Reviews

Possession

Completeness

3 - Really polished, feels very feature complete. Even has a save system, in-game readme, monsterpedia and goes to main menu on death - little details that make all the difference. 2 - Runs without error and seems well polished all around, but having some sort of music or sound effects would make it immaculate 2 - Some monsters and effects take two characters (on Linux), that looks a bit weird... Other than that, I do not see any bugs, but I do not think it is polished, either.

Aesthetics

3 - Excellent controls and clear visuals. ASCII but *done right*. Good colour choices and the whole game feels responsive. Primarily keyboard control, with optional mouse support (feels a bit better to use mouse for targetting). 3 - Provided easy to understand controls and was very easy to get the hang of controls and what was going on 2 - Typical roguelike

Fun

3 - Wow, so compelling! The difficulty is on the hard side of perfect, which is quite frankly perfect. The variety of monsters throughout the levels makes it really engaging on every playthrough. Intrinsically fun game and one of the best by far this year. 3 - Taking over other bodies and trying out new skills is a lot more engaging than I expected. Every enemy provides a variety of actions, and there is a lot of variety. 2 - Okay, but nothing special.

Innovation

3 - There a number of innovations here, but the central possession mechanic really stands out and has been implemented with flair. Having different abilities from all enemies is great, and the corpse explosions and other details all add to the experience. 3 - It adds a level of play, taking over enemies, that I never would have expected. The level of existence as different enemies makes the otherwise drole roguelike play very interesting in a way that I haven't seen before 2 - I do not see any major innovation here, but it is not just like some other game I know either.

Scope

3 - There are a *lot* of different enemies in the game, and most of them do really feel different and special. On top of that each one has a unique and well-written description. So much depth of detail here, and alongside the great interface and good balancing it's really amazing that this was done in just 7 days - bravo! 3 - This game has a lot of variety of enemies, as well as maps and skills. Many mechanics were well thought-out and implemented smoothly, making the overall experience that much better. There is a lot of flavoring as well, such as blood and bodies 2 - many types of monsters, with special abilities. A strong "2".

Roguelikeness

3 - Turn-based procedural permadeath game that emphasises thoughtful moves and tactical combat. Quintessentially roguelike. 3 - Everything about this game is roguelike, as far as the core mechanics go. 3 - Yes, I think it is a roguelike.

I've never rated a game all 3s before, but this is a truly deserving title! I had to tear myself away from the game to write this review... Possession puts you in the role of a ghost that must possess enemies and use their abilities to progress. With many enemy types and many abilities to harness this becomes very interesting indeed. The game is hard, but in a good way, and it rewards careful play and thoughtful learning of its systems. On top of being a great game it's also polished to a high shine and very nicely balanced. This is really a joy to play on all levels. This game is a very well-done Roguelike, and I look forward to playing it even more after reviewing it. The amount of variety, as well as the novelty of the idea itself, make the game fun to play and something I would recommend to anyone that wants to play a fun 7DRL creation. As the name suggests, this game is based on possession.You start as a "ghost" who can possess monster bodies, and you get other powers if you do possess one. I have reached depth 2 (which is 80% of the game as far as I understand).

Rogue City Scavenger

Completeness

3 - No bugs 3 - How is this even possible? Numeron delivers again. 3 - I unfortunately could not exit from the help screen. The program would freeze. I normally would not give a game a 3 if this occurred, but the rest of the game is so finely crafted and complete that even with this strange bug I cannot but give this game a perfect score. One funny 'bug' is that this game is spelled wrong on the 7DRL download site, so is being reviewed under a mispelled name. Note I was definitely playing the final bug fix version.

Aesthetics

3 - great pixel art, intuitive, customizable controls 3 - Looks great. Graphics are retro without actually being "retro". Nice to look at. Lots of nice little touches like animated status effects and TVs that change images. 3 - Some of the best aesthetics in the competition. Beautiful pixel art and a constantly visible inventory. A moderate amount of key commands is forgivable.

Fun

2 - a complete fallout-like game. Would get a 3 if it wasn't so hard. 2 - Lots of fun but for me it was way too hard. Especially the start of the game before you have any decent equipment. Frustrating, but rewarding once you build up a bunch of resources. Would be nicer to start with at least a medpack or grenade or some other kind of 'emergency' item. Constant approach of the unstoppable alien monster is a great touch. Would be awesome if the different 'color' enemies hated each other, would make the early game easier by being able to (for example) lead a bunch of cyan robots into a gang of punks and/or yellow mutants. 2 - What keeps this game from being nearly perfect is the difficulty curve. I've played it many times and have not been able to get past the early game. This may be a reflection more on me than anything to do with the author, but after 20+ runs you'd think I'd luck out at some point and find some great gear. Waiting for a lucky run is not a fun thing. Difficulty is not a bad thing, but feeling like you cannot progress becomes frustrating.

Innovation

2 - the core gameplay is a classic turn by turn tactical rpg. There are some innovative "spells"/effects though. 2 - Nothing crazy here but the elements that are here are polished to an absolute shine. The constant approach of the unstoppable alien monster is not something I have seen before, feels like a very roguelike-y way to drive the player forward. 2 - This is a chase and collection game, not incredibly innovative but definitely well done.

Scope

3 - hardly believable for a 7DRL. It's obviously using a very polished game engine. 3 - Very ambitious, beyond what I would expect for a 7DRL. 3 - The different enemy types, gear and enemy powers is far above average.

Roguelikeness

3 - turn by turn, procedural generation, instadeath 3 - Don't let the amazing art fool you, this is definitely a roguelike. Twist on the 'hunger' clock is very roguelikey and fun. Maybe a BIT too difficult in the early game, but that is hardly an un-roguelikey thing. 3 - Procedural content, permadeath, inventory managment, tile/grid based play, turn based...it hits all the major roguelike qualities.

A feature-full, good looking, 8bits tactical rpg. Think XCom meets Fallout. Inventory, quick skill slots, cinematics, objectives with a map, it has everything. The only downside is the insanely high difficulty. As soon as a group of punks sees you, you're as good as dead. I didn't find a way to get enough equipment to be able to survive more than 5 minutes. Amazingly detailed and graphically polished, but brutal early game can be off-putting. Rogue City Scavenger really captures the feel of a post-apocalyptic city, with burning cars, and punks, and grafitti and burned out buildings everywhere. Very pleasing to look at. Easy and intuituve to play. Pro-tip: don't fight anything except punks until you have tons of ammo and a decent melee weapon. Stay away from red and yellow buildings until you can easily clear out a cyan one. This is a very complete and complex roguelike by Numeron, a veteran of the 7DRL challenge. This game has everything you'd want from a good 7DRL, fast pace, lots of variety and even neat little graphics. The game is pressed ever forward by the presence of a super tough lizard man slowly stalking you. You can heal up each turn, but you cannot just hang out and heal since the lizard man will find and kill you eventually. It all comes together well and is a highly recommended game, the only issue is that it's just hard as heck.

mmoRL

Completeness

2 - There are a few issues such as high lag on the main server and minor bugs related to parties entering the dungeons. Overall the the game runs quite well as was stable. 1 - Some pretty obvious bugs and some oddities if you don't read the documentation. For example one of the basic items you pick up is just called "magic" which seemed like a name bug until I read the docs. 2 - There were some bugs when we first go going on dungeons, it seemed like turns piled up and then went off all at once. Perhaps that was just our own fault as we didn't account for the lag correctly. 3 - Runs pretty great right out of the box.

Aesthetics

3 - I happen to prefer ascii so I thought that the look and feel was just fine. The controls are well documented and easy to get. 2 - Except for some overloaded symbols things mostly made sense. Nice color choices. 3 - Everything seemed well explained. I was tempted to give this a 2 as there is not anything truly exceptional about the control and feedback. But for this being the first MMO roguelike I've every played it was trivial to figure out and get into, and that very much is something exceptional. 2 - Solid classic terminal ASCII. I wish there was a way to see who was on once you log on other than calling out in chat (like the tab function in Minecraft), Controls can be a bit buggy - I can use numpad to move but in 'Z look mode' I need to use arrow keys on Windows 7. Chat has an invisible hard character limit, which is also less than helpful in some situations.

Fun

3 - There is quite a bit to do with the crafting/skill mechanic. I imagine in the long run if you run out of content it might get old, but I didn't hit that point in my play through. The ability to create custom towns is kinda cool too. 1 - Currently too buggy to be much fun. Also slow mode for multiplayer is frustrating and fast mode is basically insta-death. 3 - Super fun, lots to do. The MMO genre is great because it allows you to dink around on the web with your friends. I really like that. This also allows an interesting crafting game for solo play, which is great. 3 - Lots to explore and do, including an infinite resource gathering area and multiple deep and interesting dungeons. I'm sure it could get even more fun with the right group working together.

Innovation

3 - While multiplayer roguelikes have been done before (mangband comes to mind) turn-based mutiplayer has not been extensively experimented with. I am not sure if the mechanic would become annoying in the long run (waiting for party messages could be irritating), but it worked in the short play through I did. The crafting/skill system is also quite cool. 3 - Not the first multiplayer roguelike but has some nice features such as a safe resource gathering area and player unique building spaces. 3 - This would be a 3 for the solo game. Add the MMO aspect leaves you wishing you could give a score of 4. 3 - While multiplayer RLs have been tried before (my very first roguelike experience was ToMENet, actually), this still brings some interesting innovations to multiplayer play, like the keyed towns/storage, plus some neat crafting/skill mechanics.

Scope

3 - Between the multiplayer, persistent towns, new crafting/skill system, and overall polish, this was beyond what you'd see in a typical 7drl. 3 - Most of the problems with completeness and fun come from the scope being so large in this game. There's a couple of different core mechanics that are nice ideas but don't match up very well, such as the "crafting" and combat. 3 - An above average amount of gameplay content. It's not the strongest '3' in the competition, there are games with more elements, but this one has enough to easily earn the top rating. 3 - Fully functional multiplayer roguelike with an innovative skill mechanic!

Roguelikeness

3 - Permadeath, random dungeon gen, grid-based, turn-based (even with multiplayer), this game is clearly a roguelike. 3 - Very roguelike, ASCII with turn based gameplay as well as permadeath. 3 - Classic procedural, turn based, permadeath, resource management, single character strategy game. With all the ancillary tropes of ASCII presentation, dungeon diving, fantasy theme, bump interactions etc, etc... 3 - Permadeath, tactically lots to do, randomly generated dungeons, and manages to be both multiplayer and turn based.

This game is definatly worth checking out. Be sure to get a buddy on the server at the same time so you can toy around with the turn-based multiplayer. While in a non-safe zone (one with monsters), all player get to make a move, then the monsters. This means that the party can take its time and chat about the best next moves, but quickly move through dungeon when needed. The crafting/skill system is also quite nice. You do not level up as with most roguelikes, but instead you spend experience on helpful skills. This game has a lot of nice ideas and potential but overreached its scope and fails to be much fun in practice. The addition of player customizable spaces is a really nice idea but doesn't add to the core gameplay. If you're planning on making a multiplayer roguelike then mmoRL is worth checking out to see what's done well and what could be improved upon. This game is my 'holy cow' moment of this 7DRL competition. It's not the funnest game, the most in depth or the most polished this year, but all around this is the best game. It succeeds where so many have failed, it executes that rare holy grail of game design, the massively multiplayer roguelike game. Sure there are some bugs and rough spots here and there, and I hope the developer sees the positive feeback and smooths out some things, but this game does succeed in its goal. This game makes me wish my friends were into roguelikes, but they just aren't. So sad. This is a really impressive and surprising game. Still minorly buggy - working in multiplayer was harder than it looked, and I had some control issues - but there's a lot of great potential here, and that crafting mechanic is strangely captivating. Grab some friends and check it out!

Hoplite

Completeness

3 - The game is simple but complete. Combat and movement is fluid, as is item management. Not lacking anything, plus has a tutorial and credits screen. Quite polished for a simple game. 3 - Very polished, balanced and bug-free. 2. Nice and polished, and generally fairly stable however I did experience one game-wrecking bug where I couldn't pick up my spear again after having thrown it. Since it won't let you leave the level without your spear I ultimately had to restart from the beginning.

Aesthetics

2 - Uniform style, everything fits together well. The screen layout is well done and the animated magma is a nice touch. 3 - Really clean visuals. Controls work very well on Android tablet. 3 - Nice minimalist pixel graphics, with some subtle animation effects that add a lot. Controls work well and the built-in tutorial is good at getting you up to speed very quickly. It would be nice if you could travel more than one tile at a time especially after all enemies have been defeated, since it becomes a bit irritating to have to tap lots of times to move over to the altar/exit, but that's only a minor quibble.

Fun

2 - This game is simple but fun. You can jump straight it and start stabbing with your trusty spear, nothing stops the flow of the game. 3 - Hex! Unconventional melee! Tight mechanics! Deterministic! This really ticks every box I like. It also works perfectly for mobile, which is exceedingly rare for roguelikes. 3 - Really good. The interesting movement-based combat mechanics and the nicely differentiated abilities of the different enemy types give it a real chess-like feel where you must choose your every move with utmost care. I have a feeling I'm going to be coming back to this game for quite a while to come.

Innovation

3 - Temples and upgrades are a great touch, as is the unique combat on a hex grid where tactics are essential to every move. 3 - Very nice twist on the melee combat mechanics. Enemies are all unique, and the ability to manipulate them to kill each other leads to some really interesting and original gameplay. 3 - The combat system is not only novel but well-designed to boot, and brings a totally new tactical element to roguelike combat.

Scope

2 - Probably hit the nail on the head for a simple pick-me-up game and just scrapes home on the replayability side of things. 2 - Pretty good, but not overwhelming scope. Single 18 floor dungeon, with each floor the size of a very large room. Tight combat makes it seem denser though. 2 - Very well put together and with a well thought-out set of character progression options. I would have liked to see a little more complexity in the ganeration of the 'dungeon'/board and a few more different enemy types appearing in the late game would have been nice however I may just be being greedy there.

Roguelikeness

1 - Not a roguelike for me - has tatical turn-based elements but that is it. 3 - Turn-based, permadeath, tactical combat. Has some procedural elements to the levels but these don't impact hugely on play. 3 - Although very different to most roguelikes in implementation, for me it still captures the fundamental feel of the genre.

The game starts out with a tutorial and then drops you straight into the action. This is no searching here; the game screen shows everything, monsters, temples and the exit. The screen is simple and effective and magma placement allows slight tactic changes between levels. Each monster has different abilities and needs to be dealt with differently, highlighted by the hexagonal grid. The temples are a novel and very necessary part of the game, rewarding you with upgraded abilities or restoration. However the choice of upgrade is up to the player, making it interesting when you are tossing up between a new ability or badly needed restoration. The subtleties of the combat system become more apparent as you play through the levels, particularly the difference between a stab and lunge. I found it to be a fun, fast paced turn-based game, the only thing this game is missing is sound and music. Finished it after a few goes, quite rewarding experience. Android roguelike with tight combat mechanics. You can't bump to attack - you must either lunge from a distance, move along the side of an enemy to swipe it, or take clever advantage of their attack patterns to make them kill each other. It's initially quite approachable but quickly the challenge ramps up against multiple enemies of different abilities. Very satisfying and engaging and perfect for mobile play. One of the highlights of this year, and indeed one of the very best mobile roguelikes around right now. A real hidden gem, in fact I think this may be my personal favourite 7DRL of 2013 from those I have played so far. The combat system is highly tactical with a lot of things to think about and a good deal of depth. The greek mythology theme is well realised and suits the game well (with the possible exceptions of green slimes and the bomb-throwing guys) and basing the rewards around different gods is a great idea. My only real complaint is that it could use a little more variety, perhaps achieved though a greater range of different tile types and enemies.

KlingonRL

Completeness

2 - A few display bugs, but nothing serious. The balancing is incredibly well-done: short-term goals are difficult but not impossible. (The version I got was released with a balance fix after the contest.) The author admits that the game doesn't do much to teach you, but the included help file is concise and helpful. After a quick read-through I was good to go. 3 - No bugs 3 - Asteroids and missiles sometimes slip over into the hud, and in the zoomed out map if you accidentally press any key that isnt movement you will consume fuel. Nothing serious though, and otherwise neatly rounded out.

Aesthetics

3 - Looks great, especially the multi-tile characters. The aesthetics work so well that it looks like the author chose to use ASCII rather than being restricted to it. Controls are dead simple. 1 - primary colors on black background. 2 - The interface is clean and simple, but there are a lot of glyphs to learn. Fortunately this is aided by the comprehensive in game help.

Fun

3 - Extremely compelling. I could not stop playing the game to write my review. Huge replay value. 3 - great, challenging game with really innovative mechanisms 2 - Once I got over the brief learning curve I had fun jumping about and setting myself challenges like a pacifist run. Good replay value, but too often star systems are simply refuel at the gas giant and hightail it out, rarely needing to interact with other ships or bases. It definately gets more interesting once you get the Genesis Device which kills your cloak, but thats half the game in.

Innovation

2 - At bottom, it's a resource-management game. Your resources are hull, fuel, and ammo, and most of the object interactions either raise one or exchange one for the other. The exchange rates are such as require difficult decision-making and strategy. It's not a new concept, but it's extremely well-done. The cloaking mechanic is great too, and by the time you can get to the Genesis Device you've learned to rely on it. Then, just as you're getting the hang of the game, you get the Device and it disables your cloak! Brilliant twist. 3 - Great game design that manage to mix standard roguelike gameplay (overmap, potions, melee fighting) with a totally unfitting star trek setting. In the end, you get a totally refreshing roguelike 3 - A cool combination of exploration, resource management, stealth, and presents both tactical and stategic thinking with its two scale map.

Scope

2 - Reasonable scope. There's not a huge amount of features, and that's actually a good thing. There's just enough complexity to make the game hard and interesting. 3 - a complete game with balanced gameplay and in-game help 2 - This is a high 2, given the addition of a couple of simple but polished features rounding out this otherwise tightly packed game.

Roguelikeness

3 - Tactical resource management on a randomly-generated map. Start at your base, go grab an object, scamper back home, win by the skin of your teeth. While it doesn't have a lot of typical roguelike features, the panic and joy I felt were exactly what I want in an RL game. 3 - despite some very innovative mechanisms, it's still definitely a roguelike 3 - All the basics are there

This is the best game I've played in a while. I can't think of anything bad to say about it. There are a few rough spots: sometimes the map display leaked into the right panel, and the help file could be better integrated with the interface. But with the help file open in another window, the game was not nearly as hard to learn as the author seemed to think it would be. An individual game takes a few minutes at most, which makes the learning curve more tolerable: when you learn by doing not to attack a tanker in a system full of merchants and starbases, you don't actually lose much when you have to start over. That's another feature that I haven't seen much: rather than gathering resources to reach your goal, you actually start out in KRL with as many resources as you'll ever have, and you have to replenish them along the way. It doesn't sound that different, but it gives the game a very distinctive feel. Not a 7DRL entry, but a real, complete, challenging little game. Its strength is its game design, its weakest part, the visuals. All in all, it's really worth a try. Sneak your way out into Federation space, steal their Genesis Device and get on back with the Federation on your tail! This is a well designed stealth and resource management game, with FTL overtones and an awesomely hectic second act. Many actions you take will drop you out of stealth alerting the local dangers and merchants, and giving them a brief window in which to react to your presence. This means approaching resources at good angles and having an escape route ready. Combat is very simple, you are weak defensively but strong in attack, so if you have the ammo you can take on the world, but it is severely limited and often better used to trade for repairs so usually its best to bail. This is a well balanced game with good replayability, so make sure you check it out.

Liberation of Yarna

Completeness

3 - The game is complete, no bugs found. 2 - Stable. Feels complete. Could use with a little more explanation in-game. Instant-death on accidentally switching to sniper mode is kind of a bummer! 2 - Mostly complete though, according to the author, lacking a few features.

Aesthetics

3 - Looks good, for an ascii game. All important information is immediately available, without player having to make unnecessary keypresses. Controls are just fine. 2 - Under the limitations of terminal colors, excellent aesthetics. I like the usage of background highlight to indicate alert level, nice touch. 2 - Classic ASCII roguelike look. Nice UI.

Fun

2 - The game grasps the atmosphere of a city with important military facility very well. It's fun to fool the police, hide in houses, eat from some people's fridge. But the game somewhat lacks variety. There is no choice of starting equipment and only two types of missions. 3 - A bit frustrating at first, but carefully reading all of the help files will let you go far in this game. Completing the first mission after many failures was very satisfying. Switching between battle/sniper modes is a nice touch and adds some strategy. ALMOST took off a point for the annoying radar... it will almost always say NE or SE if the target is even 1 coordinate north or south of you, which can send you on a wild goose chase around the map until you realize. But, this is a MINOR nitpick. 2 - Fun once you get the hang of things. Lots of enemies around who you generally want to avoid. Sometimes just not so fun running away or trying to avoid enemies. There isn't really a stealth mechanic, which might improve the fun of this type of game.

Innovation

3 - It's really something fresh. It's not your typical stealth game, as you walk on streets in open, and it's not your typical hack&slash, as you kill people only if absolutely necessary. 3 - Complex mission structures are rather rare in roguelikes. The interity of the alertness/crime system is very innovative as well. Well worth playing and checking out, even if you are only going to steal the ideas! 3 - An interesting take on roguelikes and strategy games. Lots of depth here and even a story behind it (inspired by sci-fi novels).

Scope

2 - Just enough for 7 days. The core idea was implemented, but there wasn't enough time to grow more meat around it. Couple more missions and probably some equipment variety, and it could be 3. 2 - Solid scope for a 7DRL. Definitely on the HIGH side, could be a 3 for someone else. 3 - A lot of depth and strategy. Pretty impressive for 7 days. More development time could really deepen the gameplay.

Roguelikeness

3 - It's closer to roguelike then roguelike-like. There is great random city generator, it is turn based, there is permadeath and combat. 3 - Definitely a roguelike! 3 - 100% roguelike

There is one thing in a game, that is hard to notice, but it is there. All citizens aren't just for show. They have their own AI, they are sleeping, eating and walking to work. It doesn't affect gameplay. But it's still nice thing to know. It adds something to atmosphere. Police do not cheat with information sharing. If policeman havn't seen that you commited the crime, he might be alerted, but won't shoot at you right away. As long as noone alive remembered your face, you can get away with your crimes. You can walk thru police that is rushing toward crime scene, turn around the corner and hide in the nearby house. The game is a little unbalanced, as game difficulty can vary from very easy to instadeath, depending on position of police stations relative to starting and/or target points. The game is very TENSE... it is a rare quality in a roguelike. You will find yourself murdering civilians that have seen your face, for the greater good of course! Interesting alert/crime systems force you to make interesting strategic decisions. Mission structure is well done and relatively clear. The radar is a bit buggy, but a tip: move one step in both directions (e.g. NE, move N then E) it says and re-check radar. Basic terminal colors are used very well, recommend playing on the lower resolution you can stand, so you don't miss any details. Very solid entry in this year's competition. A sci-fi roguelike in which you play a sabateuor trying to sneak around a heavily patrolled city and plant bombs. Some Star Wars elements and themes, interesting technology stuff that helps it stand apart from the usual D&D roguelikes.

Quadropus Rampage

Completeness

3 - Graphically very polished. Balance seems good enough to make the highscore table worthwhile. 3 - Super complete. Super polished. Professionally polished by professional roguelike game polishers. 3 - Works really well. Very polished.

Aesthetics

3 - Looks great, simple controls. 3 - Looks great, Plays great. Writes the damn keys on the floor just like binding of isaac. flipping brilliant. Music is top notch and an amazing touch. 3 - Awesome graphics and controls. I would like to give a 4.

Fun

2 - Worth playing. You'll end up playing for longer than you might expect. 3 - FUN FUNFUN. Once I got over my hatred of all things real-time and falling off the edge of the map this game was nothing but fun. 3 - Lots of fun, and replayable. Just try it.

Innovation

1 - The mechanics here will be familiar to almost everyone. 2 - Solid implementation of a realtime roguelike, very much in the binding of isaac style. A great innovative feature is the borderlands-style weapon stats on the screen, you can easily see what is worth picking up and why. 3 - I don't remember playing a similar real-time roguelike hybrid. A bonus for chasms in place of walls (touching the boundary is instadeath, but you need to be careless to do this). The game uses vector graphics, and later enemies are larger versions of the earlier ones, which also works surprisingly well.

Scope

2 - Average. 3 - Way huge for a 7DRL, if you told me this was made in seven days I would call you a big fat liar but apparently it was! 3 - This game was made by a team of three, and each part was executed excellently.

Roguelikeness

2 - A realtime action game with a roguelike feel. 2 - let's call it a roguelike-like because it is real time. 2 - this game is real-time, which reduces its roguelikeness.

A very polished game that'll be easy for almost anyone to pick up and play. Weapons get bigger, enemies get bigger, and your skill numbers get bigger. The wacky humor definitely improves the experience. Yes, a quadropus is exactly what you thought it was: an octopus with only four tentacles! This is a brutally fun real time roguelike (-like) that draws a lot of inspiration from the Binding of Isaac. This game seriously has professional-level polish. Great music, super sharp original graphics, tight controls. Great implementation of roguelike systems into a realtime game. (Just be careful not to fall off the map!) Definitely play this game. Unless you hate real-time games, I really recommend you to try this one. Excellent character design, beautiful and clear graphics, lots of fun, and replayable. I have reached Level 66 (I think the game never ends).

FlatlineRL

Completeness

2 - Seemed very polished and bug-free but I had to manually find the task and kill it in order to end the game 3 - Very complete and finished. No bugs found. 3 - Seems quite polished.

Aesthetics

3 - Clear controls and, for the most part, intuitive 2 - Classic ASCII with nice use of color and animation. 3 - Classic ASCII done well (with libtcod)

Fun

2 - Interesting, but nothing extraordinarily fun. Definitely worth playing though. 3 - Terrific game. Very strategic. Combines all the best core elements of a good roguelike into an enjoyable game. 3 - I did not like it on the first try that much, but when I understood a bit more, it was very good.

Innovation

2 - Includes the idea of stealth, which is well implemented and innovative. Nothing exceptionally unknown to roguelikes but still interesting 3 - Not your typical "kill the monsters" roguelike. Very strategic with various ways of avoiding combat (if you want) and various ways of killing enemies. Each level adds new obstacles and ways of overcoming them. 2 - There were stealth-based games. Things considered innovative: having extra lives, as well as an option to "abort" a mission (which allows one to regenerate impossible missions without wasting lives).

Scope

2- Nothing extremely out of reach but well-diversified 3 - Pretty amazing what got squeezed into the game in 7 days. Very complete with lots of weapons, utility devices, enemy types. 2 - many types of enemies, many types of equipment. A strong "2".

Roguelikeness

3 - A little debatable, but the roguelikeness of this game is, in my opinion, complete. 2 - Turn-based, strategic, resource management. All the good stuff you'd expect in a roguelike. However, you get multiple lives. 3 - Definitely a roguelike.

A sci-fi roguelike that is relatively interesting. Worth a shot if you have the time and the description sounds interesting. Possibly the best I've played so far in this year's competition. Looks great. Great use of ASCII and colors. Every level offers an increasing amount of challenge and complexity. You're given numerous ways of dealing with enemies and completing your objective. It's sci-fi futuristic, always a plus. Not just "let's see what I can throw together in a week" but a complete, slick, challenging and fun game. A sci-fi stealth roguelike, with ranged attacks. Many types of enemies to avoid or fight. If the description sounds interesting, definitely try it. I have won, but there are still secondary missions...

Pugnacious Wizards

Completeness

2 - Aside from the weird timing that may or may not be intentional, this game feels quite complete. 3 - There are a few complaints about sometimes slightly flickering graphics I could make, but they don't detract from the fact that this is one very solidly implemented package. 2 - The turn timer seems to be a bit off: Enemies move when you choose a spell but not when you shoot it, and your vision doesn't update when you teleport until the turn after. One time after I died, pressing enter didn't actually restart the game like it usually does. I got trapped in another dimension once after using Ice Blink.

Aesthetics

3 - A lot of great choices here. Keys are displayed on screen and game elements are explained. Check out the subtle markings on the floors of the mystical rooms. 3 - It's so attractive, it even comes with an attract mode! The spell effects are nice, especially the magic missile. The UI is pick-up-and-play clean, tested by complete roguelike newbies too. However, the play window is rather small, and looks terrible when scaled up, making it difficult to actually see what you're doing (monsters in burning doors are particularly difficult to see) 3 - Very nice ASCII graphics and colored tiles/symbols. The rooms each have their own style - antimagic rooms have runes on the floor, a guard barracks has a faint "g" on the floor, etc. Clearly a lot of thought and effort was put into the look and feel of the game.

Fun

3 - Yes, it's very fun. I started again after beating it because I wanted to experiment more with the spells. 3 - Very challenging and beautifully balanced. The starting spells can get you to places, but not sustainably so, so you're pushed to gather and figure out how to best use new spells before the castle wears you down. 2 - The choices you have in each encounter make the game pretty compelling, although the bugs can be frustrating. A little bit of bugfixing and polish would easily bump this up to a 3.

Innovation

2 - Trap rooms, monster spawning rooms, and spells instead of combat. Good stuff. 2 - Some quite interesting and inventive spell effects, as well as traps that aren't boring. The spellcasting system itself is refreshingly simple for a roguelike - there's no limits and no resources, you just press a number to cast a spell (and input a direction or location if called for) and that's it. 3 - Combat is entirely spellbased, and each spell has an associated tradeoff. A healing spell might accidentally heal your opponent, or a fire spell might light the room on fire and trap you. This adds a lot of depth to the decisions you make as you play.

Scope

2 - A solid 2 for sure. Everything fits into the game nicely. 3 - It mightn't be a Vicious Orcs-type sprawling mass of content, but after several hours of play I'm pretty sure I still haven't plumbed its depths fully. I only just saw my first enemy wizard. 2 - The author clearly chose a single focus - the spells - and developed entirely around that. There are only a few kinds of enemies, no leveling system, and no loot besides new spell scrolls. However, there's definitely variety in the spells and the rooms you encounter.

Roguelikeness

3 - Yes. 3 - No resource management (beyond managing your HP, and your invisible HP maximum) and a very simple append-only inventory, but otherwise very roguelikey. Deserves particular props for forcing the player to move fast in a very natural way simply by pressuring them with respawns and having no heal-over-time (besides healing methods that don't instantly heal you fully, there is at least one such spell) 2 - There's only one level, and no experience or equipment, but it still has a very roguelike feel.

This game is great! The timing system takes some getting used to, so you'll take a few extra attacks at first. The process of figuring out how the spells and traps work was quite enjoyable. Recommended. Cream of this year's 7DRL crop, this is a game where very soon after you start every move begins to count. Pugnacious Wizards has you attack a castle filled with guards, archers, and many different sorts of traps (from your basic exploding tiles on the floor to spinning arrow-throwing towers and walls that fill whole rooms with arrows). At your side are your spells, of which you get three guaranteed ones at the start, and can randomly find more inside the castle. Each spell can be cast with no limit besides being castable once per turn. It seems like the starting Fire Jump should make you incredibly powerful, but the castle turns out to be more dangerous than you might expect. As enemies both respawn inside barracks rooms, and rise from the dead as skeletons, you're constantly pushed onward as fast as you can muster. I've managed to loot myself two of the three amulet pieces and have to sleep, but I know I will be coming back to this game. Tomorrow. The day after tomorrow. How long? Who knows... Definitely one of the more interesting 7DRLs this year. Pugnacious Wizards is focused entirely on spellcasting. The goal of the game is to get through a fortress filled with traps, guards, and archers. Spells can be cast freely and without needing any kind of "mana" resource, but each spell has a potential cost. Magic missiles bounce unpredictably and can hit you accidentally, healing spells reduce your stats permanently or heal enemies around you, freezing spells often freeze you as well, etc. These tradeoffs make choosing which spell to use in which situation a very compelling decision. The game's main weaknesses are a few very frustrating bugs, most notably that the screen doesn't update after you take an action, but only after you begin your next action (I assume this is a bug and not by design?). This is especially frustrating when you teleport to a new position, only to find that your line of sight doesn't redraw until your next action. Maybe I'm missing something and this is intentional, but I doubt it. Overall, however, Pugnacious Wizards is a lot of fun and definitely worth trying out. (One additional note: The game plays a demo screen before you begin, so if you go to the author's blog and scroll through his 7DRL posts you can see the evolution of the game play out before your eyes - very cool to watch!)

86856527

Completeness

3 - A well polished, and fully realized game. 2 - the developers says that it is not complete - as it stands, it feels like a very good demo, so I'm inclined to agree. It feels rather well done, didn't come across any bugs. 3 - No bugs encountered. No obvious omissions, very polished.

Aesthetics

3 - Wierd but thematic look, and really cool sound effects. Controls are simple enough, though I wish I could inspect things with the keyboard. 3 - It declares itself a cyberpunk hacking game and it fits the general look. The colours are done well and the interface is fairly clear. The enemies have a distinct, kind of cute style, and the information popups are clear. The style is consistant and endering. 2 - Graphics are a little garish and busy for my tastes but they suit the theme well so it's hard to hold it against it. Almost a 3, but the controls and the meanings of many of the symbols and numbers embedded in the graphics are unclear and take a lot of trial and error to figure out. 'Use the mouse and keyboard' is not particularly helpful!

Fun

3 - The learning curve is steep, but it doesnt take too long to surmount. Compared to the other thinking and planning games on show, this one seems different in that you can line yourself up against whatever challenge you think you can handle. Since abilities and points are all up for grabs should you choose to pay the price, the risk analysis goes far deeper than just figuring out the safest path to the end of the level. 2 - I had to alt-tab to the game instructions a couple of times during my first play, but after I understood what I was supposed to be doing, I did rather enjoy my playtime. It's a simple and fun game. 3 - Could do with a bit more explanation to begin with, but once the complexities become apparent it is a very fun game with a lot of depth. It is occasionally frustrating when despite your best efforts a bunch of fast enemies teleport in nearby and quickly beat you to a bloody (well, bitty) pulp, though it does usually feel like your own fault for not investing in an ability to deal with such situations.

Innovation

3 - All the mechanics on offer from movement and combat to resource management to abilities, fit together amazingly into one well oiled puzzle game. 2 - As it is, the main parts of gameplay have some elements of originality, but it feels like more can be added. I'm looking forward to the proposed full game coming out this month. 3 - I've never played anything like this before.

Scope

3 - This game is so well polished, and everything fits together so perfectly with a finely tuned interactability - that no small amount of effort could have produced such a thing. 2 - a number of enemies, different effects from draining cells, there is a lot there already and there is a lot that can be added - again, I'm looking forward to the full version. 2 - Very high level of polish, nice sounds and animation effects. Plenty of different abilities on offer and it seems like a high level of testing has been done. However there seems to be little variation in levels besides an increase in the number of enemies spawning.

Roguelikeness

2 - There is turn-based movement and combat, abilities to apply, and a randomised environment however all of these elements are just one step slightly removed from the regular roguelike counterparts, and combine to make what I would define more as a puzzle game. 2 - Has permadeath and random level generation, definatly the earmarks of a roguelike, but doesn't feel entirely like a roguelike, due to the slightly different concepts. 2 - Turn-based, procedural levels and permadeath, however despite this it doesn't really have a 'roguelike' feel to the gameplay, being much more of a strategy game. I do feel bad having to mark it down for that, but I didn't invent this scoring system!

This amazing puzzle game will see you traversing an abstract cyber environment, clearing a board of various viruses and combatant programs, then ciphoning out resources and new abilities. Good abilities are tantalisingly on display even from the first level, but choosing to pick one up will generate a number enemies relative to the strength of the ability, so its important to maintain self control and power up only if you can handle the consequences. Adding spice to the combat, waiting a turn is one of the abilities to aquire, so careful planning is nessecary to effectively deal with all aspects of your actions. Don't let the initial hurdles get in your way because this game is definately up there with the best this year. I really enjoyed this, despite it being at about demo-level. It's well excecuted, good visuals, and good gameplay. It has so much potential, and I'm really looking forward to the update. Neuromancer: the roguelike. A very innovative, very interesting, very fun, very polished game. The theme is a good match to the abstract gameplay and the highly positional combat and resource-gathering mechanics complement each other well and give the game a great deal of strategic depth. The only real issue with the game is that the mechanics are not very obvious and take a long time to figure out - it could be improved greatly by the inclusion of more explanation and instruction.

Kali's Ladder

Completeness

2 - Seems mostly complete and polished. There were a few item descriptions as "TODO" Didn't manage to make it through to the end-game content though.... perhaps the difficulty needs a bit more balancing. 3 - Whoa. So many abilities! Graphics! Definitely complete and polished. It was begging for some cute sound effects but I am not going to knock off points for that. 2 - The game appears to be really polished, but it is not. Sometimes a key is displayed, but it does not seem to work (which includes important things such as (u)sing weapons...), and items described as "TODO".

Aesthetics

2 - Graphics are effective. Has quite a retro "8 bit" feel that I like. Loys of nice touches, e.g. you character's graphics change depending on what you re wearing / wielding. 3 - Very sharp graphics. Little touches really make this game shine, alerts and little tiny animation effects. 3 - The graphics and controls are REALLY excellent.

Fun

2 - Quite an enjoyable roguelike experience. I enjoyed the dungeon exploration and feeling of exploring a lot temple that was heightended by the interesting monsters and traps. 3 - Had a lot of fun playing this game. Could be a little clearer on why I need breath and traps were a bit annoying with no way (that I could find) to 's'earch for them? 2 - I know that lots of effort has been put into this game, but the result is a bit dull. Unfortunately, this sometimes happens.

Innovation

2 - Fairly classic roguelike style. Nothing too innovative, but lots of nice little touches and what is there is well executed. 2 - Fairly standard in terms of game systems, but all done very solidly. +1 for a crazy-deep abilities system that is not obnoxious to use. 1 - as far as I have played, it is not very innovative, unfortunately.

Scope

3 - Pretty impressive scope. Lots of features to explore, e.g. a comprehensive skill list 3 - Really a step beyond what I consider possible for a 7DRL. Nice job. 3 - The skill selection screen only makes it a strong candidate for a 3. Later, you find out that there are lots of monsters in the dungeon. Also contains character advancement. Excellent scope, overall.

Roguelikeness

3 - Definitely a genuine roguelike. Lots of dungeon exploration, character advancement, interestic items, varied turn-based combat action. 3 - Definitely a roguelike. 3 - Definitely roguelike.

I liked this game a lot: the dungeons are interesting to explore and there is a lot of depth in all the features. The graphics are effective and there is good gameplay to be had. My main complaint is that the difficulty seems a bit too high - I found it very hard to get past the first 2/3 levels. Perhaps could do with a more balanced post-7DRL release! Kali's ladder is well worth checking out. Sharp graphics and polished animation make this game really stand. Gameplay wise most of the usual roguelike systems are here. The abilities system is extensive and does a good job of offering lots of choice without overwhelming the player. I think that lots of effort has been put into this roguelike. It looks really great, and has lots of features. But it also has misfeatures: I am unable to use weapons, some features do not work or are not finished, it seems unbalanced (but maybe this is just me - I die about Level 2). I think it could become a much better game with some more effort.

Live as Long as Possible

Completeness

2 - Feels fairly complete but the controls section lists controls that don't work, including hypothetical joystick controls. 3 - No bugs found, seems fairly polished 3 - Complete and apparently bug free. No missing features.

Aesthetics

3 - The enemies combine traditional ASCII characters with different sized bases to give a comfortable feeling of ASCII with a non-grid world. 3 - Nice evolution of ASCII. Cool lighting effects. Controls fairly simple and work well. 3 - Some large ASCII blobs, some small ones, nice particle effects, nice arrow showing your direction. Your score is displayed on the screen always counting up. Simple controls. All very functional and efficient.

Fun

3 - Had lots of fun! Doesn't seem to be more than one level but the strategies involved keep it interesting. 2 - Interesting and fun gameplay. Successfully dodging a hail of missiles feels great. Would be a 3, except the absolute friction makes it irritatingly easy to get stuck on walls. 2 - The run, dodge and trick strategies are pretty fun.

Innovation

3 - The game clock is continuous but only progress while you move. That plus the strategy of using monsters' spells against other monsters makes this quite special. 2 - The basic idea has been done before, for example by last year's Smooth Rogue, but this is a pretty neat implementation. 3 - One of the more innovative timing and movement systems we've seen.

Scope

2 - A nice set of monsters, but no inventory system or complex multi-level dungeon. 2 - A large variety of different enemies, but otherwise fairly simple. 2 - There's not a ton of depth here, there are several monster types that chase and shoot but their behavior is all that different.

Roguelikeness

3 - Combining the ASCII characters on the tiles and making the game clock only progress while you move feels very roguelike, even if other features like an inventory / equipment system are missing entirely. 2 - Would be a 3 if random level generation has been implemented. 2 - I'm tempted to give this a 3, but the procedural generation is not so robust, there's no real strategic use of resources either.

Worth playing! The basic movement and time passing mechanic works very well and the strategy elements are novel and fun. A variation on the Triangle Wizard theme except time only passes when you move and you can choose how quickly you move. A neat implemention of a 'gridless' roguelike, where time only passes when you're moving. The base mechanics are pretty fun, and dodging missiles is great, especially when you can direct them into other enemies. However there are minor irritations; it is easy to get stuck on walls and the melee mechanics do not feel very clean. The game also needs a little more to it in order to be more than a temporary distraction. This is a game about running away from bad guys, trying to get them to shoot each other, and sometimes bumping them to death. The real interesting thing here is the timing mechanic. It's not an 'I go, you go' system but rather a simultaneous real time system. So if you are moving, the baddies are as well. It's a fun game with an arcade like feel, plays pretty quick too. Definitely recommended.

Borstal

Completeness

3 - I didn't find any bugs. 3 - Only a couple minor interface bugs, such as the icons indicating sleep not going away when they should. 3 - Feels feature complete. All items seem to have a function, multiple endings exist, several possible encounters

Aesthetics

3 - Graphics look like what they are. A lot of clicking but the keys for Explore and Rest make it quicker. 3 - Very nice graphical tiles and weather effects. 2 - Graphics are functional in general and exceptional in parts, but the map is fairly static aside from the day/night cycle and encounters have little visible indication

Fun

2 - But it's so hard that it seems winning is a matter of mostly luck. Most games only took 3 or 4 minutes until I died with little or no warning anyway. Still, it's different and challanging and quick enough that I kept comming back. 2 - Reasonably fun. Only part that's not so fun is the randomness of getting items and not knowing the results of things. A lot like FTL in that respect. Gets a 2 rather than a 3 primarily because it's fairly repetitive and strategivally simple. Also the web version is painfully slow, but the download version runs fine. 2 - Decent enough for a playthrough or two, not enough variablity to warrant more. Game becomes a bit easy once the player understands some of the mechanics.

Innovation

2 - A very different interface, conversation trees, small levels that rely on your lack of light rather than walls. 3 - A bit of a mystery going on and a hero who's not just bashing heads. 2 - Story is innovative, the mechanics aren't anything new.

Scope

2 - Some items, encounters, and a random island with different things. Each game was very short though. 2 - A nice randomly generated island with some fun events. It's not too hard to finish but it's a good amount of content for a 7dRL. 2 - Standard 7DRL fare in breadth and depth

Roguelikeness

3 - It has graphics and the encounters are handled differently, but I think the base mechanics and overall feel are very roguelike. Very hard survivor roguelike. 3 - Random map, random items, turn and grid based. 2 - Turn-based with permadeath and PG levels, but encounters are more random and not shown on the map. Displaying the encounters, even without type, would have made this a 3.

This is why so few rogulikes are about kids on an island - it's hard. Quite fun and different - but hard. Die from starvation. Die from lack of sleep. Die from a cold because you were in the rain too long. Die from scrapes from walking through bushes. Die from stubling around in the dark. Die from kids cutting your throat. I'm not even sure how I died sometimes. Trying to find out why your father hasn't returned from this island is very tough. There's a few items that can help you, but you can't expect to win with your starting supplies. If you like survivor-like games with strong themes, or want to try something a little different, this is easily worth trying. Borstal has a nice little story and the gamplay and atmosphere to support it. Doesn't take too long to figure out and beat, so it's well worth time time it takes to do so. It keeps a record of wins and losses, but after winning once I didn't feel like playing again (I'd lost several times previously, including at the final encounter). The only part that's frustrating is that getting the equipment you need is rather random and you get sick in the rain easily while the game chastises you for being in the rain you can't avoid. Do get the download version though as the web version is painfully slow. Borstal is a survival horror roguelike where you have to manage your rest, food, and light while avoiding injury and illness on a eerie island in an effort to save your father. As you wander the single, but procedurally-generated, level you encounter some of the island's residents and caches of supplies as you draw closer to the juvenile correctional facility where your father works. The game is an interesting experiment, you can explore to find food, but eating food or resting have rather unpredictable results. The game is frustrating at first, but once you understand the mechanics, you should be able to bring it to a quick somewhat satisfying conclusion.

Bughack

Completeness

3 - No bugs found (except the ones that are supposed to be there!). The balance could be adjusted to make the game a bit easier. The AI is a bit dumb, but that actually adds to the realism. 2 - The game worked out of the box on my linux machine and feels very complete with lovely intro and death screens, help, toggling between tiles and ascii, etc. However, there are a few bugs. The most notable is a crash which happens if the player happens to be inside the acid ball attack (just add self.name='You' to the Player init and it is fixed). 3 - The game is complete and bugfree.

Aesthetics

2 - The tiles look great. Controls are not always obvious: there aren't always prompts to indicate which key to press, and often a key I expect to work does not. E.g., the comma, period, and both enter keys should all be usable to select something. 2 - Normally I prefer ascii to tiles, but in this game the ascii was pretty ugly. The tiles looked okay though. The controls were intuitive. Given that the game works with vi-keys, num-pad, and mouse, pretty much everyone will find the controls fairly intuitive. There were a few exceptions though: only one enter worked, which will be annoying to num-pad users. The game uses 'c' for help...or controls I guess. 3 - There are tiles and ascii displays. Both look good. Controls are fine. There are nice start, death and victory ascii images.

Fun

2 - Definitely worth the time. Winning will take many replays. 3 - The game will take you a few play throughs to get the hang of. The AI for allies is brain dead stupid. Once I realized they were smelling anthills through walls I could use the stink ability to guide them a bit better. It also takes a while to figure out how to effectively use the acid abilities to avoid taking too much damage. In the end, the game is pretty fun and will keep you occupied longer than most 7DRLs. 2 - It's somewhat tedious to dig thru level in search for food pieces.

Innovation

3 - Really cool new concept. The mechanics aren't new, but the overall goal is great 2 - While there is nothing revolutionary here, the idea of guiding other bugs to food is a neat. 2 - After I played it I was going to set 3. But when I tried to write what is innovative here I understood that it is an insects setting wrapped around pretty much standard gameplay ideas. You need to find items to progress to next level. You have to deal with dumb AI controlled allies. That was done before. You can change ants trying to find food with rebel army agent trying to steal nuclear warheads from imperial storehouse. Just replace workants with cargo drones, ant holes with sewers hatches, mana with energy, acid spit with plasma blast, etc.

Scope

2 - Scope is reasonable. I couldn't get past level 3, so I don't know how much there actually is. 2 - The game is about what I would expect from a 7DRL, but isn't an earth shattering scope (particularly given the number of people who worked on the game) 2 - There is level generator that generates very lookalike levels, a few usable items, several enemies and a few abilities to use. Tiles are nice, but as far as I can tell there were 3 people working on this, so I guess it's ok for 7 days.

Roguelikeness

3 - All the features you'd expect. 3 - The game is clearly a roguelike, in spite of the bugs. 3 - Definitely roguelike.

Pretty great overall. Having to defend your ants while leading them back to the hole is challenging but not impossible. As I mentioned, I didn't get past level 3: the main way to regain HP is to eat other bugs (awesome) and very rare fruit items, but you inevitably lose HP in combat, so I always found myself with no way to avoid dying. Some way to heal, perhaps an MP-intensive ability, would very much help playability. You should definatly check out this game. The basic idea is that you are an ant, leading other ants in your colony to food. You are assailed by other assorted bugs and you must protect yourself and your allies from them using various abilities such as spitting acid. The game is somewhat challenging and will take a few play throughs to get the hang of, so there is some limited replay value. I'm a little disappointed with this one. Description said something about smell and how ants are searching for food. But the only ability related to smell is ability that blocks path for workers with stench, which is used extremely rarely. I used it only once when worker ant started to bump into the wall trying to reach ant hole on the other side.

Caverns of Shrug

Completeness

3 - Very polished 3 - Quite complete. Spent about an hour playing and got 40% down into the dungeon, so it's big. 3 - Seems very complete, no apparent bugs in gameplay. The leaderboard seemed to be empty, but that did not affect game play.

Aesthetics

3 - Excellent look 2 - ASCII and curses but displayed in a sort of pseduo-graphics style. Most B&W but enough color to add variety. 2 - Pretty neat look of large Ascii liked tiles. The menus were a bit incongruent with the art style and the blocks seemed to be randomly assigned a sprite. This was neat but gave a bit of a haphazard look at times. The controls were pretty solid and it was clear at all times what was going on.

Fun

3 - Played for over an hour and didn't realize the time had passed 3 - Fun game in the roguelike tradition. Actually quite similar to the classic arcade game Venture. Real-time. 2 - This is a real time shooter game with enough depth to keep one interested, but one has to enjoy the core shooter gameplay. I did not enjoy the action shooter combat, though it is very well done.

Innovation

2 - Traditional shooting mechanics, but done very well 2 - A classic roguelike mixed with classic arcade style real-time combat. 2 - There are quite a few shooter RLs out there, but this one has enough style and gameflow innovation for a solid 2.

Scope

3 - Surprising depth of skill expansion with leveling balanced quite well for random placement of maps and enemies 2 - Fairly big and deep dungeon. A decent leveling system and upgrades that can be purchased at shops. A fair variety of monster types to keep things interesting as you venture deeper. 3 - This game is not immense, but the variety of power ups, enemies and interactions make it well above average for a 7DRL.

Roguelikeness

2 - Different genre 2 - It's real-time. Other than that, fairly classic roguelike, including the ASCII graphics. 2 - For me it does not fit in with the roguelike genre much at all. I look for a strategic game with a large variety of challenges and situations. I did not find that here. Still, it has procedural generation and permadeath. Also the classic ASCII vibe, so a 2 is warranted.

The depth is hidden well as the leveling, varied enemy AI, and even game bonuses only appear only with extended play to reach the later levels. The random placement within maps works quite well with its aesthetic choices of ASCII characters as part of the wall and background tiles. A solid entry in this year's competition. Fun, though perhaps not that innovative or original. Very similar to many classic arcade-style dungeon crawls from the past but with some roguelike elements thrown in. Browser-based, too, making it easy to fire up and jump right into. This game is a fine example of a roguelike shooter. If you are into action based play, shooting, exploration, dodging, grinding up xp and loot and upgrading your tank/character then this is the game for you. It has quite a few levels, is challenging and there is significant depth in how you can upgrade your character.

Double Rogue

Completeness

3 - No bugs, complete game. 3 - No bugs detected 2 - At first appears well polished but there are at least three bugs. If one of your characters dies but then is healed he can fight again but face remains as X_X. On purchase screen keypresses are registered multiple times. In places where three planes join monsters can be hit for free by side-stepping. This upsets game balance badly.

Aesthetics

3 - Awesome graphics, awesome world. Controls very simple and intuitive. 3 - The controls are straight forward, nothing complicated. As for the aesthetics, the game uses nice graphics, but then I guess Unity offers quite a few options. 3 - Sensible keys and pleasant graphics. Seeing walls next to character was sometimes diffucult but otherwise everything is smooth.

Fun

3 - Fun cubed! Get it?? Ha? Ha? Fine whatever then. 2 - The game is interesting to play, once you figure out the point. Unfortunately there wasn't much explanation of the items, or that you needed to collect them to buy upgrades or to heal your characters. 2 - I found this game to be very fun and engaging until maps became larger more complex. Navigating the level with small viewport is difficult for me because my spatial memory is weak. Having the map rotate 90 degrees depending on order of plane traversal makes the problem worse.

Innovation

3 - Very innovative. I have played "cubed" games like this before but the dual persona was quite cool which of course leads to the coin like movement and enemies. 3 - The 3D worlds are quite innovative, reminiscent of Mario Galaxy, and I am eager to see if more games use this approach in future. 2 - Double Rogue could be compared to party roguelike where leading character switches every turn partitioning the map into sort of checkerboard. A great new mechanic. However, to have characters "switch colors" one can make use of 3D properties of levels making the whole premise hardly relevant.

Scope

2 - Different monsters, pickups, tiles, gave the game some depth. 2 - Having never used Unity before, I am not sure what it provides. Though for what I observed, this game appears to be on the high end of two. 2 - Some creatures with different behavior modes, several powerups and map generator.

Roguelikeness

1 - I dont see a roguelike in here. 2 - While this game does have roguelike elements, it feels more like a puzzle game than a roguelike game. 3 - The map is clearly grid based so having third dimension is fine. Lacks items of any kind but has powerups.

This game is based on cubes in three dimensional space, up/down left/right is all relative. Navigation was a bit tricky, even if you got your head around which way you are going, not enough of the map was visible at a time. However this can be part of the fun, but leads to some claustrophobic unavoidable encounters in later levels. I found myself getting swamped by enemies especially if I was unlucky enough not to get many attack upgrades. Luckily the fast paced gameplay lets me get back into the action as soon as I die. The two sides of the coin was a nice concept combined with the coloured enemies, allowing positional tactics to come into play. Unfortunately there is no real difference between the wizard and barbarian, other than colour, some other tactical choices would of been good here, especially against the non-coloured enemies. I found the game really frustrating before I learnt how to change characters for a given square (to allow selective pickup), this skill is vital. This game was quite fun, and challenging, definitely worth a play. The game is aesthetically pleasing, but the essence of the game is to kill all the enemies on a given level before you can proceed. However the game appears more of a puzzle game than a roguelike, but it is still a fun little game. Double Rogue presents a brilliant concept: your character is actually a fuse of two! Every step you make switches between them. Sadly, this is where the ingenuity ends. Since the game is 3D you can assure every bonus goes to only one of characters by traversing planes in certain way and it is optimal way to play. This works against the game because it minimizes the double-character aspect.

EXCELent Rogue

Completeness

3 - Ran well, never found any bugs and there was a variety of items. 3 - No bugs found, worked fine. All features are there. 3 - No bugs found, didn't seem to be any missing features. A nice complete game.

Aesthetics

3 - Really nicely done. Uses some features of Excel to good effect, such as separate sheets for inventory. 2 - It looks surprisingly well. Controls are somewhat inconvenient, but can be dealt with. There is no visual difference between field of view and explored territory. 2 - Black and white text, nice and clear, standard roguelike control set. Solid.

Fun

3 - Has a great sense of humor and a nice level of challenge. 2 - There are hilarious items with humorous descriptions. As well as very strange set of monsters. But other then that it is pretty standard roguelike experience. 2 - There's some very good game player here, with good variety with the character classes. A straight up old fashioned roguelike game.

Innovation

3 - Using Excel to make a game isn't entirely new, but this complete of a roguelike is great to see. Excel is used well as a UI rather than seeming like an awkward presentation base. 1 - Not taking development platform into account there is nothing really new here. 2 - If this weren't in EXCEL, I would rate this game a 1 for innovation. That's not a bad thing. This game is as straight a roguelike as there is. It being in excel is very intriguing, so I give it a 2.

Scope

2 - Nice coffee break sized roguelike. 2 - Noticeable amount of items and monsters, some spells. Just enough for a solid 7drl. 2 - A solid effort with a good amount of content.

Roguelikeness

3 - Straight out roguelike style in pretty much all classic ways. 3 - Random dungeon, turn based, items management, permadeath. It's roguelike in excel! 3 - This is as straight a roguelike as roguelikes come.

A really interesting and fun game that uses Excel's features to add playability to the game. I particularly like that a stone and a rock are functionally different items. I was very sceptical while I was downloading it. A roguelike game in excel? Is this some kind of joke? Well. There are jokes, but mostly in the description of items. It takes some time to get used to features of controls, but it really works and it is really a roguelike! And I must say it's hard one. And now for something completely new. A fully featured Roguelike done in EXCEL! You'd expect a game like this to have all kinds of wonky work arounds, all kinds of strange 'programmery' type things but it doesn't. You can occasionally click the wrong field and accidently start typing over data, but simply hit escape and the problem is solved. This game has quite a bit of fun packed in, 3 character classes, weapons, fruit, enemies with a variety of behavior. It's also hard as nails. I played mostly on 'easy' with the 4 extra stat points and was still getting splattered all over the spreadsheet. Well done boys. This one is a definite standout.

Gelatinous

Completeness

3 - Seems to be complete so far, no obvious bugs or anything. 3 - Game appears complete, and bug free. 3 - Seems very complete. I would've loved a little squooshing sound but I'm not going to fault a 7drl for not having sound!

Aesthetics

3 - Great pixel graphics, clear and well-understandable interface. 3 - Simple and elegant graphics, controls are straight forward. 3 - Love the graphics. Cute adventurerers make even cuter skeletons when I squoosh them. Controls are super intuitive and the whole game is explained graphically.

Fun

3 - It's hilarious to lie in wait as the unwitting adventurers stumble into your gelatinous traps. The only flaw is that it's too darn short. :) 2 - The game is more a puzzle game than a roguelike, but still fun to play. One complaint is the movement/time bar depletes even when the player chooses not to move for a turn, this could be considered a flaw by some, though it certainly adds to the challenge. 2 - Definitely worth the time to play. I found the time limit a little punishing but that's to be expected for a roguelike. Some slightly varying terrain would've helped, but this was a great bit of coffeebreak style rogulikey fun.

Innovation

2 - The gelatinous gameplay is innovative, but not really fundamentally different from established mechanics. 2 - Certainly innovative for a roguelike, but then it doesn't play like a roguelike. As already mentioned, this game more properly belongs in the puzzle game category, not the roguelike category. 2 - Very neat twist on the usual roguelike formula. There have been games where you play as a monster but never in so nuanced a capacity.

Scope

2 - The typical 7DRL scope, solid. 2 - Appears to be what one could accomplish in 7 days. The entity AI is basic, but it accomplishes its goal. The levels are small so the variety of designs are limitied, but not to the point that there is excessive repeatition. 2 - A solid 7drl attempt.

Roguelikeness

2 - A tough decision. It stays true to most roguelike definitions, but it just doesn't play like one. Even though mechanically it's 100% roguelike, it's spiritually different IMO. 2 - While this game has roguelike elements, I found it felt more like a puzzle game than anything else. 3 - Definitely a roguelike, albiet but not a very deep one. Systems are simple but permadeath, procedural levels and enemies are all there.

Hilariously slimy. Playing as the monster is always fun, and the Gelatinous Cube is no exception. Unfortunately you run out of jelly way too fast to complete more than one level, and that waiting consumes your resource doesn't help that. Yeah, short games are great because they don't consume a lot of your time, but still. I think this one's a little bit too short. Especially seeing as there is multiple levels, yet I never completed more than one due to running out. Nevertheless, this is a great game design-wise, and has the cutest pixel art of Gelatinous Cubes I have seen so far. As short as it might be, it's 100% pure fun. Go, Gelatinous! Make the world a little more jelly, step by step! The game is quite polished with simple and clean graphics, and it was quite enjoyable to play. Two complaints are the movement/time bar depleting even when not moving, and the repeat delay is a little long. It does not appear to fit into the roguelike genre, but still a fun little game. This little flash game is definitely worth a coffee break or two (or three). You play as a gelatinous cube, and you are tasked with ridding the dungeon of pesky adventurers. Adventurers have great abilities like the wizard who throws fireballs and the cleric who (obnoxiously) revives your dead victims. Time limit continuously pushes you to take risks... sitting around the corner and mashing space will not get you very far. Graphics are polished to a shine and the controls are super intuitive. Great job.

Starship Rex

Completeness

2 - A little more polish gameplay-wise wouldn't hurt. 3 - I didn't run into any bugs, and it felt like the concept described in the game rules was clearly present in the game itself. 3 - Mostly bug-free and polished, with the exception of invalid keypresses consuming a turn. This is bad in such a time-critical game.

Aesthetics

3 - Solid ASCII, very clean interface. Scalable thanks to the wonders of JS! 2 - The interface is simple and effective. The colonists' names drawing from a library of notable podcasters was a nice touch. The game won't fit in a resolution of 1360x768, so I had to scroll my browser around a bit in order to see everything. Also, moving one square at a time with the arrow keys got painful quickly given the amount of back-and-forth movement the game requires. 3 - neat, clear ASCII. Pods are apparently supposed to be identified before being picked up, but this accomplished with different shades of grey rather than clear text.

Fun

2 - It's definitely tricky and very enjoyable. 2 - The concept - save colonists with a variety of occupations, origins and genders in order to save the colony mission - starts out seeming like a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the gameplay gets extremely repetitive very quickly. Once you figure out the optimal way to play the game, there's really no room for decision making or for the game to surprise you. 2 - Running time-limited errands while zapping zombies. Unfortunately, even with good strategy the challenge level is inconsistent, depending too strongly on the positioning of the drop-off points.

Innovation

2 - It challenges RL conventions in a nice way. Yeah, there's your typical running around the dungeon and fighting monsters, but the whole system with the pods and such gives it a unique spin and changes your gameplay goal. 3 - The concept for the game is very original, and I was excited when I first read it. I think the concept of rescuing colonists with different abilities and backgrounds is an excellent idea and could be the basis for a much deeper game. 2 - Delivery quests strongly linked to resource management and combat.

Scope

2 - Yeah, typical 7DRL scope. 2 - The game doesn't stray far beyond very basic gameplay. It would have been nice to see a bit more variety. However, what's there is well polished, and the game includes interesting level generation, lighting, and a random name generator. 2 - Content on different levels differs only in numbers and map layout. Levels apparently continue until you rescue your quota of humans.

Roguelikeness

3 - Even with all the innovative mechanics, this is still a roguelike at its heart, and it shows. 3 - The gameplay feels very much roguelike, even if there is no real player advancement and the combat takes a back seat to collecting colonists. 3 - Permanent death and procedural content on a discrete grid. Deep enough gameplay that making progress requires planning.

Overall, a really solid 7DRL. The aspect of saving/trashing pods is really a fascinating mechanic, and hilariousness ensues if you spot a familiar name among the people in pods. The different tasks combined with the sometimes awesomely complicated architecture of levels leads to a large number of interesting scenarios during the game. My only real gripe with it is that gameplaywise, it doesn't quite seem to adhere to what I perceive as design intentions. As it is, picking up pods while still exploring the level can be suicidal, especially because you apparently can't look into pods before picking them up. Nasty if you're running around with a creeped pod and the spacevent nowhere to be seen. But all in all, IMO really one of the better games of this year's challenge. Starship Rex is a light roguelike that has an interesting premise, but is unfortunately hampered by repetitive gameplay. You must explore the ship, collecting stasis pods that hopefully contain live colonists. Each colonist has a gender, an origin and an occupation, and you need a diverse set of survivors in order to win the game. However, some stasis pods contain dead colonists that need to be recycled at the Mortisserie (whatever that is - I like to think it's a cross between a morgue and a buffet), and some contain "creeped" colonists (the story is very light on details) that will suck your life and eventually hatch into enemies unless you shoot them out the nearest airlock. Unfortunately, once you understand these basic elements, there aren't really any decisions to make or surprises to uncover. The dominant strategy seems to be: Explore the level and find the airlock, medbay and Mortisserie, clear out all the enemies, and then take pods one by one to their respective destinations until the level is empty. There's no real reason to go to the next level until there's nothing left in the current one, so you end up going back and forth across the level twenty-some times, which isn't much fun at all. Maybe this could be improved by having the level slowly fall apart, so that there's some strategy in deciding what to take and what to leave behind? In the end, I think that while Starship Rex has a good idea at its core and feels very polished, it could seriously benefit from some more work on adding depth to the gameplay. Run around a spaceship delivering pods to one of three locations depending on whether they're alive, dead, or zombies. Zombies eventually break out and try to kill you. The same resource is used for combat and preservation of pods, making them gradually transform from shields to liabilities. Currently the game's unbalanced because of the gigantic maps and widely-varying distances between drop-off points. With a more consistent challenge, some more varied enemies, and perhaps an active role for rescuees, this could become an excellent coffeebreak roguelike.

Swift Swurd

Completeness

3 - The game runs just fine, with nothing missing from the gameplay. 3 - No bugs detected, no gaps. 3 - Fulfills its minimal scope very well. Combat and resources seem balanced, maps feel in the proper scale.

Aesthetics

2 - The ascii is simple but effective. The controls were easy and documented right on the screen. The only complaint I have is that the pirate speech is difficult to figure out sometimes. I think it added nice flavor, but was perhaps too overdone. 2 - The controls and display are adequate, but a bit lacking in color and variety. The language used can be confusing, but gives it a certain charm. 2 - Color choices appropriate, HUD/UI layout well done.

Fun

2 - While the breath/sword mechanic had a lot of potential, in practice the tactics were pretty limited. Once you figure out the mechanic (which doesn't take long), the game loses some of its appeal. 2 - This game is pretty fun, with all kinds of tactical positioning and what not. It just seems to get a tad repetitive. Numerous back and forth seas saw battles, maybe fire your pistol off. 3 - Found myself furiously tapping in one-on-one sword fights, forcing my opponent back against a wall. Heart rate picked up when I was caught in the open by more than one opponent. Mad dashes for the exit if I was overwhelmed. Fun.

Innovation

2 - I really love the idea of the breath/sword mechanic. It is an awesome twist on the typical bump-attack mechanic. What would have made this game a 3 in both innovation and fun is combine the sword mechanic with special move sequeces and tactical positioning which effects how you attack and parry. This would lead to much more interesting, and much deeper game play. 3 - This game is awesomely innovative in that you stick your little sword out to stab guys. I love it. 3 - I've never seen sword fights like this before in a RL, but I'm admittedly not a veteran player. I liked the dynamics of "catching ones breath" by falling back, and the extra touch of a dead enemy taking a couple of turns to stumble to the ground after being felled.

Scope

2 - The game was right on par with what I expect out of a 7drl. 2 - A bit on the low end, but this game isn't about tons of elements, it's that sword stabby and stamina gimmick that carries it. 2 - Solid delivery on a minimal scope. I can see a lot of room for expansion here -- better AI, varied weapons, varied enemies (rabid parrots!).

Roguelikeness

3 - This game is clearly a roguelike. 3 - Procedural. Turn based. Some resource management if no inventory. Classic ASCII presentation. Definitely a solid example of the genre. 2 - It fits the bill for me.

This game has a really nifty mechanic in the sword fighting and breath requirements. Rather than assume that the weapons are contained withint the '@' symbol, you have to wield your sword in front of you to attack. As you fight you and your opponent run out of breath, which leads to a missed parry and a stabbing through the heart. You have more breath so you can easily dispatch single opponents but fighting multiple opponents requires an interesting ebb and flow between attacking and recovering breath. There isn't a lot of replay value here, but the mechanic is definatly worth checking out. This is definitely one of the stands out of this year's competition. It revolves around a very well implimented gimmick of sword fighting and stamina recharing. Positioning and rest are crucial to success, or you can just fire off your pistols. What's better your pistols seem to make a smoke screen to aid your escape. Very nice game, I recommend it to anyone and everyone. The pirate theme was well-executed and appealed to me. Was hoping for more variety in weapons or combat, but I enjoyed it from start to finish and may even play some more to see how far I can get beyond the 3-treasure win condition.

Tetrogue

Completeness

2 - Complete and bug free game, though the mechanics could do with more explanation, and it's super hard. 3 - Had no problem playing it, seemed complete. No bug issues. 2 - Nearly all there, the game worked fine, but really needed more help with the game. There was many undocumented keys that give it a unfinished feel. Took a while to understand how to play the game. No major bugs and at least had some information in a readme file.

Aesthetics

2 - I really like the style of graphics and smooth interface movements, but it lacks a bit of polish. You will find that a considerable amount of your FOV will be offscreen before the map moves, and the dark gray tetris blocks are too similar a color to the ground/construction boards to be easily distinguished. When constructing something it would be good to have a clear button, as its epsecially tedious to fail at levelling up (this has been fixed in a post 7drl version by being able to remove pieces once placed). Love the floors. 3 - Perfect. Great controls, mouse if you want, a wonderful and cohesive tetris motif throughout. Just awesome. 2 - Clever use of the tetris feel was used extensively through the game, e.g the floor tiles where tetris blocks. The game world was minimalistic but worked, however I did not like the tile graphics with ascii monsters, but I understand the 7 day time frame is a factor here. Some groovy tetris music would of been ace. A messge log might of been nice.

Fun

2 - You will often die at the whim of the RNG, since if you will come across enemies that are effectively immune to your attacks, or you might pop around a corner too close to a strong enemy, and and such events are common. However, I did like this one, and spent good some time figuring out the mechanics. Some good balancing ideas might be for the health potions to heal you completely, and a wider range of maneuverability spells that allow you to put some distance between you and your foe or better pick your fights. 2 - I really liked this game, but the more I played it became just a tad repetitive. Nearly a 3. 2 - The longer I played the game the more it grew on me. The combat system takes a little bit to get into, as does the crafting system, which I guess is what this game is about. A roguelike crossed between Tetris and minecraft. Crafting was interesting, once I figured out how to craft things, however most of the time I crafted with the "cheap" blocks I just lost my blocks with no visible gain.

Innovation

3 - Even though its difficult being at the mercy of a number of random factors, the combat system is unique and very cool. Careful planning and dancing is required to take many monsters on. Building stuff with the tetris parts you pick up is great, but can get tedious with the large boards of levelling up. The negatives of the features don't outweigh the positives enough to warrant cutting this score down. A well deserved 3. 3 - One of the more striking gimick games this year, took the tetris idea and just ran with it. Great. 3 - Yep innovative it is. A tetris/mincraft crafting system is unique in the roguelike world and it actually worked. The combat is also unique for me (though I assume it comes from a game that developer has worked on in the past). I also like the tetris inspired theme and floor tiles.

Scope

2 - A decently sized game, with a range of abilities and a unique central mechanic. 2 - Quite a bit of content. Solid. 2 - There is a crafting system, and upgradable stats (weapons/armour). Each level does feel the same though. Nearly a 3 but about spot on for a 7drl.

Roguelikeness

3 - Absolutely. 3 - Perfectly roguelike. One of the few games with tons of innovation AND solidly within the genre. 3 - Although not as pure as some roguelikes reviewed it pretty much covers all bases.

In the world of tetrogue, your only items are tetris peices which can be combined into shapes to buff your armor, weapon, or heal you. From the second level onward you will find elemental pieces which can be used to give your armor or weapon an elemental flavour, and with the three elements working in a rock-paper-scissors like pattern, you will have a distinct advantage over some creatures and disadvantage over others. So much so that if an enemy has a fire armor and you have a plain or nature weapon you cannot kill that enemy with bump attacks unless you have a really high attack. Early game this is rarely the case. Two of the classes have abilities that can help here, but they can only be used a limited number of times before resting to recharge, meaning that under duress you will likely be overcome. Its incredibly hard because you will often come into the situation where there is nothing you can do or could have done to save yourself when the enemy you are against is effectively indestructible, or can simply deal more damage or restore more armor over time than you can. With balance though this is definately a game to watch for the future. This is one of the most striking games of the competition. Totally innovative and fun. If I were to recommend 5 games from this competition this would be one of them. The tetris idea of interlocking pieces is taken to the illogical extreme, and it totally works. Walk around, fight, collect pieces, build stuff to power up your character. Just great man, I cannot recommend it enough. There's a post 7DRL release as well, so check that out. An unique blend of tetris and minecraft crafting systems squashed into the body of a roguelike. You start the game as one of three characters each with their own stats and skills. You wander around the dungeon searching for enemies and tertis (crafting) peices, enemies drop crafting peices as well. Once you have enough of a set you can craft better armour, weapons, health or energy. You use energy for your skills, therefore energy is in limited supply so skills are better saved until really needed. There is also a rock/paper/scissors mechanic of "elemental' attack/defence that I really did not fully explore but seemed an extra element to give the game more depth. Not a bad effort by any means, I believe the devloper made good use of previous code but which needed to be hidden a bit to give this game a finished feel; undocumented keys were in abundance. These things considered and better help would could make this a real gem.

Tower of Despair

Completeness

2 - Took a bit to run (openAL didn't work for all reviewers, required XP mode and "run as admin" on Win7), but fairly complete otherwise. No save function or high score list, though. 3 - Seems feature complete. Music is very fitting.. rare for a 7DRL. 3 - I had to resize my screen to see it all, but that seems typical these days. Bug free as far as I can tell.

Aesthetics

2 - The difference between changing orientation and strafing is a fascinating touch. Readme included didn't mention , to pick up items. Wish there was better inventory management and perhaps some color coding between food/scrolls/potions/weapons/armor. Fantastic music, but can be repetitive. ASCII color scheme well put together and fits the mood, though not all monsters in the tower did (kittens?!) Font generally fit the mood, but is hard on the eyes after a while. 2 - A little BROWN for my tastes but the way the graphics are painted -- especially when the view rotates around is very cool. I would love more variety and color in the levels though. Also I found the inventory menu frustrating to use, and I have to count usability in this category! 3 - Great presentation, interesting font, simple and functional control scheme.

Fun

2 - Large levels with the orientation changes is easily disorienting. Not many monsters to slay, and once decent armor is had (which isn't hard) it's not challenging....at first. It gets way more interesting later, but the early game doesn't do it many favors. 2 - Rotational field of view is a very cool way to explore a dungeon. The dungeons seemed a little sparse to me though, especially in the early game. And I hate smashing into entry level monsters multiple times. I know the character only starts with a club but just let me kill goblins really easily please! When you go toe to toe with the first monster you see and it lasts 6 or 7 rounds it doesn't quite make you feel very heroic! I found exploration much more fun than the combat. Was also sometimes difficult to tell how much health i had and which the better set of equipment was. 2 - I was originally a bit put off by how basic it seemed, with difficulty spikes that sort of ruined the fun. Then I realized you can rotate, that facing mattered. Very cool. Very fun. Confusing, but I've never had so much fun getting totally turned around in a dungeon/tower before. If not for the difficulty spikes unbalancing the game this would be a solid 3.

Innovation

3 - A move away from numbers-based combat, and extensive use of conic field of view make this immediately feel different from most roguelikes, even if the basic concepts are identical. 3 - Rotational field of view must have been very difficult to implement, but Tower of Despair executes it flawlessly. So much so that I didn't even notice at first -- of course that's what the game should do! Hopefully more roguelikes tinker with this concept, it adds a lot of interesting exploration bits to otherwise typical dungeons. 2 - Giving this a 2, but it's a high 2. Rotation of the screen is innovative.

Scope

2 - An attempt to redefine how field of view in roguelikes works, while stying atmospheric and elegant. Lots of equipment types, interesting potions (self-polymorphing!), and the like. 2 - Solid scope for a 7DRL. A bit on the high end.. but would've loved to see a bit more polish in the menu system. 2 - A good amount of features with the ability to alter many of the features as you see fit. Nice.

Roguelikeness

3 - Random levels, turn based dungeon crawling, a little bit of item management in the cursed items: roguelike through and through. 3 - Definitely a roguelike! Actually the field of view is even better than the traditional top-down 360-view in many ways. Way more atmospheric. 3 - A straight up procedural, turn based dungeon crawl with permadeath.

A fascinating, atmospheric take with some neat ideas on field of view and combat. There's a lot of potential here if the bugs are worked out. Plus, the music's great. A great-looking solid 7DRL. In Tower of Despair you are limited to seeing only what is in front of you, which makes for some confusing navigation at first (the screen will rotate around you, and you can "strafe-step" ala most First Person Shooters) but some fun exploration and great atmosphere once you get used to it. Menus are a bit clunky and there wasn't a HUD that I could figure out.. had to sort of guess how good equipment was. Great music that really sets the tone for the game... very tower-y. This is a very solid entry for 2013. It looks good, plays good, the music changes with the situation. The design choice to not display your health or the affect of equiping items is questionable. I often wanted to know what my best gear load out would be, and how much health I had. I respect the choice but I think it reduced my ability to make informed decisions. Having the screen darken as you became injured helped quite a bit, as did the music cues. I had an issue with frustrating difficulty spikes, but as you get better at the game you learn how to mitigate the seemingly cheap deaths. This is my highest rated game thus far. LATER: I've come back to this game to see if I had perhaps overrated it, that's when I realized all the items, enemies and keybinds can be altered, expanded and enhanced by anyone with a text editor and even the most basic understanding of code...that's awesome. My high marks stand.

Appeasing the God

Completeness

2 - "Any key" means enter is either a test I failed or a bug. I am unconvinced the awkward grammar is an intentional message and not a result of procedural setence generation failing. 2 - The game works fine. But I can't really say it's polished. 3 - Everything works, it comes across as a finished product.

Aesthetics

2 - With an ironic game like this, I always fear I'm just not getting the joke. So should I complain that there is a bad interface of starting the character naked? Or chuckle at the sly jab on roguelike tropes? The opening screen fills one with dread over a bad roguelike, but then the game uses very clever extended ascii symbols in novel ways? There's a very cool inventory system with a fast wield mechanism - which seems almost designed to leave you accidentally flailing at enemies, like any good nethack player with a pickaxe. Plenty of unnecessary keys are used to activate, again, mistake or plan? 2 - It's ascii with unusual choice for empty space - underscore symbol. Ingame help is missing one very important key - p, which stands for pray. Without praying for items it is (almost?) impossible to win this game. 1 - It's kind of ugly - the tileset/layout could be better, and the keybindings could have done with some more work. It's sightly inconsistent that you wield your armour but you can't wield your weapon - instead attacking with whatever is selected in your inventory. A few improvements in usability could have helped.

Fun

3 - While the actual balance of the prayer and donation is unclear and could use more clarity, one can pick up enough to start having an excellent time. The very clever messages from the god at spice to a game that would have been as fun without! 2 - Figuring out how to deal with different types of monsters was fun. And there are some non-trivial monsters. 2 - There are some ineresting and challenging enemies - including some that hurt you when you kill them, or leaves permanent trap tiles behind when they do. While it's interesting it also proves to be somewhat frustrating.

Innovation

3 - The titular mechanic isn't particularly novel, but the monsters that you find within make up for it. 2 - On a larger scope there is nothing really new there. But there are some interesting monstes. 3 - Interesting praying mechanics, you can wish for items to survive or for magic weapons to defend yourself. Luck plays a large role (which you can influence with the right items) and the enemies are varied and interesting.

Scope

3 - Almost expect to run into the kitchen sink. Properly done procedural weapons/armour. Interesting and varied magic items. Time-based enemies, glass window panes that add an entire new tactic to combat! The whole god system almost pales in comparison. 2 - Just fine for a 7drl. 2 - It feels like it's the right scope for a 7 day roguelike.

Roguelikeness

3 - yep! 3 - It's a