Reviews

VARIABLO

Completeness

3 - The Linux version worked with no fuss. The x86 binary just started.\ The game is polished and appears to be complete. While you are playing you get hints and instructions in white overlaid on the game field. You would not have these kind of elements on an unfinished game. The game is quite short. In a few minutes of playing the exit appears and you can escape the maze.

Aesthetics

3 - The music is nice. It is easy to listen to and creates a relaxed mood for playing.\ The colours and graphics are very polished and fit well to the atmosphere of the game. The characters are made up of a few pixels only. But they are very nicely animated. To tell you the truth I would so like to have this game running on my tablet or mobile phone. It is exactly the kind of game you want to play on the bus. Hmm.... It is only made for Mac, Windows and Linux. No Android - rats. Perhaps if I ask the author nicely?

Fun

3 - This game is very, very nice to play. The game is friendly. It instructs the user how to play the game.\ But after playing for a while. The content is very shallow. This may be because I cannot find the puzzle-element of the game at all.

Innovation

3 - The idea of two moving platforms is cool. I really like it. Once you are above ground and get the second platform you seem to be able to move these platforms anywhere in the universe. What is the gaming area?

Scope

3 - This game is definitely better that what I expected could be done in just 7 days. The guys have done it in 2.5 days according to the home page. This seems to be more like a show-off of the playing mechanism. On top of this technology you could create content. Right now the goal was to exit the mad wizard VARIABLO's maze. That objective is simple to achieve.

Roguelikeness

3 - In my opinion this is roguelike. It is turn based in the sense that if you do nothing no enemies will spawn. After you have made your platforms move things happen in real time.

I was really happy to play VARIABLO. It is a nice proof of concept that could be used in games to come in the future. There is also a risk that I missed the point completely. The home page tells about combining Master Mind with a dungeon crawler. I was trying to look for hints of matching colours or pegs to solve a puzzle. This is also announced as a puzzle game. Where is the puzzle. Am I too stupid to see it?

TraumaRL

Completeness

3 - Everything feels solid.

Aesthetics

2 - The controls are pretty good but the color scheme and glyphs can be hard to process visually. There's a lot of things going on and since the game is a bit small on a standard 1920x1080 screen there's times when it's hard to read the text. Sound fx for the weapons would go a really long way towards helping set the theme.

Fun

3 - Great story, but really easy gameplay right up until it's very very hard. Story driven makes it a bit less replayable as well.

Innovation

3 - Good combination of ranged combat mechanics, story, multilevel maps, and sci-fi setting.

Scope

3 - Quite a bit more done here than I'd normally expect in a 7dRL.

Roguelikeness

3 - Roguelike as can be.

TraumaRL is a great sci-fi themed roguelike. An interesting story and nice visuals make this a must-play game.

DataQueen

Completeness

2 - A little buggy. Game requires a restart at least once before it will run at all (freezes the first time after a couple minutes loading), then keept spitting out Lua errors about resolution. A somewhat annoying intro to the game, but after that it runs mostly without issue. New attacks that replace old ones won't show up in your inventory until you move at least one hex. 3 - Very polished; I haven't run into any errors or bugs (except the insect kind, ho ho).

Aesthetics

2 - The text UI looks quite nice, except for a couple graphical glitches. The board/map itself, however, seems like it should be easy to refine. As is the hexes feel a bit crude. Color choices overall appear random and not very pleasing. The font could also be a little more stylized to give the game some character. I think the aesthetics of the game are the biggest area in need of improvement, but an enhanced version on top of the game's already solid mechanics would make it pretty awesome indeed. QWE/ASD for hex movement is wonderful. 3 - Clear and pleasant visuals, well designed tooltips and general UI, the QWEASD keyboard controls work well for hex movement.

Fun

3 - Takes a little while to get used to the mechanics, but once you do the game really shines with its well-devised gameplay. Excellent job. It seems like the latter half of the game is more about getting a higher score than avoiding a loss though, because you're nigh invincible before long. 3 - As long as you read the instructions to understand the game, it’s a lot of fun. Accessible yet challenging and requires thought and tactics. Well balanced too, at least as far as I've managed to get to date.

Innovation

3 - Completely new ideas throughout the mechanics, which is after all the most important part of a roguelike! Hex boards are also less often done, though quite suitable for tactical games. 3 - I can’t say whether it’s super original (release notes seem to suggest it's inspired by something else) but it’s new to me and certainly different to other roguelikes I’ve played. Uses roguelike principles in an unfamiliar way that still works.

Scope

3 - I was going to give this a 2, because more work on the presentation would've gone a long way towards taking this beyond the 7DRL level, but I pumped it back up to a 3 because 1) the aesthetics score already took a hit from that and 2) all the enemies and bosses come with well-written descriptions, which is a nice touch--definitely required some extra thought and does a good job of giving the game more meaning! 3 - I was on the fence about whether to award a 2 based on how much polish came from the slickness of the T-Engine but I think a 3 is merited for not only introducing an innovative mechanic but also executing it extremely competently and achieving good game balance, all in 7 days.

Roguelikeness

3 - Turn-based, procedural, permadeath, blah blah blah... It's a roguelike. 2 - Definitely draws on roguelikes as a base starting point, and some aspects are more roguelikey than they seem (tactical boss battles, locating the exit). Still, it does discard enough roguelike staples to fall outside a purely roguelike classification. This is not a criticism.

A unique puzzle-roguelike in which you play an AI tasked with defeating a wide range of other AIs. Most have unique abilities, and you have many interesting abilities yourself, gaining some and losing others as you level. Most enemies are one-hit-to-kill, so it's their abilities and positioning that matter--the only way you can die/lose is to be surrounded. It's harder than it sounds since you have to take into account all their special abilities, and your own abilities only work in certain directions (which rotate with every move). The game plays out on a hex grid, which is perfect for this kind of game; four-way movement would have been too boring, and eight-way would be too easy. While not exactly intuitive at first, as long as you put in the time to read the help and tool tips, and play through a level, it'll all fall into place. Then the fun really begins. Great game. (Seriously, don't try playing without reading first; it won't make much sense.) First off: make sure you read the instructions! The first time I played I didn’t bother reading and consequently thought I was just bashing stuff and sometimes the floor was changing colour for no reason. Read! Like a lot of the best designed games, DataQueen is simple but deep. Floor tiles turn green when you step on them, and you have to link the pink tiles together by connecting them all with green ones. There are enemies with various special properties trying to stop you, but they can only move when you step on a neutral tile (i.e. not green or pink). They don’t attack you but they do neutralise your green tiles and can kill you if they completely surround you. That’s the gist of it, and it leads to a surprisingly tactical game experience. Using your ‘free’ movement across the green tiles, choosing where to take a step onto neutral tiles, and trying to bait the enemy swarms into suitable positions takes a lot of thought at times. \ \ To add to this, your attacks are tied to the ability wheel in the corner of the screen. You can only use a particular ability in the direction indicated on the wheel. When a turn passes, the wheel rotates and the directions in which you can use your abilities change. The whole game becomes about positioning and careful use of turns. It’s challenging and probably a bit on the tough side, but I find that never it gets frustrating or feels unfair. I’m usually bad at tactical games but DataQueen keeps drawing me back in by remaining accessible and giving the impression that you can always win if you just think carefully enough. \ \ Also well presented and polished, nice to look at, has minimal but appropriate sound effects, and includes unlockable/upgradeable abilities between levels. Definitely one of my top 7DRL picks this year.

The Hunt

Completeness

3 - Feels very complete. Everything has a description, nice. 3 - Looks complete. No bugs. It seems that killed snakes block the stairs.

Aesthetics

3 - Beautiful Dwarf Fortress-type ANSI graphics. Love the terrain and different plant-life encountered on different levels. Controls are what they should be. 2 - Beautiful ASCII. But the game did not fit in the screen (768px in height), and I had to zoom out a lot. If I did not zoom out, the page tried to scroll when I walk up and down.

Fun

3 - It's fun! Definitely check this one out. 3 - nteresting to play, but hard.

Innovation

2 - Some nice fun new mechanics like the fining/trophy system and the overall uniqueness of the monster AI is really cool. Nice twists on the usual roguelike formula. 2 - Although does not look extremely innovative gameplay-wise, the monsters are unique, and the world is pretty awesome.

Scope

2 - About what I'd expect could be accomplished from a dedicated 7drl-er. Browser version is great. 3 - Very well designed world.

Roguelikeness

3 - Definitely a roguelike. 3 - RL

THE HUNT is a great little roguelike with some unique mechanics and a great DwarfFortress-inspired ASCII display. It looks like a standard bump to attack game at first but if you use only this strategy you will die quickly, and often. Use traps and make careful use of your gun to dispatch enemies. Trapping them is best as you are guaranteed to get XP and something cool from it. Murdering enemies also sometimes causes you to receive fines, so grab any gold you come across, because usually you do not have a choice. The AI is interesting and the multi-tile SNAKE enemies were really cool. I became even more impressed when I looked at the simply elegant code underneath. Nice! Pro-tip I would go in to the game.html file and edit the player character before you start. Give yourself a bit more HP and bump up the sight radius. Playing on the default sight radius was just waaaay too tough for me, visually, since there is a lot going on with the terrain and there is no \"memory\" of other areas so it's not always obvious what you have previously explored. Overall, great game, plays quick and has some cool mechanics. The game is very interesting and very well designed. To win the game, the final goal has to be achieved in 7 days, so you have to optimize your actions.\ \ All monsters have unique behavior, so you have to think strategically (Do I want to kill those bicorns or not?) and tactically (e.g., handling the spear). Multi-tile monsters are pretty awesome too.\ \ Main attributes: time, experience, HP, ammunition, money - all are important gameplay wise. And overall, the game is well balanced. Although it is not easy to figure out what tactic would be the best in each particular situation. Also, sometimes you are spawned next to strong mobs, and you simply have no chance. I wish the game was a bit more relaxed, and easy on the player.\ \ Aesthetically, it looks beautiful. I took off one point only because I had to zoom out the game a lot to fit it in the screen. Otherwise, it's awesome. Controls are natural. Level generation is well done. Biome-like dungouns look like forests, marshes, savannas, etc. \

Succession

Completeness

3 - The game is complete and rather polished. 3 - Seems fairly polished. No bugs encountered while playing. 3 - Polished.

Aesthetics

2 - The game art looks like a parody on DCSS. Not very good one, but manageable. It is even possible to play with mouse. From controls point of view it is rather tedious to explore such big maps without some kind of assistance from the game. The game only allows traveling with mouse inside of field of view, and there is no minimap. 2 - Simple, clean pixel art, which is servicable even if not the most beautiful I've ever seen. Option of mouse or keyboard control makes controlling the game easy, though perhaps not for those without numpads. 3 - I am missing a pure keyboard interface, a map of the level, and a way to tell explored from unexplored parts of the map when echolocating. But these are not a reason not to give 3.

Fun

2 - It is definitely worth trying. Can't say there is much replayability value, but finishing it once is somewhat satisfying. 1 - The succession mechanic is fun and interesting... but is completely undermined by the map generation. The dungeon levels are too large, it takes too long to find the exit and the dominance of diagonal corridors make it a real pain to navigate and explore. I was tempted to give this a higher score because I think it could be easily very easily fixed, but as it stands those issues really drag down my enjoyment of the game. 3 - The special abilities of monsters are really nice.

Innovation

3 - I can't remember a game with similar mechanics. 3 - I've not seen anything quite like the succession mechanic before and the range of different monster abilities is quite interesting.\ 3 - Playing as the monster who killed you. Nice special abilities and difficulty levels.

Scope

2 - There are several monsters with special abilities. There are several potions to drink and throw. I'd say it's very solid 2. 2 - Good range of monsters, potions etc. A high 2.\ 3 - Lots of unique and balanced special abilities.

Roguelikeness

3 - It's a roguelike. 3 - Has all the key ingredients, although arguably not real permadeath. 3 - Definitely a roguelike.

This one is really interesting. After death you start new game as a monster who killed you. On easier difficulty levels you even inherit special properties of all previous incarnations. There are several types of potions to assist you. A solid game with an interesting main mechanic, but the level generation ultimately renders it a bit of a trudge. Could be improved greatly simply by adjusting the parameters of the level generator to better complement the core gameplay. Since dying and restarting are the key components the game would be better served by being shorter overall with much faster ramping up of challenge. With just a few small tweaks the significant promise this game shows could easily come through. A game with lots of monsters, each of them with a fun and unique special ability. If a monster kills you, you start again, but as a being of the type of the monster who killed you. Definitely recommended! Excels in all the 7DRL categories. I have won on the Easiest level, but I will return to try harder difficulty levels, too.\

Android <3 Kitty

Completeness

3 - Very complete--7 levels with 3 additional special levels. 2 - On my first playthrough I made it to the 6th level (I think) and through all 3 optional levels when the game crashed on me while fighting a \"V\". Some of the enemies have ranged attacks but are not animated or otherwise visually shown, so it can be confusing, especially when multiple ranged attackers are around at once. Otherwise the game is solid and complete.\

Aesthetics

2 - Basic ASCII with simple color schemes for each level, but it's all functional and appropriate. 3 - The tileset is clean, clear, and pleasant.\

Fun

3 - Timing the bombs to get one or more enemies as they pass by is quite satisfying, as is meeting new enemies on each level. Fighting enemies that require multiple bombs is even more interesting. The large number of enemy types, especially those with interesting abilities, is a lot of fun. 3 - I really enjoyed playing the game, looking forward to what sort of cool new item I'd get on the next level.

Innovation

2 - Indirect combat is implemented fairly well, but the alternative use for bombs (escape/alternate routes) isn't all that useful since you have to wait 5 turns for each bomb to explode, and back away each time, making tunneling a very slow process. Plus you can't see the rest of the level so tunneling isn't often very helpful anyway. It's most effective to simply blow up all the enemies. 3 - Manipulating the environment with bombs is fun and using them against enemies brings strategic depth.

Scope

2 - It's a 7DRL. 2 - There are at least a couple hours of entertainment to get from this game.

Roguelikeness

3 - Everything you'd expect from a roguelike. 3 - Definitely a roguelike.

This game replaces the \"typical combat\" system of a roguelike with one where your only way to defeat enemies is to drop bombs that explode when their timer runs out (4 turns). This adds a bit more puzzle aspect to the game, as does the fact that your bombs can blow through walls to tunnel into other areas for escape or to circumvent enemies. It's actually quite satisfying to time the explosions just right to hit multiple enemies, or hit tougher enemies with multiple explosions. By default the optional boss on each level you can earn a different way to set your bombs which may change your strategy. A very sound 7DRL worth trying out if you like ASCII roguelike puzzles. Android <3 Kitty brings some innovation to the roguelike genre with its focus on the exclusive use of bombs to complete the game's objectives.\ \ The levels are well-balanced, with a steady increase in difficulty and introduction of new game mechanics throughout the entire descent. The game is fairly gentle for a roguelike and can probably be won in 1 or 2 attempts.\ \ I would have liked to have taken a look at the source code, but unfortunately it was not provided.\

Dungeon Dual 2014

Completeness

3 - Looks technically and feature complete and more or less bugfree. At some point two players become permanently out of sync, but able to finish the game. 3 - The manual worked, there were no bugs, and the win screen had a nice message. Although Game Hunter's side seemed to refuse inputs until he rejoined.

Aesthetics

2 - More or less standard ascii. Abilities can only be used with mouse, which might be not really comfortable at times, especially if you try to chat with other player. 2 - Standard choice of characters and colors. I like the little shouted messages. You have to select an item before you can drop, equip or\ remove it.

Fun

2 - It's moderately fun. The game itself is way too easy, so cooperation is not really needed. 3 - A little easy, I only once needed to use a stamina potion (most of the time you can just wait), but quite fun.\

Innovation

3 - Very interesting approach to mupltiplayer games. Stamina as a damage buffer is an interesting twist too. 3 - An asynchronous cooperative rogue like gets an automatic three.

Scope

2 - It's very strong 2. Nearly 3. 2 - Two different classes with 3 abilities each. A dozen monsters. Half a dozen potions, armors and items.

Roguelikeness

3 - Definitely a roguelike. 3 - 100% roguelike

Asynchronous turn based multiplayer game? Yes! Basically each player plays his own game, in identical dungeons. But! You can assist the other player, by stunning his enemies for example. Or irritate him by sending him your enemies. Other then coop, it's rather basic game. It takes about a half hour to complete, you rush to the bottom on the dungeon (with or without a friend) to defeat the evil TIME MASTER, along the way you fight vicious orcs, smart kobolds, and more monsters. This is Todd Page's Second attempt at making this game, and it is a definite success. You and your friend play the same dungeon seed and can send messages, and attacks back and forth while you play. (I was never able to put a fireball onto Game Hunter's screen, but he was able to assist me a couple times)

Goldfish

Completeness

3 - Didn't see any bugs, very well polished. The fish-specific AI was a nice touch. 3 - Despite the lack of the oxygen-based special ability system which there wasn't enough time to implement, this is a well-polished game with no problems.

Aesthetics

3 - The inventory screen is great! Tiles and colors fit the theme very well. UI is very simple and clear. 3 - The color choices are wonderful and there's even an ASCII fish used as a visual inventory representation. Controls are simple.

Fun

3 - A great little game. Can be completed in a relatively short amount of time. Enjoyed the references to other popular roguelikes. 3 - The game looks great, and it's fun to discover what the fisherman desire while improving your fish.

Innovation

1 - Essentially a hack and slash with theme-appropriate quest gathering and items. The innovation isn't in the mechanics but in the theme and presentation of the theme. 2 - Applying the normal equipment/inventory system to a fish is interesting, and the other parts of the world are well-integrated, like the seaweed for health restoration and air bubbles for the [unimplemented] special ability system.

Scope

2 - Scope is very appropriate for seven days. Great job on getting the features in the game to look and feel good. 2 - If it included everything the creator intended, this would probably be a 3. As is it's more or less a normal 7DRL scope.

Roguelikeness

3 - Interesting choices in the items lead to meaningful decisions in the caves. Relatively short but a solid roguelike feel. 3 - Yep.

Have you ever want to play a goldfish that grants wishes to fishermen? Seek out happiness, a cure for AIDs, or even a billion dollar bill in exchange for your freedom. Goldfish has a lot of charm and polish packed into a small game with perhaps the best ASCII fish paperdoll inventory I've seen. In this game you play a goldfish (surprised?) caught by a fisherman on a lake. You're released after promising to bring him something like... a Cadillac (or some other random thing he wants). To find it you swim through caves (separate maps) at the bottom of the lake, fighting other fish and underwater creatures and eating seaweed to replenish your health. There are multiple fishermen, and satisfying them all is actually the whole purpose of the game, so you have to purposefully jump on their hooks to keep the game going. One by one you fulfill their desires, revealing new caves that may contain what the others are seeking. Some caves are more dangerous than others--they're color coded and you can enter any of them at any time. You enhance your abilities by collecting fish parts (fins, jaws, etc.) from fallen foes and equipping them to your inventory, which itself is an ASCII fish. Colors are well-chosen and it's fun to explore the world, though it could use some more content.\

Ragtag

Completeness

2 - The game runs fine, but looks a little barebone. And it crashed twice while I was playing. 3 - Feels complete and polished. Plenty of helpful text and mouse-overs.

Aesthetics

3 - Nice use of Oryx tiles. Smooth movement. Easy controls. Everything is there! It would be nice to see attack area of ranged heroes on mouseover, but I'm nit-picking. 3 - Looks great. Uses the minimalistic oryx tiles. Not my personal favorite but they are used well and blend in very well with the aethetic of the game. Interface is superb.

Fun

2 - The game is definitely fun. But the fun is somewhat ruined by the way monsters are placed. You can easily find yourself surrounded by mages or archers right after you enter the room. From replayability point of view the game somewhat lacks variety. 2 - It's challenging and frustratingly difficult at times but also fun. Which is about what I want from a roguelike. The only thing I will say against it is that it does feel a bit slow paced at times. Could just be the web-based engine slowing things down? Definitely worth checking out.

Innovation

3 - That's really interesting mechanic. Special skill while monster is tagged out is really nice addition. 2 - Very cool tag-in party mechanic. Maybe more games should steal that!

Scope

2 - That's very solid 7drl entry. 3 - Very impressive for a seven day RL.

Roguelikeness

3 - Roguelike for sure. 3 - It's certainly a roguelike. Turn based, random, lots and LOTS of great grid-based tactical combat. Mmmmm. Meaty.

That's the kind of a game I really like. You have powerful abilities at your disposal. At first they look almost like cheating. But then you come across enemies, that are powerful enough to kill your team. In this game you control group of monsters. Only one monster can be controlled at a time, but 'passive' monsters can help with special passive ability. And you can, obviously, switch monsters. Monster can only heal when tagged out. Heroes of the dungeon are gaining xp for every move you make. Wandering around aimlessly is not an option. From the creator of last year's amazing hoplite comes Ragtag. Emphasis on the Tag. You control a squad of 3 monsters tag-team style: only 1 can be active at a time. You move through the dungeon from room to room, where each room becomes a battle against a group of heroes. There is little direct combat but lots of tactical maneuvering, and pushing heroes into traps and against walls and into exploding barrels, etc. You need to play efficiently though, because with every turn the heroes gain more experience. And the last thing you want is for them to level up! This makes for a nice trade-off in gameplay. Otherwise you could spend hours setting up the exact right trap in each room.\ \ Monster abilities take some getting used to, but once you figure it out, it's fun.

Rogue Station

Completeness

3 - The game feels complete and reasonably polished. There is a bug with energy consumption after game restart after failed attempt, but it have workaround. 3 - Everything's there.

Aesthetics

3 - Really nice pixel art. Quite a lot of details. Different areas look different and have suitable furniture. Background music adds to atmosphere greatly. 3 - Low-res pixel graphics look fine (consistent), controls are simple, and the ambient music adds a lot to the atmosphere.

Fun

2 - The game can easily be unwinnable, so you might need (much) more then one attempt to beat it. And it is really very simple (once you figure out what to do) and short, hence replayability is very low. 2 - The lack of balance detracts from the fun. This plays like a puzzle game, but the map generation doesn't guarantee that a game is even winnable with optimal play, which can be frustrating. You have to \"get lucky\" to have a map that won't outright kill you, and hopefully give you enough resources to survive. I had one game where everything was broken, but there were only 2 repair kits to be found, and another where an alien spawned right on top of me, killing me instantly, then another where I found a dozen repair kits and blasters!

Innovation

2 - Oxygen distribution as a resource is an interesting twist. You can't walk the same path many times. But cheap teleport neglects it's importance to some extent. IMO this theme could be explored and developed even more. 3 - The area-based oxygen-as-resource mechanic is good for gameplay since it affects positioning and limits possibilities.

Scope

2 - For a two man team is about right for 7drl. 2 - A multi-man team should be able to handle a little more in 7 days, especially to improve the balance. This idea has more potential in that regard.

Roguelikeness

3 - It's a little too shallow for a true roguelike. So it's 3, but very weak 3. 3 - More puzzle than a normal roguelike, but it does have random map gen, turn-based gameplay, a weapon (which doesn't ever seem to hit), and resource management (oxygen).

This game is a survival on a space station that is falling apart. Breaches appear, aliens invade it, everything is broken. You need to repair and turn on energy generator(s) and then repair and turn on emergency beacon. While staying alive and having some oxygen to breathe. Escape from a space station wreck before it falls to pieces, or you're eaten by aliens. Restore power to vital systems and call for help. In the meantime, visualize oxygen levels to stay in oxygenated areas. You can teleport short distances in a pinch, but only if the station has enough power. Rogue Station plays more like a puzzle game than a roguelike, but isn't guaranteed to be winnable so it can be frustrating while you wait for a map that won't kill you outright. The graphics and atmospheric ambient music work well, at least, and the mechanics are solid--with a little more balance this could be a great game.

Dice Mines

Completeness

2 - Unfortunately the game hangs a lot. And there are some bugs in targeting. Other then that it seem feature complete and works. 2 - Some bugs and weird hanging/crashing issues but otherwise very complete.

Aesthetics

2 - Quite nice and atmospheric ascii view of the mines. The game have a lot of ranged combat and spells, but there is no autotargetting. You have to manually target the enemy across the chasm from your current position for each shot! I wish there was a little more detailed event history. Several times I died for an unknown reason. 3 - Looks great, especially for ASCII. The levels have a nice feel to them.

Fun

3 - There is a lot to do and a lot is going on. Your party is quite smart. I really wish fixed version to play it more. 2 - Definitely fun! Even just getting a huge group of 8 dudes killed is fun, watching them all run around and jump across chasms and shoot missiles and yell at each other.

Innovation

2 - True party with separate characters controlled by AI is not really new idea, but this one is implemented really well. 2 - The AI party mechanic is very cool. More roguelikes need better ally systems like this.

Scope

3 - It's huge! I'd give it 4 if possible. 3 - Impressive for seven days.

Roguelikeness

3 - Yes, it's a roguelike. 3 - Definitely a roguelike.

This game is ... overwhelming! You lead a party of up to 8 people (counting you). Each member of the party have some quite detailed background, some equipment and some abilities. All the abilites are dice fueled. And dices are dropping from almost all monsters. Field of view is combined from fields of view of all party members. Dice Mines is lots of fun. You control a massive party of heroes, but they are mostly autonomous. They run after monsters and get into fights and pick up weapons all on their own. Sometimes it is a bit annoying, but taken within the context of the game it's a great mechanic. The other cool mechanic is (as the name implies) the Dice-based nature of everything in the game. Damage, abilities, etc all use dice, which you pick up as the game goes on. You can apply any dice roll to any situation. So you could use a 2d2 or a 1d6 or a 2d8, depending on how important or critical the roll is to you.\ \ Graphics are ASCII but done with some kind of libtcod-esque generator and look great. It supposedly plays in browser but use a standalone flash player if you want a seamless experience, mine hung in the browser a few times.

Down Below

Completeness

3 - It all works together quite nicely. I didn't find any bugs. 3 - Runs fine, and has a complete set of levels, including even an intro.

Aesthetics

3 - The aesthetic for most of the game is a basic set of ascii characters, which is fine. The UI panel for your stats is very nicely done. Also, the \"cutscene\" in the beginning is pretty neat as well. 1 - The entire map and all contents are bright white. It's painful to look at and unnecessarily burdens the player with having to pick out enemies.

Fun

3 - The core mechanics really made this fun to play. 2 - Interesting to try out the pattern-based predictable combat, but the early game was too easy (just run away from everything and find the stairs) while by depth 6/7 there were so many enemies with overlapping patterns that death was almost assured.

Innovation

3 - Great work with the combat system. 2 - The pattern-based combat has been done before, though not necessarily in this same way, knowing also *when* an enemy will attack so you can move to avoid it.

Scope

2 - 2 - Standard 7DRL scope.

Roguelikeness

3 - 3 - Randomly generated maps, turn-based, resource management, ASCII, permadeath...

Down Below is a very interesting roguelike. It is very simple (which is a good thing) and uses a neat twist on combat. I really enjoyed maneuvering around the enemies based on their unique attack patterns and it posed an interesting challenge. Down Below's design revolves around a single combat mechanic: You know when an enemy will attack the turn beforehand, and if you know their attack pattern (all enemies have their own specific pattern) you can attempt to move to avoid it. You have HP, armor, shields, and energy, and can find batteries to replenish the energy which powers shields and/or your chosen special ability, however you want to apply it. There's no reason to fight enemies since you don't gain any experience and the whole purpose is to find the next stairs, so the early/mid-game is a bit too easy since you can take advantage of the poor AI to avoid most enemies. It gets a lot harder, and somewhat more interesting, when there are huge numbers of enemies to face and you have to try to position yourself such that none of them can hit you. Though really your best chance at survival is to try and face enemies one-on-one, because it's likely that fighting a couple later enemies at once will leave you with nowhere to avoid attacks due to heavy overlap in their patterns. The game could use an aesthetic overhaul since the entire thing is 100% white ASCII; difficult to play for any length of time. But the dev deserves kudos for writing it, as he puts it, in his own programming language.

Find Yer Treasure!

Completeness

3 - Works well, no big bugs.

Aesthetics

3 - Likes nice, controls mostly make sense. Even though it's a 3 it's a low 3 because you have to use the mouse to use items but otherwise can entirely use the keyboard. Having two different sprite sets to choose from is a nice feature.

Fun

2 - Quite a bit of fun, with a good coffee break time needed to win. Would be more fun if there were more enemies. This is a high 2.

Innovation

2 - The item identification is nice and works well with the limited inventory and the survival theme. None of the parts are new, but the whole of it is unique.

Scope

2 - A normal sized 7dRL

Roguelikeness

3 - Very roguelike!

Overall a fun little island survival themed game.

Golden Krone Hotel

Completeness

3 - Works fine, feels complete and rather polished. 3 - No bugs that I'm aware of, very polished presentation and gameplay for the most part. Definitely feels like a finished product.

Aesthetics

2 - The game looks fine, but levels do not look very much like floors of the hotel. Actually they look like anything, but the hotel. It would be nice to see already explored tiles on the screen, in addition to minimap. List of potions is constantly shuffling, which somewhat confusing and inconvenient. 3 - Pleasant pixel art graphics, easy to identify sprites and most environmental features, clear and user-friendly UI (though some features could do with explanation), comfortable control.

Fun

2 - It's a fun game to try. The fun is somewhat ruined by imbalanced greenman. As far as I can tell they grow stronger when exposed to the sunlight. In fast one can grow so strong it will kill you from one hit. Since changing back from the vampire to the human is limited by potions, you have to backtrack constantly, to take full advantage from books and xp from enemies. 2 - Took a while to get into due to poor (absent) explanation of the key mechanic but once you know how it works it's fun and worth repeated visits.

Innovation

2 - The game have couple of interesting twists. 2 - Two or three welcome twists on an established roguelike format.

Scope

2 - It's a very solid 2. Just a little more attention to the environment, and it would be 3. 3 - Gameplay-wise pretty reasonably from an upper-tier 7DRL, but the slick presentation on top of this makes it startling for a 1-week project.

Roguelikeness

3 - 100% genuine roguelike. 3 - Very much a roguelike. Its only non-roguelike features are its simple interface and uncluttered inventory. No complaints there.

This one is great. You play as a vampire huntress, who is vampire herself. Or probably half-vampire? You start in a human form, but at some point turn into vampire. As a human you can read and cast spells, as well as regenerate your wounds. Human do not attack other humans. As a vampire you see well in the darkness and can feed on blood of slain human and beastman. Vampire do not attack other vampires. To turn back into human you need to drink special potion. Will you make it to the 10th floor and kill the vampire prince? Golden Krone Hotel does basically what I expect from most 7DRLs in terms of gameplay - it’s readily identifiable as a roguelike but with some additional features or twists that make it its own game. Control is straightforward, just WASD to move and a few keyboard shortcuts (numbers for spells, P for potions, etc) though I found it much easier to just keep my right hand on the mouse and click the on-screen buttons for these functions. The core distinctive mechanic here is light and, while it’s a good one, the game does almost nothing to explain it. It soon becomes apparent that pools of sunlight appear occasionally as you move around but it’s not clear why. It took me a number of attempts at the game before I realised the light was coming through cracked-looking blue blocks in the walls. (Possibly windows? Though why they admit light only when broken isn’t clear.) It was longer still before I discovered that I could use the seemingly pointless starting spell, Blast, to crack intact blue blocks and thereby let more light in. It was an unreasonably long time (probably about 45 minutes) before I caught on that the pools of light shift as the day progresses and advances to night, then the next day. It must have been over an hour of play time before I realised that the tiny square with a yellow pattern underneath my stats was showing me the direction of the daylight at that moment. \ \ Possibly I was being unusually obtuse but the mechanics are kept very unclear, which actually didn’t bother me by itself. Leaving you to figure things out as you play can work well, and I never felt frustrated by the process in Golden Krone Hotel. The thing that makes me peg this as a deficiency here is the statement on the developer’s blog that the first room is meant as a tutorial (it doesn’t work as one but that’s beside the point). So clearly he intended this mechanic to be apparent upfront, but it really isn’t. The other major mechanic here is that you sometimes becomes a vampire (after a few hours of play I’m still not clear on what causes this). There are ways to temporarily revert but while you’re a vampire humans attack you, and while you’re a human vampires attack you. \ \ There are plenty of other nice little features. Working out the optimal way to use the spells you can find scattered around, discovering the benefits of lighting and extinguishing torches, and so on - various small touches that add an extra layer of appeal and engagement to the game beyond its core ‘gimmick’. It feels like an adventure, finding any way you can to gain an advantage, because just hitting enemies usually doesn’t work that well. It’s also very well presented, with nice pixel art and bits of music. One final feature I want to note is the way books work. Finding books can have various effects (new spells, fragments of lore, etc) and one effect is to enable you to always recognise a particular type of potion (they all look identical). It’s a nice way of handling potion identification. \ \ I usually dislike browser games but this one is worth playing. I wasn’t blown away by its innovation or floored by its ingenuity, but that’s not necessary. It’s a fun game that does a lot right and very little wrong, and provides a nice variation on the roguelike standards.

Lava Walker

Completeness

2 - While overall game feels complete and relatively polished, there are several critical bugs. I wasn't able to finish the game, because at some point the character stops moving. I was able to open inventory, equip items, drink potions. But wasn't able to move. This happened twice, after severe progress in the game. Also sometimes cooldown of abilities might stuck, making this ability unusable. 3 - Seems very complete and polished. No bugs encountered.\

Aesthetics

3 - Nice pixel art tiles, very convenient and intuitive mouse only controls. 3 - Nice clean stylised pixel art. It's a little hard to tell what exactly different things are supposed to be (most of the wild animals look like llamas, and I couldn't tell whether the player character was supposed to be wearing a yellow turban or not) but its easy enough to tell different monsters apart. Environments are nice and there are different tilesets for different areas which adds a nice touch of variety. Controls are simple and mouse-based, although it took me a little while before I noticed the 'wait' button.

Fun

2 - The game is interesting at start, but soon enough becomes somewhat repetitive and feels very slow paced.\ 2 - It is fairly entertaining exploring and talking to the locals, but the gameplay is pretty shallow and easy provided you keep stocked up on potions and arrows. Since the only way to get these is by trading at villages this involves a fair bit of backtracking and the slow pace of the momement animation makes this more of a chore than it needs to be. It is not possible to change equipment in combat, which I quite like, but this applies even to situational weapons such as the exploding arrows, making them of limited use.

Innovation

2 - While individual elements of the game were implemented before, overall experience feels quite unique. 1 - Fairly by-the-numbers. Nothing stands out as being particularly innovative.

Scope

3 - This game is definitely beyond your average 7drl. 3 - An impressive amount of content, including many different equipment and enemy types and several distinct locations to explore.

Roguelikeness

3 - Somewhat simplistic, but yes, it's a roguelike. 3 - Yup, although a fairly simple one.

Evil dragon is building up his army to conquer a lot of things including your village. You need some cool boots to walk on lava, since dragon's location is surrounded by it. This is a roguelike on hexagonal map where you clear locations, loot for better items, purchase abilities and potions from NPCs. A very impressive effort for seven days, Lava Walker sends you on a quest throughout a massive world with several different themed areas and a plentiful variety of enemies to face and NPC villagers to meet. Unfortunately, while huge in scale, the gameplay itself is fairly simplistic and does not boast much that you will not have seen before. The large scale actually works against it in some respects - the large open areas combined with not much in the way of direction mean that you can spend a long time wandering fairly aimlessly and once you have worked out the attack abilities of each enemy type it is then a case of slogging through a lot of them to reach the next area. The equipment upgrades, while plentiful, are also fairly linear and consequently not that interesting - it is never too difficult a decision whether or not to swap out one item for another.

Wild West Roguelike

Completeness

3 - 3 - While there is no end since the point is to achieve a high score, it's got everything it needs to be a game.

Aesthetics

3 - I really liked the graphics. One thing that really stood out was that shells would fall to the ground each time you fired. Making them stay on the ground permanently might even make it better. 3 - Simple but appropriate visuals, with a few basic sound effects to reinforce the action.

Fun

2 - The game was fun. It could easily get better with a bit more thought. 3 - The maps are just the right size with just the right number of enemies, some with short-range attacks and others that can hit from afar. The game rewards careful tactical play, making the next high score always seem within reach.

Innovation

1 - 2 - Interesting control scheme for a turn-based roguelike, moving with one hand and targeting via mouse.

Scope

2 - 2 - Simple (a.k.a. tight) mechanics.

Roguelikeness

3 - 3 - Turn-based play and resource management on randomly generated maps. Yup.

Pretty good roguelike for a first roguelike. The art was good, the game worked well with little-to-no bugs, it was difficult, and there were some interesting tactics you could use.\ \ Overall I liked the game for a 7drl. If I were to give some advice, I would say work a bit more on the AI in the game to make it more predictable and to add more options for the player. There are some interesting approaches to doing well in the game, and there could easily be more with a bit of work.\ \ Good job A fun roguelike in which you play a cowboy killing (or running from) bandits, bears, and snakes in the desert. The control scheme is interesting: Move with WASD and aim with the mouse, and don't forget to reload your revolver! Collect ammo and medkits to survive longer while trying for the highest score possible. The game borders on puzzler, since you can see all enemies and items and the entirety of the small maze-like levels, and attempt to avoid confrontations when possible/desirable (though they tempt you since the goal is a high score). Oh yeah, and bears can even eat the snakes!

Assault Fish

Completeness

2 - Mostly works as intended, though I crashed out with a null pointer exception after playing for a while each time. These have possibly been fixed since the 7DRL, but I'm reviewing the original. 2 - Mostly complete but I'm not sure if there is much of an end game? The fishing is great. Crashed on me once. 2 - Mostly complete, but I have to give a 2 because of a handful of major bugs. Enemies \"died\" but then sometimes reappeared the next turn. The game also locked up on me several times. Another behavior which seemed like a bug was that the enemies appeared to be able to occupy the same tile as the player, which is really confusing. I might have been less frustrated by these bugs, but killing enemies requires specific resources that are easily squandered and you only have 5 non-regenerating hit points.

Aesthetics

2 - I like the element colors themselves, though the map tends to be a bit *too* colorful making it difficult to pick out enemies which are represented by a thin-lined sprite. You should change up the visuals so that less important features are comprised of fewer pixels and elemental locations stand out more. The fishing ponds look okay, the gradient helping to keep them from being too boring. The wide font makes it a bit difficult to read the help screen, which compounds the fact that the controls are a little difficult to get used to being mouse only despite the interface lacking any obvious buttons. 3 - Looks great. Music is great. Controls are mostly mouse-centric but that's OK. 2 - The fishing screen looks great. The music is very soothing, though hilariously melodramatic considering the ridiculous theme. The controls are rather simple, but I couldn't exit the fishing screen in the middle of a cast. The ASCII looks fine with the exception of the enemies. They're represented by (I think) a snowman glyph that has a really thin outline on my system. Combine that with some bad color clashes resulting from the enemy/background type and the enemies can be extremely hard to see sometimes.

Fun

3 - This game is surprisingly fun. It could be much better if the enemies weren't named \"[something] man\" and represented by the same recolored sprite. Walking around and making sure to have the right fish in stock, and changing the landscape as a collateral effect of throwing fish and defeating elementals was interesting. While I understand that fishing should be somewhat random, I wonder if making it a *little* less so by having the casting bar match the width of the pond above it would make it a little more fun since you could better aim for certain fish/areas. 3 - It's fun! Also it can be very relaxing when you are just fishing. Sounds weird but it's true. Try it next time you are stressed out. 2 - Fishing is fun, but it's more luck than skill. Killing enemies by choosing the corresponding elemental fish is kind of fun, but not very deep.

Innovation

3 - Combining fishing with terraforming and a broad system of rock-paper-scissor mechanics... Yeah, pretty unique. 2 - The color wars style elemental destruction combinations are really cool. Gameplay wise there is not much else there but that one feature is very cool and very in-depthly explored. 2 - The first roguelike I've played about throwing explosive fish at elementals! Elements having specific counters is not new, but it's very streamlined here. There may have been more complex mechanics having to do with the splashing of elements (e.g. covering a section of floor in acid), but I couldn't figure out the significance.

Scope

3 - Assault Fish contains what is essentially two different game modes (though fishing isn't too complex, it's still another mini-game to implement), and a good amount of content on top of that. 3 - About what I'd expect for a 7drl. Solid scope. But the FISHING SIMULATOR pushes it over the edge. Nice! 2 - A small, but typical scope. One kind of enemy with a handful of various element types. I never found anything besides the single level and that wasn't big enough to require scrolling.

Roguelikeness

3 - Although the game relies on a very un-roguelike fishing mini-game to acquire resources, I still call this roguelike enough for a 3. 3 - It's a roguelike! 3 - An inventory of fish, resource management, roaming a dungeon, etc. Your character never gets better though. While I think the fishing screen is one of the coolest parts, it does make the game modal.

Collect fish of various elements in a fishing mini-game where you see yourself and a pool of some substance (acid, water, magma, etc.) from the side. Then take those fish and throw them at elementals roaming the land. Pools of various substances are scattered randomly throughout the area and elementals can only be killed by the substance that counters their own. Thus you always want to keep an array of various kinds of fish available to deal with different threats. You can of course run over to a pool and try to fish up some \"ammo\" while enemies are approaching. All throwing attacks have an area of effect, sometimes quite large, and not only are elements within it affected, but the pools inside may be converted to another type as a result. The game is surprisingly fun and the creator is apparently still releasing updates to improve the game, so try it today! [/commercial] ASSAULT FISH. This is hands-down the best roguelike fishing simulator I have ever played. The music is great and eerily calming. I kind of wish there was a version of the game where you could just fish and listen to music and not worry about monsters. This is a game about elemental color combinations. Blue (water) kills White (air). Orange (magma) kills Blue (water). Acid kills Sand. Blood kills tar. Etc. The elements all have their own colors, and their own monsters. Your weapons are elemental fish that you must fish out of elemental pools. You start out with a liberal supply of fish of each element, but you will need to supplement your inventory at the pools. The fishing part is great fun and I won't describe it because you should just go play it. Throw the right fish at enemies to destroy them, but watch out because you can inadvertently change the terrain and other enemies with your elemental exploding fish. In Assault Fish, you play a fisherman fending off elementals by catching explosive fish and then throwing them. I was happy to see the element counters described on the help screen, but it would have been even better if the counters were shown directly on the normal UI above each fish stack. As it is now, the help screen needs to be consulted too often. You have to check this game out if only for the fishing mode. It manages to include casting power, fish density, and represents it all nicely in gorgeous ASCII. It's rather amusing to find yourself throwing your lure into a lake of blood and pulling out a vampiric squid. It's also fairly relaxing until you realize enemies are surrounding you while you fish. And once you're surrounded, it can become difficult as you only have 5HP.

Impera

Completeness

2 - Seems bug-free and polished, but could do with more balancing. 3 - Stable and runs smoothly in a browser. Includes useful help page. 3 - Didn't encounter any bugs and everything feels polished. A few very minor tweaks could be added: have the maximums shown on the upgrade screen (instead of the last value) and add better descriptions to monsters.

Aesthetics

3 - Very pretty ASCII game with simple controls. 3 - Great looking ASCII, simple controls. 3 - This game looks amazing! Frankly, I'm not a big fan of ASCII. Not only does it look boring sometimes, but I think it makes it difficult to convey information quickly. In Impera, however, each level introduces only one or two new enemies and you aren't overwhelmed with bizarre letters. Then there's the sweet lighting effects produced by lava, corpses, and mages. I even appreciated the ASCII art in the start and end screens.

Fun

2 - Definitely good, especially on the first few runs as you learn the best tactics against the different enemies. However after many playthroughs it becomes less interesting, with the solutions obvious and sometimes tiresome to perform. For instance chasing enemies into corners so you can hit them is only novel once. Personally I really enjoyed the 1HP mechanics! 2 - This could easily become a 3 more balance. The concept is sound, but it does't seems possible to avoid \"unlucky deaths.\" For example, I didn't see a way you could guarantee survival in a confrontation with the \"Fools\" common early on, since they move randomly so there's no way to approach them without possibly dying if they happen to move towards you at the same moment. Also, simply walking across the map is a bit tedious since ranged-capable mages can suddenly appear right on your line of movement and kill you, forcing you to move slowly to make sure you see them first (the game should somehow pause action or otherwise prevent deaths like that). 3 - Placing walls and navigating around the unique monsters is quite interesting. The mechanics are so fun I have absolutely have to give a 3, even though there are some big problems. The biggest is that too many enemies are no-brainers. Fools move randomly, so you have to dance with them until you hit the 1/8 lottery and they move into a tile you can attack. With careful play, they're no threat. Cravens are similarly boring. You can waste a bunch of walls to corner them, but otherwise it seems to take a lot of dancing to get rid of them. I wish both of these enemies were redesigned or removed. Maybe they could just disappear once all other enemies are killed? Mages can also be pretty annoying because they can teleport right into your line of sight. I hate that I have to move so carefully even when I'm currently facing no obvious danger.

Innovation

2 - Deserves a 2 for some of the interesting enemies, and for showing how much you can do with just variations on movement patterns. For an extremely simple game it has a lot of depth! 2 - Puzzle games like this are quite common these days, but it's a more recent phenomenon so I'd still call this one fairly innovative in that there is only one type of attack and your other ability is to place walls. 2 - I'm not sure there's any individual feature here that hasn't been done before, but the way it is put together makes it different than anything I've ever played.

Scope

2 - It's a small game, but very nice for it :) 2 - Standard 7DRL scope. 2 - Most of the scope comes from various monster types, each with unique behavior. Otherwise, it's fairly small in scope: no items, tiny levels and only a handful at that. I don't think it would be improved by having bigger scope though.

Roguelikeness

3 - Very tactical, lots of thought into moves and into how to take down enemies. A lovely little roguelike! 2 - More a puzzle game than a roguelike. 3 - Missing a few things you might expect in a roguelike (no inventory, exploration, or discovery), but it definitely feels like one. Being rather weak (almost no abilities and 1HP) and the complexity of enemies sells it for me.

This is a great game that I think everyone should play just to get an idea of how much you can achieve with so little. You have one hit point (as do the enemies) and you have to rely on learning their movement and attack patterns to defeat them without risk. Putting the cursor over the enemies shows their abilities, but it's up to you to figure out the best tactics to defeat them. It's really fun, especially the first few playthroughs, but unfortunately it can get a bit too simple after many plays. The solutions become obvious and their execution doldrum, with mistakes only happening because of laziness. The game would be improved by much smaller levels, interesting terrain, and more variety in enemies (and removing the Ks - they present little challenge and are annoying to kill). Play a mage who can only place walls to block enemy movement and bump to kill them. If you're hit you die, so tactical positioning is everything, and you must be sure to know the unique behavior of each enemy (available by reading their descriptions). The action plays out on levels mostly open aside from randomly placed pools of lava, and while depicted with simple ASCII, the color gradients and \"smoking lava\" give the game a nice visual appeal. At each level you can choose to increase the number of walls you can place, or increase your movement speed. Overall Impera has the beginnings of a potentially great game, but seems to be lacking some balance (see specific notes). In Impera you play a once powerful wizard who has only 1 HP and can only do two things: attack orthogonally and place walls. What seems like a simple premise actually turns pretty complex because of the interesting enemy types. Having 1 HP and no wait key makes it all very puzzly. It's very easy to get yourself in a bad situation, whether you're flanked by enemies or walled in by obstacles. Each move has to be carefully planned out because some enemies can teleport into a position to attack you. The game looks absolutely amazing though simple: vibrant colors and really neat lighting effects. I'd like to see some improvements. The game seems artificially difficult because of\ \ 1) no-brainer enemies that are time consuming, which unfortunately seem to be the most common enemies\ 2) mages constantly teleporting right into position to attack you with no warning (and no range indicator)\ 3) enemies with poor descriptions; I still have no idea how the Shade works\ \ Because of those issues, I've not been able to beat the game despite many tries. I'm not even sure the developer has beat it! Overall, however, this is one of the best 7drl entries I've played this year and well worth your time.

Here Be Dragons

Completeness

3 - Bugs are minimal, feels like a reasonably polished game. 3 - The game is complete, polished and practically bug free.

Aesthetics

3 - Very thematic look with good use of a small number of colors. 3 - The controls are easy to get a hang of and the graphics are beautiful.

Fun

2 - Pretty fun to play but with very limited tactical options on a per-fight basis it gets repetitive. If more of the planned skills get implemented it will probably be very fun indeed. 3 - The game is a lot of fun.

Innovation

2 - Having the party members basically be your equipment is a lot of fun. It works here as well as it does in FTL. It's also a nice touch that when your party is wiped you can continue from where you left off if you've found enough people to form a new party. 2 - Not all that innovative but the party based idea is something I haven't seen before.

Scope

2 - A good level of randomization and gameplay elements. 2 - This is about what I'd expect from a 7DRL.

Roguelikeness

2 - As roguelike as can be. 2 - It's a roguelike apart from the fact that you can continue after death if you have enough adventurers.

This is a pretty fun game that makes good use of minimal assets to deliver an interesting gameplay experience. It uses party members as equipment basically so as you get different party members you also get different abilities. One really neat thing is that you start with four members (a full party) but can find more during your adventures. Each time you go to a new area you can pick four out of all your collected people to journey with. If you die, you then select a new group of four to go forth. Of course if you don't have four left, permadeath time! Here Be Dragons is a fun, party based, browser based roguelike. It has nice graphics and easy to learn controls. Each member of your four person party has special abilities such as empathy, a trait which allows you to know where the campfire (place where new members can be recruited) is, traits like this make the game significantly easier. The game also feels complete and quite polished.

Sucker

Completeness

3 - Didn't see any bugs. Everything seemed to work just fine. 2 - As long as you’re not using AVG (which blocks the game) you should be fine.

Aesthetics

2 - I want to give this a 3 here, as all the bad guys were clear, but the display just seemed a bit too busy, can be hard to spot if you are on suck or blow, or example. A very strong 2. 2 - Controls are unintuitive with major actions assigned to weird (to me) keys like * and / but easily configured. Visuals alright, unique to this game as far as I know, objects easy to distinguish. Music reasonably pleasant, sporadic jangling bell/checkout sound very much not.

Fun

3 - Bam! The funnest game I've played so far. The sounds really help. The sucking and blowing and trying to dodge the freakin' reds squares so I can line up a shot. All good. 2 - Some fun and would be much more fun if not for the almost game-ruining enemy behaviour. See main review. With refined enemies, lots of potential for enjoyment. As it is, frustrating but still worth a go.

Innovation

3 - I have never seen these mechanics in a roguelike or in any other game. 3 - While still being recognisably a roguelike, the suction mechanic and the way it's implemented really make this a fresh experience unlike anything else I've played. Creative ideas.

Scope

2 - Solid scope for a roguelike. Maybe I just didn't make it far enough to see, but more enemy types might have been good. 2 - Reasonable for a 7DRL. Focuses on making sure it has one core interesting mechanic.

Roguelikeness

3 - This is exactly how you make a roguelike. Each game gave me something different. Different items to find, different bad guys (though the red, white and black ones seemed a bit samey, the red square and blue/green square were good variety), different lay outs. I didn't see different environments, but again I wasn't able to get too far. It was turn based, tactical, item management, permadeath. A shining example of how to be innovative as well as still scratch that roguelike itch. 2 - Recognisably a roguelike thanks to procedural turn-based play numpad movement and challenge. Needs thought and planning. Suction mechanic changes a lot of fundamental roguelikeness though.

This is one of the best games I have played in the competition so far this year. I really liked it. You have to pay attention to the controls and the mechanics though, or you could definitely get frustrated.\ \ You play a guy with a vacuum cleaner. You an suck stuff up into the vacuum. Most bad guys can get sucked in. Then you can shoot them back out. You can suck up items too, and put them down where you want them. Or shoot them at bad guys!\ \ Find the key, get to the door. Fight, suck, shoot at or run from the baddies. Lots of item management strategy, lots of tactical movement decisions, it really is a great game. With fun sounds too!\ \ Pro Tips: You can only carry one item on you, but can have many in your vacuum. Red square bad guys cannot move diagonal, so you can run from them easy and get enough range to shoot them. Roguelike in the sense of procedural, turn-based and difficult but mixes things up with its suction mechanic. Use your futuristic vacuum device to suck in enemies and items as you explore. You can carry one item in a useable slot; anything inside the vacuum device is inaccessible. The aim is to get as much treasure as possible and escape. Sucked up objects and enemies stack in order, which makes it play almost like a procedural puzzle game. You can expel sucked up items/enemies in reverse order, most recent first. If you use all of your steam (fuel) you can expel an item with enough force to act as a weapon. I like this - attacking an enemy is difficult and requires thought, even a bit of preparation. Enemies are a serious threat. Unfortunately, too much so. You can’t attack an enemy when it’s next to you, and most enemies move at the same speed as you, so if one gets close when your device is already full, the game is basically over - no room to suck it in, no room to shoot. It’s also a bit of a pain that you can only carry one useable item, so if you find the key to the exit you have to take it to the door then go back for first aid or other item you might want (unless you have room in your vacuum and don’t have to release lots of enemies before you can get to it). All in all a really nice idea with lots of potential but the enemies need to not stay glued to you the instant they get close. That’s the most frustrating part, and what stops me wanting to keep playing.

Trinkets

Completeness

3 - The game is bug free and reasonably polished. 3 - Is this game a finished piece of software? Just how polished is it, including balance and expected features?\ I am giving this a 3 because I didn't experience any bugs and the game felt polished. It works perfectly well.\

Aesthetics

2 - Generic libtcod game. Functional, but doesn't stand out in a slightest. Inventory management could be more user friendly. 2 - Is the game aesthetically pleasing? Are the controls easy and intuitive? As a roguelike functionality is more important than outright charm - a well laid out ASCII game can get a 3 and a messy graphical game with bad controls can get a 1.\ This gets a 2. There was some features that took a bit to figure out, there isn't a confirm on leaving the game, and the item menu could probably go back to the menu after you leave a specific items description.\

Fun

2 - Dragons are so powerful, that you are either end up with unbeatable combo, and kill them easily, or you will die in 2-3 turns. I wish the game was generating more useful items. It's worth trying, but once you beat it couple of times you will find that winning receipt is the same. 3 - Is it enjoyable or compelling to play?\ I would have missed out if I had not played this game. It gets a 3, the first 3 I have given out for fun and it is well deserved. I enjoyed it very much and am happy I played it. Completely and totally worth my time.\

Innovation

1 - While playing the game I had a feeling that I already played something with similar concept. Pugnacious Wizards from last year 7drl challenge! It's not about items with magical powers, yes, but it's about magics with several effects. Majority of trinkets have several magical effects on them. Heal, but freeze yourself in place. Damage an enemy, but disable your own attack for couple of turns. And so on. Another game from last year's challenge also was about creation of compilation of useful spells from random assortment, can't recall the name. So idea was already explored and this attempt doesn't bring anything new. 2 - Does the game bring new ingredients to the table? Never before seen mechanics or weird twists on traditional elements?\ It has neat twists to the game play so it gets a 2. Some of the stuff is straight forward but the spell failure mechanic is an interesting twist.\

Scope

2 - It's ok for a 7drl. I guess majority of time was spent on random magics generation. 3 - How ambitious was this project? Rich and deep content, a large featureset or even an impressive kitchen sink roster can count here. Measure what was done, not what was planned!\ It is beyond what I expect from 7 days so it gets a 3. It feels very interesting and has a nice story.\

Roguelikeness

3 - Roguelike by all means. 3 - 7DRLs often push the bounds of the genre. As such, it is unsurprising if they push right out! Please do not consult the Berlin Interpretation - this should be about how you think the game feels rather than meeting an arbitrary checklist.\ 3. Its a roguelike. There is no question about it, this is a classic roguelike. There is nothing else I can say about it.\

Mighty wizard busy with not so noble thing as stealing trinkets from someone's vault suddenly started to loose his powers and had to resort to powers of cheap trinkets scattered around. While fun on paper the actual implementation of this idea is somewhat boring. Powers of trinkets are so random that you might end up with unbeatable supercombo or with pile of unusable crap and get your ass kicked pretty quickly. Core idea has potential, but to make it interesting the game needs more enemies with different abilities and more useful abilities to create more tactical situations. I did a video where I play and review of it Here:\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52YmbtxMBy4\ If you don't want to watch the whole thing then the link below will bring you directly to the part where I go and actually review it:\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52YmbtxMBy4&t=60m30s\ And if you really don't want to watch the video below is a good approximation of what I say\

Knight

Completeness

3 - It's a full game! And a good one, too ;) 3 - No bugs that I’ve noticed, and feature complete for what it sets out to be. 2 - Very stable, plays very well, but is lacking in content.

Aesthetics

3 - Good color choices make everything easily identifiable. 2 - Looks like a roguelike. Castle interiors are pleasantly busy but at the same time they look quite cluttered. 2 - Controls very well and looks perfectly fine, but isn't very recognizable. The camera view doesn't follow the player consistently.

Fun

3 - This game is great fun. Riding along at full speed and chopping off bandit heads then shooting arrows at foes in other directions is great. Really captures the \"lone knight out in the field\" feeling. 1 - It’s worth a try to experience the novel movement mechanic, and maybe more patient people than me won’t be frustrated with the gameplay, but I can’t recommend playing it. 3 - Very fun and fresh to play, satisfying to shoot arrows from your horse and and speed past enemies while attacking them with your sword, or running them down.

Innovation

3 - The unique gimmick is executed wonderfully. It takes a couple tries to get used to controlling the momentum of the horse, but I've never played anything like it. 2 - Takes some things that we’ve seen before and introduces a novel movement mechanic, which acts as the centrepiece of the whole game. 2 - A very nice twist on the usual rougelike mechanics but the controls of the horse aren't anything new as we have seen vehicles in roguelikes before.

Scope

2 - Seems average for a 7DRL in terms of content, but this is not really much of a drawback in the bigger picture because while simple, the mechanics are quite tight and result in a fun game. One addition that would be helpful is some kind of simple minimap showing the keep locations and which you've already visited. 2 - Reasonable for a 7DRL. 2 - Nicely polished and very playable for a 7 day roguelike, but as I said before content is somewhat lacking.

Roguelikeness

3 - Definitely not your average roguelike, but a roguelike nonetheless. Maps are still randomized, combat is still turn-based, but how far you move each turn changes with your momentum. Love it. 2 - Although it does feel like a roguelike in several ways, it also deviates considerably. There’s little effective procedural generation (castle positions etc change but it doesn’t really feel like there’s any significant variation in the playing experience) and gameplay is mainly about controlling the horse. 3 - Very much like a roguelike not many people (or anyone) would say it isn't a roguelike.

You are a lone knight visiting the lords of the local keeps to test their loyalty to the king. Kill bandits on the way, and you may just have to high tail it if a lord doesn't like you. The unique gimmick is that you are riding a horse (most of the time), and must control its momentum! With greater momentum you move more than one space per turn, which is required to vault over the occasional obstacle or slice through fleeing bandits with your sword. You can't make quick turns while going full speed (or slow down too quickly), though you can hit other targets from horseback by firing arrows. Lining up a charge and swinging your sword while passing a foe to send his head flying is very satisfying. It's a turn-based game that does a great job of capturing some real-time elements! Be very careful you don't trample anyone while in the keeps, because all hell will break loose if you do. Knight was one of the games I found most intriguing on first play. You control a knight on horseback, who must visit the five castles of the kingdom and find out which of them are still loyal to the king. To this end, you must guide your horse as best you can, and this is really the main part of the gameplay. \ \ Many successful 7DRLs take one neat, new idea and focus on implementing it well rather than overloading themselves with half-executed concepts. The neat idea here is horse movement. It’s all about momentum, with additional direction key presses accelerating your horse from a walk up to a full gallop, via every speed in between. This means that you have to plan ahead a little bit - you can’t just march over to that nearby castle, you have to angle your horse’s arc around the corner and try not to crash into that fence on the far side. It’s an interesting mechanic and, while it was clearly going to take some practice, I looked forward to getting a handle on it. \ \ I did get a handle on it after a while, but that was only the beginning. Being a roguelike, the world isn’t short of hostility. Bandits will shoot at you as you ride by, and some of the lords you visit are disloyal and won’t welcome you with open arms. This isn’t the problem though. The problem is the horse. \ \ It requires focus and forethought to cross the open countryside. Move slowly and safely, and you risk being attacked more easily by bandits. Zoom past the bandits, and you’ll find it difficult to manoeuvre due to your speed. That’s the easy part though. The horse really becomes a bane when you enter a castle courtyard. \ \ The courtyard is bustling with people - knights and peasants milling around, wandering by, minding their own business. This looks pretty good, and does evoke the feeling of a working stronghold. Unfortunately, ‘minding their own business’ frequently means ‘diving under a horse’s hooves’. It’s frustratingly, teeth-gnashingly easy to accidentally run over a peasant or other milling layabout while crossing the courtyard. Not only do they not avoid you, they often actively walk right in front of you. It’s perfectly possible to cross the courtyard without mishap, but it means painstakingly taking a tiny step at a time, eyeing everyone around you to see where they’re going, veering off to one side to try and avoid any movements that anyone might make. This rapidly becomes tedious and aggravating, and bear in mind that even if you don’t have an unfortunate accident, you’ll have to do this five times. Why do you have to be so careful? Does a peasant’s misfortune matter? Why, yes. Yes it does. There are painful consequences for you as well as for them if you trample them underfoot, as the guards will immediately declare that your collision is an all-out assault on the castle, and they’ll swarm you and and tear you to pieces in just a few turns.\ \ When you have managed to laboriously cross the courtyard, you enter the keep on foot. Movement here is more like a standard roguelike, but bear in mind that an unknown number of these castles are under the sway of disloyal rebel lords, whose troops will attack you without qualm - though only once you’ve reached the far end of the throne room and you’re blocked in by a dozen armed soldiers. This part is another nice idea that doesn’t entirely work. There’s no way you can beat all of the soldiers, so as soon as you discover the lord in question is hostile, all you can do is dodge and weave your way back to the exit, leap onto your horse and obliviously charge back across the courtyard, heedless of the peasants and guards you’re squishing underfoot. They are now the lackeys of the enemy! \ \ That’s pretty fun. It’s nice that the only option is to flee, and the contrast between your careful entrance and your full-tilt, guard-squashing exit makes your escape feel exhilarating. Sadly, it’s then on to another castle to repeat the tedious courtyard creep, and potentially the 50-50 chance of escaping the throne room, if it’s another rebel castle. \ \ All in all, I like Knight’s ideas. The movement mechanic is intriguing and I like the careful arrival followed by headlong flight. The problems outweigh this fun though, and sadly these problems revolve around the very mechanic that makes this game novel. Crossing the courtyard safely is just too difficult. Even after many, many attempts I still had probably a 1 in 10 chance, maybe less, of avoiding trample passers-by, which is effectively an instant game over. This means that despite it’s good ideas, Knight is afflicted with that awkward one-two punch of being both frustrating and tedious. I can easily recommend giving it a try once for the ‘ooh, that’s interesting’ factor of the movement mechanic, but I can’t recommend actually sitting and playing it for fun. Good ideas but they just don’t work very well here. Perhaps another time... The basic movement controls of a roguelike is probably the most simple aspect of a game of it's kind. Knight feels very different to many roguelikes as you control a Knight on a horse, with it's own speed, momentum and acceleration. This provides a fun amount of things to think about as hitting obstacles in the game at high speed reduces your health, while fences can be jumped over if you're going fast enough. At the same time numerous enemies are trying their best to kill you. \ \ As you can imagine this provided me with a very fresh experience compared to other roguelikes. Unfortunately this plays like a minigame as the content of the game, and the objective isn't very fleshed out. That said this is a 7 day roguelike, so I didn't expect much in the content department. Hopefully Derrick Creamer keeps working on this as I'm sure it could become something even better with a bit more time.

Beware of Strange Warp Points

Completeness

2 - 2 - The game is very playable but I did encounter a few issues. I bought a long range scanner and suddenly the map ID colors stopped working correctly for allied colonies; they were no longer marked after discovery, and even those discovered before the time of purchase disappeared. There doesn't seem to be a way to restart the game after you die; instead I pressed a few buttons and the game crashed. Also a small oversight: There is no way to see your remaining funds while buying at a colony, which would be nice to have for reference without having to leave and come back (or be accused of \"window shopping\" ;).

Aesthetics

2 - 2 - While it doesn't look great, being mostly a bunch of menus and Windows text, it's very functional and there's lots of useful information available in the given window space. The controls couldn't be simpler.

Fun

3 - 3 - The mechanics are great, and the difficulty scales well. Had a lot of fun with this trying out different ship builds and trying to stay in one piece.\ The interface could definitely use a bigger log, and at least needs colors to make it easier to identify what's going on. Things like component loss are pretty important to be lost among the other sentences. Another somewhat useful modification would be to list each ship component only once, and indicate a number for how many you currently have (e.g. Contra-Terrene Engine x10).

Innovation

2 - 2 - Being unfamiliar with Space Empires I can't say how innovative this is in terms of mechanics, but I'll take the dev at his word that this was \"inspired\" by it and thus a 2 is definitely deserved.

Scope

2 - 2 - Standard scope. Slick visuals on top of the polished gameplay would've definitely earned a 3 here.

Roguelikeness

3 - 3 - Definitely fits within the roguelike space, having resource management, turn-based action, randomizes maps, permadeath...

* After winning, allows continued play but pops up the \"You've won\" message after each turn.\ * Very easy for the message log to clear while moving, leading to missed messages.\ * Some inconsistency between popup modal dialogs: \"Components\" menu flashes when trying to focus main window while \"Shop\" silently fails to give focus.\ * Generally good UI.\ * Really wanted to sell components!\ * Fun to play after figuring out how combat worked.\ * Manual was well done!\ * The combat felt like an extension of bump-to-attack with delays. Overall worked well, especially with alpha strikes of Wave Motion Guns.\ * Many of the components didn't seem worth purchasing.\ \ BOSWP is based on Space Empires, which I've never played, but that didn't stop me from having a lot of fun with this game. All you have to do is move (or wait) to explore the galaxy, as all combat is handled automatically, but that doesn't mean there's no strategy involved! In between battles you travel from sector to sector visiting allied colonies where you can trade salvage for new/different components. Despite its simplicity, the system is deep as you have to balance crew, engines, weaponry, and components with special functionality. The game starts off fairly easy, but as you defeat enemy bases they concentrate their resources and the number of enemy ships grows, thereby increasing the difficulty. It works quite well and still haven't managed to win despite playing this longer than any other 7DRL so far. It's a quick game to pick up, and each play is fast, since you mostly just concern yourself with buying the right components as you scout all the planets in the most efficient way possible while looking for enemy bases. While the average review score comes out to a mid-high value, I'd say this is one of my favorites and a '3' for fun is all that really counts, anyway! This game would be really wonderful with a visual overhaul.

Hellspace

Completeness

3 - The game is bugfree and very polished, which is not surprising. 3 - For some reason pressing numpad-5 (bound to the wait action by default) didn't work on my system, but I'll chalk that up to my setup because the action itself does work when used with a different key. Other than that, I was not left wanting for anything. The all-important bundled readme file is there, everything in the game works as it seems to be supposed to, you can even rebind keys. The game's short enough to not really need a save function, either.

Aesthetics

2 - The sprites are nice and all, but these twisting corridors, that supposed to be a cool feature, are actually somewhat breaking immersion. They simply look like disconnected overlapping sprites. Sorry. I think they could be connected by something that at least look flexible. And do not overlap. 3 - The game's got a fairly large amount of pixel art which it makes good use of - every room has stuff in it (and the stuff gets weirder and more hellish toward the end), pixelly blood splatters on the floors and walls as you kill monsters, and so on. The 3 comes from a few quite clever uses of bending the map grid and turning the screen - the effect works really well in action.

Fun

2 - Yes, I know that main criticism of last year's entry was difficulty. So this time around Numeron made the game much easier. And slightly missed again. This time on easier side. The game is just too easy. But the problem that was in RSC is still there. If you won't find right items in time, you will die. But this time threshold of right time is much higher. 2 - I found the game quite easy, to the point that I beat it in one go and barely even needed to use items other than healthpacks - but that's a good thing, 7DRLs should aim to be too easy rather than too hard. Adding a harder difficulty level option would, however, have increased replayability a lot.

Innovation

1 - There is nothing new compared to the RSC. 1 - There's some cool art and clever effects, but I figured those into the aesthetics score already. Gameplay-wise, this is all pretty familiar. There might have been interesting item effects that I missed, though.

Scope

3 - It's really difficult to estimate the game based on the other game and/or pre-existing assets in general. You need to figure out somehow what was done for the challenge. I peeked inside of jar and found quite a lot of sprites with creation date within challenge date range. So I guess a lot of time was spent on drawing. Given the atmosphere of the game, I think this time was spent for good. 2 - This game is all about the solid execution, not the ambitious concept. There's more than enough to have fun with.

Roguelikeness

3 - It's definitely a roguelike. 3 - No arguments here, it's a roguelike.

This game feels like a DLC for last year's Rogue City Scavenger by the same author. You fight your way thru the space station to kill the final boss while picking various gear and items in the meantime.\ It's Doom on a space station, which as a concept I'm not sure is actually distinguishable from Doom. You're the badass dude who flies in and fights his way to hell and back, through a horde of zombies, robots and demons. Conceptually there's not much to say it beyond that.\ \ Your inventory consists of a set of basic items (melee weapon, ranged weapon and armor) which are durable upgrade as you pick up better ones, and tools that you apply - healthpacks, automaps, flashbangs, etc. - which are spent on use. The game is divided in four sections, and in general you get your basic item upgrades pretty quickly in each, but beyond that it's your choice how much you wander around searching for items (and getting damaged) vs. going straight for the goal (whose direction is always clearly shown). Since you can take a fair bit of punishment and there are no big damage spikes in the game, you can generally make pretty efficient use of the full-heal in every section.

Kunoichi

Completeness

3 - One or two very minor bugs, otherwise impressively polished. 2 - On the whole, very slick and full of nice little touches such as being shown the list of killed enemy names on game over. LOS doesn't always seem to work very well - I could sometimes see enemies I was not supposed to and stairs are invisible when looking through walls. A minor bug found when knocking on walls - sometimes the screen shudder effect would not stop until the next turn.

Aesthetics

3 - Its strongest point. Lovely to look at and listen to, with a clean and user friendly UI. 2 - The kanji characters are nice and the intelligent use of colour makes it easy to tell at a glance what is going on. Sound effects are nicely thematic. The only issue is with the controls - there is no way (that I could find) to skip a turn or to change your facing without moving, which makes sealthy movement much harder than it needs to be.

Fun

2 - It’s not the missing link that will make your life complete, but it’s definitely fun enough to be worth playing for at least a short while. 2 - When I first started playing I was planning on giving this a 3, but over time a few annoyances and design flaws crept in. The inability to wait is annoying and makes you feel more like a drunken clumsy oaf stumbling about the place rather than a sneaky ninja. For a stealth game I also found stealth to not usually be all that important - enemies are fairly easily dispatched and I died mostly as a result of walking into enemies I didn't know were there. Capturing also seems a bit arbitrary - sometimes enemies would move to the tile next to me and capture me the same turn, sometimes they wouldn't. I'm not sure if that's a bug or if there are some subtleties to the rules that I'm not getting.

Innovation

2 - Though mostly simple, the focus on stealth over combat and the novel ability to ‘gouge’ holes in walls are unusual. 2 - Stealth roguelikes are fairly rare, although most of the elements here I have seen before in some form or another with the exception of the ability to poke eye holes through walls to scout ahead, which is an interesting core feature.

Scope

2 - I’d be astonished at combining this charming and unique presentation with deep gameplay in 7 days. As it is, the aesthetic toil has been balanced out by simplicity of gameplay design. Fair scope for a week. 2 - A fairly simple game, although I don't think that really works against it in any way - it's as complicated as it needs to be.

Roguelikeness

3 - Pares away a lot of common roguelike trappings but it’s definitely no other type of game. 3 - Pretty much.

When I first played Kunoichi I was pleasantly surprised, shortly followed by unpleasantly disappointed. That changed when I came back to it for review purposes, though. The most striking thing about the game, and arguably its best feature, is presentation. In keeping with its historical Japanese theme (a kunoichi is, I believe, a female ninja) the visuals consist of kanji characters rather than ASCII, which is not only a nice thematic touch but also surprisingly effective for gameplay. Unlike a similar endeavour by a game called Goblin Men to use Chinese characters, Kunoichi doesn’t look cluttered or confusing. I don’t know whether the kanji characters accurately describe the features they represent (e.g. whether a door is represented by the kanji for ‘door’) but regardless, each symbol looks sufficiently different from the others to make it easy to parse what’s going on. This is aided by the colour scheme - floor tiles are brown, walls are a sort of beige, your kunoichi is white, and enemies are red. Where it could easily have looked like a jumbled mess to a kanji-illiterate player, Kunoichi succeeds in making its large, bold kanji characters pleasant to behold and easy to interpret. \ \ The final cherry on this pleasing visual cake is a symbol key on the right of the screen, telling you what symbols are what (though only for the ones you can currently see - another nice touch that avoids clutter). It’s not the type of game to have a dozen enemies flocking around you at once, and your line of sight is limited, so this works very effectively to identify terrain features (doors, exits) and to distinguish between enemy types. The latter doesn’t become an issue until a few floors down, but it’s useful to be told at a glance that the shape charging towards you is an armoured ‘samurai’ rather than the standard ‘warrior’, without having to go through the usual unwieldy roguelike fuss of using an ‘examine’ command. \ \ The Japanese themed aesthetics extend to the sound design too. There’s no music after the title screen but there is a steady background chirp of crickets or similar (familiar from quiet outdoor scenes in many an anime) and sound effects take the form of notes on traditional Japanese instruments. Throwing/retrieving your kunai (throwing blade) causes a gentle twang, being spotted by an enemy is accompanied by a warning note on a bamboo flute, and colliding with a wall is a single drum beat. \ \ This brings us to important part - the gameplay. Being well presented is all but worthless if the game isn’t fun, and that’s why I initially found Kunoichi disappointing. I felt that there was little to the gameplay that it was all surface and no substance. With more play time, though, I realised that I was mistaking simplicity for lack. Kunoichi is faintly a stealth game. There’s no need to kill enemies if they’re not in your way, as there are no items or character levelling systems here. It’s easiest to kill them when they haven’t spotted you, as once they do see you they will chase you relentlessly from room to room, and there’s no combat here with which to defend yourself - once they catch you, you’re done. If an enemy comes alongside you while you’re standing still you’ll be able to knock him out on your next turn, but if you move and he moves alongside you at the same time, the game is over. The main way to dispose of enemies to avoid this situation is by throwing your kunai (shift + direction). You only have one, so you’ll have to retrieve it from the corpse afterwards, but it’s very effective. \ \ The stealth element comes into play in a couple of ways beyond just evading enemies when combat is unnecessary. If you collide with a wall you’ll make a thump that attracts attention - like in ye olde Metal Gear Solid, one useful technique is to get into a good position, tap a wall so the guard notices you, then take him out as he steps into your line of fire. Amusingly, you can also ‘gouge’ - poke a hole in the wall to catch a glimpse of a neighbouring room. Traditional Japanese homes were partially made of paper! It’s a nice authentic touch and also an occasionally useful mechanic. In practice, though, the game isn’t really that stealth-centric - avoid head-to-head combat, yes, but don’t expect Tenchu degrees of sneaking. \ \ There are a couple of very infrequent bugs I observed. Once, I bumped into a wall and then continued shuddering until my next move (rather than a momentary shudder). Sometimes the ‘stunned’, ‘seen’ and ‘heard’ status markers on your character linger indefinitely - I was stuck a with a ‘seen’ longer after I eliminated the enemies and left the floor. It even remained once I died and restarted the game. These are minor and infrequent bugs, though, and don’t affect gameplay - enemies weren’t supernaturally aware of me while I bore the infinite ‘seen’ marker. \ \ The key thing about Kunoichi is that while it isn’t deep or complex, it doesn’t need to be. It’s simple but also fun, and very handy to play for short sessions. The fact that you can start, play, fail and restart in the space of a few minutes without a lot of fuss makes it easy to fall into that ‘one more try’ pattern. \ \ The delightful presentation in both visuals and sound might be the main appeal of Kunoichi, but don’t make the mistake of selling the game short because of its minimalist gameplay style. It’s simple but fun, and definitely worth a visit. A good attempt at a ninja-themed stealth roguelike. The player themselves has a limited field of view, which renders the experience very tense, however it can also produce annoyance when you step through a doorway to be immediately captured by a piece that has just moved to the tile next to you from out of your visual range. The visuals and sound effects are nicely done and very evocative of the theme. Mostly a very clean and polished game, although let down by a couple of bugs and slightly too obtuse gameplay mechanics.

Power Grounds

Completeness

3 - The game is complete. There was minor technical issue on Mac OS X, most likely it's a problem of java itself. 3 - Feels very complete. Plenty o' polish. Excellent intro screen!

Aesthetics

2 - The game have minimalistic pixelart, which suites it's minimalistic game design pretty well, but it could have a little more detailed instructions. And running a game like this in fullscreen by default is really an overkill. 3 - I love the simple design and stark colors. Controls are nicely done with the exception of being able to use spacebar to restart after I die!

Fun

2 - It's fun to try different combinations of spells and see how they work together. But replay value is not that great. There is a hard cap on high score, so once you reach it there is no point in playing it more. 3 - If you try this game, you're gonna have a fun time.

Innovation

2 - Binding spells to ground tiles is an interesting concept. It's not enough to have a spell. You need to reach it, preferably alive. 2 - The gameplay is minimalistic, but in that minimalism there is innovation and the game is highly focused on making short tactical decisions. Basically it's like a giant stew of roguelikeness boiled down to a single potato.

Scope

2 - It's probably ok for an average 7drl. 2 - Reasonable for a 7drl.

Roguelikeness

1 - It is a minimalistic tactical puzzle. 3 - Definitely a roguelike. It even has fireballs!

It's a nice minimalistic tactical pizzle. It's rather unbalanced, but short play session compensates this. Once you pick a spell gem, it creates/replaces several tiles on which you can cast this spell. Yes, you have to walk and stand on proper tile to cast a spell. There are offensive and defensive/evasive spells. POWER GROUNDS is a great tactical puzzle-esque roguelike game. It seems simple at first but the myriad of powers and the limited 4-directional movement combine for VERY tactical and VERY fun gameplay. Each room is a grid with blocks, enemies, and power-ups. Enemies are ruthless... do not let them get close to you and do not try to attack them without a special ability, your health is very limited. Walking over a power-up activates it, and colors random tiles of the level a new color (orange for fireball, cyan for freeze, yellow for lightning, etc). If you are standing on a colored tile you can \"cast\" that ability, but ONLY ONCE! Definitely try this one out.

The Littlest Princess

Completeness

3 - A small game with a lot of polish and some nice attention to detail. Could do with a score system though. 3 -

Aesthetics

2 - Worms sound effects are a big plus! Controls are nice, though I have to deduct a point for unbinded keys wasting a turn - this makes it hard to get into a game with initial experimentation of controls. 3 -

Fun

2 - Fun, but very easy when you make use of moving between sides of the level. There is little replayability once you beat it. Highly recommended for getting kids into roguelike style games! Probably deserves a 3 for young age groups as the whole package is very appealing and it's got the right sort of balance for younger players. 3 -

Innovation

2 - Looping levels are a nice touch, but the real