Reviews

Seven Day Band

Completeness

3 - As far as I can tell it's fully featured and bug free. General polish is up to a good standard too. 3 - Feels solid and bug-free. Lots of nice polish too. 3 - * No obvious bugs\ * Lots of polish with the menus, transitions, etc

Aesthetics

2 - Slick, smooth ASCII presentation with little animations. A bit too much text, perhaps, but that's a side effect of the game's function. 3 - Clean ASCII with simple controls, though not as pretty as some of Jeff's other ASCII roguelikes. 3 - * Sensible keybindings\ * Colors contrasted well\ * Menus easy to navigate and clear\ * Sliding along cardinal walls with diagonal movement works nicely

Fun

3 - I'm glad I got to experience this bold and surprising take on game design. 2 - Er... well this is where reviewing gets hard, as technically you could make a very fun game and technically you're more likely to make a terrible one. Overall the process of entering details is not that fun, beyond giving things silly names. The permanence of change means that if you're serious about making interesting content you will ultimately be frustrated, as you have to wipe the slate every time you give a monster too high HP or similar. 3 - * Designing and tweaking the game is compelling\

Innovation

3 - Astonishingly original. I've never seen anything like this attempted before. 2 - Tecnically developers have been doing just this for years ;) In truth it's interesting and unusual, though it doesn't significantly affect gameplay. Some of the design elements you can apply to creates in the game are interesting and can combine in novel ways too. 3 - * I haven't seen this approach to data entry before, and it works very naturally here\ * Would be interested in seeing some meta-properties (or I haven't encountered them yet!) to, e.g., say that I don't want any new monsters/etc.\ * The game itself appeared very hack and slash, but I don't know if it's possible to vary this later

Scope

3 - Remarkable amount of content, in terms of how effectively the customisation works. 3 - Though you can make a tiny game from this you can also make a huge one, and the structure that is in place to allow that is humongous. I'm thoroughly impressed by just how much detail there is in the 7DRL, and I imagine that most players will barely scratch the surface of what this game really has to offer. 3 - * Impressive scope assuming that development included the editing features and the game itself

Roguelikeness

3 - It's definitely a roguelike, no doubt about it. 3 - Traditional roguelike with extra bandiness. 3 - * A bit tricky as the \"game\" is the editor/prompts + the resulting game, but the result is very much a roguelike.

If there's one thing Jeff Lait seems to be able to do with 7DRL, it's to create games which catch me by surprise. Seven Day Band is one of the most novel game ideas I've seen in some time, to the point that it makes me laugh just thinking about it. Essentially, you create the game as you play it. The mechanics are all there, but when you first see an enemy you get to name it. Gradually (or all at once if you use the 'examine' command) you get to create the enemy - its attacks, its behaviour, rate of loot drops - everything. The whole game is like this, even down to how many floors the dungeon has. All of these settings are saved so that over multiple plays you gradually create a game which was crafted by Jeff Lait but then customised into whatever you prefer it to be. A truly bizarre idea but almost a work of genius. What do you want from a 7DRL? You decide! Want to make a game? Well now you can using just a bunch of menu options. As new game elements are encountered you choose how you want the game to treat them, including hit points, attacks, special abilities, and so on. This is of course incredibly tedious, but it's also curious and fun. What makes Seven Day Band interesting is that it prompts the player to customize the game just-in-time: Encounter a new creature, and it asks for a name. See a few more, and the game prompts for damage information. Later prompts will provide opportunities to customize the creature's damage, AI, and more.\ The look command is especially powerful as it allows the player to change all of a target's attributes through an easy-to-use menu. It's a great design that lets players tweak in real time without changing to an editor mode or compiling, and the results are immediately apparent. And after all the tweaking is done, the resulting worlds can be shared with others.\ I'm not certain if it's possible to tell the game to stop generating new content for customization, but don't let that stop you from trying out Seven Day Band and making your own Angband variant. Making roguelikes has never been as interactive, simple, and fun as this.

Rogue Space Marine

Completeness

3 - So far I haven't seen any bugs. Good balance, well presented, and controllable with either mouse or keyboard (mouse is needed to aim in either case, but movement can be done with QWEADZXC on the left hand, so it works). The level of polish is very impressive all round. 3 - I found only a single bug and it was not really even much of a thing. This game is complete in all ways as far as I can see. 3 - Has a lot of neat abilities and opponents in it. Very polished.

Aesthetics

3 - Excellent visuals and appropriate sound. Good UI which complements the gameplay, and smooth control. Top notch work. 3 - Everything about the game flows together and the controls include very nice mouse support. 3 - Looks and sounds great.

Fun

3 - Goes beyond the qualifier \"worth playing for a 7 day project\"! This would be a good effort if it had been in development for much longer than a week. 3 - A must play in my book. Quite amazing and a great time all around. I would have missed out completely if I hadn't played it. 3 - I will definitely play more of this.

Innovation

2 - Most of the game is nothing particularly innovative but having the ability system double as a health system is a very imaginative touch. 2 - Lots of great twists though nothing completely new. 3 - The semi-real time turned based mechanics make for some very interesting strategies, like teleporting to avoid mid-air projectiles, using the melee attack to kill multiple enemies filing towards you, etc.

Scope

3 - I don't say this often but it feels like a game that took more than 7 days to create. Game Maker lends itself to good presentation but it isn't just that - the game is also very well balanced and neatly designed. 2 - While I say it is what I expect from a 7drl it is on the edge of it. Honestly with how polished it is I can't think of anything else to expand upon which in and of itself is amazing. To make something that feels like it fits in 7 days yet doesn't feel like it needs more is a great accomplishment. 3 -

Roguelikeness

2 - It does away with a lot of the conventions such as inventory and resource management but it definitely has prominent roguelike features. 3 - This is a roguelike, nothing much more to say about it. 3 - Interesting take on RL mechanics, while still retaining the basics of a RL.

Rogue Space Marine is easily one of the strongest entries from this year's 7DRL. The idea is simple - roam a space station activating computer terminals and defeating enemies in order to move to the next level. To this end, you're equipped with 3 abilities which operate on a cooldown timer. I know many roguelike players don't enjoy cooldown timers in things like ToME4 but it works well here, because you don't have a huge suite of abilities which you just rotate through (as you do in ToME) but instead only 3 - shoot, melee, teleport. It's possible that more abilities can be gained but, if so, I haven't got that far in a couple of hours of play! \ \ This small range of abilities means that you have to carefully manage your use of them. If you shoot an enemy then for the next several turns you will have only a melee attack. If you shoot an enemy and melee another then you will have NO attacks until one of them recharges. This ties into the game's most inventive feature - having the ability system double as the health system. When you take a hit, one random ability will be removed. A second hit, a second ability. When all your abilities are gone and take another hit, it's game over. \ \ Managing your ability use is one of the main features of the game. The other is taking cover. There isn't a formal 'cover system' but you will hide behind workbenches and engineering consoles frequently, as enemies blast at you with weapons far superior to yours. \ \ The most impressive thing about Rogue Space Marine is its balance. It's challenging but surmountable. Each time I play, I learn a bit more about good ways to approach certain enemies or situations - which is exactly what roguelikes do best. It's not a 'pure' roguelike and dispenses with a lot of the conventions of the genre, but it certainly contains strong roguelike features. \ \ I can't even criticise the control. Usually I find it irritating when a roguelike's keyboard control scheme still requires some mouse use, but here you can either do everything with the mouse or use QWEADZXC to move, 1-2-3 to select abilities and mouse to aim. No awkward moving your right hand back and forth between numpad and mouse! \ \ Rogue Space Marine is a very strong game and a great achievement for a 7DRL. Definitely check it out. Just to note, this is a must play in my book. Anyway for those interested you can view my entire time playing this game on my Youtube channel at the following address - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8pRkiYx3QM This is a great game. It already has a lot of content, and could probably be sold on steam if more content was added (a la Spelunky HD). Very impressive for a 7DRL, and very enjoyable. I would recommend this to friends as a way to get into roguelikes.

RoyaLe

Completeness

2 - Definitely feels polished. One thing I did not like, however, was the acid blobs. They didn't seem to add much to the game, but caused a bit of headache. The biggest problem is that an explosion causes nearby acid blob sprites to replaced with damaged floor tile sprites, yet the acid is still there and will surely burn you. Also, it's possible to advance to the next level with low health and have the entrance so surrounded by acid that you have a guaranteed death. 2 - Complete and mostly bug free. I played the 1.02 version, and don't fault a point release as I may never have seen the bugs in the original. Nonetheless, I found Q to quit would get me to a screen I couldn't escape from. I'm also suspicious some of the aesthetic failings result from running out of time, killing the bad boss seemed very anti-climatic, for example (he just disappeared) 3 - The real deal. Polished, with lots of features such as difficulty settings and even a rogue-lite difficulty that lets you continue after dying (at a price).

Aesthetics

3 - Amazing. I was little unsure about the art style at first, but it grew on me quickly. There's a lot of character in the sprites, most of it rather goofy. The hologram-style HUD is so cool. Even the status indicators on characters are quite clear. Controls are smooth. 2 - The graphics are very well done and polished. The music is excellent. But the same sound effect is used for all combat, making swarmers sound like they are shooting you? There seems not to be a full screen mode, so I couldn't pixel-double it, as the chrome would push 1440 > 1600. All enemies you can target are blue. But your current target is also blue, making it very hard to tell where you shot is actually going in the big crowds. There is no obvious sign that the last enemy died, there should be cheering or something to let you know you transition. Special effects leave a lot to be desired, the same bullets recoloured, etc. The same generic corpses - surely the laser blasted foes should look different than the shotgunned? 3 - Beautiful art. Nice ui, Keybindings work great. Sounds are passable and the music works well with the tone of the game.

Fun

3 - The reason I like this so much is that it makes turn based combat feel fast paced. There are times when I stop to think, but there's no huge inventory, so I can make choices quickly. Also, melee is usually resolved in a single turn. This lets me line up enemies and just knock them out one by one. The game throws enough at you that you eventually need to get efficient at ranged weapons though.\ \ Swarmers are kind of annoying. I lost countless times because I appeared to have a positioning advantage and the swarmers basically teleported all around me instead. 3 - There are a lot of interesting items and creature interactions here, but they are rather hard to parse. It is certainly worth spending the time digging through all that is happening on screen to figure out the tactics that are possible. 3 - Think DoomRL meets Smash TV. This game is fun, and can be played in short sessions.

Innovation

2 - Plenty of games make you choose between upgrades and healing, but the choice here between score, leveling, and healing is somewhat unique. 2 - With Monster Slayer Show to compare with, where we had a live studio audience, it is a tough act to follow. This does bring a bunch of colorful enemies, however, along with the interesting choice of trading healing against leveling. 3 - To me, the most innovative feature here is the fame system. Each monster slain yields some fame, which builds up your fame meter. When it is at least half full you can spend it to replenish your HP. But if instead you let the fame meter fully fill, you can level up, increasing your hp maximum and your damage output. Choices!

Scope

3 - Lots of enemies, three playable characters, plenty of weapons, and a boss. If you include the shiny presentation (which I do) the scope is definitely well above average. 3 - With three separate player classes and quite a variety of items and monsters, this is an impressive job for seven days. 3 - There's is a lot of content here. Lots of items to experiment with, different weapons work differently, and monsters that force you to react in different ways to their behaviour.

Roguelikeness

3 - No doubt, RoyaLe has all the staples of a roguelike. The only question is: does it feel like one? I'm going to say yes, but barely. Because you have to kill all enemies on a level, escaping or avoiding enemies is not something you really do. Rogue makes you feel weak, but RoyaLe makes you feel like a bad ass. A low 3. 3 - Tactical combat, procedural generation, yep, it is very much a roguelike. 3 - There's no hunger clock, but likewise the arena is small enough that the player must always be acting and reacting. Like the best RLs tactical movement, positioning, and making use of line of sight are important aspects of the game. Monsters start out asleep, and depending on your stealth you will wake them by moving too close. This means you have a chance to explore the arena a bit and then plan how you will handle the encounters.

RoyaLe is the real deal. A turn based SmashTV that manages to be pretty roguelike yet still feels like an action game. The cartoony graphics are excellent. The in-game text is rather amusing too (I caught at least two references to cheesy action movies). RoyaLe is not super complex, nor is it very long. But it plays well. I'd wager this is going to be #1 for some people. Definitely check it out. RoyaLe is an arena combat game in which you defeat enemies to gain viewership. It is a tile based game, not ASCII, which makes it an interesting comparison to the ASCII Monster Slayer Show that starred in the 7DRLs a few years back. Yes yes yes! This game is fun, polished, and has a neat fame(exp) system that works as both your heal and your means of leveling up.

DUMUZID

Completeness

3 - Seems surprisingly well balanced for a 7DRL, including an emergency get-out clause for dire situations (with its own penalty). Pretty polished overall, and no bugs as far as I've noticed. 3 - The game is complete, and polished. No bugs encountered. 3 - Quite complete, no bugs or problems found.

Aesthetics

3 - Presentation is engaging and distinctive, and crucially it's fairly uncluttered - vital considering this game primarily concerns shapes. Control is smooth and intuitive. 3 - Ornaments of walls is very nice. Other graphics is simple, but recognizable and suitable. 3 - Wonderful aesthetics. The sumerian motif is well integrated. The melding of blocks is done very smoothly. Controls are limited to four way movement, making it easy to pick up (and reason about potential moves) When blocks are destroyed they fade nicely. One nit pick is the exit portal doesn't quite scroll in time with the rest of the screen giving a strange floating effect.

Fun

2 - Pretty good. It can be tough and unforgiving, which is entirely appropriate for the genre, but always leaves the impression that your own misjudgments caused your difficulties. I'm not sure I'd play it for long periods but it's definitely worth checking out. 2 - It's definitely worth trying. Can't say it's amazingly fun, but definitely very original. Attempt to fill score shapes is somewhat tedious. 3 - If it were just the combat layer, this would be fun, but not outstanding. After all, we've played 4-way movement timing games enough times, especially as you are given a free move every 10 to ensure a pillar-dancing victory. The victory shapes suddenly pull you away from the safety zone of 1x1 squares, but then you discover the spell system...

Innovation

3 - Very novel approach. The idea of making the size and shape of your character central to the gameplay is fascinating. It takes the emphasis of decisions away from resource management and makes it all about the consequences in an entirely fresh way. Impressive. 3 - Mechanics in this game is definitely novel. The bigger you are, the more spells you can carry, the bigger enemy you can take on. But by being huge you loose ability to enter narrow passages and can easily block yourself. Allowing enemies attack you to shrink yourself is not something you see in your average roguelike game. 3 - A sort of Snake-meets-rogue, this is a game all developers should play to see both the mechanics and the smooth interface.

Scope

2 - Good. The execution alone is fair for a 7DRL, but the game is surprisingly well balanced, so I'd say maybe a little beyond what might be expected for 7 days. It's still a small project though. 2 - On the higher end of that you can expect from 7drl. 2 - A very well scoped project for seven days.

Roguelikeness

3 - This game throws a bit of a curve ball. At first it seems like a departure from roguelikes, but actually it uses many of the same core qualities, just in an unfamiliar way. Your decisions really matter in the game, there's a lot of weighing up the consequences before acting. That's a roguelike to me. 2 - It's too minimalistic to be called true roguelike. 3 - Tactical turn based combat in a procedural enviornment? Inventory management? Yep, seems to have all it needs to be called a roguelike.

This one was a surprise and messed with my head a bit, for reasons I'll explain in a moment. Fundamentally the game is about trying to get to the next floor while dealing the changing shape and size of your character. Everything here is blocks - you play as a block, which can absorb enemies of the same or smaller size, attaching those enemies to itself like Tetris pieces. The larger you are, the more powerful you become, but the more your movement is impeded as you can no longer fit through some gaps. \ \ This is where the game starts to mess with my head. At first I thought it was a nice idea but more of a puzzle game than a roguelike. As I played more, though, I began to realise that the problems it presents are all very roguelike in nature. Do you want to absorb an enemy so that you'll be able to absorb more dangerous ones as you go progress, or do you want to stay small and mobile? If you absorb enemies you can survive multiple hits as your extra size gets chipped away, but you have to make sure your core doesn't take a hit. So being bigger is better, but it also means you can't dodge as easily since narrower passages will be inaccessible, which leads to you having face down more and more enemies. \ \ Additionally there are diamond-shaped blocks which you can use to knock off some your pieces, so the game becomes a constant tension between the benefits and drawbacks of different sizes, and every enemy encounter is about manouevring and positioning. \ \ For my money, those aspects are absolutely roguelike. The presentation and novel concept might mislead you at first but Dumuzid uses very roguelike ideas - it just applies them in a novel and distinctive way. For that, it should be applauded. In this game you can absorb enemies and become bigger. But being huge has some serious disadvantages. It's hard to describe this game with words. But it's easy to pick once you try. At first I thought DUMIZUD was yet another unpronounceable acronym, but then with a google looking for it I was pleasantly surprised to see it is a Sumerian deity. The game, despite being highly abstract, is still strongly themed around this, the use of the Sumerian for the level numbers is a nice touch. The game bills itself a 1hp roguelike, which is I feel a bit of a lie, it just is your hit points consist of additional squares attached to your core square. So while you can get a massive number of hit points, you find yourself unable to make it through corridors. Rather than let getting to big be a natural (but boring) end game situation, you can pray for help if this happens - and either receive succor or swiftly hit the end game through your core square being hit.

FireTail

Completeness

3 - Highly polished, generally well balanced, and feels like a full and complete game. 3 - I'm aware of one resolution bug that occurs for some people when they first run the game, but it's a non-issue after that. Otherwise things are very polished and complete, though it'd be nice if the game asked if you wanted to leave FireTail instead of the T-Engine. 3 - Complete, finished and mostly polished game.

Aesthetics

3 - The T-Engine lends itself to polished presentation but it's very much up to the developer to make that happen. FireTail is probably the prettiest T-Engine game I've seen, including ToME4 itself (the originator of the T-Engine). The ability activation UI at the bottom needs clarification but that's a minor gripe. FireTail looks stunning. 3 - Most of the sprites and effects are amazing, though some are just good enough to get the job done (I'm looking at you ice cube). Even the title screen looks great. I'm hoping Darren continues in this artistic direction. Controls are perfect: QWEASD/SPACE to move and hover over things to get hints. One nitpick: I'd like it if the bosses were a little more distinct from the enemies. 2 - On one hand, tiles are very nice, controls are ok and everything is smooth and well-done. On other hand, I must say that graphics sometimes looks like scaled bigger images, and there is harsh.

Fun

3 - Once you begin to wrap your head around what FireTail is doing, it goes from being a confusing exercise in bafflement to being a highly tactical game of positioning. Some might find it too much of a brain-burner, and I can certainly sympathise, but if you're willing to concentrate then FireTail is a very engaging and satisfying play. 2 - My biggest complaint with FireTail is that the combat too often becomes very tedious. You start a level surrounded by monsters, then more spawn in constantly, then bosses spawn monsters three times as fast as you can kill them, and then some monsters split off into two or three children. It's crazy! The second level is one of the worst and that's where you'll spend most of your playtime if you suck at the game like I do. I once counted how many monsters I killed on the second level: 78!!! This isn't just an annoyance. In most of my games I'm unable to kill the Titan King (because he has 12 HP and his minions each have 6), leaving me with one less ability. To top it off, meticulously clearing parts of the level of ice seems to be an optimal play and that's a troubling design. The game might be better on a smaller playing field with a lower rate of spawning monsters.\ \ Having said all that, the game is pretty fun. Getting surrounded can be tense. Choosing which abilities to acquire and when to acquire them is an interesting strategic decision and offers some replayability. Choosing when to deploy them is a never ending tactical problem. The game will appeal more to those with a lot of patience. 3 - Very good idea and well done game. Balance could be better, but it's roguelike (a bit weird, yes), it must be challanging.

Innovation

3 - I thought last year's DataQueen introduced some novel concepts but strayed a bit too far from roguelikeness. FireTail makes this integration work much more successfully. It brings in positioning-based abilities which revolve around how you move through the environment, in a way which is related to - but distinct from - DataQueen, and it reinstates some roguelikeness. Very fresh and very original. 3 - There's only one way to say Darren Grey's game is unoriginal: by pointing out that he stole the ideas from Darren Grey. This is definitely an evolution of ideas in DataQueen, but if you ask me, the mechanics here work better and complement the theme much better (ice tiles make quite a bit of sense). And the idea of having a separate ability for for each number of tiles you are surrounded by is very clever. 2 - Heavily inspired by Data Queen, 2013 Gray's entry for 7DRL. And FireTail is more traditional than DQ.

Scope

3 - Devising the implementation of the various abilities is a tall order for one week, and to then also throw in enemies which effectively disrupt your plans to use those abilities makes this very impressive work indeed. 3 - I'm conflicted on scope. On the one hand, the game has fairly static levels and little content besides player and monster abilities. No other progression and no items or anything like that. However, creating all the abilities and balancing them must have been a good bit of work. The thing that pushes it to a 3 is that each level has its own unique boss and its own flavor text. 3 - So big. Maybe it isn't impressive for 'standard' roguelike, but for game made in one week number of traits, abilities, enemies are surprisingly large.

Roguelikeness

2 - I'm going with a 2 on this one. I do consider FireTail a roguelike - certainly more so than its predecessor - but the progression from area to area is linear and thereby loses some of the roguelike feel for me. 2 - There is a lot of tactical positioning, but the game falls a bit short on procedural content. The only procedural generation is the ice and since that's destructible, you always feel like you are playing in the same rectangle. 2 - Roguelike spirit with non-roguelike mechanics.

I've come to associate Darren Grey's 7DRL entries with three things: hexes, the T-Engine, and trying out unorthodox ideas which we never see in other roguelikes. FireTail exemplifies this style and I'd say it's the apex of Darren's craft so far. It's certainly one of the standout entries from this year. \ \ My first play of FireTail was disappointing. I didn't really get it. I didn't understand how to attack enemies (you can't at first) and even once I picked up an offensive ability I found the display puzzling. The ability's name at the bottom of the screen lights up when you can use it, but it's not clear HOW you use it. I was frustrated. I ended up just avoiding everything, dashing for the exit from each area. Whether by luck or nimbleness of movement I got surprisingly far like that, just bypassing each area's boss entirely. I didn't even realise there were bosses around, I just ran and wondered why I wasn't finding any extra abilities. \ \ With repeated plays I began to get it. The game tells you, I just didn't wrap my head around it until I'd seen it a few times. FireTail's core mechanic is one of those things best learned by seeing it in action rather than by reading about it. You find one offensive ability near the start of the game, and as a side effect the ability sets one hex behind you on fire as you move. This is your 'fire tail'. You can move freely between the firey hexes - an idea returning from last year's DataQueen (though some later enemies interfere with this somewhat). When two hexes (including your current one) are on fire, you can use the first ability by bumping an enemy. Subsequent abilities, gained by defeating more powerful boss monsters in each area, require higher numbers of burning hexes in order to activate, and they seem to need them in a specific pattern. \ \ This is FireTail's strongest point. Behind the impressive gloss and smooth control, the gameplay is a tense, thoughtful test of tactical movement. Enemies teleport away, barricade themselves with ice, or dislodge you from your hex. Movement and positioning are crucial to playing effectively, and the enemies will do everything they can to disrupt your plans. It can be very tough at times, and patience is needed to chip away at some of the powerful bosses surrounded by hordes of minions, but it's just the right sort of challenge. \ \ It's not without its flaws though. Earlier I said that some abilities seem to need fire hexes in a certain pattern. I said \"seem\" because this is very unclear. The ability name lights up when it's useable, as I mentioned, but *how* it's useable is more opaque. So far just bumping an enemy has worked for activation, but the ability screen mentions that some are activated just by waiting. Which ones? I have no idea. What patterns are needed for activation and why? I don't know. The game doesn't say, at least not that I've seen. \ \ This need for clearer information on the use of abilities is a frustrating flaw but not a fatal one. Perhaps it's even conscious design choice, though based on the 'activation method' column which is populated entirely by 'nil' I suspect it's an oversight. FireTail is very much worth playing despite this occasional frustration, and it's certainly one of the strongest entries this year. Just expect it to tire your brain after a while! FireTail plays much like Darren Grey's previous game DataQueen. You move on a hex grid and can only die when surrounded by enemies. This sounds easy, but enemies spawn very rapidly, often faster than you can kill them.\ \ The theme is somewhat Narniaesque. You play a fire spirit in a world of eternal winter. It didn't sound like a great idea when I first heard about it, but the theme is implemented very well. Each level has its own boss and an accompanying boss/level description that is well written.\ \ The game excels in its unique ability system. Are you ready to be DAZZLED? Well, buckle up. While moving, your previous steps generate fire tiles which decay over time. On any given turn, you will be surrounded by 0-6 of these fire tiles. You can acquire (by killing optional bosses) up to 7 abilities that each correspond to a certain number of surrounding fire tiles. The really interesting part is that the power and ease of use of each ability corresponds to *when* you decide to choose that ability. Wrapping your head around which abilities to choose and how to activate them takes some time.\ \ FireTail has tough tactical gameplay, great controls, a clean UI, and excellent sprites. It's one of the must-plays this year. FireTail is sort of Data Queen's succesor. It's indicated by used engine, design of game and spiritually close game mechanics. In comparision with atecessor FireTail looks good. Graphics are better, mechanics is more interesting, abilities are more varied, game is more polished. Only main goal is less interesting.

SEVEN CELL

Completeness

3 - Is a complete game that accomplishes the goal it set out to. 3 - Everything ran smoothly and without problem. 2 - This game is very playable. however it doesn't have a lot of functionality beyond the game. There is a help screen at the beginning, but after you start the game there doesn't seem to be a way to view it again. I prefer to have some in game help to refer to. The game shows your best score for each session, but sadly doesn't save it between sessions.

Aesthetics

3 - Simple but effective graphics. Could use an increase in size maybe, and in my browser the screen was all the way at the top left, which was a bit distracting. 3 - Amazing in it simplicity. 2 - The tiles and presentation are nice. One suggestion would be to center the game window in the center of the browser window so it's not pushed up in the far left corner of my screen by default.

Fun

3 - Very fun, with deep, challenging mechanics. I will probably play this game more on my own time. 3 - While I won't call it a roguelike it is the best game I have played so far except maybe the space marine one. 3 - Very interesting and challenging gameplay. It took a while for me to really grasp how to survive longer than a few moves, but when it clicked I found the game quite fun to play. Gameplay length is short enough for coffee breaks, and the fail/retry cycle is quick and painless. Highly recommended.

Innovation

3 - Interesting mechanics that I personally haven't seen before. The isolation mechanic combined with the glyph-making mechanic gives a unique gameplay experience. 3 - I haven't seen these mechanics put out in quite this fashion before. 3 - Several really cool ideas to bring to the RL table. Shifting entire rows and columns of the dungeon, along with the monsters in those rows is mind bending and would be interesting to see even in a more standard dungeon crawl. The rule for killing enemies is a fantastic alternative to standard combat.

Scope

2 - Not super ambitious in scope or content, but does what it does very well. 3 - The shear simplicity of design makes it feel like the concept has been polished over a long period of time. Technically the programming of this game would fit into 7 days easily but the rest feels beyond it. 2 - The most ambitious aspect of this game is it's innovative ruleset, which works remarkable well.

Roguelikeness

3 - I'm going to call this a true RL, even though it is possibly closer to a puzzle game. It has permadeath, procedural generation and cell based movement. Interesting use of RL mechanics in a fairly non-RL game. 1 - In no way is it a roguelike, but that is okay. 2 - Survival is often more important than scoring, which is an aspect of roguelikes that's rarely really mimicked well in 7DRL.

A fun, challenging, interesting puzzle game. The isolation mechanic combined with the glyph mechanic means the player has to strike a good balance between just staying alive and trying to get points from the glyphs. Very well designed. For those interested you can view my entire time playing this game on my Youtube channel at the following address - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY0M0rupyeY Borrows a lot from roguelikes and mashes them into a compelling puzzler about altering the dungeon to defeat enemies and gain score. Oh an it takes place in a 7 x 7 grid, this game is amazingly minimalistic and extremely good.

Dead Blinger

Completeness

3 - Game is complete. Feels like a lot of polish went into this, especially the little sounds and visual effects. 3 - Nothing major was missing (nor even minor things). 3 - I didn't find anything wrong with it nor bump into any bugs.

Aesthetics

3 - Looks great. No knocks for ASCII because this is a roguelike challenge! Another great-looking ROT.js game. Controls are very intuitive and spelled out nicely below. 3 - Despite being minimalist, the UI was very effective at providing useful information. 2 - It has a nice flow to it and looks decent to me.

Fun

3 - Yes! This game is so much fun. After this review I am going to go back and play some more and try to get that damned dragon. 2 - This was a fun game. Nothing that I would spend days playing, but I wanted to try again after each death. That’s a sign of a good RL. 2 - The twist is has is quite interesting and worth playing though not quite at the level where I would have completely missed out if I hadn't played it.

Innovation

2 - There are some very interesting tactics that are brought out by the overall game design. They mainly consist of running away, but doing in an intelligent manner, and utilizing your resources effectively. Nothing super new but Dead Blinger is a very good implementation of many under-utilized ideas. 2 - None of the mechanics are new, but they are uncommon in RLs. Their inclusion here makes the entry more innovative than most RLs. 3 - The goals and mechanics put in are completely different from the usual while the game still keeps its roguelike nature which is somewhat rarer then not.

Scope

2 - A very solid 7DRL attempt. Not overly ambitious but in a good way. The perfect coffeebreak roguelike game. 2 - It’s a short game, but there’s still plenty of depth to it. 2 - This fits into what I have come to expect from a 7drl though on the top of that pile admittedly.

Roguelikeness

3 - Definitely a roguelike. So much dying! And the tactical movement/combat is top-notch. 3 - It’s procedurally generated with permadeath and very tactical. That’s primarily what a RL is to me. 3 - This is a roguelike through and through even with the interesting twist to the way you play.

A great traditional roguelike with lots of polish and some very novel mechanics. You play as a treasure imp, tasked with 'pimping' all of the monsters in the dungeon with gold. This inevitably pisses them off, and with only one hit point, the game is very much a game of stealth, misdirection, and tactical movement. One of the best 7DRL entries I have played so far! Plays in the browser so there's no excuse to not go play it right now. This was a fun little game. The main goal of this game is to bump into monsters once and then run away. This makes for a tactically focused play style, even before you add the monster mechanics (e.g., some monsters will stun you rather than kill you). The monster mechanics and spells adds the depth that makes this feel like a RL despite the short gameplay time; short assuming that you win of course, which I have yet to. I keep going for a high score rather than a plain victory. Death also encourages me to try again, which is a good thing for a RL. None of the monster or spell mechanics are new, in my opinion, but they are unusual and work very well together here. The theme certainly is new though, and is definitely appropriate for a 7DRL. The UI is very clean and provides all of the information needed. There is also the ability to look, but it uses the mouse (and that important fact doesn’t seem to be mentioned anywhere). This is a very solid and complete entry into the contest, and is an excellent example of what you can do for a 7DRL. For those interested you can view my entire time playing this game on my Youtube channel at the following address - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nyGLwBujYg

Here Be Dragons 2

Completeness

2 - Though it generally feels polished, I have occasionally run into either graphical bugs or placeholders, I'm not sure which. 2 - A few things appear incomplete. Several crew abilities either do nothing or have no indication that they are doing anything (e.g. the Angler who is supposed to catch fish). Monsters and combat are so simple that I'm convinced more was planned. In game instructions are sorely needed as well. 3 - Complete, debugged and polished game.

Aesthetics

3 - Pleasant visual style and information is about as clear as you could ask for. 3 - Some people have said they prefer the look of the original. Those people are wrong. The small scale pixel art in this game is BEAUTIFUL. It's very simple yes, but it's expertly executed. A little green and purple and suddenly I'm looking at a convincing Mystical Thicket. Subtle animations and effects are great. I think the previously seen \"map\" tiles are really good, probably the best attempt I have seen (e.g. better than Curious Expedition). Controls are pretty good, though you will be clicking a lot. Also, I would much prefer right click over ctrl-click for monster descriptions. Would be nice to be able to click on and move to unexplored tiles too. 3 - Pretty nice graphic tiles, smooth movement and good controls.

Fun

3 - Definitely worth playing. Feels less deep than its predecessor due to the removal of the party mechanic, but actually contains more stuff. 3 - Lots of fun if you like exploration games. The distribution of monsters can sometimes aggravate you (spawning next to 3 tough monsters), but you can usually overcome. 3 - Very entertainment game, a bit casual, but I had a lot of pleasure with playing.

Innovation

2 - Not groundbreaking but does one or two things, like the landscape features, which mark it out. 2 - One challenge in designing an exploration game is rewarding the player for actually exploring. This baked right into the game in the most fundamental way with the map% -> HP. Good idea! The telescope is also a nice mechanic. 2 - '1' or '2'. Then '2'. Because goal, because allies.

Scope

3 - It does feel very well designed and balanced for just 7 days. 3 - Though many parts of the game are quite shallow, this is still a surprising effort because of the plethora of characters, monsters (even though they mostly all behave the same), and various biomes all with unique art and sounds. 2 - More than I expected from 7DRL. Upper limit of '2', but still not '3'.

Roguelikeness

2 - Adds more of a survival element than was present in the previous year. Still, it doesn't quite capture the whole of the roguelike feel, for me. 2 - There is some basic resource management, hunger clock, and you'll experience tight situations, yet there's simply not enough complexity to be considered a true roguelike. 3 - Roguelike. Maybe roguelite. More roguelike then roguelite. Then '3'.

The first Here Be Dragons made my top 5 7DRLs of 2014 so I was eager to try this sequel. HBD2 is to HBD1 as Skyrim is to Oblivion - larger-feeling, more streamlined, but less RPG-ish. The improvements are mostly for the better. The slightly fiddly party management has been replaced by just picking up party members as you explore, and losing them at the end of each area (unless you find enough loot to entice them to stay). A few features have been added, such as ruins and telescopes, which bestow minor but welcome benefits as you roam. There's also a hunger system driving you forward in true roguelike style, and that seems to be the main danger in this game. At times I miss the RPG trappings of the previous game - party management made it feel deeper than maybe it was - and I actually preferred the original visual style, but in many ways HBD2 is a progression while still sticking with the same essential core gameplay. Worth a play. Here Be Dragons 2 is a fun little exploration game with amazing pixel art. In fact, it's the best looking 7DRL I've seen this year.\ \ The game has an interesting mechanic that encourages you to explore each level as thoroughly as possible: the amount of the map you explore in one level is your starting health in the next. You encounter monsters, which can be incredibly devastating and your health (a representation of your health, supplies, and energy) continuously decreasing as you move around. This simple exploration mechanic sets the tone for the whole game because you need health to explore and you need to explore to get health. If you do poorly on a single level, you've likely crippled yourself and will die shortly.\ \ I was sometimes frustrated by the randomness. Though the combat is described as \"deterministic\ the number of monsters you run into is often luck based. Since two monster encounters can take off half your health Interesting game. Scope on exploration is rather unusual in roguelikes, and this aspect is brilliant done. HBD2 use nice and eye-catching, colorful (but not infantile) tileset. Controls are ok, but there is hex grid, not typical roguelike's grid. Player can join allies, fight enemies and explore terrain - discover castles, camps and others. Sounds trivial, but it is made in such a way that makes you want to play.

Into the Darkness

Completeness

3 - The game feels complete and I haven't encountered any bugs. 3 - Bug-free, feels feature-complete, though could still do with a bit more polish and balancing. In particular some of the abilities are next to useless, such as those triggered against multiple opponents. 2 - Very playable and almost bug free. My first run lasted two hours, so it could use a save system.

Aesthetics

2 - Dungeon is a little too sterile I think. Also some enemies are too dark for a black background. 3 - Simple and fluid aesthetics and controls. The ability selection has the nice feature of previewing your attack/defence values to help you plan your round. 2 - Mostly easy to look at. A few monsters are in dark blue, against the black of the floor this makes them hard to spot. The mouse driven controls are welcome, easy to use and make sense. There is an issue with clicking to move onto stairs which forces you to use the keyboard.

Fun

3 - It's fun for sure. You have to think a lot during each turn of combat. It's quite satisfying to pull some good combo and kill dangerous enemy without taking damage. 2 - Combat provides a really interesting mental challenge to stack the right card abilities to kill the enemy most efficiently. However it also gets very tiring after a while, and in particular can feel like a struggle just to get any damage against some enemies when you have a bad hand. It could do with some windshield enemies to help break the pace, or perhaps just do with being a shorter game. There's some interesting strategy in saving up certain cards for bosses, though there's also so many overpowered combos that the bosses offer little challenge. In general I never felt properly threatened by the game as HP recovery is so easy. Well worth playing, but it needs more work to meet its full potential. 3 - Very high marks here for pure enjoyment of the card combining system. I find pulling of awesome combos to get by is fun and gratifying. Each encounter is meaningful and potentially run ending. The levels are not too big, thus encounter density is excellent and downtime is kept reasonable.

Innovation

3 - It's very interesting and unique combat system. Different enemies require different approach. And positioning is also important in some cases. 2 - The card mechanic I've seen in other games, but this is the first time I've seen it applied to a roguelike. I'm not sure it works that well with the usual roguelike pace, and the implementation here takes little advantage of roguelike tactical positioning, but it still makes for an interesting twist. 3 - The deep system of combining seemingly simple abilities in specific order to make each turn during combat meaningful and different is inspiring.

Scope

2 - It's impressive entry, but not out of 7drl scope. 2 - A good range of player abilities, but the dungeons and monsters mostly feel samey. A bit more individuality to monsters and bosses could have pushed this higher. 2 - Hits all the bases while keeping its unique twist at the forefront. Good variety of abilities which synergize in interesting ways.

Roguelikeness

3 - It's roguelike for sure. 3 - Classic turn-based roguelike style with a bit of a twist in combat. However the geometry of the levels ends up having almost no factor in combat, since most of it is 1v1. 3 - No doubt about it. It's a roguelike!

Combination of tactical roguelike combat with elements CCG. There is no deck building, the deck is fixed, but there are things like discarding and shuffle. Very interesting twist is that many of cards have no value of their own, but in combination with another card they might suddenly become very powerful. The only type of cards that, I think, is missing is mobility/repositioning. There are some cards that are affected by number of enemies that are surrounding you, but it's very hard to gather them, at least without taking a lot of damage. Also, if you are locked in a corridor from, you have no other choice but to fight. In this game you can't just bump into enemies, you have to play cards from your hand to deal damage and defend. You can play up to three cards at once, and the way they interact makes for some interesting combos. Should you play the armour-piercing card with the double effective damage card to one-shot the enemy? Or swap its high defence value for your own and play the card that deals counter damage equal to your defence? Each turn of combat ends up with some strained arithmetic and logic order problems. This is compelling, but also very intense, and when applied to every small monster can become tiresome. I'd love to see a system like this but with the intense combat limited more to difficult enemies, whilst regular enemies can be dealt with more quickly. Fantastically fun and innovative, this game has a great combat system and no throwaway encounters.

Lost Valkyrie

Completeness

3 - A very good amount of content for a 7DRL. Plenty of enemies, items, spells, etc. 2 - The game is more or less complete. But there are balancing issues and at least one critical bug. 3 - Finished game. And polished. And perfected. One little bug doesn't change anything.

Aesthetics

2 - Standard, functional ASCII 2 - The game looks more or less standard for a libtcod game. Controls are slick.But it's really really hard to see anything when wearing cursed belt. 3 - Very nice old-style looking ASCII graphics. Maybe not very beautiful, but just cool.

Fun

3 - I enjoyed playing this a fair amount, and it's the sort of RL I will probably come back to, so I can figure out what the various items and enemies do. Could be a little bit arbitrarily difficult at times, when you run into a very deadly enemy with a bunch of other enemies around early on in the game. 3 - The game is fun. It's that kind of game where you die and think 'Ohh... Come on! I won't make this stupid mistake next time.'. And after each 'last time' you think 'ok, this one will be REALLY LAST TIME'. 3 - I like that whole game. Absorbing mechanics (ranged combat priority - with spear), excellent enemies with special attacks (herald of storm can wreck walls and push PC by cold winds), interesting theme of game...

Innovation

2 - Nothing too wildly new here. I like the simplicity of not having to keep track of stats and inventory, while still retaining a hardcore RL flavour. 2 - Automatic spear attack one tile away is very nice finding. Other that that 'glass cannon' theme was explored in 7drls before. 1 - Definitely not innovative. Maybe the general idea is quite original, but the gameplay has not.

Scope

2 - 2 - Very solid 7drl entry. 3 - Exacly what I expected in 7DRLs. And more. A lot of different enemies, very atmospheric design.

Roguelikeness

3 - 100% roguelike 3 - Genuine roguelike, despite minimalism. 3 - Roguelike. Almost archetypal.

This is a fun, straightforward RL with a good amount of challenge. It takes the spear throwing mechanic of Hoplite and applies it to a more traditional roguelike, to good effect. I ran into a few game crashing bugs, one where moving made it crash, and another that occurred a few times where pressing 't' made it crash. Other than that, an enjoyable experience. Lost Valkyrie is all about positioning and tactics. At first it feels completely unbalanced. You die a lot. But the more you play, the more you learn monsters and items, the deeper you can descend. The only complain about this game is lack of visual feedback on ranged attacks of monsters, Sometimes you just don't understand what and how killed you. Briefly. One of best entries in 7DRLC2015. Very stylish (and oldschool) look, a lot different enemies, pretty nice story... additional simple but interesting mechanics associated with the use of the spear. Well-balanced. Don't miss this game!

RUNNER_PUNCHER

Completeness

3 - As polished as you could ask for. I haven't noticed any bugs or missing features, and although the game is brutally punishing it doesn't feel imbalanced. 1 - The game is obviously incomplete. It works, you can win it. But something really essential is missing. Things weren't put together to form a solid game experience. 2 - The game feels complete and relatively polished. The mouse over help for items and monsters is a fine feature. One small issue I did have was that occasionally mouse clicks seem to do nothing the first time and I would have to click a second time for my move to register.

Aesthetics

2 - I'm on the fence about awarding a 2 or a 3 here. The look is fine - enemies are easily distinguished by colour as well as letter designation, environmental effects such as webs are clear, the UI is reasonably simple, and the control scheme supports the gameplay well. There are a few reservations though - sometimes it can be hard to spot your @ when you enter a new level, it's not always clear whether an enemy has died or teleported. Small niggles but they prevent a 3 I think. 2 - The game looks nice. Ability to play with mouse is a plus. But playing with keyboard is really cumbersome. Which is a minus. 2 - Its not bad to look at. However, the whole level is shown on screen so the tiles are smaller than I would like. Some resolution options or zoom would be nice to have. I had no trouble controlling the game for the most part.

Fun

3 - I'm glad I had chance to play this game. Is there any stronger endorsement? 2 - I had some fun until I figured out the main flaw. I'm not entirely sure if it is winnable with different strategy. 3 - Very fun to play. There is a bit of learning curve at the beginning, but once you figure it out it gets real fast and fun to play. The difficulty can be steep, and unfortunately there are some unfair deaths, like the time I was ascending after collecting the amulet, and ended my turn right next to a newly spawned enemy. However I'll overlook it because the game is a fast play with a reasonable 7drl length (5 floors down, 5 floors up for 10 total).

Innovation

3 - I'm always wary of declaring that anything is \"fundamentally new\" but I've never seen anything like Runner Puncher attempted before, certainly in the roguelike sphere. 2 - Technically main point of mechanics it's not very different from generic roguelike where character has 'boost of superhaste' and 'club of megaknockback'. But attempt to create variety of enemies with abilities defined by suffixes/postfixes counts as innovation I think. 3 - Big ups for taking the diablo style item generation and applying it to the monsters. There are a few archetypes: archer, knights, wizards, etc that are modified by a prefix such as acid, poison, web, and others. The modifier determines what kind of damage they do in addition to what happens when they die. Acid monsters for instance will leave a puddle of acid behind when you (or another monster!) kills them. This makes each game really feel different from the last. another notable aspect is that picking up an item immediately ends your turn, which makes items into a new type of obstacle when you are just running for your life to avoid a pack of archers or such.

Scope

3 - Another borderline. It didn't make me think \"This was done in seven days? How?\" like some entries do, but the variety of enemy effects and they way they've been carefully designed to impact the efficacy of the core mechanic shows an attention to detail and, presumably, playtesting which is surprising in a 7DRL. This snags the game a 3 here. 2 - Looks like 7drl deadline has cut game development process somewhere in the middle. What's left is quite impressive, but not really out of 7drl scope. 3 - The innovative monster generation system is ambitious and works great. The item generation is less successful but works well enough to provide a good amount of interest.

Roguelikeness

3 - Definitely a roguelike. Unforgiving, merciless, full of tension and desperation from its first moments, and laden with agonising tactical decisions as you try to salvage some semblance of victory from a situation which is rapidly spiralling out of control. It might be hugely unconventional in its mechanics, but its spirit is pure roguelike. 3 - It's roguelike for sure. 3 - Feels very roguelike. There's no hunger, but to counter this no area is safe as monsters spawn near you all the time, so you've gotta stay on the move. You'll have to make a lot of decisions as to when to grab gold and items or when to just dive deeper.

A surprise gem! Initially I was unimpressed with Runner Puncher - you run, you punch, whatever. But there's a lot of tactical variety and roguelike ferocity just beneath the surface. \ \ The control scheme is odd at first. \"Why can't I just walk around normally?\" I wondered, frustratedly. Well there's a good reason. Runner Puncher is all about movement. You don't stand still or confine yourself to a small area when doing battle. There's no luring enemies into bottlenecks in order to wear them down one at a time. No, Runner Puncher is full of movement, and everything affects that. \ \ The control is simple but seems odd at first. Using either the mouse or the keyboard (I favour the latter) you drag a line of movement out from yourself to a destination point. When you either click or hit Enter, you move towards that point. If nothing interrupts you, you'll get all the way or most of the way to that point. It feels cumbersome at first but once you begin to get the point of the game, it makes sense. \ \ There are no other controls to speak of. Items you walk over equipped automatically, whether they're good or bad. Many of the effects of the items come down to more than a boost to defence or damage - instead they add to your movement, or slow you down but prevent knockback, or various other effects which impact the way you move around the levels. \ \ Even enemies are geared towards this aspect. Some teleport or pepper you with arrows, forcing you to move in a direction other than the one you wanted, but the most galling foes are the ones which have 'on death' effects. These include knockback, pools of acid, and poison touch. Much as an enemy might trouble you while it's alive, it might be more dangerous to actually kill it! \ \ These traits seem to be assigned more or less randomly to base enemy types which their own powers - e.g. wizards can teleport, but Embiggening Wizards teleport around while alive and then enlarge nearby monsters on death. An Acid Wizard, on the other hand, will teleport while alive and then leave a pool of acid on death. This means that the exact enemies featured in the game very from one run to the next and always keep you on your toes. Simply moving your cursor over an enemy will list its health and powers, so make sure you check them out. It's vital to know what you're up against if you want to make informed decisions. \ \ And therein lies the roguelikeness. More than the ASCII visuals, the turn based movement or even the fierce difficulty, Runner Puncher is a roguelike to its core because every decision has weight and meaning, and the more you know about your situation, the better decisions you will make. \ \ I expected to dislike Runner Puncher. I was mistaken. One of the standout entries this year, and well worth your time to play. At first Runner puncher overwhelms. Unusual mechanics, enemies with variety of abilities, many items, money, shop. Main character is fast like a wind and his punches are strong like an anvil. And brutal difficulty. But the more you play ... Here should be 'the more you learn'. But unfortunately ... the more flaws you see. There are money to collect (with risk!). But shop offers shitty items. But if you stop collecting money then you'll stop fighting enemies. It's safer and faster to just run past them. If you stop fighting enemies then you don't care about gear with attack/defense. The only item in the game that has value is boots with +2 to running. And suddenly all this different enemies are loosing their diversity. I won the game without loosing single hp or killing single enemy. Fun game with a lot of enemy variety due to a neat monster generation system that makes each new playthrough feel different from the last.

Fern Gully 3: Hexxus-quest

Completeness

3 - It seems as though all the components of the game are here, and I didn’t encounter any bugs. I don’t know about a victory screen since I never got that far, but restarting after death is easy enough. 3 - I had no problems using Firefox to play the game. Not a bug nor snag to be seen. 2 - Game is fairly complete. Could be more instructions for player and should be standalone build, but there are little things. That which lowers the score is 'underdevelopment' feeling and lack of polish.

Aesthetics

2 - Minimalistic but effective. My only complaint is that I often missed messages, and without a way to see a listing of past messages I could only guess what they were. Important messages are rare though. 2 - There are some niggling things which prevent me from giving it a 3, so close yet so far. 2 - Not very beautiful, but very clear and roguelike-ish. Maybe I would like give '3', but the lack of walking the diagonals is unacceptable for me in roguelikes.

Fun

2 - If it was a bit easier I would give this a 3, but it is definitely a fun game. Some may complain it’s unfair, but I would disagree: you just have to be very aware of your surroundings and act carefully. The later levels are very resource tight. 3 - An amazing idea which was implemented in a satisfying way. Would have completely missed out if I hadn't played this game. 2 - Entertainmental. Gamplay is simple and rather shallow, but interesting mechanics of HP/Mana system attracted player to the game for a longer time.

Innovation

3 - Having your character’s attacks, and the strength of those attacks, being dependent on the surrounding environment is very innovative in my mind. Since you also destroy the environment in the process, this makes for interesting and very challenging gameplay. 3 - The mana system that this game uses is quite an interesting change from the usual sorts. In fact if not for the Dark Sun setting in D&D I would say it was completely new to me. 2 - Not very innovative - gamplay is very standard but the previously mentioned mechanics is something rather unusual in the roguelikes.

Scope

2 - There is plenty here for a fun experience. 2 - I noticed some things which point out there where time constraints that had to be held to but the right choices where made. This is what I expect from a 7DRL. 2 - Exacly what I expect from 7DRL's. Content is sufficient - primary stuff and main game concepts are made. It's enough for game made in seven days.

Roguelikeness

3 - This game has all of the necessary features of a Roguelike. 3 - This is without a doubt a pure traditional roguelike. 3 - Definitely roguelike.

Hexxus Quest is quite a challenging game. It has the basic RL premise (get to the bottom of a dungeon, find some item, bring it back) but the main innovation is that all of your attacks require mana. You get mana by drawing it out of the surrounding plant life, which means the strength of your attacks (and even the ability to attack) depends on having plants around you. But attacking kills those plants, so as you go through the dungeon you regularly exhaust your mana sources. Combine this with plenty of rooms without plants to begin with (in the later levels at least), enemies that can swarm you or prevent you from using mana, and you have a fun yet difficult game. At best, I got to depth 4 and just could not proceed further; I haven’t figured out the best tactics for it yet. For those interested you can view my entire time playing this game on my YouTube channel at the following address - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcqcT1-adbE First impression was bad. Fern Gully 3 is only on-line game, without possibility to play it locally. Palette is too similar to Rogue's and lack of corridors is a bit odd. To make matters worse, in this game impossible is diagonal movement. But the longer I played the more I liked it - mainly due to the interesting mechanics. Combat is based on draining mana from tiles beside player. When PC drains mana, the grass withers away, trees are falling, etc. Very nice idea. And good, simple game with simple but good mechanics.

MALLEUS GOBLINFICARIUM

Completeness

3 - Didn't encounter bugs though I was initially tempted to think there were several bugs because I didn't understand what was happening. Very polished. The addition of a nice tutorial is a huge win. 3 - A few minor bugs, but game is complete. 3 - Even the 7DRL version was very playable and complete. There's a tutorial even.

Aesthetics

3 - The look of the game is great. I love the dancing sprites with very tiny resolution pixel art. The icons are all very simple, but they work. Controls are nice. The use of the mouse wheel for selecting targets is appreciated. I wish I could see all the different types of targets at once. It's a bit annoying to have to scroll through all of them to see, for instance, when face stabbing is available. 2 - Simple graphic, based on boards, but everything is clear and aesthetic. Control is good. 3 - I really like the minimal look and the way the UI was laid out. The controls worked perfectly.

Fun

3 - Once you get a handle on what's happening, it is very very fun. Initially it's confusing. The tutorial really helps mitigate the confusion, but there's just so much going on, especially the enemy actions that happen automatically. For the longest time I didn't consider that my opponent could also use stamina and I didn't always catch the split second animation where their stamina is added in.\ \ The gameplay is very challenging, but I was able to beat it after a few runs. You've got resource management to deal with and the wounds you can take are serious liabilities. At first I was annoyed by how most turns ended in a parry for both parties, but that's really the point. You've got to solve the puzzle of how to get around the parrying. \ \ I don't expect a lot of replayability with this one (though with the new version the developer is working on that may change). 3 - Gameplay is great! It doesn't looks like roguelike, but is full of roguelike's spirit. Game is well-balanced, but loot issue is too random. 2 - I had a moderate amount of fun with this. It's fun for a bit, but a too cerebral for me, it being more of a puzzler than anything.

Innovation

3 - Definitely very innovative. The deterministic dice system is a neat idea. The wounds, with their dramatic effect on your abilities, are quite unique as a mechanic. Drafting is also a great mechanic that should be seen more often. 2 - Hard to say. On one hand, it is hack and slash and no more. On other hand, mechanics of MG is very interesting and uncommon, especially in roguelike world. 2 - I like the wounds system in the game, and think something like that might be adapted for a standard roguelike.

Scope

2 - While the systems are very complex, it's not a big game. There are a handful of monsters to beat and that's it. 2 - Sufficient scope. Enough content, but games like this needs MOAR content. And more. And more, more, more. 2 - About as ambitious and content filled as I would expect for a 7DRL.

Roguelikeness

2 - Plays like a board game. Even the developer admits it's nothing like a traditional roguelike in the tutorial. I'm cool with that. It does what it does just fine without needing tactical positioning or maps. Still, there is enough here to easily call it roguelikelike. 2 - Roguelike. A bit weird, but roguelike. 2 - Depending on your luck, you might get some really good item at the very beginning of the game that gives a nice advantage early on. This feeling is exactly like rogue. The rest of the gameplay, not so much. But it does capture some of that \"every game is a new adventure\" spirit.

Let's cut to the chase: MALLEUS GOBLINFICARIUM is the best 7DRL I have played this year. You should stop reading and go play it now. The basic idea of the game is that you augment four stats (accuracy, speed, damage, defense) with dice, which are drafted between you and your opponent. Additionally, you can use your limited stamina to augment these stats and you can use items in various ways. Calling them \"dice\" is a bit of a misnomer because they typically aren't rolled. Instead they function more like flat bonuses. The draft is such a cool mechanic because you have to consider not only what you need but what your opponent needs You'll often take a die to keep it out of your opponent's hands. I was very impressed that the AI was always smart enough to take the dice that I *didn't* want them to take. There are enough overlaying systems in MALLEUS GOBLINFICARIUM (dice, stamina, items, wounds) that the combat is always interesting. It'll be confusing at first, but it's well worth diving into. MALLEUS GOBLINFICARIUM is a great game. It was a sort of surprise, because when I saw screenshots I though that this is not roguelike. Also capitalize title doesn't encouraged me. Fortunately I decided to play this game. First conspicuous thing is graphics. It doesn't looks like roguelike, but has strong roguelike spirit. Based on boards, reveal most interesting mechanics which I spotted in 7DRL2015. It reminds modified d20 system. Player has some 'start-dice' (accuracy, strenght, speed, defense) what depends on weapon in hand. Next dice for draft are randomly drawn. Each player choose dice and fight begins. Is possible to aim different parts of the body of the opponent, what gives various effects (for example, when you harm enemies chest you can re-roll enemy die). It very innovative and absorbing system, especially in roguelike. I recommend MG and I regret that I cannot give better mark for this game. Very interesting duels that combine puzzle solving with some very strict resource management. It's even slightly roguelike!

Rollgue

Completeness

3 - Very polished and as far as I can tell it's feature complete. 2 - The game feels quite complete but runs badly on my computer. 2 - For the most part complete and bug free. There are some collision problems that coupled with the controls, which I rant about in the aesthetics section, make the game feel unpolished.

Aesthetics

3 - Good. The rooms are a bit drab but that's a very small criticism in a genre which primarily represents itself through punctuation. Although controlling the die takes a bit of getting used to, the UI does everything it can to make things accessible. 3 - Oh my goodness. This game has it in spades. The look and feel of it are sublime, if only it would run better on my computer 2 - The graphics are beautiful and support the theme of being a little die in a plastic model dungeon. Sounds are well implemented and the music track is nice and unobtrusive. For a game that relies heavily on camera control, there didn't appear to be a way to change it from the default controls, which are INVERTED. The controls for moving/rolling the dice work OK, but combined with the absolutely wrong camera control make the game near unplayable. Luckily there are keyboard bindings to move and turn the camera in a sane way.

Fun

2 - Definitely worth trying out for a novel interpretation of the dungeon crawl theme. Some moments can be vaguely frustrating - there's no reason for doors to be as fiddly as they are - but it's generally an enjoyable, if shallow, experience. 3 - I would have missed out if I hadn't played it. While it didn't run well for me it was still worth my time. 2 - There's enough fun to be had to recommend checking it out, but it didn't last long before I wanted to stop. Collision problems cause your die to move in many unexpected ways. This game makes me feel like I'm suffering through QWOP or Surgeon Simulator again. Like those games, there is not much to keep me playing more than a playthrough or two (for this review I had to play for at least an hour. Which I diligently did while counting the minutes until I could be free).

Innovation

3 - It's not just the novelty of using a die as a character, it's the way that's been implemented - retaining 'bump to attack' while also blending it with dice rolling and attempting to give the player some degree of agency in the roll. 3 - I haven't seen this sort of thing before. Not saying it hasn't been done but it feels fresh to me. 2 - Roguelikes in general don't do much with physics as an aspect in the gameplay. I think using the physics engine as a gameplay device has merit, but unfortunately I can't recommend this implementation as bringing something fundamentally new to the table, but it is a nice twist.

Scope

3 - It's hard to say how big a task it was designing this, but I will say that I've seen far less polished games developed in far longer. It almost feels like a Steam game. I'll say it just about scrapes a 3 here. 2 - If the game had run better on my computer it would rate a 3 but you can't optimize everything in only 7 days. 2 - There's a fairly large dungeon to explore with a few room types.

Roguelikeness

2 - Very much a roguelike-like. It doesn't have the depth, thought, control, tactics, or decision consequence of a roguelike but it does make for a pleasant enough little dungeon crawl which references some roguelike ideas here and there. 3 - If you strip away all the glitz and such it really comes down to exploring a dungeon and bumping into monsters to kill them. While the look and feel might not instantly scream roguelike it definitely is. 2 - Firmly in the roguelike-like category.

Rollgue is a dice-based dungeon crawl but not in the Hero Quest style of old - this one literally uses (representations of) dice as both the player's character and any monsters encountered within the dungeon. It doesn't try with the theme, either. There aren't orc dice and kobold dice, just your die and then all the others. It's a novelty game through and through but in this case that isn't a criticism. A novelty game can be just fine as long as it's done well. \ \ As far as production goes, Rollgue is very impressive. Visuals and sound are both very good, control is smooth and responsive, and I've yet to run into any bugs. It can be a little frustrating at first because it's not entirely clear how to actually control your die - what makes it leap upward or skid across the floor - but once you get it the game becomes more fun (tip: starting your move-drag on the bottom edge of the die keeps you low, and starting it on the top edge throws you upward). \ \ There isn't a lot of depth here. Rooms are either empty (or almost empty, with maybe a health restoring crystal present) or they contain an enemy/enemies. Like accurate movement, combat took some figuring out because the game doesn't really say anything about it. As far as I can tell, the current attacker has to collide their die with the enemy die, and whatever number they roll is the attack value (from which any armour or debuffs are deducted). If you roll a high number but don't bump the enemy die, it seems you inflict no damage. It's amusing nod to the 'bump to attack' convention of roguelikes. \ \ When it comes down to it, Rollgue is too fickle and superficial to have staying power. Roguelikes do involve a lot of luck, but the art of becoming good at a roguelike is learning how to stack the odds and make the most of your lucky breaks. There's none of that here. You roll a die and hope for the best. The entire appeal of the game is in its novelty rather than its depth of gameplay. \ \ In this case, novelty is enough. Not a long-lasting time investment, it's true, but worth a play to see something different. Rollgue stops just shy of being gimmicky and incorporates enough little nods to the genre to suggest that the developer knew what they were doing. For those interested you can view my entire time playing this game on my Youtube channel at the following address - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr20SLXAxHo All the control frustration of QWOP mashed up with a basic dungeon craw.

Space Hellion

Completeness

3 - No bugs and the game is very clearly well polished. Even the readme is very detailed with a surprisingly elaborate backstory. 3 - Looks complete and quite polished. No bugs encountered. 2 - Complete and relatively bug free. I think there's a bug where the bosses hit you after you kill them, had a few unfair deaths. Sessions tend to last more than 5 minutes, so it would be nice to be able to save/resume the current session.

Aesthetics

3 - I totally love the pixel art. The way the 100% turn based combat is blended with a real time representation is impressive: the levels open with an enemy flying around laying down bullets, your ship rotates as it banks side to side, and everything animates smoothly. The sounds are nice too. I found a hybrid control scheme worked well: mouse to manage the ship settings and use items and keyboard to move. 2 - Pixel art is nice. Position checking of objects could be better. If you aren't sure about position, you have to scan tiles until object in question is highlighted. 2 - I found the look mostly pleasing, reminiscent of the 16 bit era. Due to this however, a nice music track felt missing (no points taken off for lack of, mind you). The controls were well explained and easy to use.

Fun

2 - I could see Hellion being very polarizing. If you're very patient and you want to study all the game's systems and then carefully plan every move, you will love the game. If you want to jump in and kick ass, you're got another thing coming. It is really damn difficult. You can take up to two hits and you're on a very cramped playing field. I never fully understood why, but very often the entire screen (all but perhaps 1 tile) turned into a kill zone and I could not make it to safety. Also, I tended to ignore enemies that were close by because they can't really be destroyed anymore, yet they can also suddenly smash into you or blast you without warning (and you'll grow dependent on having that red warning). I think the 3D is handled in the best way possible, but it's still very time consuming to have to highlight tiles to figure out where enemies *actually are* (not where they appear to be). And the fact that they can just change directions will nilly makes it a bit worse. 2 - It's interesting to play a few times. But then games become too samey. And main difficulty comes from confusion of perception. Checking whole grid each turn is somewhat tedious. 2 - Avoiding bullets and obstacles is fun, and can be rhythmically soothing, although a few inconsistencies arise and I died when depending on the warning marks alone, so its not just rote repetition. There's room for some strategic decisions as to when to channel energy where and when to active/deactivate weapon systems. The perspective takes getting used to and led me to many a stupid death. Sometimes feels like the player ship hinders visibility a bit too much.

Innovation

3 - Just wow. A rail shooter roguelike would be enough, but the way this explores a 3D space yet on a tight 4x4 grid is really cool. I've heard about earlier 3D experiments (EmoSquid) where the third dimension made it absolutely unplayable because of information overload. The 4x4 grid is a great choice because I feel like that's the boundary of how much information can be reasonably processed with the extra dimension involved. 3 - Bringing 3d dimension into roguelike that actually have sense is hard. But this game succeeded. 2 - Takes some nice risks that pay off. Captures the dodge and shoot aspect of the STG very well. Area of denial is often untouched in roguelikes, and this game shows an interesting and clever way to incorporate this mechanic.

Scope

3 - There's a lot here. Multiple levels each with distinct settings. Several items. A fuel/power management system. Bosses. I'm not sure if I should, but I will include the length of the readme as counting towards the scope as well. 3 - It's quite weak 3, but there is definitely more in this game than in your average 7drl. 2 - Not a huge game, but has a fine variety of enemy types and attack patterns.

Roguelikeness

3 - When I heard about Hellion, I assumed it was one of those increasingly common enemies-only-move-when-you-do jobs. No sir. Though there's animation and a real sense of momentum, this game is 100% grid and turn based with discrete time steps. The resource management pushes it over the edge. 2 - It doesn't feel like roguelike, more like roguelike-like. Too few actual choices. 2 - Solid RL-Like.

Hellion is a rails shooter that pulls off several feats. First, it takes a fast paced genre and gives it honest to goodness turn based gameplay (along with a plausible explanation for the turns). Second, it's one of those rare roguelikes played on a three dimensional grid. And it pulls this off better than many that have come before. While you'll be overwhelmed at first, the amount of information presented is actually quite reasonable. The play space is small, just 4x4x16. You're given an overhead \"mini-map\" of sorts that lets you know the horizontal position and depth of enemies, obstacles, and projectiles.\ \ The game is initially confusing. You'll need to read the readme, especially the tips section at the bottom, and play it several times before you have any clue what's going on.\ \ But it's definitely worthwhile to figure out. There are a lot of really neat things to discover: the boss battles, the resource management, the way you *literally* weave in and out of a stream of bullets while firing off a fatal shot that makes you feel at least a little like you're firing into a vulnerable exhaust port.\ \ Hellion is easily one of the standouts of 2015. Play it. Very brave attempt to combine 3d and tactical combat. Result? I'd say - controversial. There are good points and bad points. I think it's hard to fully explore this theme in a 7drl. A solid Roguelike-like that utilizes the staple RL turn based tactical movement while hitting all the marks for close calls and lucky shots in a classic shmup.

The Promised Land

Completeness

3 - Feels very complete. Did not encounter any bugs or obvious missing components. 3 - The game feels more or less complete. No bugs found. 2 - Fairly complete game.

Aesthetics

2 - Looks great but the colors all seemed a bit dark to me, for some reason. Movement controls are no problemo, but the interactive controls were a bit counter-intuitive (or at least not 'roguelike standard' so I had to keep looking them up). 3 - Nice looking ascii art. Level generator is really impressive. River with creeks, bridges. Houses, fences, fields. Looks very nice and natural. 3 - Very aesthetic ascii/unicode graphics, keybinding is intuitive. Nice sense of colours.

Fun

3 - Has a nice feel of impending doom. Grabbing a knife for the first time felt very empowering, which is not something you get from a lot of roguelikes. Theme and extra historical color make all the difference. NPCs are lots of fun as well, and the game does a great job of letting you know what is going on and who is about to make your life miserable. Definitely worth a play through. 2 - It's moderately fun. But the fact that often enemies can see you without you seeing them kills fun factor by a lot. I'd like to see additional stealth options or at least means to distract npc to force him to walk away from the only bridge across river. Sometimes there is no other way, but to fight. And fighting on later levels is almost always game over. 3 - Interesting idea/plot, good implementation and pleasant gameplay.

Innovation

2 - Nothing incredibly new here, gameplaywise but extra points for using a strong theme and implementing it in a respectful and meaningful way. 1 - Other than theme it's pretty generic and simplistic roguelike. 2 - Not very innovative, but there are ideas which make differentiate it from many typical roguelikes; for example - possibility to use non-lethal weapons.

Scope

2 - A solid 7DRL attempt, albiet a highly polished one. 2 - There are a few items to equip, a few drinks to drink, several npc and interesting level generator. What you would expect from quality 7drl. On the higher end of 2. 2 - Everything needed in roguelike and everything expected from 7DRL. Maybe little more.

Roguelikeness

3 - Definitely a roguelike. I loves me some ASCII. 3 - Definitely roguelike. 3 - 100% roguelike

A surprisingly deep ASCII roguelike based on a runaway slave. Weapons are tempting but your least product way to proceed, as fights will easily bring many enemies onto your trail. Try to stick to cover and progress through each level. The maps are rather large, but does a great job of gently nudging you in the right direction. Plenty of stuff to explore. In this game you play as 'negro man', runaway from plantation. On each level you need to reach safe house. It's more about stealth then fighting. You cannot win by fighting. But, unfortunately, there are no game mechanics that support stealth. I'm not a big fan of this game. It's browser roguelike, without possibility to playing locally, gameplay is based on doing a missions, what moves us further in the story. However, is that I'm not a fan of 'The Promised Land' doesn't mean that I can not appreciate 'good things' in the game. And there is a lot of 'good things'. First - plot. It's not very extensive, but start the game from escaping from the plantation is quite impressive. Moreover, the game looks just really nice. Clear ASCII/Unicode with good sense of colours attracted to game.\ Summarizing, it's not game for me - mainly due to lack of possibility to play locally. But it is a very good, well polished game.

Academy Rogue

Completeness

3 - Seems polished and feature complete. No noticeable bugs. 3 - No noticeable bugs. Runs smooth.\ \ The staircases are somewhat of a problem, but not enough for me to mark down. Staircases are built into the wall, but the inventory slots partially obscure this. It took me a while to even realize there *were* stairs. In the worst case, the staircase is totally hidden by your HP. Also, attacking a monster on a staircase takes you up to the next floor (quite annoying since you spend extra turns walking back down and letting the monster get free hits). 2 - Bug-free, but unpolished. Has lots of little niggles like exit placement under the graphical interface, and generally feels lacking in balance and pacing.

Aesthetics

2 - Not dazzling but a solid graphical visual style which is easy on the eye and imparts information well. 2 - The controls are keyboard only and work fine. This one is a tough call. While the game has a lot of nice details (fog of war, text typewriter effect, spells), the artwork looks uneven as if thrown together from various sources. The pixel art looks decent enough, but I'm not a fan of the style.\ \ There's nothing in the game that hints at a theme (Academic Rogue means...?) and if you want a dungeony feel, this ain't it. I did get a kick out of the \"Legendary Statue of MacGuffin\" though. 2 - Graphical, though I'm not a fan of the artwork style myself and the particle effects get in the way of following the gameplay. The menu screen is unintuitive and there are some niggles like Escape confirming an action. The icons for items are really inappropriate as telling ice bolt from ice ball is almost impossible - an icon-based style would have worked much better. Tooltips would have also helped a lot as the ability effects are hidden in an obscure part of the inventory.

Fun

3 - I suspect not everyone will get on with the way this game handles attacks and items but it's worth trying for yourself. Personally I enjoyed it. 2 - It's fun for a few runs. Like I said, the amount of fun you have depends on how much you like choosing from limited use items.\ \ One obstacle to me getting more into the game was lack of numerical values. The spells don't have numbers in their descriptions and the enemies don't have health bars. So I spent a lot of time frustrated and confused wondering if I was getting anywhere. 2 - Balancing the different resources is interesting, but not enough to sustain it over the length of the game. Could do with having less levels (and maybe less items) to make it a more satisfying experience, or a better pace to the game (weaker enemies and less item slots at the start, for instance). The fact that the level exit is always at the bottom also makes exploration bland, especially since one wants to minimise exploration to reduce resource usage. Might be more interesting if there is one specific camp/recharge site to find in each level.

Innovation

2 - The way items work provides a twist on the familiar. 2 - The camping mechanic is neat. Choosing an upgrade per floor is certainly not new, but I really like that you can choose to do it at your leisure. Unused items are supposed to be teleported along with you but I'm not sure I experienced this in my playthroughs. 2 - The heavy reliance on consumable items is an interesting twist, and combines well with the strict inventory limit.

Scope

3 - Very good for seven days. 2 - About average. There are many items, upgrades, and enemies, but there's not much depth of interaction. 3 - There's a big amount of content here - lots of spells, weapons, items, enemies. Obviously a lot of work went into this! However it is very generic. Colour-swap elements and enemies, number-tweaked abilities, very simplistic levelling system. And the pacing of the game remains constant throughout. Still, the sheer amount of content is very impressive here for a 7DRL.

Roguelikeness

2 - Doesn't feel entirely roguelike but it's close. 3 - Sure. A little more complexity would be nice, but it's got all the hallmarks. 3 - Totally roguelike, though the level design is fairly simplistic.

Academy Rogue feels kind of like a console game, and that's not a criticism. It has a nice little camping system which reminds me faintly of SNES RPGs and maybe even something like Azure Dreams. Something in the movement and presentation kept bringing to mind Zombies Ate My Neighbours. It's a style I find charming and I warmed to the game quickly. It's definitely more on the action end of the roguelike spectrum but employs a limited item use/inventory management system to make things more interesting. Each item (weapon, spell book, etc) has a different effect and a set number of uses which recharge when you camp - which can be done once per floor when you're not being hounded by foes. This means the game provides constant pressure to get the most out of your uses each day. It's not prefect but it does make for a pleasantly entertaining game which, crucially, doesn't outstay its welcome. Academic Rogue has a focus on what I call \"wand combat.\" That is most of your time is spent picking up limited use items and trying to use them as efficiently as possible. There is a \"camping\" mechanic where you get to heal up and choose an upgrade once per floor, which is a nice twist. You can also resort to bump attacks, but they are often weaker than the items. Other than that, it's simply about running from the north side of a floor to the south side for 13 floors. A game of wands, in a way. All items in the game act like wands do in most roguelikes, having a fixed number of uses, and all generally providing some special effect. Even swords and axes work like this, with specific effects for each. You get a recharge to all items each dungeon level, and you can improve the power of some abilities as you progress. With lots of items to find this quickly becomes a game of class customisation, choosing which abilities and items to hold onto in a limited inventory. An interesting play with the usual roguelike ability system, though with 13 levels it does get a bit samey after a while. Still well worth a play with - just make sure to press tab twice in inventory to find out what everything does!

Fall Girl

Completeness

3 - Feels fully complete and has an incredible amount of polish: menus, tutorial, cut scenes? 2 - Occasional layout bug where it's impossible to reach the exit, but otherwise good. 3 - * No obvious bugs (assuming that movement is supposed to work this way!)

Aesthetics

2 - Very typical looking libtcod game. Very tiny but maybe that was just my screen. (Or maybe I am just old) Controls are intuitive, although numpad didn't work, only arrow keys. 3 - Colourful, clear and suited to the game. 3 - * Well chosen colors\ * Cut scenes worked well and looked great--could be annoying if the game was harder and required more restarts\ * Easy to understand control scheme\ * Music fit the game well

Fun

2 - The combination of seemingly turn-based-but-actually-real-time is definitely fun. Keeping it on a grid was a great choice. The story is also a lot of fun - worth checking out. 3 - Definitely worth playing, for the setting as much as the gameplay. 2 - * Movement controls feel very unresponsive, though I think it's desired\ * Movement was particularly annoying climbing to the 9th floor and felt broken in the final boss fight\ * Gameplay is repetitive, as are the floor layouts\ * Still compelling and fun to play given its length\ * Narrative helped explain why I was stealing everything

Innovation

3 - Interesting realish-time combat that manages to (mostly) stay tactical and appropriately roguelike-ish. Too many times realtime combat can turn into a mash-fest or exercise in extreme twitchiness. This game does not fall into either trap with it's well-crafted enemy design and powerup time-slowing mechanic. 2 - The gradual bullet time idea is unusual and makes for a much smoother flowing game. Impressive. 2 - * Controls were an interesting hybrid of realtime Binding of Isaac controls and turn-based games, even though I wasn't a fan of the result\ * Gameplay is otherwise fundamentally hack and slash

Scope

3 - Seems like the game had a very well defined scope that allowed the author to really polish up areas of the game that are not usually polished. A very solid accomplishment. Extra point for 2 - Good scope. 2 - * Solid entry\

Roguelikeness

2 - Not a traditional roguelike because of the real-timed-ness, but way better than other real time roguelike attempts I have played. 2 - Definitely roguelike-like. 2 - * Binding of Isaac controls with procedural but linear levels\ * Didn't find the layout mattered significantly

A very well polished game with a great story. The game is technically real time but it plays out in a way that does not necessarily feel frantic or too divergent from traditional turn-based roguelike. Also: hoverboards! While it has its flaws, Fall Girl tries something interesting with both gameplay and setting. It's heavily cyberpunk themed and casts the player as some sort of teenage cyborg hacker chasing down an AI she created which has now escaped. The setting works well and justifies the mechanics of the game. Mechanically it's straightforward but unusual - a real time 4-way shooter, but instead of a standard levelling system, you grow stronger by picking up dropped processors which incrementally cause you to becomes faster relative to everything else, which means that the early enemies gradually become too slow to harm you, and so on. Between its imaginative concept and its gameplay twists, Fall Girl is worth playing - just make sure you persist past the slow early game stages. As Fall Girl begins, you learn that the AI you developed has escaped and is threatening to cause havoc. The missions that ensue are always the same and linear with procedural details, so the neighbor's house is generated but you're always there to steal batteries. There's a surprising amount of physical theft in a game where you're supposed to be playing a hacker.\ The gameplay is semi-realtime and is semi-successful. Movement and combat operate on different time scales, with movement being possible on a slower clock than shooting. The main drop in the game, chips, further accentuate this time discrepancy. This has the consequence of making movement feel unresponsive, a major issue for an action game.\ Fall Girl shows its narrative emphasis with its full-screen and in-game cutscenes. The writing is serviceable, helps establish a sense of place, and frames the game missions; however, it does commit the sin of making them unskippable.\ I'm not sure if Fall Girl's movement system could be made more responsive or not with its mechanics, but overall it was a charming experience that didn't overstay its welcome.\ \

Phage

Completeness

2 - Generally polished. Spawns can be a bit quirky - it's possible to spawn right next to enemies which will obliterate you as soon as you move - but those games are over quickly and it's easy to restart, so it doesn't get too frustrating. 3 - Phage is a complete, but basic package. The player is dropped directly in the action with the most basic of instructions but within a few seconds, and an equal number of deaths, the goal of the game, and how you might achieve it, is apparent. I didn't notice any crashes, bugs or exploits. 2 - There are no bugs (that I could find) and the game is definitely balanced, once you get the hang of it. It might be too easy at times though. The game also doesn’t quite end, it just gives you a loss or victory message and let’s you keep playing. I found that somewhat confusing.

Aesthetics

2 - Nice visual style, which reminds me of early console games (in a good way). Lots of purple, plus creatures in vivid turquoises and yellows. It's easy to see what's what for the most part, though the pink/pale purple enemies sometimes blend in with their surroundings a bit too much. 3 - Phage delivers a near-future setting effectively via an isometric tile set and set of colour choices that aptly depict an alien but familiar world where a group of unfortunate colonists have made their home. You, the phage have apparently been delivered to wreak havoc but must do so subtlety and piece-by-piece. The bold purple fog-of-war adds a claustrophobic feel to the open-world setting which fits in well with the stealthy gameplay. 3 - The controls and display are simple, clear, and work well for the game. You may not recognize your health bar right away, since it’s the only statistic displayed, but it is there. Even the graphics feel appropriate for the game.

Fun

3 - Initially seemed like a more basic version of Possession from a few years back, but it's actually an arguably more subtle take on the idea. Enjoyable. 2 - At its core, Phage is a simple game where you kill monsters then possess them and use their reanimated bodies to find and kill your next target. Monsters seem to differ only in health and lack special abilities which limits the interest of the core mechanic. The phage can normally outrun the monsters, allowing some degree of hit and run gameplay. The game is fun but I didn't find it held my attention. 3 - I quite enjoyed the game. I was able to find a pretty good strategy for winning, so the replay value might be limited in that sense, but it still has its challenging parts.

Innovation

2 - Not groundbreaking - a few games, and even a few 7DRLs, have dealt with the idea of possessing fallen enemies. Still, it's a mechanic worth exploring and Phage puts its own spin on it. 2 - Possession is a mechanic which has been explored in a number of other 7DRLs, often to a greater degree than in Phag