and so on, so it's not utterly roguelike.
Teocalli
Completeness
3
2
3
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
4
2
3
Innovation
4
2
3
Scope
4
3
4
Roguelikeness
4
3
4
I enjoyed this entry quite a bit - really creative. The animation and art style was really unique - at first it was a bit difficult to make things out, but I soon got used to it, and I think it worked well. The guitar strumming in the background added a lot of flavor to the whole Aztec pyramid feel of the game. I encourage the developer to keep adding to this work. Thanks so much for participating in the 7DRL, and hopefully you had a really fun time putting this work together!
Combat is long and tedious. Adding larger numbers of the current enemy types does not make the combat harder or more interesting, it just makes it take longer. The animations take priority over input, making the game play very slow.
One run I couldn't finish because a circle chest spawned in front of the hallway to the stairs. I also don't like that I can't move quicker by holding the arrow key or pushing it quickly repeatedly. Looks great, and is an interesting take on the genre.
Man-at-arms
Completeness
4
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
2
Fun
3
4
2
Innovation
3
4
2
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
3
You're a soldier cut off from the infiltration force, going it alone on a mission to open the gates for the invading army. I'm not familiar with the Song of Swords tabletop RPG on which this is based, but it has gruesome ASCII death blows, so I already love it. Being able to select your weapon and therefore fighting style at the start is interesting, opening up a number of different maneuvers specific to that style. Attacks aren't even just bump everything in sight, but actually require also choosing a specific location to attack on that target. I had much (gruesome) success playing swordsman slicing through everyone's neck. The battle descriptions are great. I noticed that I was cut by one of the enemies and bleeding, at which point the "bandage" option lit up red to remind me to use it, which was a nice touch, though there was no indicator on the UI that I was bleeding, information that I only recalled from the log but didn't see that it had really had any impact on me yet so shrugged it off. (Note that there's a typo on the UI, "bondage" where it should say bandage!) It's nice that there's a secondary way to "win" even if you don't accomplish your primary mission, though I won't spoil it for others who might want to play.
Game mechanics is very interesting and well executed, but UI needs more polish. Tracking messages is very important during clashes, and small text makes it hard to read. There is no information what is, mechanically, difference between thrusting and swinging. Description suggest that sword used with shield is short, but again - no idea what it changes; is short sword less accurate than bastard sword? It's hard to evaluate it upon gameplay experience as well. Combat is meat of this game. Even without knowing mechanics, it's very fun. Think about simpler and more dynamic DF Adventure Mode combat. It rewards positioning - it's easy to become overwhelmed, but there are pillars or crates to dance with... Controls are intuitive, but I wish I could use +/- to choose attack location, and confirm by numpad enter. I noticed two major issues. Map drawing updates too late. For example, I'm staying next to the stairs, being overwhelmed already. So, I want to ascend and try to escape. After pressing proper button, instead move player, game called attack menu. But there were stairs displayed next to me all the time! Only after finishing attack sequence, map updated to draw swordman on this tile. Game crashes without traceback quite often, the reason is probably in menus? Click here for footage. To sum things up, I like Man-at-arms. It shows that developer has clear goal, and managed to reach it. But has no time to playtest and debug, it seems... I'd be glad to play more polished post-campo version!
I like the direction this seems headed, with different weapons and combat styles, targeted attacks, wounds, etc. I think there could be a good game at the end of the tunnel here, but this is more of a tech demo for just those parts than a solid game on its own.
Silly Goblins
Completeness
4
2
3
Aesthetics
4
3
4
Fun
4
3
3
Innovation
4
2
2
Scope
4
3
3
Roguelikeness
2
3
3
Another really excellent gem discovered in this 7DRL "competition". This was a lot of sneaky fun with a great look and feel. I've never heard of the TIC-80 project before, but I've bookmarked it after playing this submission. The aesthetic works really well, with the sprites, art, sound and music styles all fitting together very nicely. This is definitely a more innovative project, which does kind of skirt around the borders of "traditional" roguelikes, but in the name of "fun". For example, I suspect the gameplay feel wouldn't be the same if this was turn-based. I think it was to the game's "betterment" (opposite of detriment?), that the AI was....goblin-like. You could usually get through some of the challenging sections by waiting for the goblin to trigger their own trap. An excellent submission that my kids and I really enjoyed. Well done!
If you walk left and bump into the mountain then you'll be stuck until you reset. You can't swing your weapon while moving and it's not obvious that you can use it from cover. Traps spawn in weird places sometimes where it seems impossible to avoid damage, like a trap plate in the same place as a wall locking you into the "climb over wall" animation when you trigger it. The movement keys sometimes get stuck causing your character to wander into the enemies vision. It was fun to lure enemies into traps, but it was too bad that they often triggered the traps themselves without player intervention.
There's a lot to like here. Beautiful pixel art, simple intuitive controls, cool dynamic music system. It's satisfying to sneak up behind a goblin and knock them out, and the stealth system is clean and easy to understand. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the fine work that went into implementing the pieces of this game didn't quite add up to a super cohesive whole. You can reliably beat a majority of levels just by holding the right arrow key to run to the end - enemies can't hit you if you keep running, since their attacks have a startup time. Combined with the fact that hearts and smoke bombs replenish on each level, this means that a lot of things end up not mattering, so the stealth mechanics somewhat go to waste. I think this is one of those games with huge potential that didn't quite get fully fleshed out in the 7-day development period. With some tweaks and more diverse mechanics, I can see it being an addictive game.
Dungeon Dweller
Completeness
3
3
4
Aesthetics
4
3
3
Fun
3
2
3
Innovation
3
2
3
Scope
4
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
3
3
completeness - 3 / Aesthetics - 4 / Fun - 3 / Innovative - 3 / Scope - 4 / Roguelike - 4. Overall this was an excellent submission. Had a great time, and loved the visuals / UX. Would definitely urge the developer to keep tinkering on this one - I'm already imagining some sound and music. Definitely an ambitious effort to create over the 7 day span, and I'd definitely agree that it is a "success". Was just brainstorming that since this is a "reverse" scenario (like a dungeon keeper), maybe there shouldn't be a fog of war since you (as the monster) would already "know" the layout. Unless of course, the idea is that you're chasing after the greedy heroes in unfamiliar (to you) dungeons...
There is some imbalance here. Any race which can't wear equipment will not be able to give or take much damage, which sucks if you wanted to play those races. The vampires health regeneration ability puts him way above anything else you can become. Your vampire can easily survive long enough become fully equipped and after a few speed potions can permanently cast over 5 fireballs before each enemy turn, each fireball doing 5 damage. If he takes any damage at all he'll quickly heal back to full. I wasn't deliberately trying to break the game, the mechanics naturally brought me to this character build. There isn't much variety in tactics since nearly all enemies just fall into the basic melee or ranged categories, it feels like all spells are the same, and all the melee races rarely live long enough for me to learn how to use them. Clearing levels can become repetitive, usually ending with a tedious task of hunting down that one last guy hidden in the level.
I started slightly confused, but once I'd realised I was playing the enemies, I fell in love. Excellent reversal of the dungeoneering trope, playing as the monsters against the adventurers. Good style, needs some music to round it off, maybe as well a proximity indicator for nearness of adventurers as I got lost and bored hunting them down after a while on some levels.
Dungeons & Disks
Completeness
2
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
3
4
3
Innovation
4
4
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
3
This entry is definitely innovative! For another analogy, it's like HearthStone and Curling had a baby. While the entire game loop was pretty much in place (awesome), it just felt like one or two touches were within reach but just perhaps fell away from implementation - likely due to time I'd guess (totally understandable). I would definitely encourage the developer to try and keep adding to this experience. As for a few humble suggestions: I'd consider adding a "pass" option. Also perhaps the ability for the assassin to hide / stealth -- I tried using mine to flank the enemy team and realized quickly that an exposed assassin is a pretty dead one. Once the number of enemy circles gets to a certain size, there's almost no hope for your 3 person squad, so maybe some way to balance out the battle a little more (?). Perhaps on a Warrior charge, it creates an over-exaggerated knockback to the target to push them far away. I do appreciate that there were some sound effects and music - good little touches that added to the session. Terrific entry and thanks for submitting it!
Enjoyed the music. Took me a while to figure out how traits and actions work, but good fun once I got the hang of it. Like that ricocheting causes extra hits on enemies. The traits system offers a lot of possible tactics, differing parties and builds, and the enemies are well varied. Good game, lots of potential, will come back to this.
The physics is hard to predict reliably, possibility due to the elastically of the disks, and the combat does not leave room for failure. Whiffing a special ability is worse than inaction and can leave you in an unwinnable fight.
Hathwell
Completeness
3
3
2
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
There are a lot of interesting things going on in here. The sword controls took a bit of getting used to, though clicked eventually and instead one of the biggest UI issues is the semi-transparent overlapping menus making it hard to read text. Item descriptions would have been helpful, too, although trying things out to answer questions worked in some cases. The balance needs a lot of work, but the systems are mostly there and this could be even more fun with additional development. I like the idea of mixing items to get new items; maybe check out Mage Guild to see how that game does the system since it lies at the core of that roguelike. This is a good start for a somewhat bigger game, keep at it!
Completeness : Games seems complete and polished on the first glance. But the longer I played, the more rough edges I saw. "Examining" items results in showing empty window; transparent menus overlaps and are not very readable; it's very likely to encounter sirens without adrenaline in backpack - and playing with swaying screen just made me sick; room placement is random and not related to doors connection; and so on. On the other hand, I didn't encounter game breaking bugs, and overall feeling is good. Aesthetics: Graphics is nice, controls are easy. But there are some issues here and there - like mentioned in previous paragraph menus. Dev wanted to keep UI as minimal as possible - it nice idea, and I see his efforts, but end effect is not that good - sometimes is just hard to tell what's going on. Also, I don't understand why I have to use [space]+WSAD to move sword - if I'm using WSAD to move player, it would be intuitive to bind sword to arrow keys. Fun: I want to like this game. It has great potential for captiving coffebreak. But it needs polish badly. All the issues I already mentioned affect "fun" factor as well. Some additional stuff: rooms are arranged randomly and doors connections are not corresponding with room placement (well, hiding map borders seems like easy workaround); fusing items seems like important mechanics, but I'm still not sure, how it works. I see that this review looks very negative. It isn't my intention - I want to provide enough feedback to dev to help him make Hathwell better :) But, let me focus on positives now. I'm really enjoying "exploration map" mechanics here - it reminds me Binding of Isaac and Runers, but it's not bad thing. Yet, this mechanics is not common in roguelikes and it feels fresh. Room's layouts are interesting - irregular shapes of rooms, lots of fluff packed here and there - it's immersive. Combat mechanics feels rewarding. Innovation: Well, experimenting with combat mechanics is not uncommon during 7DRLC, but I don't remember any roguelike that implemented swordfighting in that exact way. Map exploration mechanics is nice twist as well. Scope: Reasonable. Roguelikeness: Yep!
A fairly incomplete game, but with interesting elements to explore. When wielding your sword it appears as an extra tile next to you, which you rotate to slash at enemies - this leads to some interesting tactical considerations. It also has an item fusion system which I couldn't explore very well, but seems like it might have some fun elements. The game is unfortunately let down by its incomplete state (missing content and polish is clear everywhere) and a very poor UI that involves a lot of tedious menu navigation. The tiles also are very unclear, making it easy to die to walking on damaging terrain - ASCII would have worked better than these small icons. Overall I think the game was trying to do too many interesting things in the short timeframe.
Incendian Falls
Completeness
3
3
4
Aesthetics
3
3
4
Fun
2
2
3
Innovation
3
3
4
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
4
3
Nice visuals, interesting at first idea, but... Having to restart app after each death is a major turn off in my opinion. Deaths are happening often! No way to turn off music. Movement is controlled with mouse only. That's ok. But then you have your left hand on the keyboard, you right hand on the mouse and ... you cannot scroll the view! It is done with cursor keys. It's nice that there is automovement, but without preview of the path it is more of a dangerous feature than useful. And then comes literally "killer feature" - practically unkillable monsters in a dungeon, which can block your path to the exit and there is nothing you can do about it. Time travel looks interesting in theory, but in practice, the way it is implemented, powerful monster almost always end up chasing you, not your past self, so it is hardly can be used to shake off the pursuit. Slopes level generator is very interesting and look cool. Non-square levels are a bit confusing, but you can get used to it quite fast. It's way too straightforward and simple in terms of character development to be called a true roguelike.
A cool entry with some awesome ideas and beautiful visuals. Some miscellaneous thoughts: The outdoor levels are absolutely gorgeous, with the beautifully tessellated tiles and the water/lava flows. The irregularly shaped tiles and different elevations, combined with click-to-move and a scrolling screen, sometimes made it hard to click where I wanted and hard to predict what path I'd end up taking. It would be amazing if you could see some sort of highlight on the ground indicating what path you're about to lock in. I love the concept of "real time travel" here (going back in time and coexisting with your past self) and it's awesome that it's implemented in a way that allows for some strategizing. Teaming up with your time clones is an amazing idea. That said, I found it hard to use it to good effect; a lot of that is down to my lack of creativity, but I think with some more refinement the time travel could really shine. I felt that balance was a little bit all over the place: my runs were usually characterized by long stretches of easy combat followed by getting cornered by strong enemies and killed. It eventually became a little frustrating to replay the first level over and over, only to usually die quickly in the second one. Because of this, I only managed to get somewhat far into the game a couple of times (into the first square-tiled cave level), so it's likely that I've missed a good bit of what the game has to offer.
Really impressive effort here. The time travel mechanic was inspired - but I fear that I didn't have a great grasp on how to get the most out of it. I was also really impressed on your use of geography - firstly, the three dimensional irregular pentagon grid, and second, the backtracking through previously inaccessible parts of the same level. The small space for improvement was that I struggled a bit with knowing what was going on with damage and pickups. I managed to get to Cave 2 a couple of times, but not past there in ~1h. It was genuinely tough - but that's to be expected for the genre.
Ironscape
Completeness
3
3
4
Aesthetics
4
3
4
Fun
3
2
3
Innovation
2
2
2
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
First off, I love the presentation of this game. The almost-mono chromatic color palette really worked for me, and the subtle use of color splashes was very effective. I also really liked the tiny hint of perspective in the room tiles. The whole thing feels very coherent. I think there might be some technical cropping problems...the pain rating on my weapons was always cut off, for instance, and the help text screen cuts off the end of lines. But, if I'm honest, the text and presentation of so much of this game had a fun otherworldly flavor to it that I didn't mind. The flavor, to be clear, is great. All the language is evocative. Drinking a healing potion has never been as wrenching as it was here. It reminds me of some very nice porpentine-style body horror writing. Cheers. I played several times and had one run where I got quite far in the dungeon. I kept expecting to find a stair case (but never did), but did experience the enemies getting progressively harder, so maybe this dungeon is all on one floor? I did encounter a situation where a room was chock full of enemies too strong for me to handle...and there didn't seem to be much recourse to it besides just running away. I wasn't sure whether I'd EVER be strong enough to go back...which was a bit of a bummer. My one big design note would be that your (seemingly) most important mechanic is also the one I understood the least: Blitzing. At first I thought it was dangerous to Blitz, but I never figured out what was bad about fatigue...so it seems that you should basically be always Blitzing? This feels a little bad, as it's just clunky to hit the extra button, often getting an error message if you're too fatigued...but I wasn't sure what my fatigue limit was. Final note the weapon/strength balancing against the enemies was well done, and the names and colors were great. With more time I could see an even more exciting array of items beyond armor/weapons/quaffs.
Definitely brutal difficulty in here. On the first try I died to the first enemy! But using blitz really helped survival, as did studying the interface a little more to make sure I was using the best gear for the situation at hand. Other than that, though, there weren't many interesting choices to be made here as the procedural generated content made it feel like an overly complex game of rock, paper, scissor. I did like having an easy reference for all the previously encountered enemies, though overall the language got in the way of enjoying this one due to all the typos and grammar issues.
I liked the layout of the ui and the isometric map with floating characters. The text on the help page for the combat section is a little odd. It looks like there are points where a new sentence was supposed to start, but it just ran together and some of the text is cutoff on the right. Other than that I didn't find any bugs. I liked the blitz mechanic. As long as you play carefully and don't let yourself get surrounded you can keep from taking too much damage. Overall this is a good standard roguelike and about what I expect from a 7drl.
Memorex
Completeness
3
2
3
Aesthetics
3
2
3
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
3
4
3
Scope
4
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
4
4
Targeting specific enemy processes rather than enemies directly was fun, is a neat concept like a game within a game. Was unable to pass the squatter sprite in the tutorial, it seemed to block any attempt to be decrypted after hijacking. Maybe increasing the number of moves allowed would help speed up the pace. The guide works well, but the process targeting part of the game could be spelled out a bit more, it's a good mechanic.
The game is fun to play, but not fun to learn. Programs are important but it's hardly explained anywhere what they do or how they're activated. Encrypted enemy programs should have been saved for higher level enemies and your own programs shouldn't show as encrypted when targeting yourself. The rules for how the execute and move programs use CPU were not explained well. I sometimes get too excited when seeing an important program in a folder and then try to install it without checking my available memory first, destroying the program in the process which tends to be the opposite of what I wanted. The game seems to hang sometimes, requiring a restart. There are aspects to the random generation and balance that can cause a run to end before it has started such as a combat enemy stun locking you near the start or starting with a fork near the start, one path to the exit, the other to a dead end, and the corruption plus your slow starting movement blocks your ability to backtrack when you take the wrong path. There are also issues with text overlapping on lower resolutions. Queuing up actions and then running them separately was mostly useless, for nearly all your processes the best time to use them is immediately. The only exception I noticed was the malware process which was more useful to trigger from a distance. I think this gimmick would have worked better if there were more processes that were useful at a different time than when they're queued. It would have been nice to queue the firewall triggers sometimes.
Completeness: Memorex is complete game with rough edges. Aesthetics: Minimalistic-retro-low-poly aesthetics with pseudo-isometric view. I like it! But UI is far from being polished, and font is not readable enough. Fun: For me, Memorex is fun in small doses because of both: aesthetics and gameplay loop. Even after playing tutorial (rare thing for a 7DRL - even if it's a bit hard to follow, it's managable and gets work done) rules remains a bit vague (btw, I wish dev would include readme file - reading description on game page was helpful). I'm sure that cleaner UI would help a lot... Innovation: While game loops isn't something entirely new, Memorex explores interesting setting and focuses on unusual mechanics. Scope: Reasonable for 7DRL. Tutorial is a big plus here. Roguelikeness: During 7DRL reviewing process, I'm liberal about what is roguelike and what is not. Procedurally generated levels? Check. Grid based? Check. Turn based? Check. Permadeath? Check. Therefore, I call Memorex roguelike.
Symbion
Completeness
2
3
4
Aesthetics
3
2
3
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
Completeness - 2 / Aesthetics - 3 / Fun - 2.5 / Innovative - 2.5 / Scope - 3 / Roguelike - 4. Overall a really neat idea, it just needs more love (get it?). I'm *almost* able to glimpse what you were going for with this. I urge you to chip away at it. I couldn't figure out how to climb / descend stairs, and a few keys would crash the game outright. Some simple sound effects / music would help. I liked the idea of managing your symbiote like a Pokemon, and being able to activate / retire the one you want when you want.
You can't manually unequip from the symbion menu, only equip and drop from it, combined with symbions dying at zero life force it gave me the impression for far too long that symbions were one time use consumables. The game was much easier to beat after I starting using the hotkeys.
Quite interesting idea in this game. The ballance is a bit on easier side. There are no enemies or combination of enemies that provide real threat. Aside from default symbiot the only thing that is really required is healing symbiot. Additional damage dealing symbiot are saving a bit of time, but not strictly required for a win. Levels are relatively big so some kind of run to command could save some key tapping. On one of levels some tiles do not have any visual representation, but are blocking movement. Adding some items that work empower some symboits and weaken other could add another dimension to character development as well as some meaningful trade offs. While technically it passes as true roguelike, it is kind of borderline mark. A bit too linear and simple in term of choices.
Tavern Of Interludes
Completeness
3
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
3
2
2
Scope
3
4
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
Enjoyed playing different party members against different abilities, got quite attached to some of them! The different moves, with an explanation of the stats, alongside figuring out how the enemies move makes for a decent challenge.
Party based hack and slash. The party is kept between deaths, but members can be swapped out. The UI is spare, but functional. There are a few different enemy types with clearly different AI. The maps are simple, but with the right physical scale to allow both frequent combat and player tactics. There appear to be minor bugs with stat bonus addition and handling mouse clicks across state changes. Mechanically, loot is implemented well, but progression is unbalanced. Stat bonuses are frequent, but weapons and health are very rare. This results in a game that's hard, but without much strategy. The game implements a thin vertical slice of RL, with the addition of parties. The party concept is interesting, but not much is added to the normal formula. It would have been nice to see a higher ratio of innovation to standard RL.
Party based dungeon crawler with DCSS tiles. Everything's there, and it plays well, but the party system didn't seem to add much depth to the gameplay. Your party is represented by a single avatar, and you can only take one action per turn, so it feels more like playing one character with four HP bars. I found the difficulty to be a little unpredictable – sometimes my party would get wiped out within four turns on the first floor, and other times I'd waltz to the end of the dungeon without barely a scratch.
mushroom zombies (7drl 2k19)
Completeness
2
3
3
Aesthetics
2
4
3
Fun
3
2
4
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
3
3
4
Roguelikeness
4
3
4
I enjoyed this entry, thanks a lot for submitting it! The exploding mushrooms with an area effect was a really neat touch, and I liked the overall layouts of the levels. I thought the exploration / inspection tool with the cursor was another neat effect and added some extra "flavor text" to the levels. I urge the developer to keep adding to this entry and have some more fun with it. Hopefully you enjoyed participating in the 7DRL!
As I understand main goal is exploration. Player try go as deep as he can. There are very few explanations, even lack of controls info at the start, especially how to close observing mode after "C" command (and there is no "?" command with help). Gameplay is simple. Visuals are nice and interesting theme. Zombies walk and attack, flies bites, cats meow. It is nice looking stable little game, but rules of this world are confusing.
Completeness: A few display and gameplay bugs. The text log acts weirdly, but maybe that's part of the theme. Occasional crashes (for example at assets/api.lua:91). Game window: First tried the game on Win10. What do you mean it doesn't fit my 10" tablet screen? The window is strangely shaped at a 3 to 1 ratio. It just overflows on both sides of the screen. How do I zoom back? Ok, let's try it on linux. Eh better but now the characters are super small. I just wish it had the ability to scale the window. Aesthetics: The ascii aesthetics is quite good. With nice color and character choices. I would have loved to be able to see through the tanks. 'Stairs' rooms could have been a bit decorated (but what a relief when you identify them). The game assets contain gorgeous tiles which were create ?prior? to the jam. Too bad @arachonteur did not end up using them. Z is an omnipresent control which reinforces the zombie atmosphere. Fun: The game loads while showing very relevant messages to justify for its covered activity. Or is it just waiting for the zombie infection to propagate? Controls: Z is for starting the game, C is for inspecting tiles. How do I get back from inspecting tiles? Ok restart game (found out later a working combination with Z and X). First play: I am in a upside-down T-shaped room. Assuming the yellow @ is myself. My FOV shows a couple of environments from outside the room. One is green with lots of Ps, Rs... The other one is dark. There are greek letters in the room. Are they bad guys? No, concrete. I must be missing a zombie reference. Too bad that's not my epoch. Walking to the other room. What is this blinking thing following me. Oh no, an explosion. Then I find a room with a button. Trigger it! A specimen falls from a broken tank. Am I in a lab where they conducted experimentation? Freeing a specimen costs hearts from a gauge called DC. Collecting Ws restores that bar. I am not sure to understand what that is. Ok, made it to level 2. And ran for my life to level 3. I love the bombs, they start slow and accelerate, following you. The explosion radius is so large that that you have to be very careful not to get hit. Hitting zombies and flies is not always straightforward. Sometimes you walk through them. Is it a feature? It makes it difficult to understand when you will get hit and when you will make your way through. There are mushrooms in the forest-themed rooms. They create a spore cloud on touch. It engulfs you without hurting, more like blinding you for a while. The effect is well balanced. Does it also affect other critters? I die often, but somehow keep playing. The bombs and zombie runs really induce a believable notion of time. That, combined with simple controls, make the game an action roguelike although it is turn based. Innovation : YAZRL? Maybe but we love them. As for the mushroom theme, I am not sure to see the connection with zombies but that is innovative. The gameplay elements brought by bombs and mushrooms are very interesting and well designed. Scope : The game feels like it was created with a small set of well-thought mechanics. There seemed to be various sorts of zombies but at the time of writing this review, I did not reach a deep-enough level to state that I have seen it all. Roguelikeness : Definitely in the genre.
#7DRL 2019 - Fairy Bomb
Completeness
3
3
4
Aesthetics
2
3
3
Fun
3
2
2
Innovation
4
3
4
Scope
3
3
2
Roguelikeness
4
4
3
This bomb mechanic is very cool! I found that I had to maneuver a lot to not be hit by my own bombs, which meant that corridors were a nice challenge. I was always surprised when an enemy dropped a bomb. I liked the pattern of the default bomb's explosion: 2 distance in each of the 6 directions, rather than the full "hexagon of hexagons", it made it more interesting. I liked the interactions of the bombs too; my bombs would clear their poison. Completeness: 3. Reasonably complete, except for a lack of monsters and more levels. Aesthetics: 2 Fun: 3. It was interesting to play around with it, but I felt like I experienced all the game had to offer after about 15 minutes. More content could make this game stellar. Innovative: 4. This bomb mechanic is amazing, and this game really showed its potential! And the choice of hexagonal terrain really complemented the bomb mechanic. Scope: 3 Roguelike: 4, meets all my criteria for roguelike.
As described, basically Bomberman+Splatoon, collecting bombs of different types and using them to create AOE effects, while enemies are doing the same. It's not very challenging, and there seems to be only one random map that you can play again and again. Could definitely use more content and fine tuning on the balance, but this is a good start. It'd be nice to have a greater sense of progression, such as gradually increasing difficulty and adding multiple maps (also perhaps using smaller maps because as is there is a lot of wasted space).
Completeness - Well, everything works, no bugs here, the interface is functional and informative. Aesthetics - Graphics are fine, keyboard controls get the job done, but wish there was an option to navigate using mouse too. Fun - Well, it's kind of fun to play with the bombs, but it's very short and you won't die even if you ignore the enemies and just rush for the exit. There is no real challenge. Innovation - It's a sort of hexagonal Bomberman, what's not to like. Apparently there are even different types of bombs. Scope - It's one small map and two types of enemies. It's more a proof of concept than a game or even a demo. Roguelikeness - It's random and turn based, but it's not really permadeath if you need to work really hard to die in the first place, is it?
Arches
Completeness
3
3
3
Aesthetics
4
3
4
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
2
3
3
Scope
3
3
2
Roguelikeness
3
4
3
Mastered the game and then finished with a high score of 187. Once I got good at the game, having to wait for the animations to play before being able to make another move became an issue.
Nice game. Wish there was more to find than diamonds and hearts. But it looks great, and is super challenging.
A simple, beautiful game.
Precious Metal
Completeness
4
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
3
3
2
Innovation
2
3
2
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
A cool little game, to be sure! I liked the use of guns in this, it made me much more careful in how I played. The game was a bit too easy after I got powerful items around level 2 or 3. I laughed at how there was basically nothing of worth, until stumbling across an entire room full of gold. Having a ship to travel to another planets was interesting, too.
Sometimes you spawn with great items, sometimes you don't. Just like Rogue! I like the back story a lot. The levels are full of enemies to kill, but seemed like there wasn't very much loot to carry back to the ship. Looks like I'll be in debt forever!
Strange game. You must explore several space stations that have nothing but enemies. No loot, no equipment to find. Enemies do not drop anything. But you cannot skip these stations, without leveling enemies on more dangerous stations will instantly kill you. Kills are trivial, do not require any skill or thought. Bash with melee weapon if you have one, or shoot with ranged. And all of a sudden on next station you find a stash with precious metal that instantly covers your debt... There is no risk/reward tradeoff. Some juggling with damage types was planned, but probably not impemented. Technically it's a roguelike. But very boring one.
Rescue Timmy
Completeness
3
3
3
Aesthetics
3
4
3
Fun
3
2
3
Innovation
3
2
2
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
Completeness - 3, Aesthetics - 3, Fun - 3, Innovative - 3, Scope - 3, Roguelike - 4 Poor Timmy. Congratulations on the submission. I had fun trying to rescue Timmy. I noticed quite a few "quality of life" improvements to this game, which is going to stick with me when doing any fooling around on my own experiments. I liked that everything was auto-equipped, and that doors / ladders were auto-navigated. The torch was a neat idea. Being a roguelike, I was only wishing for any kind of weapon stats so that I could see / "feel" empowered by the pipe vs. the wrench for example. But that's a minor observation. Great work!
Time to rescue poor Timmy! The aesthetics are nice in this 7DRL, which pretty much distills the roguelike formula to its simplest, without giving a whole lot of real choices to make, primarily just sidestepping enemies wherever possible and picking up gear on the way through procedural maps looking for the stairs down. The very simple automatic inventory is great, just walking over items to swap with what you have if it's of the same category as one of your own items, or add to your current inventory if you don't have anything like that yet. The main drawback to Rescuing Timmy is that the the moves are far too slow. Pressing movement keys very fast still results in our @ hero slowly which isn't great given how much ground there is to cover on the trip down (and back!). I later switched to another browser for a different run, and it was a little faster, but still slower than one might expect for an ASCII roguelike.
Beaten. The ascetic was messy at first, but I quickly got used to it. Some graphics like the little "o"'s I thought looked intractable but weren't. Some enemy encounters can be pretty luck-based, getting the most effective use out of the axes area of effect requires the enemies to behave stupidly and line themselves up rather than the player acting smart. Avoiding enemies can take a large, random amount of time and is easier to do once the player learns about the wait key which didn't seem to be documented anywhere.
The ever-changing case of the unpaid rent
Completeness
4
4
3
Aesthetics
2
3
3
Fun
3
4
3
Innovation
4
3
2
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
2
A cool game, with nice graphics! It was difficult to figure out that the connections had a direction to them, which made the game confusing and frustrating for 20 minutes until I figured that out. Overall, a very interesting game with a very interesting core mechanic!
This took me a few minutes to get into and figure out. By the time I had the mechanics down, though, it quickly became a 'just one more run!' type of thing. I knew I couldn't stop playing until I won. And it felt really good to finally get past that $400 mark. What was really enjoyable was conquering the learning curve. I felt like I got just a little bit better on each successive run, a little closer to victory, without it being too easy or so ridiculously hard that I wanted to give up. Nice balance. I also liked the class selection/differences. Even though they're essentially flavor, they still made each class feel unique in a small way, pretty much exactly on par with 7DRL. Well done overall. Clever mechanics that were a hell of a lot of fun to master, even though they're not setting the world on fire or anything. Almost felt like I was playing a Michael Brough game. Good luck!
A puzzle game with a randomised grid and a small deck system for selecting abilities. You use abilities to establish links between grids, and try to get multiple paths into the right items to complete the puzzle. Aesthetic and noir atmosphere is very nice, but the gameplay is unfortunately quite minimal. Lots of clicking, not much in the way of tactical depth. No real link to the roguelike genre.
Spellforger 1: Entry Exam
Completeness
2
2
3
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
3
3
3
Innovation
4
3
3
Scope
2
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
4
As submitted for the 7drl challenge, Spellforger is just enough on its feet that you can see that shapes of a very exciting mechanic driving its design. The basic elements of the rogue-foundation are there, and functional, but minimal. Hallways connect rooms. Enemies wander about. Some hit harder than others. (Though, I will say, the colors are clean, the layout is sensible – features which really aid the moment to moment experience of playing.) But it seems that the time constraint kept the author from really fleshing out the material. There are only 3 levels, and on one of my playthroughs I reached level 3 with seemingly no staircase or goal, I assume a bug. The spellcasting system as well (more on this in a moment) is clearly implemented in the “let’s throw these in there and see if they all work way” after which the author didn’t get a chance to balance and tweak. One consequence of this is that it’s possible to find a super powerful attack spell early on (as I did in one play) and have no need of any other spell or spell crafting. In addition, your learned spells roll over between playthroughs, which I would assume is a mistake and not an intended design. For all of these reasons, I gave lower ratings on Completeness and Scope. But! I have to say, the spell crafting in this game makes me really excited. The game allows you to collect runes of three types – target, area, and effect – and use them to cobble together brand new spells. If you have a heal rune and an adjacent rune and a small explosion rune, you can combine them to make a little heal bomb that will affect you and anyone within two spaces. Or maybe you have a teleport rune combined with a line rune…etc. The system is cool. Naming your own custom spells is cool. Imagining a crawl through a fully fleshed out dungeon where you are collecting and combining runes into unique spells to respond to your situation is cool. The fact that it works in even this early version, and works elegantly, is very impressive. There’s big changes to how they could be eventually implemented – I think that you should find runes on their own, not whole spells, or if you do find whole spells you should have to break them apart – treating runes as a finite resource rather than a knowledge…but, there’s so much room for development of the system in any number of directions. I, for one, am pumped about what this system could grow into.
I like the idea of forging spells, but I was never able to get much use out it. You mostly just needed a good teleport spell, a ranged damage spell, and that's all. The game would update slowly so I usually had to get teleportation to explore at a decent speed. On replays it was awkward to have familiar spells on different keys and it would have been nice to reassign them. It'd also be nice if modifying a spell didn't cause you to relearn the old one when running into it again.
Completeness - Everything runs okay, features work, but I have experienced crashes, especially when trying to craft a spell. Aesthetics - The ASCII graphics get the job done. Controls are functional and intuitive. Fun - It is short, but quite enjoyable. It really captures the notion of a wizard casting spells left and right. You do become pretty much unstoppable very soon into the game. Innovation - I liked that you can cast spells every turn without worrying about mana. Also the customizing mechanic looks interesting, although I gave up on it after it crashed a few times. Scope - This is what I would expect from a 7drl, a well planned array of features based around a single concept. Roguelikeness - Turn based, procedurally generated and so on. For some reason it's not actually permadeath because you keep all your spells when you restart the game after dying, but I assume it's a bug. Conclusion - Worth checking out, be a wizard and shoot spells left and right. Thumbs up!
Timmy Can't Punch
Completeness
3
4
3
Aesthetics
3
4
3
Fun
3
4
3
Innovation
2
3
3
Scope
2
2
3
Roguelikeness
2
4
3
Timmy Can’t Punch is a cute and very playable little game. The pixel art is charming and accompanied by 8bit style music and sound effects, which give it a nice overall effect. I found myself wishing there were a few changes to some of the mechanics. For instance, it feels strange to me that the player can stand on the same square as a gun enemy, and that gun enemies can also share a square. I also wished that the zombie enemies gave some indication as to whether they were on a move turn or a wait turn, as those calculations were often live or die pieces of information. It also surprised me that gun enemies could move into your line and ready a shot in the same turn, rather than having to start in the same line. Normally these would be nitpicky, but for a game with such a tight, focused mechanic, I think it’s important to get all the details right – especially when a single hit always kills the player! I don’t particularly see many roguelike qualities in this. There is some light randomization with enemies, but there’s only a single map and no progression of abilities or exploration. Even flavor-wise, brick walls and laser guns don’t feel particularly close to the genre. Still, it’s quick to play, and I found it satisfying to see how far I could get after I got a handle on the mechanics.
A short and sweet roguelike, excellent for short breaks. The different enemy attack patterns make for varied and interesting encounters. Clean and simple graphical style, looks good without being distracting.
Kind of plays like a turn based pacifist shmup. You have to dodge enemy projectiles and try to trick them into destroying other enemies. Very quickly becomes overwhelming, but it's pretty fun. It'd be cool to lean into some shmup mechanics – turn based bullet grazing would be rad!
rollcave
Completeness
4
2
4
Aesthetics
2
3
2
Fun
2
3
2
Innovation
3
3
4
Scope
4
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
4
3
Completeness - 3 Mostly works as you'd expect, though some things, like FOV, seem a little inconsistent. Aesthetics - 2 A very simple design, and the information given is not very clear. It felt difficult to find the right things to pay attention to, and to know what was important. Fun - 2 With the purpose unclear and the movement (intentionally) awkward it was challenging to get a good flow. The interactions with the environment and the enemies were quite limited, too. More feedback during the run would be improve things quite a bit. Innovative - 3 The rolling/momentum mechanic is interesting and works quite well when the environment allows you to take advantage of that, like bouncing over shallow walls when moving at speed. Scope - 4 A good number of enemies and the addition of a tutorial, some game modes and classes was quite impressive. Roguelike - 3 The momentum in the core loop sometimes added a feeling of time pressure which isn't there in the standard roguelike but otherwise it fits the bill.
My first play of rollcave was tough. The game doesn't do much to explain itself, and the interface can really overwhelm with a lot of information. The characters are also quite small, and various pickups affect that game in different ways, which can be difficult to discern at first. This is combined with the fact that the central mechanic is about moving very, very fast, further making it difficult to stop and puzzle things out. That being said, once I got a grip on the mechanics and figured out what the different powerups did, I had a fun time rolling through the dungeon several times. The map generation had pros and cons: I loved the weird diagonal hallways, and that there were features planned to accommodate the rolling movement. I also liked the subtle but present changes between levels as you went down. It did both me, however, how IMMENSE the levels were. Because the levels were so big, and because there are multiple stairwells spread throughout the stage, it meant that I didn't feel I had to pay attention to where things were, I could just randomly roll around until I found a way down. That might be my biggest takeaway of playing this, which is that while there is a LOT of detail churning under the surface of this game -- multiple enemy types, the calculation of momentum, different character class abilities -- most of that flattened out to me to just the simple experience of rolling around a map. The pickups are frequent enough and the enemies weak enough that I never really had to pay attention to the combat of the game, and so a quick key-hunt was the majority of the experience for me. Still, I was surprised by how much fun I had just rolling these little @ signs around, there is something satisfying to the movement (I liked the fighter's slower pace the most). I think further development of this game/concept would want to strip out some of the complexity and to ask what element of challenge the player should be experiencing. As it stands, the short length of the game (5 or so levels?) is actually the perfect bite-size amount to experience the mechanic. Nice work.
Neat idea for a game! Game felt complete, no bugs were encountered. Momentum mechanics are fantastic. Items, dungeon features, and monsters were very difficult to differentiate. Controls were simple and intuitive. Map has simple aesthetic but is pleasing to view as you navigate. Combat and movement are innovative and a big jump from standard roguelike mechanics. Combat not very interesting. Enemies felt as though they could be ignored with how easily they could be ran from and how plentiful healing items were, but I only used the rogue class. Game could have easily been realtime, I'm not sure if being turn-based brings much to the table in its current state. I was never in a situation where I felt that I need to stop and think out every action.
SIGNAL
Completeness
2
3
2
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
3
4
4
Innovation
3
2
3
Scope
3
4
3
Roguelikeness
3
2
3
If the game runs too slow the hacking mini-game particle effects will begin to hang and it will stop updating your win/lose state, causing you to fail in games which seemed to be winning. The space monster had a habit of clipping into stations and other physics silliness including destroying the reactors of other stations off-screen. The transition from hacking back into combat is too jarring. Fighting enemies on the other side of station doors is very awkward since you need to be in the station to see them.
Really fun. I like that there is a space monster outside the derelicts. I even saw it destroy one of the derelicts for me. The ai takeover mechanic was a nice touch, surprising how much gameplay is packed in here.
Really neat concept, and the minigame is super clever.
Survival in the Orclands
Completeness
3
4
2
Aesthetics
3
4
3
Fun
3
2
2
Innovation
3
3
3
Scope
2
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
4
3
Well done! The game is stable and feels almost complete but its missing the mid-game part of processing raw materials the player has harvested. It could also benefit from a built-in hint system and more verbose help. The aesthetics are good and the UI sufficient and typical for the genre but with the importance of hunger and the need to eat every day, I think the game would benefit from a hunger meter (i.e. while I got a message saying I was hungry I didn't realise how hungry I was until I suddenly died. On the reverse, you can eat and eat and you're never full) even those it's not shown in a dungeon crawling roguelike. The game was fun and worth my time playing and trying to figure out how to survive to the end of the second year. It is definitely innovative, although there are one or two survival roguelikes (i.e. UnReal World) there aren't enough to give variety to this specific sub-genre. I'm glad it was made. I think the scope, at the time of writing, is what you'd expect from a 7DRL challenge but a lot more still needs to be done to make it a complete game. It definitely a roguelike squarely placed in the survival sub-genre and I hope the developer continues to work on the game.
Game looks nice and the changing colors for different seasons is a nice touch, though the white character on white background in the winter is hard to read. However, there isn't much to do. I wandered around the world picking and eating berries for the first year, and didn't find the flint until the second year, so I didn't even get to interact with the fire mechanic for a long time. The orcs are really sporadic and don't pose much of a challenge even when you meet them. Also, not sure if the unlimited inventory is supposed to be a feature or a bug.
Playing this, I felt that there wasn't enough context clues to get started on surviving, so I spent more time dying than figuring out how to survive. It's not a bad game once you get stuck in and figuring out what to do, I just feel it could do with a clear tutorial to get started and not feel instantly lost.
ultra
Completeness
3
2
4
Aesthetics
3
4
3
Fun
3
2
3
Innovation
3
4
3
Scope
2
2
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
3
You *need* to explain this game better. I thought it was awful and poorly-made at first but then I sat here and stubbornly figured out what everything meant, and the game became quite enjoyable after that :-) You'll have much better player retention with some simple instructions. I played until I got a win and then I played a few more rounds to try things. The "combat" is deterministic so for every individual line you will know if it is even winnable or not immediately, then you have to decide whether it is worth clearing that line or not, as it might cause you to lose others. Due to this, some games are unwinnable from the start. I think the color progression could have been more intuitive. Blue -> Green -> Red -> Purple was not super obvious at first. Stairs could probably be differentiated from items but that's not a big deal. Otherwise the game looks pretty clean. Definitely a neat concept, it would be interesting to see this applied in other ways. The one-dimensional aspect of this was interesting because in 2D games like this you are usually just trying to use walls and other obstacles to move one character but not the other, which is often a dull mechanic. The game is very simple and short, but is complete and has sufficient scope. Has many roguelike qualities but doesn't really play like a traditional roguelike, having more puzzle elements in practice. The game was fun and I'm glad I played, and probably even has a fair amount of replayability for someone who likes this game's style of risk/reward decision-making.
Can a failed experiment still be considered a success? If you dig for gold and don't find it, you can at least cross that particular dig site off on the map. Ultra is a handsome, well executed concept that crosses itself out. The player navigates a one dimensional dungeon. Every level change causes an additional one-d game to spawn below the first, with the goal being to stack enough of these games up simultaneously. Tactics are limited to choosing between melee and ranged attacks. Here the problem begins. A globally optimal tactic (alternating between ranged and melee) reveals itself early and quickly finishes the game. A run can easily be completed in less than 30 seconds without looking at the screen. This flaw dominates all positive qualities: the pleasantly chunky font, the stylish palette colors, the boldness of the rethinking. The experiment failed, but this too is progress. We can only hope the author doesn't give up the search.
Cool puzzle game where you have to clear rows by getting your rogue to the stairs on each row, which spawns another row and takes you current row down a level. It's a shame that mechanically it doesn't go much deeper than firing your arrows whenever you have them, but still, an interesting idea!
Beneath the Sands
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
2
4
Fun
3
3
Innovation
2
3
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
game seems complete, but definitely needs more work - lots of rough edges (broken fullscreen, bullets cutting walls' corners) and lack of balance spoil somewhat positive impression bosses have attack patterns, there is variety of enemies, game uses various algorithms for dungeon generation slow player movement, small field of view, fast bullets, no way to recover from mistakes - it all makes Beneath... hard it's possible to exploit ai flaws to make game easier, but "sneaking" and sniping from distance long enough to avoid alerting enemy is boring
A nice complete package of a game -- the overworld, upgrade system, boss fight and moment-to-moment play are all well done and easy to understand.
CollegeRL
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
3
3
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
I really like how you skinned the combat and inventory to be about test taking and school. Funny!
A fun little roguelike with a theme around college life. Fight with rulers against various exam types whilst shielding yourself using the appropriate notes. It's a fairly straightforward roguelike, but the theme adds some lovely charm.
Double Dungeon
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
3
3
Innovation
3
4
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
2
2
A nice take on Memory, and actually quite engaging. A little bit limited as a game, though - the field is small enough that I didn't make many mistakes, and when I had trouble, it was simply because I had the bad luck to click on a lot of monsters in a row and never finding their pairs. I was too busy keeping cards in my head to properly figure out how the game mechanics actually worked, but the impression I got was that they were tuned to be pretty easy (maybe to avoid frustrating deaths from bad luck?). I enjoyed the choice of music on the title screen. Then once I got into gameplay, I soon found myself appreciating the option to mute the music just as much. The game's generally very readable and easy to get into instantly, even if the misspellings on the character selection screen were not a promising introduction. The concept is maybe a bit too far from the roguelike world to fit in the 7DRL contest, but at least the dungeon-crawling aesthetics feel familiar. And in a way, the mechanic of being able to only pick cards next to what you've already explored feels spatial in a roguelikish way, even if it's a bit inconsequential in actual gameplay.
Pretty novel idea combining Roguelikes and matching pairs game, and Double Dungeon does a good job showcasing this concept. The graphics are cute and the controls intuitive. The difficulty is perfect for a 7DRL, especially since you could adjust the difficulty by adjusting variety, or adjusting health of the monsters. There are some minor bugs with which tiles have been "explored." There were several times when the tiles went grey, but they still had the indicator and could still be pressed. When pressing the game tries to match and fails. I would love to see this expanded and fleshed out more - there are a ton of possibilities with this idea. Nice!
NinjaRL/Revenge
Completeness
4
3
Aesthetics
4
3
Fun
3
3
Innovation
2
2
Scope
3
2
Roguelikeness
3
3
Nice little game. Probably a bit too easy, but that's better than too difficult. The game is playable, can be won and lost. Mechanics is simple, but working. I was mostly exploiting AI stupidity, but otherwise it would be impossible. Stealth mechanics tied to lightness was explored before, nothing new here. I can't call it a true roguelike, there is nothing in terms of character development or customization, so replayability is very low.
I was immediately charmed by the art style of this piece. The blocky ninja avatar and brick walls are very well rendered (and a surprise, given the comic-book style silhouette on the title page). In fact, both the art style and the mechanics reminded me of Tiny Heist, which is a nice game to be in a category with. The mechanics in this ended up pretty limited. I found that the vast majority of my time was spent waiting in shadows, killing guards in much the same way over and over again. I used the abilities to either heal or make a get out of jail free smoke cloud, both very rarely. I also think there is some bug fixing and polishing to be done with the samurai's movement mechanics, I was never exactly sure what could trigger their ? status, or clear it. And often while waiting near one they would just 4-5 places in a single move. I also think it would have been strategic to shorten the length of this version of the game. Eleven levels is a LOT when the mechanics don't change as you progress. This would have made a very tight 6 level game IMHO. I think the idea of a stealth-roguelike is super sound, and has a lot of design space, but I think this would have benefited from a) really nailing down the central search, alert mechanic of the samurai, and b) adding in more variety (in enemies? in abilities?) over the progression of levels.
Rogue2048
Completeness
3
2
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
3
3
Innovation
4
4
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
2
2
Well done! The game seems stable and seems complete but importantly missing some in-game explanation text with game play different from your standard roguelike. The aesthetics are clear with good use of colour although the chess pieces suggest how the pieces would move which isn't the case. Maybe some other iconography would be more appropriate. Once I figured out the mechanics the game was quite fun and worth my time to play. I think the innovation shown brings something new to try out. The scope is within the realms of the 7DRL but lacks much need explanation text or, ideally, a tutorial. While it's an interesting puzzle game worth iterating on, it's not a roguelike and scores poorly in that category.
Rogue 2048 is a blend between chess and 2048. At each turn, you can move one of your pieces. If you move two identical pieces on the same spot, they merge to make a stronger unit. If you hit strong units with weaker units, they die, if you hit weak units with stronger units, they loose hit points. At each turn, you decide for the movement of all your units, which is a bit unsettling at first, but matches the 2048 theme. Now one may wonder where the roguelike theme kicks in. The game takes place on a board with special blocks such as walls and exits. You can win a level by killing all ennemies or placing your units on exit tiles. The game contains two non-generated dungeons which alternate (or I was not able to reach any other level). There doesn't seem to be any ending and the interface is minimalist. Is the goal to create a king? a whole army? Graphics come from the game of chess but except for unit value, there is no particular use of the rules of chess. Maybe a different graphical theme would increase the roguelikeness. For now it feels more like 2048 with a twist than a roguelike with a 2048 theme. Yet, I like the idea of controlling multiple units with a single move. It reminds me of the mime characters in necrodancer (they move the opposite of your moves). This mechanic should definitely be explored further. Merging monsters is seen in multiple roguelikes but it often is not to the benefit of the player ;) The fact that you can only merge identical pieces is very 2048y but I think removing this constraint could open a plenty of potential interesting merges. In term of content, I would have loved to see different capabilities depending on who you merge. For example, a wizard with an archer could give you an arcane marksman. As for completeness, I encountered a few bugs where no unit would move and no interaction was possible. The game also didn't work with wine on linux. Making a game that innovates in the roguelike genre is a risky adventure. I think this one has a lot of potential and even though it feels like it needs a bit of polish, it could become a nice piece of entertainment.
Runestar: Origins
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
2
3
Innovation
2
3
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
3
UI looks great in this one, with a nice layout, good colors, and a wonderful font (although there should be a tiny bit more space between words so sentences don't look like almost one word). The ability system is interesting, gaining a new random one on each new floor, although it seems like you can just wait forever in between combat to recover all the different resource points, cheapening their meaningfulness. At first I couldn't figure out how to use inventory items, other than dropping gold into alembic's for healing, though on a second playthrough when observing more closely I realized the persistent effects of inventory items which have them are applied automatically, for example when the axe is picked up. This needs to be made more obvious! (For example by adding some info to the log, like "Hero picks up the Axe (Weapon Damage +1)") When using the cursor to read ability descriptions, the browser also popups up with another shorter window with the same description, which is rather annoying and unnecessary. Anyway, there's definitely a solid foundation for more content here!
Initially it seems like a very basic roguelike, but the skills give an unexpected level of depth to the gameplay. With further fleshing out of items I imagine this would be even better. The interface is very nice, instructions clear, dungeon floors with more than just loot on the floor. I assume that chests only don't work because there's limited loot currently. Would definitely like to play a post-7DRL version of this game.
Sands of Delirium
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
3
2
Innovation
3
2
Scope
3
2
Roguelikeness
4
4
Completeness: At first, game looks complete and bug-free. Later, I started to see some quirks: fov that allows to see through walls, ai that blocks on walls, no idea if game is winnable. Aesthetics: Good: Sands of Delirium are very pleasant too look at: nice tiles, simple animations, some (2) sounds, game logo, and interactive starting screen. Bad: vi-keys only, [ESC] key quits without prompt. Fun: There are "fun" parts. Usually, dungeon generator creates interesting levels (but sometimes fails to deliver). Minimal UI (no hp bar, lack of gold counter) is nice twist. But the problem is that I don't know how to heal. There is no potions, time doesn't heal wounds, neither descending... I was trying to just avoid combat, but sometimes it's not possible. ...it could work well for more "high score - oriented" game - just descend as deep as possible and collect as much gold as you can. There are no high scores, thought. Innovation: Minimal UI is nice twist, and interactive starting screen is uncommon in roguelikes. Scope: Reasonable. Roguelikeness: 99%
Nice looking and plays well, good effort! Might be worth supporting non-hjkl movement keys in the future -- some folks don't like vi. :)
The Princess of Mud
Completeness
4
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
4
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
This game leaves mixed feelings... On one hand there is some interesting setting and definitely something mysterious going on. On the other hand ... realtime combat? Seriously? It's not that I'm against realtime combat in general. But as soon as you step on this path, you must make sure that controls are very responsive. Which is not the case for this game and in my opinion makes it hardly playable. Another thing - I tried hard many many times and was getting killed, until I realized that this game is about grinding... Monsters and, more important, stat boosting item are respawned upon level change. So you can go back and forth and just pump your character... Which is far from what I can call fun experience, adding the fact that the combat is very clunky. Absence of description of items do not increase the appeal of the game too. I couldn't win the game, so my estimation of the scope might be incorrect.
This was a very hard RL to both play and rate. It's a real time roguelike which by it's own is really fun and interesting. However real time fights are hard to deal with especially when you rely on ASCII for information. Fights start and end really fast, even though you can kite them and lose them if you move away. What's even harder to do is use potions on the fly, that requires AND demands some muscle memory to do, while fighting an enemy and also looking out on your health. The requirement to play it like an action game but looking like a roguelike, is not a great combination, I am sure with enough time playing the game, it becomes much more fun, but it is hard to pick up and enjoy it unless you make that investment.
roguetronic
Completeness
4
3
Aesthetics
4
2
Fun
3
3
Innovation
3
2
Scope
4
3
Roguelikeness
2
2
This game is downright beautiful. Might even be the most beautiful game in the challenge. However, I'm having some trouble classifying this as a roguelike; to me, this is a racing game with procedural generation. It was definitely fun driving the car around, and the sheer technical challenges behind this game are astounding. Definitely worth checking out!
Its beautiful to look at. The text parts are hard to read though. Really captured that rc-pro am control feel, and its enjoyable in that sense.
Break the Mold
Completeness
3
3
2
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
2
3
2
Innovation
4
4
3
Scope
2
3
2
Roguelikeness
3
3
4
A nice concept, but the lack of visual distinction for the different types of guards makes it very hard to play. Getting blown to bits without knowing which particular guard to attack or avoid can get quite frustrating. But moving around as the blob is fun, and playing Snake trying to encircle a fleeing guard gets really satisfying.
Took a few tries but once I got the guards into a smaller room I managed to engulf them all and grow, so that was satisfying. Before that it was a little frustrating. I like the change from the usual single tile player character!
In Break the Mold you play as a multi-tile slime. Your task is to overwhelm the guards and escape the facility, but the game seems to be able to spawn an ungodly number of guards who are quite capable of shooting your gelatinous tiles dead before you get anywhere near them. In its current state the game is so unbalanced it borders on unplayable.
Dice or Die
Completeness
2
3
4
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
3
2
2
Innovation
3
2
4
Scope
2
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
4
Excellent entry. A really innovative idea and "spin" on a dungeon adventure. While I grokked the basic game loop easily enough, it was challenging to see if there were any benefits at all from "leveling". Not sure if that's just going to be added in the future, but I didn't quite see any real point other then "making progress bar go higher" (not always bad either). Positioning quickly becomes a key factor of your survival, so there were definite challenges on areas of the map where retreating to come up with a better number just lands you within the range of another enemy die that squashes you. D'oh. I appreciated the music track and sound effect along with the humorous messages coming up upon death. They were some nice touches and good additions to the game. I'd definitely encourage the developer to keep adding to this entry! Thanks for submitting and hope you had a lot of fun putting it together!
Having a hit chance adds an element of unnecessary luck that propagates into all the other mechanics. Having enemy dice heal you based on their die sends mixed messages about what an enemy die should be when you engage it. If you're supposed to weaken a die and then move it to a higher die before finishing it off then you'd need to know its health which isn't visible to the player, and even then only missing once and then getting hit would negate any healing benefit you were trying to get. All that means the most optimal strategy is to avoid fighting at all whenever possible.
Completeness - Runs as expected, no bugs found, seems polished. Aesthetics - Minimalistic, but fits the expectations. Locks on the doors kinda clash with the overall look. Fun - Sadly, there's not enough here to carry the game. All enemies are the same enemy. The miss mechanic is annoying, especially since the game claims to be "without luck". Innovation - Very innovative concept, haven't seen anything like this in a roguelike before. Scope - What you would expect from a 7drl. Barebones but functional, shows the basic mechanics well. Roguelikeness - Turn based, randomized dungeons and permadeath, all the checkboxes are ticked. Conclusion - A neat little game worth checking out for the novel dice take, but lacking depth.
Overwork Death
Completeness
3
3
3
Aesthetics
2
3
3
Fun
2
3
3
Innovation
2
3
2
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
4
4
This game definitely has a fun atmosphere, although for a while I almost never found anything but useless items, eventually getting surrounded every time since there were no combat choices beyond just repeated bumping enemies once spotted. Only then did I realize I could just wait to regain HP. Healing by waiting takes forever, though, Holding the key to regain all the HP from one maintenance droid battle sure takes a while, almost doesn't feel worth all the time spent. I finally got a run where I found box cutters, a hammer, and a flamethrower, but wasn't "smart enough" to use any of them! (Then was unceremoniously killed by several maintenance droids again...) I tried ranged combat with a pocket protector in one run, switching back to melee when enemies got close, but actually fared worse. Finally started doing good one run, but had found nothing to quench thirst and died *really* fast from that. Played for an hour but never managed to get past the first couple floors. The wireframe graphics are neat, and I kept wondering if I could interact with the green pod things since they stood out so much, but I guess those were just for decoration to keep the environment from being a bit too monotonous. I liked the controls, which work really well, and the movement was great, being just fast enough. It wasn't too fun exploring the maps since everything was so spread out and encounters and items were few and far in between, though. (Especially the items!)
Completeness: Overwork Death seems complete (altough I wasn't able to win a run) but not rich in content. One bug is nasty - game freezes if player will decide to un-focus window, or put it in the background. Aesthetics: Graphics is simple, but pleasantly distinctive, reminds me Akalabeth . Font is stylish, but not readable enough. Music fits to cyberpunk-ish game style well. Fun: It's problematic part of review. Overwork Death is long and difficult in annoying way - it's hard to recover from mistakes. It feels that player should know game mechanics to win a run, but there is no easy way to learn it. I tried to fight my way out, used more stealthy approach later, I was trying to heal after every clash... Still didn't succeed. But, on the other hand, I had fun trying. A bit frequent loot spawns could help to keep player's attention. Innovation: Not that innovative game, but first-person perspective is always nice twist :) Scope: Reasonable. Few enemies, some weapons, good level generation. Roguelikeness: Yup!
2019 7DRL Hungry Little Space Rogue
Completeness
4
2
Aesthetics
4
3
Fun
3
2
Innovation
3
3
Scope
2
2
Roguelikeness
3
3
Completeness (3): Polished little game. One thing that was a bit weird was that if you hold nothing, pressing use or drop does not generate hunger, but every other failing action does generate hunger. Inventory management is also weird since items don't seem to cycle. (If I have shovel, ration, ration in the inventory, after cycling, the shovel always remains the second item) Aesthetics (4): Looks nice, controls are fine, though a bit nonstandard. I also quite liked the description. Fun (3): Figuring out how things worked was pretty fun, but once I got the hang of things, it seems impossible to lose unless you run out of farmable land or stop paying attention to food. Inventory management also gets tedious, as I'm repeatedly hitting H, H, L to sell rations. 8-way movement also feels too lenient, since I can always harvest my crops without wasting steps. Innovation (3): The strict food timer sets a really different pace for the game and makes the game feel very puzzle like at the beginning in order to avoid wasting turns. Scope (2): Not much other than farm, eat, and sell. Roguelikeness (3): Lack of combat and a winning state makes the game makes the game feel different from a roguelike
Pretty looking space farm-em-up. Unfortunately there's not much to do beyond the initial plant/harvest/sell loop.
Anima Mea v0.1.2
Completeness
2
2
Aesthetics
3
2
Fun
3
3
Innovation
3
3
Scope
3
2
Roguelikeness
4
4
Since there isn't a legit way to recover health you have to build a character that can one shot everything to progress in the game. I sometimes have a hard time seeing my white character on the bright yellow floors. The best part of the game is the equipment abilities, but the difference between having and not having equipment is too drastic for you to start without anything on you.
A by-the-numbers RL game with a couple of interesting ideas poking out. The map, enemies and combat are straight out of a tutorial, without even a color change. Player stats are represented as a matrix and progression is handled by loot drops of enemy stat matrices which are then added to the player's own. In a twist, the enemy matrices can be rotated before being added, so the player can choose to boost certain stats at the cost of decreasing others. The mechanic is fascinating, allowing big swings of stats instead of the normal slow incremental increase, but it's hard to gauge any significant impact of this change on gameplay. The standout of the game is a well executed inventory slot system, corresponding to the player stats matrix, where each item has a unique buff or action. The UI for the items effectively communicates what they are, how to use them, and when they're available. Item drops are frequent enough to allow for genuinely different strategies in different playthroughs and add a little depth to an otherwise rudimentary game.
Lost In Forest
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
2
3
Fun
2
3
Innovation
2
3
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
Based on the publication date and the game's scope and completeness, this seems to be a 1DRL rather than a 7DRL. For a 1DRL, it's not bad at all. It's winnable and losable, it has random level generation (as far as I can tell) and a variety of monsters, and in general, is done in good spirit. It's also an instantly understandable game - a very good thing for a 7DRL to be - and the level size is tuned just right that finding the princess tends to take enough time to feel like a reward, without making the game overstay its welcome. As a 7DRL, though... I can't really say it brings anything interesting to the table. It's a game straight out of a tutorial, but has bugs even then (your view of level geometry always shows the last turn's state, bumping into walls takes a turn, level edges are invisible walls). Although the combat mechanics are not trivial, there's no indication that anything other than standard roguelike tactics are needed. It just doesn't do enough to really be much of a game. Still, the skill that it takes to make this game in one day indicates the ability to make something pretty good in seven days. I'm looking forward to next year's contest already.
Completeness - 3. Aesthetics - 2.5. Fun - 2.5. Innovative - 2.5. Scope - 2.5. Roguelike - 4 Fairly impressive for building from scratch in C++ for a 7 day deadline. (I bookmarked the Pixel engine for the future). It's a fairly traditional type of title, but that's fine. If you're still interested in this project, I definitely encourage you to chip away on it. A few sound effects, and maybe a menu or two would help this idea out. Thanks for submitting and hopefully you had some fun during the competition!
Mad Island
Completeness
3
2
2
Aesthetics
3
3
3
Fun
3
2
2
Innovation
3
2
3
Scope
3
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
3
4
Completeness - 3. Aesthetics - 3. Fun - 3. Innovative - 2.5. Scope - 3. Roguelike - 4. Overall I was pretty happy to tackle this one. I'm a huge sucker for anything remotely resembling the old Ultima series. While I'd suggest a slight modification to the input keys (ie. find a way to not use shift or ctrl) and perhaps allow a help key when you're in-game, it's a good adventure! I went through the existing comments reporting crashes, but I didn't experience any on win10. (yay!) If you can (or want), I'd definitely urge you to keep plugging away at this work. Kudos for the entry, and congratulations on getting it to the successful state!
It feels like the original design for this game was very ambitious. It has layers of nested random locations, which correspond to different terrain types and enemy varieties. There are crystals with magic abilities and a seemingly robust inventory interface. But it doesn't feel like all the content that was planned made it into the framework. Because of this, this version of the game is a little too repetitive. While each location has a different layout and artwork, the layout doesn't ever seem to make a difference in the strategy of how you navigate them. There's a huge variety of enemies, but it seemed to me like they only differed in name and strength, and all had the same semi-random behavior. Therefore, it's possible to start out at the easy locations and move toward the harder ones, but the strategy you take in each location is the same -- walk at the enemy until it dies, pick up crystals. The presentation of the game is still very very charming, and I would love to see a more full game made with this art and interface. The menus are clear, everything is very well labeled. I liked the colors (though I did find it hard to distinguish between what was open space and what was an obstruction in many maps). It feels like the author wanted to have more weapons and items in the game, given the robust inventory menu, and that would be a cool direction to take this in, populating different parts of the island with different types of items.
Loading from a save seems to break the game in various ways. I had to complete the game in one session. Exploring the island is an interesting concept but the execution is a bit grindy. My character always seemed overly fragile in latter areas while at the same time one-shotting everything.
Microgue II
Completeness
3
2
Aesthetics
4
4
Fun
2
3
Innovation
2
2
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
You can trick enemies onto spike traps, but it isn't terribly exciting. The controls and mechanics are instantly understandable if that's what you're going for.
Nice little game. Wish it worked through Itch's desktop client and that you couldn't cheese it by going downstairs a bunch of times. It'd be nice if there were other classes or items to pick up for points or whatever.
Oodles-RL
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
2
3
Fun
3
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
First of all, the game looks horrible. Strange font that is hard to read, very spaced out text that is even more hard to read. Controls are somewhat wonky. There is no repeat mode for directional keys and there is no run mode in the game, which makes backtracking quite cumbersome. As for gameplay... I dig the idea, but I think the balance is somewhat off. It is simple math. Your DPT must be higher than spawn rate multiplied by mob HP. Which quite quickly become not true. And there you are stuck, unless the exit is really close. Weapons juggling become a chore quite quickly, especially if you don't find heavy hammer early enough. There is some potential in this idea, but the implementation and some design decisions could be better performed and thought out.
The game revolves around killing generators. These generators create fodder enemies which can be killed without taking any damage. The problem I faced was when there was 2 generators very close to each other. The enemies spawned made approaching a generator impossible, your only option was to shut the doors and move on but that theme was too common of a problem. Shutting doors is a good mechanic but it's also limited to locks as a resource. Taking down a generator is also a very slow process, switching to your hammer hitting the generator twice then switching to an appropriate weapon to kill a newly spawned fodder only to repeat this 12 times.
PICO-@
Completeness
2
4
Aesthetics
3
4
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
Well done. The game feels complete but is missing much needed balance. The aesthetics are good and controls are intuitive but bare-bones. Unfortunately I didn't find it fun because the player isn't centered in the screen so you cannot see what's in a room when moving upwards and you cannot outrun enemies to get back to an energy ball so the game is hard with being challenging. I was hoping the radiation mechanic was going to be innovative but its really a long time actively avoiding energy balls before anything happens and touching an energy ball immediately restores you to full health and sight. The game's scope feels more like a tech demo at the time of writing but at least its on its way to being a roguelike.
As the name suggests, Pico-@ is a roguelike made in Pico-8. Games on that platform tend to be a bit simpler but with a charming retro aesthetic, and Pico-@ is no exception. I liked how it was able to pull off traditional Rogue level generation (albeit with short, straight halls). Movement was properly turn-based, with all actors taking a turn with every input of the player, and we have traditional room-to-room FOV. There's essentially only one item to recover, little blue energy balls, and this replaced the RPG advancement mechanics. This makes fighting largely optional. I was a little flummoxed by how I was taking and doing 0 damage a lot, but eventually wrapped my head around what was going on. I like how the radiation mechanic discouraged backtracking for more energy balls. But the levels get really sprawling as you get further in and I was just trekking through a lot of empty rooms trying to find the one with the exit. Overall though, Pico-@ was a pretty nice and well-scoped project that definitely had a proper game presentation about it. Completeness - 4 (Very complete, even has an animated victory screen!) Aesthetics - 4 (As good a UI as I could expect from a Pico-8 Roguelike, bolstered a bit by the nice intro and win screens.) Fun - 2 (Combat felt more like an obstacle slugging match, I ended up avoiding it when I could. The rooms got really monotonous the further I got in, I felt like I just wanted it to end. These mar what would otherwise be a pretty good experience.) Innovative - 2 (As vanilla as a roguelike gets, but the radiation mechanic added a little something.) Scope - 3 (Very much in line with 7DRL expectations, possibly a 3.5 with that win screen!) Roguelike - 4 (Very, very roguelike. Somewhat taking a Pico-8 allowance in mind: of course it doesn't have the sophistication. But it's still a few features short of being perfectly roguelike.)
Quest for Gore and Vengeance
Completeness
4
2
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
3
2
Innovation
3
2
Scope
3
2
Roguelikeness
4
3
Completeness - Everything runs okay once you figure out how to set the terminal settings. The default size too small on modern monitors. Aesthetics - Well, it's good old ASCII. The UI is minimalistic but functional. The hints help figure some things out, but wish there was a way to examine enemies (I didn't find one). Fun - Most of the gameplay centers around retaining your precious and scarce hp while playing cat and mouse with the enemies. There isn't a huge variety of those, to be honest. Mostly you'll be using the same techniques over and over. Innovation - I guess it's a bit different from standard hack and slash. But not much, not really. Scope - What you would expect from a 7DRL. Roguelikeness - This is definitely a turn based grid based permadeath roguelike like grandma used to bake.
A nice mostly traditional simple roguelike, with some twist on the acquisition and spending of mana. It reminds me of my first few games of Nethack, knowing only how to stab and run away. Slightly smarter or more differentiated monsters would be a notable improvement.
Systealicious Hack RL
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
3
2
Fun
3
2
Innovation
3
3
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
2
It's strange game. I played it over an hour, but I don't have much to write - mostly due kind of vague mechanics and not-that-helpful manual. I wanted to like it, as it looks unusual, but it definitely needs more polish. When I finally got it, I had some fun - but I still don't know all rules (why sometimes ascending level decreases my battery, but sometimes I'm getting brand-new entity?) and it makes enjoying gameplay much harder. General aesthetics is nice (I always likes traditional glyphs with additional background blocks), controls are intuitive (but since game relies on mouse much, I'd like to see some sort of mouse indicator - shadow, for example). At first, I was unable to start a game - trying to execute from terminal, all I got was Fatal error: Failed to execute script 7drl2019. It's unexpected, but running game directly via double-click worked. There are bug, including major one: having 0 hp and 0 battery, I can still ram enemies; only moving triggers dying process.
I spent about an hour, over two sessions, trying to figure this game out. The recursive concept seems neat, but I never could figure out how the modules and hacking and combat works. I wish there was more instruction in the manual. Maybe a few example screenshots with explanations of what various actions would accomplish would help.
The Curse of the General Sibling Combinator
Completeness
4
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
2
3
Innovation
2
3
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
An interesting technological experiment, but not a very interesting game. It's impressive what was accomplished with CSS and HTML, but I'm not giving any points for technology. Completeness - playable from start to finish, no major bugs Aesthetics - UI is simple and easy, but mouse-only controls are annoying Fun - gameplay isn't really engaging. Not much thinking required, besides some memorization Innovation - All you do is move, pick up stuff, and bump into monsters Scope - Pretty bare bones Roguelikeness - impressively roguelike given the technological constraints. However, the lack of tactics or strategy takes away the roguelike feel
It's a roguelike... in CSS! "Impossible!" you might declare. "Unplayable!" you argue. Well, you're wrong. Amazingly, it works, and it's even quite fun. Very cool experiment. Well done!
The Vaults of Blackrock Castle
Completeness
2
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
3
3
Innovation
2
2
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
4
3
Completeness: Definitely not a complete game. It looks like complete one, but after some time spent on playing The Vaults of Blackrock Castle it feels much more like prototype, or "base" of the game - all major systems are present, but they are often half-baked. There are bugs as well - sometimes monster that teleported away is still drawn next to the player, and inventory is protected from overloading only during picking items from the ground and not during checking chests. Aesthetics: Nice assets, pleasant pseudo-isometric view, clean menus, straightforward controls. UI is uninspired and a bit hard to read. Fun: Hard to tell. I can't tell that I had no fun playing The Vaults... but there are too many un-fun issues to ignore. 1) Mouse-only inventory and keyboard-only exploration - it doesn't work well together; 2) game don't scale entities well - at first I didn't feel character progress - leveling up was rising stats, but it seemed to not affect combat much; I has to level several times to feel the difference 3) loot is boring - on the first few levels, the only armor to find was gambeson; later, I started to find mail, mostly 4) when I found nice eq finally, I started to encounter new monsters that made me feel that all my progress was for nothing 5) lots of mending tonics - it seems to be way to play Vaults... - just stack healing potions 6) no way to tell which weapon is better 7) boring dungeon generation Innovation: Nope, not here. Scope: Reasonable Roguelikeness: Hell yeah! To sum things up: As a game, The Vaults... can't score good marks. As a prototype, it's good starting point. It would need lots of work, but I see potential here...
This has a solid sense of style to it, which could translate well to a post-7DRL version. The UI in particular I found well developed for the timescale, and a transparent level up system is a refreshing change from arbitrary milestones and makes grinding out everything on a floor actually worth it before delving down. Loot distribution was perhaps too generous - I lived on a full inventory from the first floor onwards multiple times, but I'm never going to truely complain about being able to heal easily in a roguelike.
Time Will Tell
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
2
3
Innovation
4
3
Scope
3
2
Roguelikeness
2
3
The dream as parallel dimension mechanics are very clever and inspiring.
The core idea of this is really neat, and the writing and tone are super evocative. Has a ton of potential!
TinyHack
Completeness
3
4
Aesthetics
3
4
Fun
2
3
Innovation
2
3
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
3
2
Well done, the game feels complete for a "tiny hack" :) The aesthetics are appropriate and I like the different colours for the subnets. While initially fun the novelty quickly wears off with nothing else to do in the game except move (i.e. run away from enemies) and hack dollars.
TinyHack has a good look to it, and is a solidly encapsulated 7DRL project that delivers a unique experience. That said, even though it had ASCII graphics and procedural map, I sort felt more like I was playing a puzzle or a hacking minigame than a roguelike. With guards spawning and filling the map every few turns, things get clausterphobic fast. This makes it increasingly difficult to hack and leave the exit in time, to the point where I don't think it's really possible to get past level 5 or 6 or so. Your only goal is to earn points by hacking money nodes anyway, and nothing you gain really gives you any additional tricks or help. Overall, a pretty solid procedural puzzle, albeit one that feels a tad self-limiting in how quickly the players' options dry up. Completeness - 4 (Polished, bug free, but not with a degree of features that would surprise for a 7DRL.) Aesthetics - 4 (Looks great for ASCII, well-integrated instructions, character selection, colorizing, and such.) Fun - 3 (Worth a play, but I'm not likely to stick around after I get the gist of it. I could not get any better after trying for an hour, so I sort of feel like it might be impossible to do particularly well.) Scope - 3 (A solid job for a 7DRL, but not a surprising scope.) Roguelike - 2 (The turn-based mechanics, FOV limitations, ASCII graphics, and procedural maps are fairly roguelike, but I feel like it was more of a guard-avoidance puzzle. Maybe a 2.5, tops.)
Bread And Keys
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
4
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
Unmarked, booby-trapped levers... the true enemy of man. I liked the @ cape, kinda want one for myself.
The procedural puzzle system is really neat!
CYBORG
Completeness
4
3
Aesthetics
3
2
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
3
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
Ok, the idea of the game seems to be good enough, but unfortunately the game lacks in variety and amount of content. Field of view algo is bugged and inconsistent. Music is very loud at start and cannot be turned off. Autorun doesn't stop when an enemy enter field of view. It is somewhat disappointing that two ships and cyborg are the very same in terms of combat and equipment. There is nothing innovate there, at least in current state of the game. The scope is more or less ok for a 7drl. And it cannot be called true roguelike as each run is very similar to previous, everything is the same, no surprises.
One of those games that I think ended up having just a little too much ambition for the 7DRL challenge, but ended up as something interesting nonetheless. There's a lot to like here. We've got a cool, fleshed-out setting with a lot of work put into creating a compelling backstory, though some people might find it wordy. The concept of the gameplay is cool, with the ability to fly around space in your ship, walk around inside the ship itself, disembark onto planets, moons, and space stations, and warp from one solar system to another. I wasn't a huge fan of the aesthetic/interface of the game. The amount of stuff on the screen felt busy and confusing at times, and the font is not the best choice for readability. Some interactions, like putting on equipment, were not intuitive, with the controls being sort of scattered around and not too easily discoverable. On the plus side, clicking to move is a nice quality-of-life feature. Combat, whether ship-to-ship or on the ground, involves clicking on the enemy to shoot them, and then waiting while they return fire - this is cool-looking, but I often found that it ended up being a lot of tedious clicking and waiting for animations to finish, and could have been a little more streamlined and involved more potential for interesting tactics, etc. It's apparent that there's a pretty elaborate combat system in place, but it wasn't used to its full potential. I have to admit that I didn't beat the game, so there might be a chunk of content that I've missed out on; I'd usually end up flying around a mostly-empty star system with not much idea where to go, exploring a few settlements and eventually getting killed. I appreciate the exploration element, but I think it could have been good to give the player a bit more direction in the beginning. All that said, the idea behind this game is a grand one, there's clearly been a lot of love put into it, and I think there's an awesome game somewhere in there.
CaveRL
Completeness
2
3
Aesthetics
2
2
Fun
2
3
Innovation
3
3
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
I think that Cave RL suffers from the author having attempted more than they could finish in the timeframe. The game hints at a lot of interlocking systems: there are monsters and combat, there are different minerals to be mined, a lighting system, a recursive artifact crafting mechanic, as well as a secondary artifact restoring goal? However, each of these systems is just barely implemented, and difficult to make work as intended. You can dig minerals of different types…they spawn all around you, but only after you randomly find a pickaxe artifact, and then find three other artifacts to sacrifice to make it, and then randomly stumble across a “work bench” to make it all happen. Then, once you can mine minerals, their only application seems to be to get money from random merchants, but there is also quite little to spend that money on. The artifacts do seem to have been fully implemented, and I was curious about finally getting to use the spell book to zap my foes, however, there are two big stumbling blocks to an extended play of the game. First, the map generation does not account for balance, and so I was often swarmed with monsters that would drain my health before I could make it from one section of the caves to another. Second, the interface ends up getting in the way of many actions. Using the mouse to look around yourself is cumbersome, and often interacts badly with having to use the mouse to click on items or minerals. In addition, none of the interface is sufficiently explained. I didn’t realize I HAD an inventory until items popped up on screen, and then didn’t know that I had to click them to activate them. Finally, the author left the space bar bound to “reset” the game no matter the game state, which led to several frustrating restarts for me. There are some interesting ideas here, but if the author wants to develop them, I would recommend picking one mechanic to explore and balance, rather than trying to create all of them at once.
The user interface has issues, there should be something behind the text to separate it from the background, I also found the free camera tedious to control with it sometimes moving off when I select an item, I would have preferred it to be centered on the character at all times. Since both the mouse and keyboard are required it takes three hands to comfortably use the arrow keys, which I foolishly tried to do my first few runs.
Lexicon Hop: A 7DRL
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
3
2
Fun
2
2
Innovation
3
3
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
Neat concept for a game. Complete and winnable. The art is charming. Gameplay lacked some polish. Not a fan of the meta-progression, because the early "lives" felt very weak and like death was imminent. After learning a few words that eased up. Ran into a handful of bugs. At times it felt like I was wandering aimlessly, not sure where I was supposed to head next.
I thought that the saved progression and jumping mechanics were interesting gameplay elements that had some good potential. Thematically presenting this as learning new words was a nice touch as well. I liked the game overall, but I felt there were some issues that prevented portions of it from being enjoyable. In terms of gameplay it was not quite clear what I had to do to progress. I felt like I spent a lot of time wandering around looking for a screen that was not a default forest. Some areas seemed to be impossible to deal: with such as an island with a stone tablet that had 6-8 enemies on it, or forest areas with lots of enemies. I found the best way to get around was by “surfing” the edges of each screen, and moving to a different screen to reset enemy positions whenever they got too close. I think the game would have benefited from either a few less enemies, or a few more early game tools to deal with enemies. The early game is pretty brutal. There were some usability things that could have been cleaned up a bit: - Taking damage by jumping on spikey enemies could have been communicated a bit better. -When looking at the controls it was not immediately clear what the difference is between jump, leap, and hop -Falling into pits if enemies are blocking you on the other side.
Rogue In Space
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
3
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
Completeness: Game seems complete in terms of content, but definitely needs more polish. There is big varienty of enemies and rooms, but also lots of bugs and rough edges, like inconsistent hitboxes (I'm looking at you, mr BigSlowRobot!) - player can go through corners of boxes, block on wall, etc. Aesthetics: Menu are generic, but very clean. There is nice music, but there is only on track - it starts to be annoying / boring after some time. Sprites *work*, but are not very pleasant to look at. Fun: Core mechanics of Rogue in Space is fun (and well tested - RiS is heavily inspired by Binding of Isaac, it seems), but there are too many rough edges to really enjoy gameplay. To name few: inconsistent hitboxes (player character can cut boxes corners, block on walls), keys are not consumed by chests sometimes. There are also balance issues: sometimes, game feels too easy due to generous drop rate... but it won't help in OneRoomThatWillKillYou. Gameplay is not as engaging as could be, because of low movement speed and long intervals between attacks. Innovation: It's that much inspired by Binding of Isaac that I could write it's clone... But I won't. Scope: I didn't finish game because every time my character died due unexpected difficulty spike, so I don't know if there are bosses implemented... But there is variety of enemies and rooms, power-ups... Scope seems reasonable for 7DRL. Roguelikeness: Roguelite.
A nice quick take on the "Binding of Isaac" / "realtime Zelda" concept. The enemies seemed pretty easy, with a minor challenge on the boss and the insects(?) that fly in circles.
Crypt of the Unspeakable
Completeness
3
4
Aesthetics
2
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
4
3
Completeness: 3. Could have used some balancing. Once I figured out the basic controls, it was pretty much impossible to die. Aesthetics: 2. The on-map sprites are adorable, and the UI icons are nice and crisp, but the controls were rather unwieldy. I couldn't hold down an arrow key to keep moving, and it took me a very long time to figure out that walking into an enemy wasn't actually doing anything except letting them attack me; apparently you can't attack with the arrow keys, you must use the mouse. Fun: 2. I liked the mysterious vibe, but there wasn't much strategy needed. Note, I'm not sure I reached the actual ending, it hinted there was more to discover, but I couldn't figure it out. Innovative: 2. The determinism was interesting, but it didn't really benefit the game, from what I could tell. Scope: 2 Roguelike: 4
Somewhat strange game... It's trivial to win. The game "hints" that there is another "true ending". And it looks like the order or amount of enemies killed somehow related to that ending. But there is one huge problem. Level 3. Which is very very slow and makes it extremely annoying to try and find that secret ending. Probably more interesting gameplay was planned, but what we have is very simple and quite boring. Controls are strange. You cannot play with pure keyboard for some reason. And pure mouse is somewhat slow, there is no "run to" function". "Look at" command is very bugged. It's hard to call it "true roguelike" too, there is just too little variety. Upgrade via items that are very simple +1, +2 etc.
Fell Into a Hole
Completeness
2
2
Aesthetics
4
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
Completeness - 2 Quite a few small issues such as: -AI pathfinding seems to fail sometimes as enemies run close and then just dance around. -There are black edges to some of the dungeon, rather than it being walled off as the rest is. -The fireball can co-exist on a space with an enemy without triggering. Aesthetics - 4 Autotiling, idle animations and a gradient on the fov. Some nice little touches and a clean delivery of information. A pleasure to look at. Fun - 2 The enemy's unusual and almost out of sync movement held back the games enjoyment. Innovative - 2 Pretty simple, but pleasant. Scope - 32 Limited enemies, simple dungeon generation and only 2 abilities. Roguelike - 4 Classic roguelike feel as you explore the dungeon and slay the monsters.
I came across a number of minor bugs during my playthrough, as well as one that crashed the game. Game tiles and animation look very nice and combat is good. Projectile mechanics are neat. The first floor seems to always be the same? Other floors appeared generated, although with some oddities edge of the map not bounded by walls). All floor map memory is lost if you leave the floor and return. WASD and mouse as only movement options is less than ideal, numpad or arrow key support would be a huge improvement.
RogueHack
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
2
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
4
3
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
2
2
Completeness - no major bugs, but lacking polish Aesthetics - The controls need some work. It ends up being a lot of a typing, and a lot of making sure I'm looking at the right process ID and IP. Perhaps shorter IDs and IPs would help. Also standard terminal features like tab completion, up/down for scrolling previous commands, and ctrl+a/e for jumping to start and end of line. Fun - Unfortunately the UX really got in the way here. I think introducing some of the more interesting enemies earlier might also help, but with better controls it wouldn't take as much real-world time to get to them. Innovation/Roguelikeness - Neat ideas. I think positioning is really key to roguelikes though, and this has none besides the list of processes (and as far as I can tell, your position in the list has no effect).
Hacking-themed games always make me happy. This one reminds me a little of Uplink, and I particularly liked the enemies and their abilities as processes and process statuses. The hand twisting required to hit enter with one hand while the other is on the arrows was not an enjoyable aspect, and the actual hacking/"combat" mechanics didn't seem very balanced. The "map" generation could use work; my first game had an almost fully connected grid, my second was a long snake.
The Creeping Dungeon
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
2
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
3
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
3
4
Difficult controls with letters QWEASDZXC and not NumPad buttons. Log texts are pretty confusing to read because it is updated not in the end but at the start. Many of empty chests are not fun. Even useless gold will be better. Main gameplay strategy is to run from enemies and collect chests for upgrades, then you can defeat enemies but it is not required. You don't spend time by collecting chests all units have the same speed, so you just need check for being surrounded. And it is not cool when controls so very hard to use (numpads will be much better). There is no food clock so you can easily collect all upgrades if monsters will not surround you. But latter in game you can be catched in corner by steel Wyvern just by random generation. After death you will not have any way to restart with game functions. Only by refresh F5 in browser. Game is basic, playable and normal to play. Nothing special really for now but can be changed and upgraded to the better results. I think there is was good job done.
The creeping dungeon is a minimalist rogulike in which you have to find the disgusting ring which is supposedly hidden in one of the tresure chests. There is no field of vision and you see the whole leve on one screen. This means that ennemies also see you and give you no rest. They will find you whatever you do and are the same speed as you, so you have to anticipate, run in loops, etc in order to survive. The dungeon is filled with chests containing permanent bonuses such as defense or attack. So the incentive to get them is great and you have to balance it with running away from the monsters. The problem is that a lot of chests turn out to be empty, for your disappointment. After a few levels, monsters increase in difficulty making it important to collect all the loot early on and to be lucky with how many you get. The fact that monsters move at the same speed as you leave not much strategy options: attack if you can afford it, run otherwise. If monsters randomly gave you an opportunity to escape them (by slowing down, or not rushing at you), I belive the descent would be more attractive for novice heroes. I also tried to play on a tablet but the page layout prevents from seeing the log, which makes the game really hard to play.
The Janitor (7DRL 2019)
Completeness
2
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
2
3
Innovation
2
3
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
This is a project that didn't quite get off its feet. There's a chance that the author was really rushed, but I would bet this was simply one of their first attempts at a roguelike. I recognize in this a lot of the hallmarks of my very first experiments with making a roguelike -- the map generation algorithm has gaps, the line of sight is a little off, and enemies mostly move around randomly. That being said, there are some nice nods to higher concepts. I think the treatment of color on the map is very nice, and the tracking of how many bloodstains remain is a smart touch. I would encourage the author of this game to keep practicing (and reading about), some of the programming techniques that make roguelikes easier to make -- things like map generation and line of sight have good explanations lots of places online. I'll also say that the idea of a dis-empowered roguelike, where you play a hapless janitor running from overpowered aliens sounds like it has potential. You could add in an array of non-combat items to help you avoid being attacked. Or you could really push the stealth angle, and work around lighting and line of sight. In either case, I hope the author keeps working on their games, whether this one or another.
I love the concept - Vicera Cleanup Detail mixed with Alien in randomised locations? Yes. The game's clear and simple, yet very enjoyable. My only criticism is rooms not always being accessible, but at least the player could still warp to a new level regardless. A nice, combat free twist on the roguelike formula.
The Quest for the Winged Demon
Completeness
3
2
Aesthetics
2
3
Fun
2
3
Innovation
3
2
Scope
3
2
Roguelikeness
3
4
Oh God, my eyes! Ouh, it was wall? This strange... thing... in the center of screen is player character, I suppose? So, it's some kind of third-person dungeon crawler? Would be nice if PC wouldn't be covered by other objects... Whaa, wait! It's enemy? Or just element of decor? I see that something attacks me, but I'm not sure what... Ouh, it was monster indeed. Time to loot! Copper ring, and sword +1. Oh. My. God. I don't see how I'm supposed to do in inventory menu. Whaaat, I died? How? Why? I didn't see it coming... Message to the dev: make visuals clean. Sprites and menus. The Quest... may be nice stylish game, and I'd like to give it another try - but currently it's barely playable. ...I gave it another try already. It's not that bad when player is... prepared... But it remains hard to play and fatigues eyes very fast. Completeness: Complete game, but needs much more polish. Aesthetics: Aesthetics of The Quest... is game breaker. It's the reason, why I stopped playing after five minutes at first. Even looking at screen is painful - trying to parse it is much worse. It's hard to tell if object is monster or, don't know , grass. It's a pity - the style is distinctive and I think that, properly implemented, it could be huge advantage of The Quest. Menuses are not better - their background is transparent and I can see message log under inventory instructions. It's a bit hard to navigate dungeon, because minimap rotate with player - rotating arrow as player icon on static map would help a lot. Fun: I managed to cross few levels, but I was distracted by visuals. I don't know if I know enough to judge it, but I have. It's hard to separate "aesthetics" and "fun" here, thought... Innovation: I always wanted to play roguelike designed in a classic dungeon crawlers way. It's similar attempt, I think. And... even if the result is tiring, art style is pretty unique. Scope: Reasonable. Roguelikeness: It's roguelike, especially for 7DRL standards.
Nice proof-of-concept, has potential!
7even Day R@guelike (2019)
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
2
Roguelikeness
4
3
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should". I don't know what kind of vile machinations are involved in making a roguelike in RPGMaker, though I'm confident that the world will be better off if they are never repeated. Not that much of the implementation approach is visible in the end result in more than the menu design and the sliding movement, but my impression is that it took work just to make RPGMaker not act like RPGMaker here, and that it would take much more work in the future to build anything more complex on top of it. The game itself is workable, and certainly has all the basics covered. There are a few glitches (fog of war takes a moment to kick in at the beginning of each level, letting you see everything it contains; sometimes the stairs don't quite seem to work if you enter them right after picking up an item) and somewhat inconsistent-feeling game rules that may or may not be intentional (you can normally run away from a monster from an empty tile or stairs, but get hit if you move onto an item), but overall, the game fully makes sense and acts and feels like a roguelike should. However, the extreme level of difficulty makes it impossible to determine the game's full scope. I could see on the few turns that I ever survived beyond level 2 that the game comes up with new potion types, as well as a new monster type, but what I couldn't ever manage was to ever defeat or evade even one of those new monsters. Overall: Yep, this is the sort of game that 7DRL is meant for. I'm glad that this experiment was performed. That the end result was "let's not do that" wasn't entirely unexpected, but hey, in the end someone did have to try in order for us to be sure.
Using RPG Maker MV to make a Roguelike with turn-based combat and random generation is quite interesting! And this game definitely proves the concept. The controls and movement felt fluid. I did manage to win after a few tries, but I felt it was more luck than anything. The monsters were quite tough in the beginning, even with a sword. There were several instances where I would spawn in a room with 3 spiders and that would be it. I would have liked a wait action, since for me a lot of the strategy was waiting for the monsters to come to me, instead I had to bump into walls. I like the simplicity, and it definitely felt like a Roguelike! This is a cool little example of a Roguelike in RPG Maker.
All That Is Lies Ahead
Completeness
3
2
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
3
2
Innovation
3
2
Scope
3
2
Roguelikeness
2
3
Completeness - 3, Aesthetics - 2.5, Fun - 3, Innovative - 3, Scope - 3, Roguelike - 2 I absolutely love / enjoy this idea / experiment of a bot-driven "game". Despite the format, I found it a unique entry and had a good time reading along as it went on. Along with the "speed up" button, I was definitely looking for a "slow down" option. There's a lot to be said about slower pacing helping to drive / create a story.. Hopefully you do some more experimenting with this idea - they can be quite a lot of fun.
It feels like your adventurer will always non sequitur into a neutral state at the end of any scene, until you win or die. It makes the log less interesting to follow. It would have been nice for your character to pick up a specific kind of item and then use that item in a later scene. The current way items are described is too vague.
Alpine 7000
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
3
2
Innovation
3
2
Scope
3
2
Roguelikeness
2
2
uses PICO-8 game engine game has full screen option, but cursor works only in windowed mode nice music at first, due to lack of instruction and unusual (and stylish!) representation, I didn't know what to do resources management is basic, but fun travel cost mechanics is bugged - sometimes, cost of travel during peaceful day is higher than during strong winds small, but still reasonable scope definitely not a roguelike
While I always enjoy seeing a PICO8 submission, this one left me wanting, and not just because I wasn't able to reach the summit after 20-30 tries. The interface is simplistic, even given the platform, and there's little to no depth to the game other than just throwing yourself at the mercy of the RNG.
To Be Risked
Completeness
2
2
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
4
4
The lighting and other visual effects are nice. I tried the roguelike version first since I enjoy challenges, but almost every time simply attacking the first enemy would mean an immediate death, so I switched over to the easy version. Enemies that don't move or attack are interesting. That said, I was really powerful apparently, after getting a bunch of relics and raising levels, and enemies basically couldn't hurt me, but there's no key repeating, so against some enemies I had to press the attack key about 50-100 times before eventually killing them. Still, my health was regenerating faster than they could hurt me so there wasn't much point. Even enemies that were far beyond my level couldn't hurt me. Seems like there needs to be a little more direction here (on the game store page would be fine) to help guide the gameplay. The many spelling and grammar errors detract from the experience, the escape as a way to exit the game at any time is very annoying (try to avoid that because it's something players habitually press to get out of menus), and the button to play again/continue didn't always work.
Completeness: To Be Risked is barely playable. Entry message fades after 10 seconds no-matter-what, mechanics are vague, game freezes often, and doesn't prompt for confirm to exit. Aesthetics: Nice graphics, clean UI (except message log), easy controls. Fun: I'm sorry to write it - I see that dev put effort into this entry - but playing TBR is constant struggle. Innovation: Generic hack and slash, with some additional mechanics on top. Scope: Reasonable. Roguelikeness: For a 7DRL standard, it's a roguelike.
BeltersRL_2019
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
3
2
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
2
Roguelikeness
3
4
Well... There is not really much of a game there. Technically you can loose and you can win. But there is so little you can do, aside from running forward and picking and using O2 canisters and medkits. There one grenade that is not even required to be used to win the game. Section with bright pink background makes it really hard to see the enemy.
Unfortunately if I had the freedom to score more 1s I would. Making an RL is hard, no doubt about that, and the above game is working properly, with a randomized map and item/enemy spawns, but it offers nothing new or interesting. It's just that, a functional roguelike, with a "hunger" system, healing pots and 1 grenade. Even for a 7DRL it lacks in everything gameplay related.
By Sea, Land, or Air
Completeness
2
3
Aesthetics
2
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
3
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
3
3
Well done with your submission. The game is stable but feels sparse and uninhabited. The aesthetics are typical for a roguelike and can be improved with occasional variation or animation in the symbol used for land, sea and mountains (e.g. showing rolling waves, waving grass or misty mountains). Unfortunately the game play isn't fun or compelling at this point in time, it's busy work moving between points for no reward other than the count of deliveries completed. The need to change mode of transport would be innovative if it wasn't so trivial. The engine charges doesn't make sense or seem to impact the wagon or the boat, nor does the wind which should impact the boat at least a little. The scope of the game doesn't amount to much more than a tech demo at this stage. With some extra features and a populated world this might turn out to be something interesting though. This is a roguelike-like; have some roguelike featues but missing a lot that would make it a game of the genre.
Well-scoped for a 7DRL, I like how we're experimenting with freely changing between three movement types. Another nice feature is the smooth terrain transitions, possibly Perlin noise derived. While the juxtaposition of wind direction, terrain type, and engine charge does require the player to pay attention in order to smoothly move, the choices given to the player could be a little more interesting. Also, I ran into an issue where a destination can spawn outside of the range of the camera aperture, requiring guesswork on behalf of the player to find the destination. I ended up getting stuck on my 15th delivery because my hidden destination was somewhere on mountainous terrain and my balloon got stuck up against the very edge of the map. Completeness: 3 - Camera issues, no win condition, but other than that we've got a fairly nice project completed in Elm no less! Aesthetics: 3 - Colored ASCII is just fine for a roguelike. No creature comforts on the presentation, though. No in-game keybinds, and the controls to switch between different movement types is not intuitive. Fun: 2 - Lacking interesting choices, feels like more of a tech demo. Innovative: 3 - The ability to switch movement types is novel take to an old genre. Scope: 3 - Definitely scoped for a 7 day project, somewhat taking the platform into consideration. Roguelikeness: 3 - No RPG mechanics, but it has procedural tilemaps and is turn based.
Escape with the Ring of Erdna
Completeness
3
2
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
2
Roguelikeness
4
3
Completeness - Playable from start to finish. There seemed to be some issues with part of the map being pre-explored, and explored parts sometimes becoming unexplored. I didn't come across any other bugs though. Aesthetics - nice tiles, simple interface. It would be nice to have some indication of how close an enemy is to dying. Fun - There didn't seem to be much strategy. I died a couple times trying to fight enemies, but soon realized I could mostly just run past everything. Innovation - Mostly just a bumpfest. You start at the bottom of the dungeon and enemies get easier, so that's different I guess, but doesn't really produce interesting gameplay. Scope - Not much content. There's a few different enemy types, but they seem to only differ by damage and health. Roguelikeness - There's not really anything here that makes it not a roguelike. Because of some of the above issues, it doesn't really have the tactical feel I expect from a roguelike though.
A well executed but basic roguelike.
Pour Me More
Completeness
2
4
Aesthetics
4
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
2
2
The UI is well executed and the pixel graphic style makes the game look like it's set in a FF6 tavern. Very few, or none, of the traditional RL elements can be found. The game is essentially a mobile clicker.
Pour Me More is a real-time bar tending sim. It plays like a Wario Ware mini game, and while I could see if being fun with friends, it doesn't have much to offer as a single player game, not does it seem particularly roguelike!
Dogeylvania
Completeness
2
2
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
2
Roguelikeness
4
3
Movement, combat, and level generation all work great. That's all there really is to the game at this point though, needs more variety. Being able to find some sort of items would be fun. Levels could probably use more monsters? Monster AI was iffy at times -- monsters would quickly forget they were chasing you, or at one point a fluffy wolf was attacking another fluffy wolf that was in its way (intended?). Balance felt a little off, by full-clearing floors it seemed as though you could stay ahead of the curve, although I did eventually die on floor 12 to two spiders. There were times when most (all?) monsters seemed to only be able to do 0 damage (I waited a lot of turns to check). An "examine" control of some sort would be a nice QoL improvement. Aesthetics and level generation are pretty nice. I like the detail in the trees and forest floor. Game is definitely a true roguelike. By the way, does this game have an end? I got the feeling that levels would generate indefinitely. Maybe new monster types instead of the same monsters scaling would give a better feel of advancement. Minor comments/bugs: The R key will reset your game at any time, not sure if that's intended. Doge and other monsters are hidden by corpses that they are standing over (under?). One level had a building that was not accessible, not sure if that's intended or if the entrance was blocked by trees (there were some trees adjacent to the building at a few points. Overall, the game didn't feel polished/complete enough in its current state for my liking, but is a solid basis for a good game if more content is added.
Looks and feels like a modern roguelike but unfortunately is missing systems which would make up the “meat” of the game. It feels like you built a solid foundation to build a game on but perhaps ran out of time to incorporate weapons/items/skills or other features to really make it interesting. I will say the level generation is nice, and I like the mix of organic forest areas with geometric rooms.
Heroes of Noresskia - 2019 7DRL
Completeness
3
2
Aesthetics
3
2
Fun
2
2
Innovation
3
3
Scope
2
2
Roguelikeness
2
3
This project was born from an interesting place. The creator has included a long explanation of this project as an experiment, heavily inspired by the history around the design of the original Rogue and based on original research. Conceptually, then, this experiment is a success, spinning up a (mostly) bug-free interface to the Epic Quest style game it’s based on. And logistically, the program is solid and intuitive. The player clicks though most interfaces with clearly labeled buttons. The author has also made great use of pre-made open source/free libre assets – which give the program a very polished feeling. As an experiment in simulating a DM running an RPG, this is interesting. The result is not, however, really a game to be played. Character creation is mostly a randomization of a few elements, and gameplay is mostly limited to moving around a map. Combat is randomly triggered and consists of clicking through the “attack” button several times. So if you check this out to see what the author has done with an experimental simulation, don’t be looking for deep gameplay. Still, an interesting approach to the larger roguelike design space.
This is something developers have been trying to pull off for a long time, and it seems like you ran into the same problems that everybody does. You need to make sure the journey itself is fun, otherwise you'll only have a destination generator.
Neighbor's Raccoon
Completeness
2
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
2
Roguelikeness
3
3
Completeness - Playable start to finish, but I had some major performance issues in Chrome when moving fast, to the extend I thought the game had frozen a few times (~30s of waiting before teleporting across the map). Almost unplayable. It was more playable in Firefox but still needs work. Aesthetics - graphics and controls are simple and effective, but nothing extraordinary Fun - There wasn't much to do. Kill some enemies, run past the rest Innovation - Pretty standard bump combat and not much else. Roguelikeness - The basics of a roguelike are there, but there's not enough depth to mechanics to create interesting tactical situations
Your neighbour has an absolutely colossal basement, and unsurprisingly a Raccoon has taken up residence. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to venture deep into the basement and dispose of said pest. You'll be equipped with bombs and bump combat to help you accomplish this task. The bombs can be used to blow through the terrain and find shortcuts, although this didn't end up helping me much. There's a shopkeeper between levels that will sell you more bombs and other upgrades. Despite all this, the gameplay is rather basic, and you can Benny Hill your way to the bottom of the basement in under 5 minutes and take care of the beast with a single bomb.
SWIPE!SLEIGHT!THE AMULET!
Completeness
3
2
Aesthetics
3
2
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
3
3
Roguelikeness
2
3
An action game with bizarre spinny glitchy aesthetics, cruel difficulty, and a bit of an attitude. I never made it past level 3 in this deathly maze, but I did find my time in it interesting. And occasionally nauseating, when I got close to a front wall and everything on the screen started to really twist around with a vengeance. Mostly, though, I felt unwelcome. The game concept isn't without legs, but it did seem to come down to "do really precise timing and placement, and oh, the correct timing and placement you need is a randomly adjusted for each new level". It's not that it's not a learnable game - I did get better at adjusting to using different attacks over time, not to mention getting a lot better at noticing when it's best to just run around or ram over a monster instead of trying to kill it - but I did also die a lot from having attacks just not quite reach a monster I was aiming for or go just slightly too far. In all, the combination of the high level of difficulty, the eventually repetitive music, and not really having anything interesting going on its level design, made this game difficult to enjoy for me. For a short game contest like this, accessibility is unfortunately a greater asset than depth. I don't know what I'm missing from the later levels - though I assume there is something, since I did at least see that there are more monsters in the later levels than the yellow blobs - but I just couldn't make it there, and the game just couldn't quite convince me that I really wanted to try.
It was really hard to judge this game. You die as soon as anything touches you. I also only discovered by accident you can attack the red stuff to destroy it. The game doesn't feel complete as the instant death coupled with the enemies respawning where they were killed makes it very difficult to traverse the levels. The controls were okay and clear but the constantly flickering tiles is headache inducing. I would recommend skipping this title for now until more polish was done. There's a germ of a game here waiting to blossom.
SkyFortress Prologue
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
2
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
3
Roguelikeness
2
3
This looks like a lot of stock RPG Maker stuff with a dungeon generator, so I'm being less forgiving with aesthetics and scope than I would normally be. I found the gameplay frustrating. The first thing you're supposed to do is allocate a bunch of stat points, but the stats aren't explained. The game seems to assume you know the mechanics already. The monster variety is low, but there are a lot of them wandering around. Battles take a long time. I found myself only getting into fights when I absolutely needed to not because I was making a risk/reward tradeoff, but because they felt very repetitive.
There's lots to go over when jumping into a project based on a lot of prior existing content, and I can't really tell what is new or not here since that's not clarified on the itch.io page. At least it's relatively easy to get into since it's standard JRPG fare. Of course, the main problem with such a large body of content is that it can be challenging to balance in order for it to be more enjoyable, and the balance here is all over the place. Enemies I could barely hurt could also barely hurt me, resulting in long and boring encounters. The lack of balance basically meant that I could just hold Enter through an entire fight. Now I assume enemies would've died faster were I not fighting them mostly bare-handed, but despite the characters saying they should spend their starting gold, I could find no way to actually do this. I looked through all the menu options but didn't see a way to do it, and I also tried researching it on the net, but couldn't figure it out. I then left my browser (latest Firefox) for a bit and came back and when I tried to continue a battle all my progress was lost and it automatically started over. I'd love to try more if I could find how to buy things, and also if I didn't have to spend so long allocating so many stat points for multiple characters at the start of every run.
summertime!
Completeness
3
2
2
Aesthetics
3
3
2
Fun
2
2
2
Innovation
3
3
2
Scope
3
2
2
Roguelikeness
3
2
2
Trippy. A Groundhog Day-like PICO-8 adventure that has you doing daily household chores to eventually be truly free. There doesn't seem to be much roguelikeness about this one, though there were some fun one-liners while going around interacting with furniture and appliances, eventually figuring out the right place where all the inventory items go to be able to go outside and return to house again the next day to do it... slightly differently. The art is basic but cute, and controls are intuitive. Even without much instruction the rules of the game become apparent pretty quickly.
A pretty unusual entry with a good bit of charm to it. It's not a roguelike in my opinion; you've got the seemingly randomized house layouts and placement of objects, but that's about it. It's more of an interesting, surreal little story. We've got various different interactions with the items you can pick up, and every action you can take has several cute puns associated with it; it's fun to see these pop up and occasionally see a new one for a familiar action, since they show up randomly. There are some lovely visual effects (the pink bubbly smoke effect looks so cool) and a nice art style in general. I left with the feeling that I might have missed some of the game - after getting sent back to the house a few times, I eventually got what might have been a victory screen by talking to a gnome, and the game went black. It wasn't clear to me how I had accomplished this, though the victory(?) text made it seem like it might be related to one of the items in my inventory.
Inside the house there is a limited vertical view distance below the character, but full screen view distance in the other directions. This is a bit jarring when walking around the house. The 8x8 sprites make it difficult to tell what some items/interactable objects are without walking around and clicking on every single thing until they do something. Since there aren't any enemies to interact with or need for longer view distance it might be better to use a larger sprite size such as 12x12 (no need to go up to the next evenly divisible size of 16x16 because the movement isn't grid based). Other than the size, the sprites look nice. Sometimes the inside of the house will generate in a way that has a table blocking the exit. This has happened to me after about a dozen rounds every time. Items from outside didn't appear to have a purpose and just kept accumulating in my inventory. I'm not sure if those were meant to show progress or I just couldn't find/couldn't get far enough to see what they were used for. Other than the randomly placed rooms in the house I couldn't really find any roguelike characteristics.
Fire Thrower
Completeness
2
3
Aesthetics
3
2
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
2
Roguelikeness
3
3
Well they're cubes, but they're nice cubes! The important part is of course the mechanics. Pretty simple to understand, although maps generally seem to be quite empty, and linear. There needs to be more content in the maps for sure. Not really sure why but the Enemies count in the top right corner went negative, and kept getting lower as I killed more. Often times I'd enter a floor and there'd be an 'E' at the top of the screen, but pressing that key didn't do anything. It also took a long time, or multiple presses, for any 'E' effect to register on other interactive blocks, like chests. I also encountered a chest only accessible while standing within an exit, meaning there was no way to access the chest. I finally figured out that I had to press Escape then confirm in order to get to the main menu in order to upgrade (Escape should be enough), but then after upgrading I couldn't get back into the game I was playing. The only option after that is "New Game." I did have a couple times where it would throw me back into the game at an awkward level--once it sent me to level 3, another time to level 11?! Very confusing. Note that the Leave button doesn't do anything in the Start Game menu. I also don't see the point of lighting the candles, although there's a counter for them it seems like a waste of time. Maybe an incomplete scoring system? Weird since there really aren't many/any enemies on the map to make the candles inaccessible. Overall a decent tech demo, but needs a lot of work.
It's got a reasonable, solid base for a more complete game - I had some issues with the controls, mostly getting the correct positioning for opening chests, which never felt consistent. Movement tripped me up, because it's not a standard movement for roguelikes, and one small problem with generation put a chest behind a level portal which meant I couldn't open the chest
Emotion Harvest
Completeness
2
3
Aesthetics
3
3
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
2
Roguelikeness
2
2
The game is stable but is desperately missing difficulty balance and explanation of the game world. When the level starts there's a turret shooting at the player not giving them time to figure out what they're doing. The aesthetics are okay but the player's weapon and damage from enemy fire are missing haptic feedback so I have to watch the health bar and looking for flashes of light by the enemy. Unfortunately it's not fun because the only strategy I could figure out for defeating turrets was to jump in-and-out of cover and the spikes/mines and non-walkable areas are not obvious and require a lot of trial and error. The walls should be a different colour and red (the colour for danger) kept for enemy bullets, spikes and dangerous areas. The game doesn't innovate beyond a basic FPS and the scope of the game doesn't feel like more than a tech demo at this point. Other than corridors and rooms this doesn't feel like a roguelike, but as an FPS I'd like to see the game improved upon.
An FPS game with turret enemies. I couldn't see any procedural content, and there are checkpoints which means no permadeath either. Hard to see why this was made for a roguelike jam. Floor tiles which cause damage and jumping sections are quite irritating in an FPS, and the enemies present no challenge except when they are provided in overwhelming numbers.
Ratcatcher
Completeness
3
3
Aesthetics
2
2
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
2
Scope
2
2
Roguelikeness
3
2
A lot of these first-person / 3D 7DRLs don't seem to jive with me (and I do have a lot of experience playing FPS titles, including some rogue-lites). - This game (and others) really needs some kind of sensitivity option -- I was able to manage it a bit with my local mouse DPI settings, but the sensitivity was still far too high for my liking. Likewise, the inverted Y-axis needs a toggle, it's far from standard in this style of game and shouldn't be the default without an option to change it, in my opinion. - The starting room should be more "calm". I started the game getting ravaged by rats I tried to learn the controls (eventually I learned that immediately deploying the ratter helps clear the area for you). - A mini-map would be a great feature. It was difficult to keep track of what areas were already cleared. This may be partially due to my disorientation from the controls scheme and sensitivity. After a while I felt like I couldn't find any rats and I wasn't sure where to continue to. - Some furniture generation seemed awkward. There were areas that seemed impossible to pass through. Maybe the grid system you wanted to add would have helped here. All in all this wasn't really my kind of game, but could do well with a little more polish.
The 3d graphics with pixel art is a neat look, and I commend you for that. However I had some trouble getting into the gameplay. I found the best strategy was to kill a rat, back off to regenerate health, and then repeat until there are no more rats left. I feel like this design was a little too simplistic. The guards were a nice touch, but in practice they were fairly easy to avoid. I had a few issues playing the game because the mouse controls felt very twitchy, and the inverted Y axis is something I am just not used to. I did not feel there were very many aspects of this that felt like a roguelike to me, except for the permadeath and castle/dungeon environment.
SonarRL
Completeness
2
2
Aesthetics
2
2
Fun
2
2
Innovation
2
3
Scope
2
2
Roguelikeness
3
3
Looks like final version of the game is simply not working as intended. Tried to press all key on my keyboard, but rotation of the sonar never happened. So it's not only incomplete, but also broken. Pure constant tone is annoying as hell after a few seconds and that's not how sonar actually works... I understand the idea, and it's not the first attempt to implement it, and not the first to fail to do this in a consumable way. In it's current state it's not even close to roguelike.
Not really a functional game, but an interesting concept - explore a dungeon using only sound cues, with different sounds for different features and they get stronger the closer you are. You move backwards and forwards and rotate facing. But the enemies don't move and the environments don't seem to be complete (there are doors but no way to interact with them?) I managed to kill some enemies and find an exit, but I felt it was down to luck rather than discovering any skill at the game. The sonar rotation seems to have a strangely high number of angles it goes through - far more than the 4 or 8 I would have expected. This makes exploration extremely hard to process as you're never sure what angle you're facing. On top of that the actual sounds are quite jarring, so it's not a particularly pleasant listening experience. A nice idea, but needs a lot more work to be pulled off well.
Pall
Completeness
2
Aesthetics
2
Fun
2
Innovation
2
Scope
2
Roguelikeness
2
A simple attempt at a metroidvania-style game, made in Unity. The art assets are very nice, with a unique style. But the game is let down by poor controls (which aren't documented) and a lack of real content. Jumping between platforms and hitting enemies is made very hard by an overly sensitive/fast movement rate. Roguelikeness is incredibly weak - it's real time and it's not clear that there are any procedural elements (perhaps there's randomness, but it doesn't affect play significantly). I also encountered a fatal bug that stopped the game loading - I had to redownload it to get it going again. Well done to the creator for making their first game, but this obviously needs more work to reach a fully playable state.